When Benedict opened his mouth and called the monk out of his desert, down from his mountain, off of his pillar, and out of his cave, monks answered. Saint Benedict rests in peace near his twin sister, Saint Scholastica, in a crypt under the historic Monastery of Monte Cassino. March He is known as the “father of Western monasticism ,” having established a Rule that would become the norm for innumerable Christian monks and nuns. Faith & Culture is the journal of the Augustine Institute’s Graduate School of Theology. February In the fifth century, the young Benedict was sent to Rome to finish his education with a nurse/housekeeper. This selection is taken from chapters 33-34 of The Life of Saint Benedict by Gregory the Great.St. It would become the most famous abbey in continental Europe. In addition, he founded a thirteenth monastery for novices and those needing education. The monastery’s structured routine of chanting the Divine Office, of work, of study, of constructing a community for community’s sake, gave Europe a finely tuned rhythm that drove technology, the arts, and scholarship forward by leaps and bounds over other lands. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. St. Benedict is believed to have been born around 480, as the son to a Roman noble of Norcia and the twin to his sister, Scholastica. However, since he was probably disgusted by the dissolute lifestyle of his peers and by Rome’s difficult political situation, he retired to Affile with a group of priests, taking his old nurse with him as a servant. For his sister called Scholastica, dedicated from her infancy to our Lord, used once a year to come and visit her brother. No more would a monk have to perch like a hawk in its eyrie, alone, gazing over the valley below. He prevented a monk from leading a dissolute life through intervention. to whom she answered: "I desired you to stay, and you would not hear me, I have desired our good Lord, and he has granted my petition: therefore if you can now depart, in God's name return to your monastery, and leave me here alone.". Little is known with certainty of Saint Benedict’s life. Six days before dying, he had the grave which he was to share with his deceased sister Saint Scholastica, opened. Its mission is to share the “joy in the truth” which our patron St. Augustine called “the good that all men seek.”. He found water on a desolate mountaintop to quench the thirst of his monks. It was a finely tuned orchestra with the abbot waving his wand at the front, eliciting from the monks’ individual gifts a common harmony to soothe God and correctly order nature itself. After leaving Subiaco, Benedict went towards Cassino. Saint Benedict was born at Norcia around 480 AD. What is known for certain is that he held in his hands what the world had to offer for a few short years and then dropped it like a murder weapon. The immense legacy of the founders of large, powerful, and lasting Orders in the Church is mysterious. These visions, for Pope Saint Gregory the Great, showed a close union between Benedict and God, a union so intense that the Saint was given the share of an even more magnificent vision, the whole of creation as gathered in a sunbeam. You will enter Rome, you will cross the vast sea, you will reign for nine years; however in the tenth year, you will die.” And that is exactly what happened. Benedict was born in central Italy, about the year 480, when the civilized world was being overrun by pagan and heretical tribes. Saint Benedict was born at Norcia around 480 AD. Benedict founded Western monasticism, the communities of monks who pray, eat, work, and socialize together in a common chapel, refectory, field, and workshop. Under Benedict’s direction, the old acropolis-sanctuary towering above the declined Roman municipium of Casinum was turned into a monastery that was much bigger than those built at Subiaco. Unfortunately, a priest called Florentius was envious of Benedict’s popularity and his envy forced the Saint to depart in spite of insistence from his disciples. Saint Benedict Window, Saint Benedict Church Rectory, San Benedetto Church, Norcia — The Birthplace of Saint Benedict, Sacro Speco, Subiaco  — The cave in which Saint Benedict lived, Cloister Garden, Montecassino  — The place where Saint Benedict wrote The Rule and died. After founding twelve communities of monks at Subiaco, Italy, Benedict of Norcia (480 AD - 21 March 547) traveled to Montecassino where he established a monastery and wrote "The Rule." Founders influence the Church’s spirituality and theology almost as much as Divine Revelation itself. No contemporary preserved his essential details, as the great Saint Athanasius did for Saint Anthony of the Desert. In addition, he made Maurus walk on water to save the young Placidus from drowning. He brought back from death a youngster, miraculously supplied the monastery with flour and oil in its time of need and displayed the gift of prophecy. Saint Benedict is his Rule and his Rule is him. Liturgical Color: White “Still, sick brothers must be patiently borne with, because serving them leads to a greater reward,” he said. December, Additional calendars from around the world>>>, Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. The next day the venerable woman returned to her convent, and the man of God to his Abbey: who three days after, standing in his cell, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, beheld the soul of his sister (which was departed from her body), in the likeness of a dove to ascend into heaven. Saint Benedict changed all of this. He joined a primitive community of consecrated men for several years but departed after some unspecified intrigues to form his own small monasteries. The “upper room” of Monte Casino became European culture’s symbolic Acropolis and Temple Mount, the beacon to the town, the lighthouse of Western civilization, and it was Saint Benedict who first lit its lamp. This selection is taken from chapters 33-34 of The Life of Saint Benedict by Gregory the Great. They began to follow his teachings and the pastoral and apostolic principles of the Benedictine Order took root. And Benedict was the founder of all founders. The only authentic life of Saint Benedict is that which is contained in the second book of the Pope Saint Gregory’s Dialogues, probably written between 593-594 AD.