Feast Day of St. Benedict

Today marks the feast day of St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western Monasticism, who's also the namesake of our present Pope, Benedict XVI.  Benedict was born in Umbria, central Italy, around 480. 

"As a young man Benedict was sent to Rome for studies but left after a short stay, desiring to dedicate his life to God. He went to live in an isolated place near Subiaco, not far from the ruins of Emperor Nero's summer villa, about fifty miles from Rome. Today the cave is the celebrated shrine called "Sacro Speco" (The Holy Cave) and is one of Europe's most beautiful sanctuaries. At Subiaco, Benedict lived a life of solitude and prayer for about three years with the support from a monk named Romanus. Benedict's time as a hermit was interupted for a short period when he became the superior of a group of unruly monks. Ultimately unhappy with his guidance, they tried to poison him. He then withdrew to the cave at Subiaco once again. Eventually, Benedict's sanctity attracted disciples and in time, twelve small monasteries were established around Subiaco, with Benedict as the spiritual father of them all."

"Around the year 530 Benedict left Subiaco with some of his disciples for Monte Cassino (site of former temple to Apollo), halfway between Rome and Naples, where he began a single, close-knit community on a mountain top. There he remained until his death around the year 547. Is was at Monte Cassino that Benedict completed his "Rule for Monks" ...Today, the "Rule of Saint Benedict," as it is commonly called, is considered one of the most important factors in the development of Christian Europe."

The 1953 Lives of the Saints recounts of how Benedict struggled with temptation during his time as a hermit:

"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 to him that, if he wished, he could have seized it with his hand. But on 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."

I bet! Ouchie!!  I include this not because it's the most important thing about St. Benedict, but because in our modern world, these stories are no longer told.  We're embarrassed by the passions and excesses of the early Christians, we only want to hear the sanitized history.  But all religions have some form of mortification of the flesh, some method of the spirit transcending the body, be it lying on a bed of nails, fasting for a month in Ramadan, or sitting in a sweat lodge.  We don't roll around in briar patches or put rocks in our shoes anymore, but we don't need to deny that it happened either.  Later in Benedict's life, he discouraged extreme austerities that were damaging to the health.

What was the most important thing about St. Benedict was the establishment of the monasteries, which famously preserved Western cilivization by copying and saving manuscripts while Europe was overrun by "pagans and Arian barbarians."  At Monte Cassino, Benedict developed the Rule of the Monastery, which prescribed a life of liturgical prayer, study and manual labor.  No longer could the hermits sit around all day and pray, they had to work! Manual labor was considered to be ennobling, a way to serve the Lord.  Benedict said that "Idleness of the enemy of the soul," which sounds a lot like "The idle mind is the playground of the devil."  As The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living notes:

"Western monastic houses inspired by Benedict's Rule helped preserve the ancient learning that wold otherwise have disappeared from the Continent, opened schools that created Europe's educated class, developed the exquisite music we know as Gregorian Chant (whose notation led to modern musical notation), and - most importantly - created a wide variety of beers, wines and liqueurs we still enjoy today."

Some other titles for St. Benedict are "Messenger of Peace, Architect of Unity, Teacher of Culture and Civilization, Father of Western Monasticism, Herald of the Christian Faith, and Father of the Whole of Europe." 

Big shoes for our Papa Ratzi to fill.  He can do it.

The Anchoress had an inspirational write-up about St. Benedict last year, link here.   Thanks to Sissy for finding this great photo of then-Cardinal Ratzinger playing Mozart. 

Comments

[Sissy Willis]

Kinky, huh?

I'm still looking for a picture of Benedetto at the piano for you, but meanwhile, here's a fun part of the story:

"Pope Benedict Without His Beloved Piano as Movers Struggle to Fit It Into His New Quarters"

http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=25435

[Sissy Willis]

Got it! Read this, and then click on the link for that coveted picture of Ratzinger at the keyboard:

"You might say that there [his childhood homeland] Mozart thoroughly penetrated our souls, and his music still touches me very deeply, because it is so luminous and yet at the same time so deep. His music is by no means just entertainment; it contains the whole tragedy of human existence."

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0275.htm

[Sissy Willis]

Putting my blogging where my mouth is, an excerpt from one of my Pope posts last spring:

"If only the heartstopping, breathtaking music of the Church -- from Gregorian Chants through Handel's "Messiah" and Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" and beyond -- could enjoy a rebirth of recognition amongst the great unwashed. It happened a little bit during John Paul's funeral and Benedetto's induction last year, when the cables took a break from all-blonde-missing-girls-all-the-time to focus on the pageantry and emotional shock and awe of one of western civilization's great cultural traditions. We were totally mesmerized.

http://sisu.typepad.com/sisu/2006/03/i_certainly_wis.html