April 4: St Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, Memorial

Murillo, 1665

St Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636)  may or may not have been a monk, but as bishop he certainly acted as protector of them and as a great promoter of the monastic life. 

The saint is best known as the first Christian encyclopedist, attempting to compile a summa of all of the known knowledge of the time.  He was also a diligent historian of the Spanish regions.  He saw education as a way of unifying the diverse peoples of his diocese, and uniting them against the barbarian invaders.  Due to his efforts, much classical learning was preserved that might otherwise have been lost.

As a bishop, he played a key role in converting the reigning dynasty from Arianism and suppressing heresy.



Map of the known world
from the first printed edition of the Etymologies of St Isidore
University of Texas collection



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.