The proud Roman Empire, once undefeated, crumbles under the devastating blows of barbarian hordes. Armies and walls, institutions and customs, all are swept away by the surging wave of the new overlords.
Yet, a star shines in this bewildering darkness: in the city of Hippo, besieged by the Vandals, Saint Augustine writes De civitate Dei (“The City of God”), proclaiming the irremediable shipwreck of the world born of paganism, while the City of God – the Holy Catholic Church – will not only never be destroyed but will always triumph over all adversities.
But what means and what men would God employ to bring forth order and splendor from chaos?
The vocation of a providential man
A boy, named Benedict (Benedictus), born in 480 to a noble family of Nursia, felt the Lord's call to follow Him in silence and prayer.
His parents sent him to study in Rome. But he soon realized that, if he wanted to respond to the supernatural desire burning in his heart, he could not remain in that environment of barbarism and decadent Roman culture, and so he set out in search of an arid place where he could acquire the knowledge and love of God.
“He desired the world's contempt more than its praise.”
The town of Enfide (today Affile), nearly 50 km from Rome, was the place he chose for recollection. He settled there with his former nurse, who provided domestic services for him.
A small incident at home was the origin of his first miracle. One day, he found his nurse weeping because she had carelessly dropped a clay sieve she had borrowed from a neighbor to sift wheat. Taking pity on her, Benedict took the pieces of the sieve, prayed, and the instrument was so perfectly restored that it showed not the slightest sign of fracture. The miracle spread and earned him great renown. He then fled from the house in Enfide and took refuge in an isolated place, Subiaco, where he lodged in a tiny cave.
A great temptation, a definitive victory
On the way to Subiaco, he met Romanus, a monk who lived in a nearby monastery. On certain days, Romanus would carry a piece of bread to Benedict's cave. For a time, this was the young hermit's only meal. But soon, he became known in the region and many people, seeking food for their souls, brought him food for his body.
During this period, the young man underwent the most severe temptations from the devil. Tested once against the virtue of purity, he felt on the verge of yielding and even abandoning his solitude. But with the help of divine grace, he reacted, stripped off his clothes, and threw himself onto a bush of thorns and nettles, against which he rubbed himself for a long time. He emerged covered in wounds, but his soul was freed from the temptation.
There was also an attempted poisoning
During the three years he spent in this place of complete isolation, the fame of his holiness spread. The abbot of a nearby monastery having died, the monks came to ask him to take the vacant place. Benedict refused at first, but faced with the monks' strong insistence, he finally accepted. After a certain time, however, these lukewarm monks decided to kill him, regretting having as superior a man who demanded the path of perfection. They presented him with a jug of poisoned wine. The saint made a great sign of the cross and the jar shattered.
Clearly understanding the meaning of the event, Benedict left the cloister of the lax monks that same day and returned to the beloved solitude of his cave.
The Benedictine Order was born
The brilliance of his virtues and the fame of his miracles attracted many men who, with a supernatural eagerness, went to the cave to live under his direction. Thus, successive communities were formed. Saint Benedict erected a total of twelve monasteries on the site, choosing an abbot for each house. The Benedictine Order was founded.
At that time, Subiaco began to receive visits from important personages from Rome who brought their children to be educated in the Benedictine spirit. Among them, the holy abbot recruited two of his best disciples: Saint Maurus and Saint Placidus.
Great thaumaturge
God abundantly granted His servant the gift of miracles.
The water supply for three of the monasteries built on the high mountain imposed great difficulties on the monks, who asked to move. That night, Benedict prayed at length at that spot and, before descending, he marked a point with three stones. The next day, he said to the monks:
- Go and dig in the rocks at the place where you find three stones stacked.
This done, water gushed forth abundantly to this day.
God performed many other miracles through His faithful servant. He healed the sick, saved many people from danger, cast out demons, made a monk walk on water, and even brought a dead child back to life.
Another singular gift the Lord wished to grant him was the ability to be present in spirit to his spiritual children, wherever his vigilance as Father and Founder was needed.
The rule prescribed that monks should not eat or drink anything when they left the monastery to run an errand. One day, two monks who had stayed out late accepted the hospitality of a pious woman who served them food and drink. Returning to the monastery, they went to ask for Saint Benedict's blessing, who asked them:
- Where did you eat?
- Nowhere, they replied.
- Why do you lie? Did you not go to the house of such and such a woman, did you not eat such and such a thing there, and did you not drink so many times?
The two culprits fell at his feet and asked for his pardon.
Target of persecution
In all times and places, it is characteristic that saints are the target of misunderstanding and hatred from the devil's minions. The priest of a church near Subiaco, filled with envy, began to slander Benedict's way of life, trying to draw as many people as possible away from his holy influence. Seeing his efforts thwarted, he sent Benedict a poisoned loaf of bread to kill him. This attempt also having failed, he went so far as to bring seven women of ill repute into the monastery garden, hoping to corrupt the young monks.
Understanding that everything was done to persecute him personally, Benedict appointed his representatives in each of the twelve monasteries he founded and withdrew from Subiaco.
Monte Cassino, the path of restoration
He then went to Cassino, a fortified citadel located halfway between Rome and Naples. There stood a pagan temple where the local peasants venerated Apollo. Around the temple, they carefully preserved groves in which they offered sacrifices to the devil. Upon arriving at the site, the man of God destroyed the idol, cut down the groves, and transformed the building into a church by erecting an oratory to Saint John the Baptist and another to Saint Martin of Tours.
He then undertook the construction of the famous monastery of Monte Cassino, whose sole architect was the holy abbot and whose builders were the monks themselves.
The monastery of Monte Cassino was God's answer to the decadence of the world of his time. An example of patriarchal government and a truly Christian society amidst barbarian nations, it exerted an enormous influence on private and public customs, both in the spiritual and temporal order. Bishops, abbots, princes, and men of all classes visited the saint, either to ask his advice or out of friendship and esteem for him. The powerful of the time, sometimes after conquests and victories, would secretly take refuge at Monte Cassino to imbibe a little of the Benedictine spirit.
Thus, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, the path of renewal was discovered.
The Rule for Monks
While constructing the edifice of the new monastery, Saint Benedict inwardly erected the Benedictine work on foundations more solid than rock, by writing his inspired and most famous Rule for Monks. Its objective was to detach the futilities from the human heart, to allow the soul to rise unhindered towards God. With its famous aphorism Ora et Labora (“Pray and Work”), the Rule has the merit of harmonizing in the monk prayer and action, asceticism and mysticism.
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Holiness and spirit are worth more than the Rule.
But what gave the Benedictine Order its stability, its strength of expansion, and the effectiveness of its civilizing action is, far more than the Rule, the holiness and spirit of its founder. Inspired by the pursuit of perfection in obedience, by the splendor of the liturgy, by Gregorian chant, and by the love of beauty in the service of God, the sons of Saint Benedict played a fundamental role in the culture, customs, and institutions of the nations that made up medieval Christendom.
The Order of Saint Benedict experienced extraordinary growth from the 10th century onwards with the foundation of the Abbey of Cluny. At its peak, 17,000 monasteries were subordinate to it. Entire nations were converted to the Christian faith by the disciples of the holy patriarch. Many famous universities – Paris, Cambridge, Bologna, Oviedo, Salamanca, Salzburg – were born from Benedictine colleges. Countless martyrs courageously gave their lives in the name of their founder. Pleiades of cardinals, bishops, and saintly doctors had him as their master. More than 30 popes followed his inspired rule. Finally, for 1,500 years, countless souls have consecrated themselves to God under the aegis of his holy institution.
He died standing, like a valiant warrior
The holy abbot announced the date of his death months in advance. Six days before, he had his tomb prepared. He was immediately seized by a violent fever. As his illness grew worse and worse, on the appointed day, he was carried to the oratory where, strengthened by the reception of the Holy Eucharist and supported by the arms of his disciples, he died standing, his hands raised to heaven and his lips uttering his last prayer.
He was buried at the place where he had previously erected the oratory of Saint John the Baptist on Monte Cassino.
This article was originally published by Gaudium Press (Article Link)