March 30: St John Climacus

Today the Roman Martyrology celebrates the death of St John Climacus (c525-606) and Orthodox monk who was a near contemporary of St Benedict, and wrote an important and influential work of spiritual instruction, The Ladder of Divine Ascent.

You can read a nice article on his life over at the excellent Catholic Herald.

Lent Office hymns - Vespers: Audi benigne conditor

March 25: The Feast of the Annunciation, Class I

The Gospel of the Lent feria is Matthew 21: 33-46 - a man left his vineyard in the care of tenants, but when he sent his servants to collect the fruit, they killed them, and the son of the vineyard owner.

March 24: Thursday in the second week of Lent

The Gospel today is Luke 16: 19-31, the story of Dives and Lazarus:

"There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.   And at his gate lay a poor man named Laz'arus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Laz'arus in his bosom.

And he called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Laz'arus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, `Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Laz'arus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'

And he said, `Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, `They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, `No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.'"

March 21: Feast of St Benedict, Class I

Today is the feast of St Benedict (480-543), founder of the Order of St Benedict, pictured in the fresco above from the Church of his birthplace, Norcia, with his twin sister St Scholastica to the right of the Virgin and child.

Pope Paul VI named St Benedict patron of Europe in 1964, saying that: “It is much appropriate that we celebrate St. Benedict, the abbot, as the announcer of peace, creator of unity, teacher of social traditions, and especially, herald of the Christian faith, and the founder of the monastic lifestyle in the West.”

And more recently, Pope Benedict XVI chose his own name in part because:

"The name "Benedict" also calls to mind the extraordinary figure of the great "Patriarch of Western Monasticism", St Benedict of Norcia, Co-Patron of Europe...The gradual expansion of the Benedictine Order that he founded had an enormous influence on the spread of Christianity across the Continent. St Benedict is therefore deeply venerated, also in Germany and particularly in Bavaria, my birthplace; he is a fundamental reference point for European unity and a powerful reminder of the indispensable Christian roots of his culture and civilization.

We are familiar with the recommendation that this Father of Western Monasticism left to his monks in his Rule: "Prefer nothing to the love of Christ" (Rule 72: 11; cf. 4: 21). At the beginning of my service as Successor of Peter, I ask St Benedict to help us keep Christ firmly at the heart of our lives."

The death of St Benedict

Over the last several days, to mark the Novena leading up to the feast day, I've been running a series on the Life of the Saint, drawn from St Gregory's Life of St Benedict (Dialogues Book II).  Today I want to conclude with St Gregory's description of the saint's holy death and birth into heaven, which gives rise to the feast that we celebrate today.

St Benedict was granted the privilege of knowing when he was going to die:

"The same year in which he departed this life, he told the day of his holy death to his monks, some of which did live daily with him, and some dwelt far off, willing those that were present to keep it secret, and telling them that were absent by what token they should know that he was dead. Six days before he left this world, he gave order to have his sepulchre opened, and forthwith falling into an ague, he began with burning heat to wax faint..."

And so arranged to be taken to the monastery chapel to receive viaticum, and to be held up in prayer by his monks for his final hour (picture above by Br Stephen O. Cist from the hood of the Fort Augustus Cope):

"and when as the sickness daily increased, upon the sixth day he commanded his monks to carry him into the oratory, where he did arm himself with receiving the body and blood of our Saviour Christ; and having his weak body holden up betwixt the hands of his disciples, he stood with his own lifted up to heaven, and as he was in that manner praying, he gave up the ghost."

A vision of his path to heaven

St Gregory also records that two monks were granted a vision of St Benedict's passing into heaven:

"Upon which day two monks, one being in his cell, and the other far distant, had concerning him one and the self-same vision: for they saw all the way from the holy man's cell, towards the east even up to heaven, hung and adorned with tapestry, and shining with an infinite number of lamps, at the top whereof a man, reverently attired, stood and demanded if they knew who passed that way, to whom they answered saying, that they knew not.

Then he spake thus unto them: "This is the way," quoth he, "by which the beloved servant of God, Benedict, is ascended up to heaven."

And by this means, as his monks that were present knew of the death of the holy man, so likewise they which were absent, by the token which he foretold them, had intelligence of the same thing."

Burial at Montecassino 

St Gregory records that the saint was buried at Montecassino:

"Buried he was in the oratory of St. John Baptist which himself built, when he overthrew the altar of Apollo; who also in that cave in which he first dwelled, even to this very time, worketh miracles, if the faith of them that pray requireth the same."

 
The quotations from the Life I've been using come from the edition by Edmund G. Gardner (1911), originally transcribed for the St Pachomius Orthodox Library and made available by CCEL.  And you can download a copy of the Latin here.
 
Happy feast day!

Commemoration of the Lent feria

The Lent day Gospel alluded to in the commemorations at Lauds and Vespers is John 8:21-29, Our Lord foretells his coming death.

Novena to St Benedict Day 9: The spread of Benedictine monasticism

Yesterday's post focused on the construction of Monte Cassino; today I want to look at some of the incidents that relate to the spread of Benedictine monasticism.  And tomorrow on the feast itself I will conclude the series with the section of the Life on the death of St Benedict.

St Benedict's monastic foundations (1) - Subiaco

We have already seen that St Benedict left behind one group of monasteries at Subiaco.  We know that the monasteries there survived, providing a source of Benedictine continuity near to Rome until attacks by the Saracens in 828-829 and 876-877 (through it was restored again after that).  Indeed, St Gregory says that the current abbot of Subiaco was one of his sources for the Life, and also relates that miracles continued to occur at Subiaco:

"Buried he was in the oratory of St. John Baptist which himself built, when he overthrew the altar of Apollo; who also in that cave in which he first dwelled, even to this very time, worketh miracles, if the faith of them that pray requireth the same. For the thing which I mean now to rehearse fell out lately. A certain woman falling mad, lost the use of reason so far, that she walked up and down, day and night, in mountains and valleys, in woods and fields, and rested only in that place where extreme weariness enforced her to stay. Upon a day it so fell out, that albeit she wandered at random, yet she missed not the right way: for she came to the cave of the blessed man Benedict: and not knowing anything, in she went, and reposed herself there that night, and rising up in the morning, she departed as sound in sense and well in her wits, as though she had never been distracted in her whole life, and so continued always after, even to her dying day."

St Benedict's foundations (2) - Gaul

Tradition also holds that St Benedict made several other foundations within his life time.  St Maurus (in the painting above by Hans Memling with SS Christopher and Giles), of whom the Life records several incidents, and describes him as something of a co-adjutor to St Benedict, was originally left behind at Subiaco.  But St Maurus seems to have eventually moved to Montecassino, and from there, according to a tradition subsequently recorded in the Life of St Maurus, was sent to found the monastery of Glanfeuil in France not long before St Benedict died.  While the claim is disputed by modern historians, it certainly explains the otherwise puzzling spread of Benedictine monasticism in Gaul in the seventh century, to monasteries such as Altaripa in the diocese of Albi (circa 627), Fleury (circa 640) and the conversion of the Monastery of Lerins to Benedictine spirituality some time before 665, when the Englishman Benedict Biscop studied there.

Monastic foundations (3) - The destruction of Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino itself was to have a rather more tumultuous fate: over its history, it has been razed to the ground several times (the picture above shows it after World War II), but each time eventually rebuilt. 

In the Life, St Gregory records that St Benedict had a vision of its first destruction:

"A certain noble man called Theoprobus was by the good counsel of holy Benedict converted: who, for his virtue and merit of life, was very intrinsical and familiar with him. This man upon a day, coming into his cell, found him weeping very bitterly. And having expected a good while, and yet not seeing him to make an end (for the man of God used not in his prayers to weep, but rather to be sad), he demanded the cause of that his so great heaviness, to whom he answered straightway, saying: "All this Abbey which I have built, and all such things as I have made ready for my brethren, are by the judgment of almighty God delivered to the gentiles, to be spoiled and overthrown: and scarce could I obtain of God to have their lives spared, that should then live in it."

And indeed, thirty three years after the death of St Benedict, Montecassino was destroyed by the invading Lombards.  The monks though, as St Benedict had been promised, survived unscathed:

"His words Theoprobus then heard, but we see them to be proved most true, who know that very Abbey to be now suppressed by the Lombards. For not long since, in the night time, when the monks were asleep, they entered in, and spoiled all things, but yet not one man could they retain there, and so almighty God fulfilled what he promised to his faithful servant: for though he gave them the house and all the goods, yet did he preserve their lives. In which thing I see that Benedict imitated St. Paul: whose ship though it lost all the goods, yet, for his comfort, he had the lives of all that were in his company bestowed upon him, so that no one man was cast away."

Monastic Foundations (4)  - St John's Lateran

The destruction of Montecassino was, of course, to prove providential for the spread of the Order, a case of God bringing good out of evil.  St Benedict's monks moved to Rome, ending up at St John's Lateran.  And there, they met the young St Gregory, and thus provided the main sources for his Life of St Benedict:

"All the notable things and acts of his life I could not learn; but those few, which I mind now to report, I had by the relation of four of his disciples: to wit, of Constantinus, a most rare and reverent man, who was next Abbot after him; of Valentinianus, who many years had the charge of the Lateran Abbey; of Simplicius, who was the third General of his order; and lastly of Honoratus, who is now Abbot of that monastery in which he first began his holy life [ie Subiaco]."

The traditional view is that it was this interaction that prompted St Gregory around this time to turn his family home into a monastery and become a monk.  Subsequently, as Pope, St Gregory was to prove a vigorous promoter of the monastic life, not least through his authorship of the Life and dispatch of monks to evangelize England, and who in turn led the Benedictine re-evangelization of France and Germany. No wonder then, that St Gregory is often regarded as a second founder of the Benedictine Order.

Still, it is the Rule of St Benedict above all, as St Gregory relates, that has been so critical to the shape of Western monasticism:

"...yet I would not have you to be ignorant, but that the man of God amongst so many miracles, for which he was so famous in the world, was also sufficiently learned in divinity: for he wrote a rule for his monks, both excellent for discretion and also eloquent for the style. Of whose life and conversation, if any be curious to know further, he may in the institution of that rule understand all his manner of life and discipline: for the holy man could not otherwise teach, than himself lived."

St Benedict's monastic foundations (5) - Terracina

It seems appropriate to end this novena series, however, with one last monastic foundation story from St Gregory's Life of St Benedict, relating to the Monastery of Terracina.  There are several dimensions to this story which one might meditate on: the role of a layman in making the monastery possible; and the importance of the physical infrastructure of the monastery for example.  But the most important, I think, is the suggestion that the saint's physical presence was not needed to guide a new foundation: all that is needed is for his spiritual sons and daughters to be open to his vision, as he himself was to God:

"At another time he was desired by a certain virtuous man, to build an Abbey for his monks upon his ground, not far from the city of Taracina. The holy man was content, and appointed an Abbot and Prior, with divers monks under them: and when they were departing, he promised that, upon such a day, he would come and shew them in what place the oratory should be made, and where the refectory should stand, and all the other necessary rooms: and so they, taking his blessing, went their way; and against the day appointed, which they greatly expected, they made all such things ready as were necessary to entertain him, and those that should come in his company.

But the very night before, the man of God in sleep appeared to the Abbot and the Prior, and particularly described unto them where each place and office was to be builded. And when they were both risen, they conferred together what either of them had seen in their sleep: but yet not giving full credit to that vision, they expected the man of God himself in person, according to his promise.

But when they saw that he came not, they returned back unto him very sorrowfully, saying: "We expected, father, that you should have come according to promise, and told us where each place should have been built, which yet you did not." To whom he answered: "Why say you so, good brethren? Did not I come as I promised you?" And when they asked at what time it was: "Why," quoth he, "did not I appear to either of you in your sleep, and appointed how and where every place was to be builded? Go your way, and according to that platform which you then saw, build up the abbey." At which word they much marvelled, and returning back, they caused it to be builded in such sort as they had been taught of him by revelation."

And of course, don't forget to say the Novena Prayer.

Novena to St Benedict Day 8: The construction of a monastery

Yesterday's post dealt with St Benedict's providential decision to move to Monte Cassino.  Today I want to look at some of what St Gregory's tells us of the physical and spiritual construction of the monastery there.

 The importance of Monte Cassino

Pius XII, in the Encyclical Letter Fulgens Radiator notes in relation to Monte Cassino that:

"It was here that Benedict brought the monastic life to that degree of perfection to which he had long aspired by prayer, meditation and practice.

The special and chief task that seemed to have been given to him in the designs of God's providence was not so much to impose on the West the manner of life of the monks of the East, as to adapt that life and accommodate it to the genius, needs and conditions of Italy and the rest of Europe.

Thus to the placid asceticism which flowered so well in the monasteries of the East, he added laborious and tireless activity which allows the monks "to give to others the fruit of contemplation", and not only to produce crops from uncultivated land, but also to cultivate spiritual fruit through their exhausting apostolate."

The task of constructing the monastery was challenging.

The evangelization of Monte Cassino

St Benedict first had to convert the locals from paganism (the temple of Apollo right is a reconstruction of the temple of Delphi in Athens):

"For the town, which is called Cassino, standeth upon the side of an high mountain, which containeth, as it were in the lap thereof, the foresaid town, and afterward so riseth in height the space of three miles, that the top thereof seemeth to touch the very heavens: in this place there was an ancient chapel in which the foolish and simple country people, according to the custom of the old gentiles, worshipped the god Apollo. Round about it likewise upon all sides, there were woods for the service of the devils, in which even to that very time, the mad multitude of infidels did offer most wicked sacrifice."

St Gregory records - and archaeological excavations undertaken at Monte Cassino after World War II confirm - that the saint took as his patrons two saints who had both combined periods of the strictly contemplative life and periods of active evangelization in their lives, namely St John the Baptist and the great missionary-monk-bishop St Martin of Tours.

And St Benedict evidently adopted St Martin's very un-PC tactic - of replacing old pagan temples with monasteries and churches - as his own:

"The man of God coming thither, beat in pieces the idol, overthrew the altar, set fire to the woods, and in the temple of Apollo, he built the oratory of St. Martin, and where the altar of the same Apollo was, he made an oratory of St. John: and by his continual preaching, he brought the people dwelling in those parts to embrace the faith of Christ."

The physical building

The second challenge was the building of the new monastery.  St Gregory reports that the devil was so angered by the success of the saint that he appeared in person to go head to head with him.  The devil's shouts were so loud that the brethren could hear, though not see, him too.

The devil also sought to obstruct the building process, preventing the monks from moving a large rock, until the saint countered the attack with his prayers.  When they dug below the rock on St Benedict's instructions, they found a bronze idol underneath which created an illusion that the kitchen was on fire until St Benedict countered it. 

But the most serious incident involved the (temporary) death of one of the young monks, brought back to life miraculously by the saint (illustration below by Don Lorenzo Monaco):

"Again, as the monks were making of a certain wall somewhat higher, because that was requisite, the man of God in the meantime was in his cell at his prayers. To whom the old enemy appeared in an insulting manner, telling him, that he was now going to his monks, that were a-working: whereof the man of God, in all haste, gave them warning, wishing them to look unto themselves, because the devil was at that time coming amongst them.

The message was scarce delivered, when as the wicked spirit overthrew the new wall which they were a building, and with the fall slew a little young child, a monk, who was the son of a certain courtier. At which pitiful chance all were passing sorry and exceedingly grieved, not so much for the loss of the wall, as for the death of their brother: and in all haste they sent this heavy news to the venerable man Benedict; who commanded them to bring unto him the young boy, mangled and maimed as he was, which they did, but yet they could not carry him any otherwise than in a sack: for the stones of the wall had not only broken his limbs, but also his very bones.

Being in that manner brought unto the man of God, he bad them to lay him in his cell, and in that place upon which he used to pray; and then, putting them all forth, he shut the door, and fell more instantly to his prayers than he used at other times. And O strange miracle! for the very same hour he made him sound, and as lively as ever he was before; and sent him again to his former work, that he also might help the monks to make an end of that wall, of whose death the old serpent thought he should have insulted over Benedict, and greatly triumphed."

Spiritual construction of the monastery

The Life of St Benedict also narrates a series of events that illustrate the spiritual growth of the monastery and its influence through the charisms granted to St Benedict.  Many of the stories relate St Benedict's ability to know miraculously what his monks were doing - particularly in cases of infractions of the Rule!  But these incidents also paint a picture of a monastery deeply integrated in the life of the society of the time.  There are stories involving visiting monks; of the monks acting as chaplains to nearby nuns; of aiding individuals and the local community for example.

But given that it is currently Lent, it is perhaps appropriate to end today's post with a story that should surely inspire modern day Oblates to greater fervour when it comes to our Lenten fast!:

"A brother also of Valentinian the monk, of whom I made mention before, was a layman, but devout and religious: who used every year, as well to desire the prayers of God's servant, as also to visit his natural brother, to travel from his own house to the Abbey: and his manner was, not to eat anything all that day before he came thither.

Being therefore upon a time in his journey, he lighted into the company of another that carried meat about him to eat by the way: who, after the day was well spent, spake unto him in this manner: "Come, brother," quoth he, "let us refresh ourselves, that we faint not in our journey": to whom he answered: "God forbid: for eat I will not by any means, seeing I am now going to the venerable father Benedict, and my custom is to fast until I see him."

The other, upon this answer, said no more for the space of an hour. But afterward, having travelled a little further again he was in hand with him to eat something: yet then likewise he utterly refused, because he meant to go through fasting as he was.

His companion was content, and so went forward with him, without taking anything himself. But when they had now gone very far, and were well wearied with long travelling, at length they came unto a meadow, where there was a fountain, and all such other pleasant things as use to refresh men's bodies.

Then his companion said to him again: "Behold here is water, a green meadow, and a very sweet place, in which we may refresh ourselves and rest a little, that we may be the better able to dispatch the rest of our journey." Which kind words bewitching his ears, and the pleasant place flattering his eyes, content he was to yield unto the motion, and so they fell to their meat together: and coming afterward in the evening to the Abbey, they brought him to the venerable father Benedict, of whom he desired his blessing.

Then the holy man objected against him what he had done in the way, speaking to him in this manner: "How fell it out, brother," quoth he, "that the devil talking to you, by means of your companion, could not at the first nor second time persuade you: but yet he did at the third, and made you do what best pleased him?" The good man, hearing these words, fell down at his feet, confessing the fault of his frailty; was grieved, and so much the more ashamed of his sin, because he perceived that though he were absent, that yet he did offend in the sight of that venerable father."

More tomorrow.  And of course, don't forget to say the Novena prayer...

March 19: St Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Class I

Saturday is a class I feast, so the Lenten day is only commemorated. 

Novena to St Benedict Day 7: Monte Cassino

My last post on the Life of St Benedict focused on the persecution of the saint by a neighbouring priest, Florentius.

The decision to leave Subiaco

When the priest shifted his efforts from attacking the saint personally, to tactics that endangered the souls of his monks, St Benedict, after first reorganizing his fledgling congregation to take account of his absence, decided to leave Subiaco, ostensibly in the interests of protecting his monks:

"...fearing the danger which thereby might ensue to his younger monks, and considering that all this was done only for the persecuting of himself, he gave place to envy; and therefore, after he had for those abbeys and oratories which he had there built appointed governors, and left some under their charge, himself, in the company of a few monks, removed to another place."

Shortly after the saint set off however, the envious Fr Florentius suddenly died:

"And thus the man of God, upon humility, gave place to the other's malice; but yet almighty God of justice did severely punish [Florentius'] wickedness. For when the foresaid Priest, being in his chamber, understood of the departure of holy Benedict, and was very glad of that news, behold (the whole house besides continuing safe and sound) that chamber alone in which he was, fell down, and so killed him..."

St Maurus, who had been left behind at Subiaco at this stage, sought to recall St Benedict, but the saint refused to return, appalled at St Maurus' attitude to the death of his enemy:

"...which strange accident the holy man's disciple Maurus understanding, straightways sent him word, he being as yet scarce ten miles off, desiring him to return again, because the Priest that did persecute him was slain; which thing when Benedict heard, he was passing sorrowful, and lamented much: both because his enemy died in such sort, and also for that one of his monks rejoiced thereat; and therefore he gave him penance, for that, sending such news, he presumed to rejoice at his enemy's death."

A providential move to Monte Cassino

So St Benedict proceeded on to Montecassino (the modern monastery is pictured above), some 80 miles from Rome and Subiaco.  The engraving below shows the Monastery as it would have appeared to Dom Mabillon and his companions when they visited the monastery in 1685. 

Pope Benedict XVI, in a General Audience, has explained that the decision to move to Monte Cassino clearly had a providential dimension, reflecting God's plan for the spread of the Order:

"In the year 529, Benedict left Subiaco and settled in Monte Cassino. Some have explained this move as an escape from the intrigues of an envious local cleric.

However, this attempt at an explanation hardly proved convincing since the latter's sudden death did not induce Benedict to return (II Dialogues, 8). In fact, this decision was called for because he had entered a new phase of inner maturity and monastic experience.

According to Gregory the Great, Benedict's exodus from the remote Valley of the Anio to Monte Cassio - a plateau dominating the vast surrounding plain which can be seen from afar - has a symbolic character: a hidden monastic life has its own raison d'être but a monastery also has its public purpose in the life of the Church and of society, and it must give visibility to the faith as a force of life. 

Indeed, when Benedict's earthly life ended on 21 March 547, he bequeathed with his Rule and the Benedictine family he founded a heritage that bore fruit in the passing centuries and is still bearing fruit throughout the world."

Don't forget to say the novena prayer to be found with the first post of this series on the life of St Benedict.  And you can find the next post in the series here.

March 18: St Cyril of Jerusalem, Memorial

St Cyril (313-386) was bishop of Jerusalem and is a doctor of the Church.  He suffered numerous exiles in the face of the debilitating debates of the Arian heresy.  Today he is best known for his Catechetical Lectures.

Pope Benedict XVI gave a General Audience on the saint in 2007:

"Our attention today is focused on St Cyril of Jerusalem. His life is woven of two dimensions: on the one hand, pastoral care, and on the other, his involvement, in spite of himself, in the heated controversies that were then tormenting the Church of the East.

Cyril was born at or near Jerusalem in 315 A.D. He received an excellent literary education which formed the basis of his ecclesiastical culture, centred on study of the Bible. He was ordained a priest by Bishop Maximus.

When this Bishop died or was deposed in 348, Cyril was ordained a Bishop by Acacius, the influential Metropolitan of Caesarea in Palestine, a philo-Arian who must have been under the impression that in Cyril he had an ally; so as a result Cyril was suspected of having obtained his episcopal appointment by making concessions to Arianism.

Actually, Cyril very soon came into conflict with Acacius, not only in the field of doctrine but also in that of jurisdiction, because he claimed his own See to be autonomous from the Metropolitan See of Caesarea.

Cyril was exiled three times within the course of approximately 20 years: the first time was in 357, after being deposed by a Synod of Jerusalem; followed by a second exile in 360, instigated by Acacius; and finally, in 367, by a third exile - his longest, which lasted 11 years - by the philo-Arian Emperor Valens.

It was only in 378, after the Emperor's death, that Cyril could definitively resume possession of his See and restore unity and peace to his faithful.

Some sources of that time cast doubt on his orthodoxy, whereas other equally ancient sources come out strongly in his favour. The most authoritative of them is the Synodal Letter of 382 that followed the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (381), in which Cyril had played an important part.

In this Letter addressed to the Roman Pontiff, the Eastern Bishops officially recognized Cyril's flawless orthodoxy, the legitimacy of his episcopal ordination and the merits of his pastoral service, which ended with his death in 387.

Of Cyril's writings, 24 famous catecheses have been preserved, which he delivered as Bishop in about 350.

Introduced by a Procatechesis of welcome, the first 18 of these are addressed to catechumens or candidates for illumination (photizomenoi) [candidates for Baptism]; they were delivered in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. Each of the first ones (nn. 1-5) respectively treat the prerequisites for Baptism, conversion from pagan morals, the Sacrament of Baptism, the 10 dogmatic truths contained in the Creed or Symbol of the faith.

The next catecheses (nn. 6-18) form an "ongoing catechesis" on the Jerusalem Creed in anti-Arian tones.

Of the last five so-called "mystagogical catecheses", the first two develop a commentary on the rites of Baptism and the last three focus on the Chrism, the Body and Blood of Christ and the Eucharistic Liturgy. They include an explanation of the Our Father (Oratio dominica).

This forms the basis of a process of initiation to prayer which develops on a par with the initiation to the three Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist.

The basis of his instruction on the Christian faith also served to play a polemic role against pagans, Judaeo Christians and Manicheans. The argument was based on the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises, in a language rich in imagery.

Catechesis marked an important moment in the broader context of the whole life - particularly liturgical - of the Christian community, in whose maternal womb the gestation of the future faithful took place, accompanied by prayer and the witness of the brethren.

Taken as a whole, Cyril's homilies form a systematic catechesis on the Christian's rebirth through Baptism.

He tells the catechumen: "You have been caught in the nets of the Church (cf. Mt 13: 47). Be taken alive, therefore; do not escape for it is Jesus who is fishing for you, not in order to kill you but to resurrect you after death. Indeed, you must die and rise again (cf. Rom 6: 11, 14).... Die to your sins and live to righteousness from this very day" (Procatechesis, 5).

From the doctrinal viewpoint, Cyril commented on the Jerusalem Creed with recourse to the typology of the Scriptures in a "symphonic" relationship between the two Testaments, arriving at Christ, the centre of the universe.

The typology was to be described decisively by Augustine of Hippo: "In the Old Testament there is a veiling of the New, and in the New Testament there is a revealing of the Old" (De catechizandis rudibus 4, 8).

As for the moral catechesis, it is anchored in deep unity to the doctrinal catechesis: the dogma progressively descends in souls who are thus urged to transform their pagan behaviour on the basis of new life in Christ, a gift of Baptism.

The "mystagogical" catechesis, lastly, marked the summit of the instruction that Cyril imparted, no longer to catechumens but to the newly baptized or neophytes during Easter week. He led them to discover the mysteries still hidden in the baptismal rites of the Easter Vigil.

Enlightened by the light of a deeper faith by virtue of Baptism, the neophytes were at last able to understand these mysteries better, having celebrated their rites.

Especially with neophytes of Greek origin, Cyril made use of the faculty of sight which they found congenial. It was the passage from the rite to the mystery that made the most of the psychological effect of amazement, as well as the experience of Easter night.

Here is a text that explains the mystery of Baptism: "You descended three times into the water, and ascended again, suggesting by a symbol the three days burial of Christ, imitating Our Saviour who spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (cf. Mt 12: 40). Celebrating the first emersion in water you recall the first day passed by Christ in the sepulchre; with the first immersion you confessed the first night passed in the sepulchre: for as he who is in the night no longer sees, but he who is in the day remains in the light, so in the descent, as in the night, you saw nothing, but in ascending again you were as in the day. And at the self-same moment you were both dying and being born; and that water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother.... For you... the time to die goes hand in hand with the time to be born: one and the same time effected both of these events" (cf. Second Mystagogical Catechesis, n. 4).

The mystery to be understood is God's plan, which is brought about through Christ's saving actions in the Church.

In turn, the mystagogical dimension is accompanied by the dimension of symbols which express the spiritual experience they "explode". Thus, Cyril's catechesis, on the basis of the three elements described - doctrinal, moral and lastly, mystagogical - proves to be a global catechesis in the Spirit.

The mystagogical dimension brings about the synthesis of the two former dimensions, orienting them to the sacramental celebration in which the salvation of the whole human person takes place.

In short, this is an integral catechesis which, involving body, soul and spirit - remains emblematic for the catechetical formation of Christians today."

Novena to St Benedict Day 6: A Monastic Reformer Part 2

Yesterday's post focused on St Benedict's failed attempt to reform an existing monastery. 

His failure however did nothing to damage his reputation it seems, and today's section of the Life of St Benedict by St Gregory the Great deals with the saint's second, rather more successful attempt at running a monastic community, which resulted in him founding thirteen monasteries at Subiaco (picture of St Scholastica's, Subiaco below by Sue Orchison).

The establishment of a religious order

St Gregory relates:

"When as God's servant daily increased in virtue, and became continually more famous for miracles, many were by him in the same place drawn to the service of almighty God, so that by Christ's assistance he built there twelve Abbeys; over which he appointed governors, and in each of them placed twelve monks, and a few he kept with himself, namely, such as he thought would more profit, and be better instructed by his own presence. At that time also many noble and religious men of Rome came unto him, and committed their children to be brought up under him, for the service of God."

The governance structure of this group of monasteries, though not referred to in the Rule which deals only with what happens inside individual houses, seems to have been essentially that adopted by many modern Benedictine congregations, namely a group of semi-autonomous houses with an Abbot-President (originally St Benedict himself) playing an overall supervisory role and helping solve problems.  St Gregory tells for example, of St Benedict being called upon to rectify the lack of an accessible water supply, and to help with a monk distracted at prayer.

The monk distracted by a demon

The story of a demon distracting a monk from his prayers nicely illustrates the saint's role in relation to the monasteries he had founded:

"In one of the monasteries which he had built in those parts, a monk there was, which could not continue at prayers; for when the other monks knelt down to serve God, his manner was to go forth, and there with wandering mind to busy himself about some earthly and transitory things.

And when he had been often by his Abbot admonished of this fault without any amendment, at length he was sent to the man of God, who did likewise very much rebuke him for his folly; yet notwithstanding, returning back again, he did scarce two days follow the holy man's admonition; for, upon the third day, he fell again to his old custom, and would not abide within at the time of prayer: word whereof being once more sent to the man of God, by the father of the Abbey whom he had there appointed, he returned him answer that he would come himself, and reform what was amiss, which he did accordingly: and it fell so out, that when the singing of psalms was ended, and the hour come in which the monks betook themselves to prayer, the holy man perceived that the monk, which used at that time to go forth, was by a little black boy drawn out by the skirt of his garment; upon which sight, he spake secretly to Pompeianus, father of the Abbey, and also to Maurus saying Do you not see who it is, that draweth this monk from his prayers?" and they answered him, that they did not. "Then let us pray," quoth he, "unto God, that you also may behold whom this monk doth follow": and after two days Maurus did see him, but Pompeianus could not.

Upon another day, when the man of God had ended his devotions, he went out of the oratory, where he found the foresaid monk standing idle, whom for the blindness of his heart he strake with a little wand, and from that day forward he was so freed from all allurement of the little black boy, that he remained quietly at his prayers, as other of the monks did: for the old enemy was so terrified, that he durst not any more suggest any such cogitations: as though by that blow, not the monk, but himself had been strooken."

Growth of the community attracts envy...

The success of the new order, however, as has been the case for so many monastic founders including Australia's own St Mary of the Cross, attracted the malicious attention of a local cleric.

St Gregory relates that the priest Florentius waged a three-stage battle against the saint.

First Fr Florentius attempted to smear St Benedict's name, and prevent visitors reaching his monastery:

"When as the foresaid monasteries were zealous in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and their fame dispersed far and near, and many gave over the secular life, and subdued the passions of their soul, under the light yoke of our Saviour: then (as the manner of wicked people is, to envy at that virtue which themselves desire not to follow) one Florentius, Priest of a church hardby, and grandfather to Florentius our sub-deacon, possessed with diabolical malice, began to envy the holy man's virtues, to back-bite his manner of living, and to withdraw as many as he could from going to visit him..."


When his smear campaign had exactly the opposite effect to that intended, Fr Florentius then attempted to assassinate the saint!  Fortunately this too was thwarted:

"...so far did he wade in that sin, that he poisoned a loaf and sent it to the servant of almighty God, as it were for an holy present. The man of God received it with great thanks, yet not ignorant of that which was hidden within.

At dinner time, a crow daily used to come unto him from the next wood, which took bread at his hands; coming that day after his manner, the man of God threw him the loaf which the Priest had sent him, giving him this charge: "In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, take up that loaf, and leave it in some such place where no man may find it."

Then the crow, opening his mouth, and lifting up his wings, began to hop up and down about the loaf, and after his manner to cry out, as though he would have said that he was willing to obey, and yet could not do what he was commanded. The man of God again and again bade him, saying: "Take it up without fear, and throw it where no man may find it." At length, with much ado, the crow took it up, and flew away, and after three hours, having dispatched the loaf, he returned back again, and received his usual allowance from the man of God. But the venerable father, perceiving the Priest so wickedly bent against his life, was far more sorry for him than grieved for himself."

Florentius then attempted to subvert the monks with naked young women dancing (suggestive of a pagan ritual perhaps) outside the monastery at night:

"And Florentius, seeing that he could not kill the body of the master, laboureth now what he can, to destroy the souls of his disciples; and for that purpose he sent into the yard of the Abbey before their eyes seven naked young women, which did there take hands together, play and dance a long time before them, to the end that, by this means, they might inflame their minds to sinful lust: which damnable sight the holy man beholding out of his cell..."

At this point, St Benedict decided that enough was enough, and made the fateful decision to move to Monte Cassino, of which I will speak in the next post of this series.

Meanwhile you can find the Novena prayer with the first part of this series.

March 17: Feast of St Patrick (Class I in some places)

Depending on what country you live in, today may be a first class feast, and thus a day off Lenten discipline! 

The saint being honoured is, of course, St Patrick (c387-493).

St Patrick was captured by Irish pirates at the age of 16, and forced to work as a slave.  After several years, he managed to escape and return home.  He then entered the Church and became a missionary bishop to the land in which he had been held captive.

St Benedict Novena Day 5: St Benedict as a monastic reformer, Part I

Yesterday in this series on the Life of St Benedict in honour of the Novena leading up to his feastday, I wrote about St Benedict's time as a hermit at Subiaco (the modern town and surviving medieval monastery is pictured at the bottom of this post).

Today, I want to focus on his early efforts as a monastic reformer, which illustrate all too well the proposition that it is far easier to start afresh, and make an altogether new monastic foundation than to attempt to turn around an existing monastery!

St Benedict's fame spreads

After the saint's discovery by a priest on Easter day, St Gregory relates that the fame and influence of the hermit quickly spread:

"About the same time likewise, certain shepherds found him in that same cave: and at the first, when they espied him through the bushes, and saw his apparel made of skins, they verily thought that it had been some beast: but after they were acquainted with the servant of God, many of them were by his means converted from their beastly life to grace, piety, and devotion. And thus his name in the country there about became famous, and many after this went to visit him, and for corporal meat which they brought him, they carried away spiritual food for their souls."

St Benedict overcame severe temptations, which only encouraged more to join him:

"Upon a certain day being alone, the tempter was at hand: for a little black bird, commonly called a merle or an ousel, began to fly about his face, and that so near as the holy man, if he would, might have taken it with his hand: but after he had blessed himself with the sign of the cross, the bird flew away: and forthwith the holy man was assaulted with such a terrible temptation of the flesh, as he never felt the like in all his life.

A certain woman there was which some time he had seen, the memory of which the wicked spirit put into his mind, and by the representation of her did so mightily inflame with concupiscence the soul of God's servant, which did so increase that, almost overcome with pleasure, he was of mind to have forsaken the wilderness. But, suddenly assisted with God's grace, he came to himself; and seeing many thick briers and nettle bushes to grow hard by, off he cast his apparel, and threw himself into the midst of them,5 and there wallowed so long that, when he rose up, all his flesh was pitifully torn: and so by the wounds of his body, he cured the wounds of his soul, in that he turned pleasure into pain, and by the outward burning of extreme smart, quenched that fire which, being nourished before with the fuel of carnal cogitations, did inwardly burn in his soul: and by this means he overcame the sin, because he made a change of the fire.

From which time forward, as himself did afterward report unto his disciples, he found all temptation of pleasure so subdued, that he never felt any such thing. Many after this began to abandon the world, and to become his scholars...When this great temptation was thus overcome, the man of God, like unto a piece of ground well tilled and weeded, of the seed of virtue brought forth plentiful store of fruit: and by reason of the great report of his wonderful holy life, his name became very famous."

Abbot of Vicovaro

Indeed, so much had his prestige grown, that when the abbot of a nearby monastery (thought to be Vicovaro; the modern church of St Peter's, Vicovaro there is pictured above) died, the monks approached him to become their abbot:

"Not far from the place where he remained there was a monastery, the Abbot whereof was dead: whereupon the whole Convent came unto the venerable man Benedict, entreating him very earnestly that he would vouchsafe to take upon him the charge and government of their Abbey: long time he denied them, saying that their manners were divers from his, and therefore that they should never agree together: yet at length, overcome with their entreaty, he gave his consent."

The idea of a hermit becoming the abbot of a monastery was not without precedent, but rather more puzzling is why monks with a rather laxer attitude to monastic life might have so insisted on St Benedict becoming their abbot.  Presumably, the idea of reform sounded better in theory than it proved in practice:

"Having now taken upon him the charge of the Abbey, he took order that regular life should be observed, so that none of them could, as before they used, through unlawful acts decline from the path of holy conversation, either on the one side or on the other: which the monks perceiving, they fell into a great rage, accusing themselves that ever they desired him to be their Abbot, seeing their crooked conditions could not endure his virtuous kind of government: and therefore when they saw that under him they could not live in unlawful sort, and were loath to leave their former conversation, and found it hard to be enforced with old minds to meditate and think upon new things: and because the life of virtuous men is always grievous to those that be of wicked conditions, some of them began to devise, how they might rid him out of the way.."

The 'martyrdom of opposition'

Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, recently gave in a talk in Australia in which he proposes the idea of the "martyrdom of opposition" that confronts those who try to make real change.  Cardinal Burke makes the same point as St Gregory, namely that as Scripture and the history of the Church attest over and over again, the godless persecute the virtuous, even seeking to assassinate them as they did Our Lord, because they are "a standing rebuke to them".

The problem is that promoting change makes people appear dangerous to vested interests.  As one modern leadership textbook, Leadership on the Line by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linksy puts it: leaders are a threat when they question the values, beliefs and the habits of a lifetime; when they tell what others need to hear, rather than what they want to hear.

Heifetz actually devotes an entire section of his book Leadership Without Easy Answers to the challenge of "Staying Alive" and avoiding assassination (although generally of the metaphorical kind!).  He is not entirely convinced however that it is actually always possible, and in St Benedict's case only divine intervention prevented the assassination attempt actually succeeding:

"...and therefore, taking counsel together, they agreed to poison his wine: which being done, and the glass wherein that wine was, according to the custom, offered to the Abbot to bless, he, putting forth his hand, made the sign of the cross, and straightway the glass, that was holden far off, brake in pieces, as though the sign of the cross had been a stone thrown against it: upon which accident the man of God by and by perceived that the glass had in it the drink of death, which could not endure the sign of life: and therefore rising up, with a mild countenance and quiet mind, he called the monks together, and spake thus unto them: "Almighty God have mercy upon you, and forgive you: why have you used me in this manner? Did not I tell you before hand, that our manner of living could never agree together? Go your ways, and seek ye out some other father suitable to your own conditions, for I intend not now to stay any longer amongst you." When he had thus discharged himself, he returned back to the wilderness which so much he loved, and dwelt alone with himself, in the sight of his Creator, who beholdeth the hearts of all men."

On rigidity and being 'pastoral'

This story is a shocking one on several levels.  Firstly, no wonder "Thou shalt not kill", which one might have hoped to be redundant for monks, appears in his tools of good work in the Rule!

But more fundamentally, how sad that he was unable to persuade the monks to reform. 

Some modern commentators on the Life, such as Dom Adalbert de Vogue and Fr Terrence Kardong, see this story as evidence of St Benedict's early excessive rigidity, a failure to be sufficiently 'pastoral', and thus view the chapter as constituting a learning experience for the saint (and perhaps as saying a lot more about St Gregory than St Benedict!). 

But St Gregory's own discussion of the incident focuses mainly on whether or not St Benedict's abandonment of the community was justified.  And he alludes to the numerous biblical parallels of the failure of whole towns and cities to repent, and the situation of various Old and New Testament saints, pointing particularly to St Peter's narrow escape from persecutors at Damascus.

Pope Benedict XVI has pointed out that we live in a time when to live in accordance with the teachings of our faith is viewed as extremism.  But, as Cardinal Burke has pointed out, Christians alive in Christ are called to be a sign of contradiction to the world's way of thinking. 

Nor are those within the Church - whether in St Benedict's time, as St Gregory makes clear, or in our own - immune from infection by the world's ways!

No wonder a church leader such as St Gregory might have pondered this story at some length and drawn comfort and inspiration from it....and so too should we.

St Benedict Novena Day 4: A hermit of Subiaco

You can find the novena prayer to St Benedict and first part of this series on his life here.

And continuing on from  on the life of St Benedict, drawn from St Gregory the Great's Dialogues Book II....

Fear of fame - the flight to Subiaco

Yesterday, I related the story of St Benedict's first miracle, performed as a member of the ascetic community based at Affile.  The miracle brought him much acclaim - but fearing the sin of pride, St Benedict fled the scene, ending up in the wilds of Subiaco a few miles away from Affile:

"But Benedict, desiring rather the miseries of the world than the praises of men: rather to be wearied with labour for God's sake, than to be exalted with transitory commendation: fled privily from his nurse, and went into a desert place called Sublacum, distant almost forty miles from Rome: in which there was a fountain springing forth cool and clear water; the abundance whereof doth first in a broad place make a lake, and afterward running forward, cometh to be a river."

Clothed in the habit

On the way there, however, he met a monk of a nearby monastery named Romanus, who clothed him in the habit, and thereafter managed to keep the saint from starvation by lowering down a portion of his own allocation of bread each day:

"As he was travelling to this place, a certain monk called Romanus met him, and demanded whither he went, and understanding his purpose, he both kept it close, furthered him what he might, vested him with the habit of holy conversation, and as he could, did minister and serve him. The man of God, Benedict, coming to this foresaid place, lived there in a strait cave, where he continued three years unknown to all men, except to Romanus..."

St Gregory then goes on to relate how, as a hermit St Benedict suffered and eventually overcame many temptations and trials (photo of St Benedict's cave below, by Holly Hayes).




Historical value of the Life

At the beginning of the Life, St Gregory makes it clear that the Life is based on eyewitness accounts, including those of St Benedict's successor abbots from Monte Cassino, and monks who had fled the Lombard invasion to Rome.  And he gives collaborating details throughout - the sieve St Benedict miraculously mended still hung above the door of the church at Affile for example.

But one of the strongest factors attesting to its historicity is surely the confronting strangeness of some of the incidents included in the Life.

Why did St Benedict not simply join this nearby community for example, particularly if he was still new to the ascetic life?  He must have been utterly convinced  - and able to convince another - that it was too the heremitic life that God was directing him at this time.  Though perhaps, given the provisions of his Rule and his later strictness with his own monks, providence also guided through necessity: a community where a monk could sneak out regularly to feed a hermit unbenownst to his abbot was surely a little too novus ordo in flavour for St Benedict!

Discovery of the hermit

And then there is this story, strange surely, even to contemporary ears, albeit reminiscent of some of the Desert Fathers, of his re-entry into the broader community ready to play a more active role, a symbolic resurrection after three hidden years without even the solace of the sacraments:

"At length when almighty God was determined to ease Romanus of his pains, and to have Benedict's life for an example known to the world, that such a candle, set upon a candlestick, might shine and give light to the Church of God, our Lord vouchsafed to appear unto a certain Priest dwelling a good way off, who had made ready his dinner for Easter day, and spake thus unto him: "Thou hast provided good cheer for thyself, and my servant in such a place is afflicted with hunger": who, hearing this forthwith rose up, and upon Easter day itself, with such meat as he had prepared, went to the place, where he sought for the man of God amongst the steep hills, the low valleys and hollow pits, and at length found him in his cave: where, after they had prayed together, and sitting down had given God thanks, and had much spiritual talk, then the Priest said unto him: "Rise up, brother, and let us dine, because today is the feast of Easter."

To whom the man of God answered, and said: "I know that it is Easter with me and a great feast, having found so much favour at God's hands as this day to enjoy your company" (for by reason of his long absence from men, he knew not that it was the great solemnity of Easter). But the reverent Priest again did assure him, saying: "Verily, to-day is the feast of our Lord's Resurrection, and therefore meet it is not that you should keep abstinence, and besides I am sent to that end, that we might eat together of such provision as God's goodness hath sent us." Whereupon they said grace, and fell to their meat, and after they had dined, and bestowed some time in talking, the Priest returned to his church."

And on to Day 5.

St Benedict Novena Day 3: Apprenticeship at Affile?

So continuing from the last part of my series on the Life of St Benedict (you can find the first part with the novena prayer ...

Some modern Benedictine commentators have difficulty reconciling St Benedict's comments in his Rule on the importance of undertaking an apprenticeship in a monastery before trying the life of a hermit with the saint's actual life history.

Elsewhere in the Dialogues, St Gregory discusses this problem in relation to some other holy men whose lives he recounts, concluding in essence that although apprenticeship in monastic life before becoming a hermit is the norm, God does sometimes lead people to be the exceptions. 

The ascetic community of Affile

That he does not suggest this in the case of St Benedict perhaps points to an alternative explanation, namely that the saint in fact did serve his apprenticeship, in the ascetic community based at Affile that he went to after he left Rome.  Affile is around 50 miles from Rome - the Church of St Peter, which dates from the sixth century though later remodelled, there is pictured below.  St Gregory comments:

"Benedict having now given over the school, with a resolute mind to lead his life in the wilderness: his nurse alone, which did tenderly love him, would not by any means give him over. Coming, therefore, to a place called Enfide [Affile] and remaining there in the church of St. Peter, in the company of other virtuous men, which for charity lived in that place...."

The town of Affile seems to have been a much more significant community at this time then now, but nothing is known of the particular group of ascetics St Benedict joined.  However it is clear that Italy at the time was full of monastic communities of all kinds.  Not all followed strict Rules; nor was the presence of servants uncommon. 

The Rule, in chapter one, provides a thoroughly disparaging commentary on the state of many of these monastic communities;  St Gregory on the other hand suggests in Book I of the Dialogues that "there be many such holy men now living; for though they work not the like miracles, yet for all that, may they be as virtuous and as holy." 

First Miracle

Though St Gregory goes on to say that holiness does not necessarily reside in the performance of miracles, nonetheless, St Benedict's own first recorded miracle - performed, like Our Lord's first miracle at Cana in response to the desire to avoid someone else being publicly shamed - perhaps presents to us a proof of his acquisition of a high degree of virtue even at this relatively early stage in his life:

"...it fell so out that his nurse borrowed of the neighbours a sieve to make clean wheat, which being left negligently upon the table, by chance it was broken in two pieces: whereupon she fell pitifully a-weeping, because she had borrowed it. The devout and religious youth Benedict, seeing his nurse so lamenting, moved with compassion, took away with him both the pieces of the sieve, and with tears fell to his prayers; and after he had done, rising up he found it so whole, that the place could not be seen where before it was broken; and coming straight to his nurse, and comforting her with good words, he delivered her the sieve safe and sound: which miracle was known to all the inhabitants thereabout, and so much admired, that the townsmen, for a perpetual memory, did hang it up at the church door, to the end that not only men then living, but also their posterity might understand, how greatly God's grace did work with him upon his first renouncing of the world. The sieve continued there many years after, even to these very troubles of the Lombards, where it did hang over the church door."

And to read the next part of this series, go here.

Novena to St Benedict Day 2 (March 13): St Benedict of Rome

So picking up from the first part of this series, throughout the early Middle Ages, St Benedict was generally viewed as Roman abbot, probably as a result of St Gregory the Great's efforts.  St Gregory relates that though St Benedict was born in Norcia, he studied in Rome (the house he may have lived in, which was owned by his parents, is pictured above).  St Gregory says that he was:

"...brought up at Rome in the study of humanity. But for as much as he saw many by reason of such learning to fall to dissolute and lewd life, he drew back his foot, which he had as it were now set forth into the world, lest, entering too far in acquaintance therewith, he likewise might have fallen into that dangerous and godless gulf: wherefore, giving over his book, and forsaking his father's house and wealth, with a resolute mind only to serve God, he sought for some place, where he might attain to the desire of his holy purpose: and in this sort he departed, instructed with learned ignorance, and furnished with unlearned wisdom."

The collapse of Rome

Rome in St Benedict's time was in a sorry state.  At the height of the Empire, its population had been over a million people.  By 450 AD that had been reduced to 500,000.  By 500 AD epidemics, floods and war had reduced this to around 100,000.

It was also a time of great political tensions: in 493, when Benedict was thirteen, the Arian Ostrogoth Theodoric conquered Italy.

The old system of classical education was still in place, as the work of Boethius, born the same year as Benedict, 480, attests.  But it was in the process of collapse in the face of the inability of cities to pay for the system of tutors it required, and the continuing tension between the classical tradition of training in rhetoric on the one hand; and the Christian claim to be a philosophy in its own right, with its focus on the study of Scripture and the Fathers on the other. 

The tension is illustrated in the approaches of Benedict's two contemporaries Boethius and Cassiodorus: Boethius worked to preserve the study of Greek, attempting a synthesis of the Graeco-Roman heritage and Christianity, but ending up imprisoned for his efforts on suspicion of collusion with the Eastern Empire; Cassiodorus (b circa 485) on the other hand, though not rejecting altogether the use of classical works, saw the Fathers as the Christian answer to the classical oeuvre, and tried (unsuccessfully) to found a Christian University in Rome to preserve Christianized versions of the classical tools of grammar for the purpose of the study of Scripture. 

St Gregory's description of St Benedict's 'unlearned wisdom', which does not mean unlearned in modern terms, but rather not fully trained in the classical curriculum, suggests that he was in the Scripture as philosophy camp.  And there were good reasons for this given the association of the classics with a lingering attachment to paganism.

Paganism and immorality

Historian Peter Brown argues that the old Senatorial aristocracy maintained Rome as a kind of theme park celebrating its pre-Christian glory. 

In 495, for example, the pope was horrified when, despite his repeated warnings, a group of (nominally Christian) Roman senators insisted on organising the annual pagan lupercalia ceremonies to 'cleanse' the city and appease the pagan gods after a string of natural disasters. 

Was it the debate over this, and perhaps pressure to join the gang of well-born supposedly Christian youths ("the young wolves"), who ran naked through the streets of Rome, that made St Benedict flee? 

Whether it was that year or later that the saint fled, the incident certainly illustrates the immorality and tensions that might have contributed to St Benedict's need to flee the city in order to save his soul.

You can find the novena prayer to St Benedict here.

And you can read the next part of this series on the Life of St Benedict as told by St Gregory the Great here.

A note on the date of the Feast of St Benedict...

In the Benedictine calendar, there are three feasts of St Benedict - his death (March 21, Class I); the translation of his relics (July 11, Class II); and the Illation of the relics of St Benedict (December 4, generally suppressed and now celebrated only in a few monasteries).

In the Roman Extraordinary Form calendar, only the first of these is celebrated (as a third class feast).

And of course in Lent (as is the case this year), it is reduced to a commemoration.

In the Ordinary Form, his feast is celebrated on July 11, presumably to avoid the potential clash with Lent (although in fact it is a solemnity in Europe and many other places).

Novena to St Benedict: Day 1 (March 12): St Benedict of Norcia

Here is the novena prayer to St Benedict:

"O glorious St. Benedict, sublime model of all virtues, pure vessel of God's grace! Behold me, humbly kneeling at thy feet. I implore thy loving heart to pray for me before the throne of God. To thee I have recourse in all the dangers which daily surround me. Shield me against my enemies, inspire me to imitate thee in all things. May thy blessing be with me always, so that I may shun whatever God forbids and avoid the occasions of sin.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favors and graces of which I stand so much in need, in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life. Thy heart was always so full of love, compassion, and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way. Thou didst never dismiss without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to thee. I therefore invoke thy powerful intercession, in the confident hope that thou wilt hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favor I so earnestly implore (mention your intentions here), if it be for the greater glory of God and the welfare of my soul.

Help me, O great St. Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to be ever submissive to His holy will, and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven. Amen."

About St Benedict...

St Benedict and his twin sister St Scholastica were born in the Italian town of Norcia, near Rome, in 480 AD.  The present-day Church, whose crypt dates back to this era, is pictured above.

St Gregory the Great relates that he was a serious young man of noble birth, who was sent to Rome, as was the norm, to receive a classical education:

"There was a man of venerable life, blessed by grace, and blessed in name, for he was called "Benedictus" or Benedict: who, from his younger years, carried always the mind of an old man; for his age was inferior to his virtue: all vain pleasure he contemned, and though he were in the world, and might freely have enjoyed such commodities as it yieldeth, yet did he nothing esteem it, nor the vanities thereof. He was born in the province of Nursia, of honourable parentage, and brought up at Rome in the study of humanity." (from the translation of the Dialogues, Book II, by Edmund G. Gardner)

These days Norcia is of course, the home of the excellent, rapidly growing international community, the Monks of San Benedetto, led by Prior Cassian.

And you can read the next part in this series on the Life of St Benedict for the Novena here.

March 12: Pope St Gregory I the Great, OSB, Class II

Pope St Gregory I (540-604), known as 'Dialogus' in the Eastern Churches because of his Dialogues, Book II of which is the Life of St Benedict, is one of those few popes who truly deserve the accolade 'the Great'.

St Gregory was born into a noble and pious Roman family.  He had two popes in his ancestry; both of his parents Gordian and Sylvia, are venerated as Saints; and his father's sisters, Aemiliana and Tharsilla, lived in their own home as consecrated virgins.

St Gregory he initially pursued a secular career, and at one time was Prefect of the city of Rome.  St Gregory's decision to became a monk around 574, and to convert his family home into a monastery, was almost certainly inspired by the arrival in Rome of Benedictine monks fleeing from the destruction of Monte Cassino around that time.  Indeed, St Gregory explicitly drew on their testimony when he came to write his famous Life of St Benedict.

In 578 the then pope appointed him a deacon, and he was sent as ambassador to Constantinople in 579, where he spent six years, embroiled in the complex ecclesiastical politics of the East.

He was elected pope in 590.

St Gregory's renown arises on several fronts: his theological works, homilies and commentaries on Scripture; his great liturgical reforms; his dispatch of a monastic mission to convert England and much more.

St Gregory's Life of St Benedict

From the point of view of Benedictine spirituality however his greatest importance lies in the composition of the Life of St Benedict. 

The Life has been much disdained in recent years: ignored and disparaged as mere hagiography intended to edify rather than actual fact by many; and even its very authorship impugned by a revival of sixteenth century protestant attacks enthusiastically embraced by many even of St Benedict's own order! 

Fortunately as even the most eager advocates of this conspiracy theory have been forced to admit, the case for St Gregory's authorship of the Life is actually clear cut.  Whether that will lead to a true revival in the use of the Life as one of the two foundational documents of the Order, as tradition has always held, or instead see modernist-rationalist attempts to undermine its historicity and validity remains to be seen, though there are some promising signs, as I've pointed out over at my other blog.

In any case, St Gregory the Great is an important saint for the Church in general and Benedictines in particular.  Pope St Benedict XVI has given two General Audiences on the saint, the first of which can be found here.