Benedict of Nursia

Nearly everything told about Benedict's life comes from one source: the second book of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great, written about 593, roughly fifty years after Benedict died. Gregory says he got it from four abbots who had known him. It is a saint's life, full of miracles, and it is all we have.

Benedict was born about 480 at Nursia in the Umbrian hills, of a good family, and sent to Rome to study. He found the city's moral life disgusting, and he walked out of his education. He went east into the mountains at Subiaco and lived three years in a cave, fed by a monk named Romanus who lowered bread to him on a rope.

Word got out. A nearby community asked him to be their abbot. He warned them he was stricter than they would like; they insisted; and when he proved it, they tried to poison his wine. Gregory says the cup shattered when he blessed it. Benedict told them to find an abbot who suited them, and went back to his cave.

At Subiaco he then founded twelve small monasteries of twelve monks each. A jealous local priest made life impossible, and around 529 Benedict moved south to Monte Cassino, a hilltop above the road between Rome and Naples where a shrine of Apollo still stood. He broke it up and built there.

At Monte Cassino he wrote the Rule, seventy-three short chapters. It is the most consequential document in the history of Western monasticism, and its genius is moderation. Benedict called it "a little rule for beginners." He balanced prayer, reading and manual work across the day. He set the psalms in a weekly cycle. He required stability, a monk stays put, and obedience to an abbot who is told to consult the whole community, including the youngest, because "the Lord often reveals what is better to the younger." He allowed a measure of wine and a second cooked dish, made allowance for the sick, the old and children, and ordered that every guest be received as Christ himself.

His twin sister Scholastica led a community of women nearby. Gregory tells of their last meeting, when she prayed a storm down to keep her brother from leaving before morning.

Benedict died about 547 and was buried beside her. Monte Cassino was destroyed by the Lombards within a generation, and four more times in the centuries after, most recently in 1944, and rebuilt each time. The Rule outlived every building.

Sources: Gregory the Great, Dialogues, book II; The Rule of St Benedict; Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints; The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), s.v. "St. Benedict of Nursia".