July 11--St. Benedict, Abbot

Pope Benedict XVI named himself for St. Benedict, the man who wrote a Rule for monks to live together in community.  That Rule is the basis for the Order of St. Benedict, the religious group of monks who Christianized Europe.  St. Benedict was a young man of sixth century Italy who left his studies in Rome to become a hermit.  Some other hermits were drawn to his holiness and asked him to lead them.  He did, but they came to despise him and tried to poison him.  He left that group and later founded a monastery at Monte Cassino, where he died not long after his twin sister, St. Scholastica.

The Rule of St. Benedict is the most common Rule used by monasteries and monks for over 1,400 years.  Its first word is obsculta, a Latin word meaning both “listen” and “obey”.  The Benedictine monk is to listen to and obey the words of the Rule so that he may grow in holiness.  The Rule is also exemplary for its tone of moderation.  Nothing too hard was exacted from the monk.  Everything was to be done in moderation, both work and prayer, which are hallmarks of the Benedictine order.

Benedictine monasticism became the norm in Europe following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in 476 A.D.  Charlemagne mandated that Benedictine monasteries be founded wherever his empire extended.  By the 14^th century there were 37,000 Benedictine monasteries in Europe.  There had been 24 Benedictine popes and over 1,500 canonized Benedictine saints.  So one can understand why Pope Benedict XVI said that “with his life and work St Benedict exercised a fundamental influence on the development of European civilization and culture.” 

We owe much to St. Benedict and to the Benedictines.