SAINT BENEDICT ABBOT,
FOUNDER OF WESTERN MONASTICISM
480-550 A.D. Feast: July 11
Overrun by half-civilized pagan and Arian hordes during the
fifth century, Italy and the entire Mediterranean world was
falling back into barbarism. The Church was torn by conflict,
city and country alike were made desolate by war and pillage,
violence was rampant among Christians as well as heathen. During
this anarchic time appeared one of the noblest of the Fathers of
the Western Church—St. Benedict of Nursia, founder of the great
order which bears his name. We know little of his background,
save that he was born about the year 480 at Nursia, in the
province of Umbria, in north central Italy, and that his family
was probably of noble lineage. We also know that he had a sister
called Scholastica, who from childhood vowed herself to God.
Sent to Rome to be educated, young Benedict was quickly
revolted by the licentiousness of his fellow students. He was
not yet twenty when he decided to go away from Rome to live in
some remote spot. No one knew of his plan except an aged family
servant, who loyally insisted on accompanying him to serve his
wants. Benedict and this old woman made their way to a village
called Enfide, in the Sabine Mountains, some thirty miles from
Rome. In the <Dialogues>, St. Gregory gives us a series of
remarkable incidents associated with Benedict's life, one of
them occurring at this time. While staying in the village,
Benedict miraculously mended an earthen sieve which his servant
had broken. Wishing to escape the notice and the talk which this
brought upon him, he soon started out alone in search of
complete solitude. Up among the hills he found a place known as
Subiaco or Sublacum (beneath the lake), so named from an
artificial lake created there some five centuries earlier. It
was near the ruins of one of Nero's palaces. He made the
acquaintance of a monk called Romanus, and to him Benedict
revealed his desire to become a hermit. Romanus, who lived in a
monastery not far away, gave the young man a monastic habit made
of skins and led him up to an isolated cave, where he might live
completely undisturbed. The roof of the cave was an overhanging
rock over which descent was impossible, and it was approached
from below with difficulty In this desolate cavern Benedict
passed the next three years, unknown to all but his friend
Romanus, who each day saved for him a part of his own portion of
bread and let it down from above in a basket by a rope.
According to Pope Gregory, the first outsider to find his way
to the cave was a priest, who while preparing a special dinner
for himself on Easter Sunday heard a voice saying to him: "Thou
art preparing thyself a savoury dish while my servant Benedict
is afflicted with hunger." The priest immediately set out in
search of Benedict, and finally discovered his hiding place.
Benedict was astonished, but before he would enter into
conversation with his visitor he asked that they might pray
together. Then, after they had talked for a time on heavenly
things, the priest invited Benedict to eat, telling him that it
was Easter Day, on which it is not reasonable to fast. Later
Benedict was seen by some shepherds, who at first glance took
him for a wild animal because he was clothed in the skins of
beasts. It did not occur to them that a human being could live
among the barren rocks. From that time on, others made their way
up the steep cliff, bringing such small offerings of food as the
holy man would accept and receiving from him instruction and
advice.
Even though he lived thus sequestered from the world,
Benedict, like the Desert Fathers, had to struggle with
temptations of the flesh and the devil. One of these struggles
is described by Gregory. "On a certain day when he was alone the
tempter presented himself. A small dark bird, commonly called a
blackbird, began to fly around his face and came so near him
that, if he had wished, he could have seized it with his hand.
But on his making the sign of the cross, the bird flew away.
Then followed a violent temptation of the flesh, such as he had
never before experienced. The evil spirit brought before his
imagination a woman whom he had formerly seen, and inflamed his
heart with such vehement desire at the memory of her that he had
very great difficulty in repressing it. He was almost overcome
and thought of leaving his solitude. Suddenly, however, with the
help of divine grace, he found the strength he needed. Seeing
near at hand a thick growth of briars and nettles, he stripped
off his habit and cast himself into the midst of them and
plunged and tossed about until his whole body was lacerated.
Thus, through those bodily wounds, he cured the wounds of his
soul." Never again was he troubled in the same way.
Between Tivoli and Subiaco, at Vicovaro, on the summit of a
fortified rock overlooking the Anio, there lived at that time a
community of monks. Having lost their abbot by death, they now
came in a body to ask Benedict to accept the office, no doubt
with the idea that his growing fame would attract offerings to
their community. He at first refused, assuring the monks that
their ways and his would not agree. At length they persuaded him
to return with them. It soon became evident that the severe
monastic discipline he instituted did not suit their lax habits,
and in order to get rid of him they finally poisoned his wine.
When, as was his habit, he made the sign of the cross over the
cup, it broke as if a stone had fallen on it. "God forgive you,
brothers," Benedict said serenely. "Why have you plotted this
wicked thing against me? Did I not tell you beforehand that my
ways would not accord with yours? Go and find an abbot to your
taste, for after what you have done you can no longer keep me
with you." Then he bade them farewell and returned to Subiaco.
Disciples now began to gather around Benedict, attracted by
his sanctity and by his miraculous powers. At last he found
himself in a position to initiate the great work for which God
had been preparing him. This was the idea that had slowly been
germinating during his years of isolation: to bring together
those who wished to share the monastic life, both men of the
world who yearned to escape material concerns and the monks who
had been living in solitude or in widely scattered communities,
to make of them one flock, binding them by fraternal bonds,
under one observance, in the permanent worship of God. In short,
his scheme was for the establishment in the West of a single
great religious order which would end the capricious rule of the
various superiors and the vagaries of individual anchorites.
Those who agreed to obey Benedict in this enterprise, he settled
in twelve monasteries of twelve monks each. Although each
monastery had its own prior, Benedict himself exercised general
control over all of them from the monastery of St. Clement.
They had no written rule, although they may at first have
been guided by the Eastern Rule of St. Basil. According to one
old record, they simply followed the example of Benedict's
deeds. Romans and barbarians, rich and poor, came to place
themselves under a monk who made no distinction of rank or
nation. Parents brought their young sons, for, in the prevailing
chaos, the safest and happiest way of life seemed to be that of
the monk. Gregory tells us of two noble Romans, Tertullus, a
patrician, and Equitius, who came with their small sons,
Placidus, a child of seven, and Maurus, a lad of twelve. They
were the forerunners of the great hosts of boys, in succeeding
centuries, who were to be educated in Benedictine schools. On
these two aristocratic young Romans, especially on Maurus, who
afterwards became his coadjutor, Benedict expended his utmost
care.
Gregory tells also of a rough untutored Goth who came to
Benedict, was gladly received, and clothed in the monastic
habit. As he was working one day with a hedgehook to clear the
underbrush from a sloping piece of ground above the lake, the
head of the hook flew off and disappeared into the water. When
Benedict heard of the accident, he led the man to the water's
edge, took from him the shaft, and dipped it into the lake.
Immediately from the bottom rose the iron head and fastened
itself in the shaft, whereat Benedict returned it to the
astonished Goth, saying in a kindly voice, "Take your tool; work
and be comforted." One of Benedict's greatest accomplishments
was to break down in his monasteries the ancient prejudice
against manual work as something in itself degrading and
servile. The Romans had for centuries made slaves of conquered
peoples, who performed their menial tasks. Now times were
changing. Benedict introduced the novel idea that labor was not
only dignified and honorable but conducive to sanctity; it was
therefore made compulsory for all who joined the order, nobles
and plebeians alike. "He who works prays," became the maxim
which expressed the Benedictine attitude.
We do not know how long Benedict remained in the neighborhood
of Subiaco, but he stayed long enough certainly to establish his
monasteries there on a firm and permanent basis. His departure
seems to have been unpremeditated. There was living in the
neighborhood an unworthy priest called Florentius, who was
bitterly envious of the success of Benedict's organization and
of the great concourse of people who were flocking to him.
Florentius tried to ruin him by slander; then he sent him a
poisoned loaf, which failed of its purpose. Finally he set out
to corrupt Benedict's monks by introducing into their garden
women of evil life. Benedict realized Florentius' malicious
schemes were directed at him personally and he resolved to leave
Subiaco, lest the souls of his spiritual sons should be further
assailed. Having set all things in order, he summoned the monks,
or their representatives, from the twelve monasteries, bade them
farewell, and withdrew with a few disciples from Subiaco to the
more southerly territory of Monte Cassino, a conspicuous
elevation where land had been offered him by Placidus' father,
the patrician Tertullus.
The town of Cassino, formerly an important place, had been
destroyed by the Goths, and the remnant of its inhabitants, left
without a priest, were relapsing into paganism; the once-fertile
land had fallen out of cultivation. From time to time the
inhabitants would climb up through the woods to offer sacrifices
in an ancient temple dedicated to Apollo, which stood on the
crest of Monte Cassino. Benedict's first work, after a
preliminary forty-day fast, was to preach to the people and win
them back to the faith. With the help of these converts, he
proceeded to overthrow the pagan temple and cut down the sacred
grove. He built two oratories or chapels on the site; one he
dedicated to St. John the Baptist and the other to St. Martin.
Round about these sanctuaries new buildings were erected and
older ones remodeled, until there rose, little by little, the
tremendous pile which was to become the most famous abbey the
world has known. The foundation was laid by Benedict probably
about the year 520.
Profiting no doubt by his earlier experience, Benedict did
not distribute his monks in separate houses, but gathered them
together in one great establishment, ruled over by a prior and
deans under his own direction. Almost immediately it became
necessary to build guest chambers, for Monte Cassino[1] was
easily accessible from Rome, Capua, and other points. Among the
early visitors were Placidus' father, who came to confirm his
donation, and Maurus' father, who bestowed more lands and
churches on Benedict. Another generous benefactor was Gregory's
father, Gordianus, who in the name of his wife Sylvia gave
Benedict the Villa Euchelia in the suburbs of Aquinum, not far
away, and other valuable property. Not only laymen but
dignitaries of the Church, bishops and abbots, came to consult
with the founder, whose reputation for sanctity, wisdom, and
miracles was spreading.
It was probably during this period that Benedict composed his
famous Rule.[2] Gregory says that in it may be perceived "all
his own manner of life and discipline, for the holy man could
not possibly teach otherwise than as he lived." Although the
Rule professes only to lay down a pattern of life for the monks
at Monte Cassino, it served as a guide for the monks of the
whole Western Empire. It is addressed to all who, renouncing
their own will, take upon them "the strong and bright armor of
obedience, to fight under our Lord Christ, our true king." It
prescribes a diversified routine of liturgical prayer, study,
and physical work, in a community under one father. It was
written for laymen by one who was not a priest; only after some
five hundred years were clerical orders required of
Benedictines. Its asceticism was intended to be reasonable; the
monks abstained from flesh meat and did not break fast until
mid-day. Self-imposed and abnormal austerities damaging to
health were not encouraged. When a hermit who lived in a cave
near Monte Cassino chained his foot to a rock, Benedict, to whom
he looked for direction, sent him the message, "If thou art
truly a servant of God, chain thyself not with a chain of iron
but with a chain of Christ."
Far from confining his attention to those who accepted his
Rule, Benedict extended his solicitude to the people of the
countryside. He cured the sick, relieved the distressed,
distributed alms and food to the poor, and is said on more than
one occasion to have raised the dead. When Campania suffered
from a famine, he gave away all the provisions stored in the
abbey, with the exception of five loaves. "You have not enough
today," he said to his monks, noticing their dismay, "but
tomorrow you will have too much." Benedict's faith had its
reward. The next morning a large donation of flour was deposited
by unknown hands at the monastery gate. Other stories were told
of prophetic powers and of an ability to read men's thoughts. A
nobleman he had converted once found him in tears and inquired
the cause of his grief. Benedict astounded him by replying that
the monastery and everything in it would be delivered to the
pagans, and the monks would barely escape with their lives. This
prophecy came true some forty years later, when the abbey was
wrecked by a new wave of invaders, the pagan Lombards.
Meanwhile, Totila, King of the Goths, had defeated the
Emperor Justinian's army at Faenza and in 542 was making a
triumphal progress through central Italy towards Naples. On the
way he wished to visit Benedict, of whom he had heard marvelous
tales. He therefore sent word of his coming to the famous abbot,
who replied that he would see him. To discover whether Benedict
really possessed the supernatural insight attributed to him,
Totila ordered Riggo, captain of the guard, to don his own
purple robes, and sent him, with the three counts who usually
attended him, up to Monte Cassino. The trick did not deceive
Benedict, who greeted Riggo with the words, "My son, take off
what thou art wearing; it is not thine." Confounded, Riggo threw
himself at Benedict's feet and then withdrew in haste to report
to his master.
Totila now came himself to the abbey and, we are told, was so
awed by Benedict that he fell prostrate. Benedict, raising him
from the ground, rebuked him sternly for his cruelties and
foretold in a few words all that should befall him. "Much evil,"
he said, "dost thou do and much wickedness hast thou done. Now,
at least, make an end of iniquity. Rome thou shalt enter; thou
wilt cross the sea; nine years thou shalt reign, and die the
tenth." Totila begged for his prayers and departed, and from
that time on, people said, was less cruel. In course of time he
advanced on Rome, sailed thence to Sicily, and in the tenth
year, lost both his crown and his life.[3] Benedict did not live
long enough to see the prophecy fulfilled.
He who had foretold so many things was forewarned of his own
death, and six days before the end bade his disciples dig a
grave. As soon as this was done, Benedict was stricken with a
fever, and on the sixth day, while the brethren supported him,
he murmured a few words of prayer and died, standing, with hands
uplifted towards Heaven. He was buried beside his sister
Scholastica,[4] on the site of the altar of Apollo which he had
thrown down. In art Benedict is commonly represented with King
Totila, or with his finger on his lips, holding the Rule, or
with the opening words, "<Ausculta, O fili>," ("Hearken, O son")
proceeding from his mouth. His symbols are reminders of various
incidents in his life: we see him with a blackbird, a broken
sieve, a rose bush, a scourge, a dove, a globe of fire, or a
luminous stairway up which he is proceeding to Heaven;
occasionally he is depicted with King Totila at his feet. The
order which Benedict founded has spread over the earth. It was
mainly responsible for the conversion of the Teutonic races, and
has left its mark on the education, art, and literature of
Europe. Within its cloisters, always marked by an atmosphere of
industry and peace, were copied and recopied the great writings
of the past, to be cherished and passed on to succeeding
generations.
<Excerpts from Benedict's Rule>
1. . . <We are about to found therefore a school for the
Lord's> service, in the organization of which we trust that we
shall ordain nothing severe and nothing burdensome. Yet if,
prompted by a desire to attain to righteousness, we prescribe
something a little irksome for the correction of vice or the
preservation of charity, do you not, therefore, in terror flee
from the way of salvation, the entrance to which must needs be
narrow. For by continuing in this mode of life and faith the
heart is enlarged and in the unutterable sweetness of love, we
run in the way of God's commandments. Thus never straying from
His guidance but persevering in the monastery unto death in His
teachings, through patience we become partakers of Christ's
passion and worthy heirs of His kingdom. Amen....
2. <What kind of man the abbot should be>. An abbot who is
worthy to preside over a monastery should always remember what
he is called and justify by his deeds his title as a superior.
For in the monastery he is looked upon as the representative of
Christ, since he is called by His name, and the Apostle says:
"Ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba,
Father."[5] So an abbot ought not to teach, institute, or
command anything contrary to the precepts of the Lord, but his
orders and teachings should be sprinkled in the minds of his
disciples with the leaven of divine justice.... He must show no
favoritism in the monastery, nor love one more than another,
unless it be one whom he finds excelling in good works and
obedience. He must not place a man of gentle birth above one
lately a serf, except for some other reasonable cause . . . for
whether bond or free, we are all one in Christ....
48. <On daily manual labor>. Idleness is the enemy of the
soul. At set times, accordingly, the brethren should be occupied
with manual work, and again, at set times, with spiritual
reading. We believe therefore that the hours for each should be
fixed as follows: that is, from Easter to the first of October
they should go out early in the morning from Prime[6] and work
at what has to be done until about the fourth hour, and from the
fourth hour spend their time in reading until about the sixth
hour. When they rise from eating, after the sixth hour, they
should rest on their beds in complete silence, or if one happens
to wish to read let him do so without disturbing anyone else.
Let Nones be said in good time, about the middle of the eighth
hour; and then let them work again at whatever needs to be done
until vespers. And let them not be disturbed if poverty or the
necessities of the place compel them to toil at harvesting the
crops with their own hands, as did our fathers and the
Apostles.... In Lent they shall each receive a book from the
library and read it entirely through. These books shall be given
out at the beginning of Lent. Above all, have one or two seniors
appointed to go around the monastery during the hours for
reading to see that no restless brother is by chance idle or
chattering and not intent on his reading and so of no profit to
himself and a distraction to others.... However, if there is
anyone so dull or lazy that he either will not or cannot study
or read, let him have some task assigned him which he can
perform, so that he may not be idle....
64. <On the ordination of the abbot>. Let him who has been
created abbot reflect always on the weighty burden he has
assumed and remember to whom he shall give an account of his
stewardship. Let him understand too that he is to help others
rather than command them.... He must hate vice but love the
brethren. Even in his corrections he should act wisely lest
while he too vigorously scrubs off the rust the vessel itself is
shattered. He shall always bear in mind his own frailty and
remember that the bruised reed must not be broken.... And he
shall aim at being loved rather than feared.... Wherefore,
adopting these and like principles of discretion, mother of
virtues, let him so temper all things that the strong man may
find scope for action and the weak be not intimidated. And
especially let him keep the present Rule in all respects, so
that when he has well administered it, he may hear from our Lord
what that good servant did who gave meat to his fellow servants
in due season.[7] "Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him
ruler over all his goods."
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