Benedict, Saint

Saint (480-543), an Italian monk. He was a native of Norcia or Nursia, an Italian town up in the mountains, about seventy miles northeast of Rome. He was sent to Rome to be educated, but fled the Eternal City, so the chronicle runs, to escape the vice and violence that prevailed. He betook himself to a wild defile where he found seclusion and shelter. The details of his life, his growing fame for piety, attempts on his life, and the founding of cloisters may be passed over. In 1520 he located at Monte Cassino, about forty-five miles northwest of Naples. Here he established an abbey considered the earliest in the western world. The building, which must have sheltered thousands of inmates, is a huge, square, three-story affair. It still stands and is used as a seminary.

Each Benedictine took three vows: of poverty, of chastity, and of obedience. Benedict cast aside the system of bodily infliction,-of scourging and starving in vogue in eastern lands. He divided the twenty-four hours into reasonable periods for eating, sleeping, devotion, manual labor, and intellectual improvement. Thousands of adherents flocked to Monte Cassino. Band after band migrated to found establishments of like nature.

The Benedictines were the earliest order of western monks. Their devotion to scholarship, as demanded by the rule of St.Benedict, resulted in the preservation of precious literature through centuries of burning, plundering, and wanton destruction-centuries when monasteries were about the only buildings treated with any show of respect; for the Benedictines not only made collections of manuscripts, but they worked diligently copying manuscripts that learning might be multiplied abroad in the land. A library, with a desk for copying manuscripts, was a prominent part of a Benedictine monastery. At its height, the great brotherhood of St. Benedict included, it is thought, no less than 40,000 monasteries. Venerable Bede, Alcuin, and St. Augustine, the first archbishop of Canterbury, were Benedictines. The reader should not fail to get the idea that the Benedicts were a "missionary, civilizing, educational body."

Some notion of the spirit which was inculcated may be had from the following extracts from the Rule of St. Benedict, generally followed in the monasteries of the West:

Laziness is the enemy of the soul, and consequently the brothers should, at certain times, occupy themselves in manual labor; at others, in holy reading . . . . . If the poverty of the place, necessity, or the harvest keep them constantly employed, let them not mind that, for they are truly monks if they live by manual labor, as our brothers the apostles did; but let every thing be done with moderation, for the sake of the weak. . . . During Lent all shall receive books from the library, which they shall read one after another, all through. . . . On Sunday let all be occupied in reading, except those who are selected for various functions. If any one be negligent or lazy, so that he wishes neither to meditate nor read, let some labor be enjoined upon him, so that he may not remain doing nothing. . . . If, by chance, anything difficult or impossible be imposed upon a brother, . . . let him explain fitly and patiently to his superior the reason of the impossibility, not inflamed with pride, not resisting, not contradicting. If, after his observation, the prior persists in his opinion and his command, let the disciple know that it ought to be so, and confiding in the aid of God, let him obey. . . . Let no person dare to give or receive without the order of the abbot, nor have anything of his own peculiar property, not a book, nor tablets, nor a pen, nor anything whatsoever. Love the Lord the God with the whole heart, whole soul, whole strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. Renounce luxuries. Relieve the poor. Clothe the naked. Do no injuries, and bear them patiently. When you see anything good in yourself, attribute it to God and not to yourself.

The Benedictines have numerous monasteries in western Europe, including eight abbeys in England. In the United States, there are about 1,000 members of the order under the rule of thirteen abbots. They maintain sixteen colleges.

Benedict is derived from the Latin benedictus, well spoken, or blessed. There have been fourteen popes by the name of Benedict.