Vigils Reading – St Benedict

A reading from “Butler’s Lives of the Saints” on

ST BENEDICT

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Benedict was of good birth, and was born and brought up at the ancient

Sabine town of Nursia. He was sent to Rome for his ‘liberal education’, being

accompanied by a ‘nurse’, probably to act as housekeeper. He was then in his

early teens, or perhaps a little older. But Benedict, revolted by the licentiousness

of his companions in the city, made up his mind to leave Rome. He made his

escape without telling anyone of his plans excepting his nurse, who

accompanied him. They made their way to the village of Enfide in the

mountains thirty miles from Rome. What was the length of his stay we do not

know, but it was sufficient to enable him to determine his next step. Absence

from the temptations of Rome, he soon realized, was not enough; God was

calling him to be a solitary and to abandon the world.

In search of complete solitude Benedict started forth once more, alone,

and climbed further among the hills until he reached a place now known as

Subiaco. In this wild and rocky country he came upon a monk called Romanus,

to whom he opened his heart, explaining his intention of leading the life of a

hermit. Romanus assisted the young man, clothing him with a sheepskin habit

and leading him to a cave in the mountain. In this desolate cavern Benedict

spent the next three years of his life…

Disciples began to gather about him, attracted by his sanctity and by his

miraculous powers… We do not know how long the saint remained at Subiaco,

but he stayed long enough to establish his monasteries on a firm and permanent

basis. His departure was sudden.

Having set all things in order, he withdrew from Subiaco to the territory of

Monte Cassino… Upon the site of a big temple he built two chapels and round

about these sanctuaries there rose little by little a great building which was

destined to become the most famous abbey the world has ever known, the

foundation of which is likely to have been laid by St Benedict in the year 530…

It is probably that Benedict, who was now in middle age, again spent some

time as a hermit; but disciples soon flocked to Monte Cassino too…

The holy abbot, far from confining his ministrations to those who would

follow his rule, extended his solicitude to the population of the surrounding

country: he cured their sick, relieved the distressed, distributed alms and food

to the poor, and is said to have raised the dead on more than one occasion. The

great saint who had foretold so many other things was also forewarned of his

own approaching death. He notified it to his disciples… He was stricken with

fever, and on the last day he received the Body and Blood of the Lord. Then,

while the loving hands of the brethren were supporting his weak limbs, he

uttered a few final words of prayer and died – standing on his feet in the chapel,

with his hands uplifted towards heaven.