The former feast of the Illation of the relics of St Benedict

Reliquary of St Benedict at the Monastery of Fleury
Source: Wiki Commons

In some (much) older breviaries, as I've noted in my Ordo, December 4 is marked as the feast of the Illation of the relics of St Benedict, so I thought it might be worth a brief note on what exactly the feast was about.

The short version is that while July 11 celebrates the original bringing of the relics of St Benedict to the Monastery of Fleury, December 4 celebrates the 'carrying in' of the relics of St Benedict on this date after the basilica at the Monastery of Fleury was rebuilt in 882.  Alas the 882 church no longer exists (beyond a few remnants incorporated into the later replacement version).

The feast itself (where it was said) was mostly suppressed along with many others in the late nineteenth century.  All the same, traditionally, this day marks one of the three times a year that the Life of St Benedict was read  in the monastic refectory.

The seventh century relics heist

There are essentially two competing claims to the relics of St Benedict, that of Monte Cassino, and that of Fleury (aka .Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire).

Most historians favour the claims of Fleury: on the face of it the tombs of SS Scholastica and Benedict excavated at Monte Cassino after World War II appear to be of much later construction, though there may have been some genuine remains preserved there. 

Either way, its pretty clear than enterprising group of monks from Fleury in what is now France, went on a relic raid to Monte Cassino around 672, and brought back with them what they claimed were the bodies of SS Benedict and Scholastica. 

That the Fleury monks really did go to Monte Cassino is attested to by a series of letters by Pope Vitalian (657–72), which condemned the theft, demanded that the remains be returned, and excommunicated those involved. 

The original acquisition of the relics of St Benedict is also attested to in a (likely) seventh century version of the Matryrology of St Jerome, which included the feast of the relics of St Benedict on July 11, preserved in an eighth century manuscript.

Monte Cassino in the seventh century

That monks from Gaul were able to obtain the relics reflects the sorry state of Italian monasticism at the time.  Outside of Rome and a few other major centres, monasticism seems to have been largely wiped out in the first half of the seventh century, courtesy of the Lombard invasions.  

Monte Cassino was originally destroyed around 580 (and not refounded until 717), and although Subiaco was still a vibrant centre of St Benedict's cult in St Gregory the Great's time, it too, was destroyed not long after his death, around 605.    

As a result, while there is good evidence for the continuation of Benedictine monasticism in Rome itself (most notably in the various 'Ordines Romani, describing the liturgy) Monte Cassino was largely abandoned for well over a century.

The early spread of Benedictine monasticism

In Gaul (and England), however (contrary to the claims of many modern historians), it was a different story.  

The most well-known reference to the use of the rule in Gaul is to Venerandus in 625, but there are several other explicit references to the use of the Rule in various seventh century saints lives, and perhaps most significantly of all, the major monastic centre of Lerins (not without some resistance) adopted the Benedictine rule around the middle of the seventh century.

Fleury itself  was originally founded in 631, and like a number of monasteries around that time, its charters claimed to use both 'the Rule of the most holy Benedict and lord Columbanus’.  It has been questioned in recent times, however, just to what extent, if at all, Columbanian influences persisted in these monasteries, and the Fleury relics raid only a few decades after its foundation rather supports the theory that Columbanian influence, beyond perhaps his emphasis on confession, quickly waned, replaced by the less extreme asceticism of St Benedict and others.

L'abbaye de Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire