Benedict(St.) (The founder of Western Monasticism)

When Benedict, at a very young age, approximately in the year 495, left the world and withdrew first into a cave on the mountain of Subiaco and later at Monte Cassino, he didn’t plan to found a missionary order of monks to convert the people of the area or to evangelize the new people who were invading Italy. His aim was to establish a community of monks whose main desire should be “to search for God through prayer and labour and to place Jesus always as the first choice.” Benedict knew too well that once God’s love took hold of the monk’s heart, it would overflow and reach out to other people. This is what actually happened. Benedictine Monasteries became beacons of light attracting people of the area. At the same time great missionaries were born in these Benedictine communities. Pope Gregory the Great, who did so much to rekindle the missionary spirit in the Church, was Benedictine. He established the Benedictine monastery of St Andrew in Rome, from where St Augustine and the 40 Benedictine monks were sent to evangelize England. St Boniface the great missionary of the Germans was Benedictine too. Contemplation overflows into evangelization and evangelization leads to contemplation.   1. The life of Benedict   The dates of Benedict’s birth and death are not certain. He was born approximately in the year 480 in the province of “Norcia”, in Central Italy (in English is usually translated with “Nursia”. Hence Benedict is called “Benedict of Nursia”). He was from a noble Roman family. He began his education at Rome, but he was so shocked by the immorality he found there, that he left Rome, his studies and his father’s house, and chose a life of “solitary penance” in a cave on the Subiaco Mountain. There he met a hermit, who helped the young Benedict to make the first steps into the monastic life. Benedict remained at Subiaco three years, but despite his desire for solitude, his holiness and austerities became known and he was asked to be their abbot by a community of monks at Vicovaro. He accepted, but when the monks resisted his strict rule and tried to poison him, he returned to Subiaco and soon attracted great numbers of disciples. He organized them into twelve monasteries under individual priors he appointed, made manual work part of the program, and soon Subiaco became a center of spirituality and learning.   In about 529 Benedict moved to Monte Cassino, an ancient Roman military colony, located about halfway between Rome and Naples. The summit of the mountain (now Monte San Germano) had been dedicated to the worship of Apollo by a population still largely pagan at the time of Benedict. There Benedict first destroyed the temple to Apollo, then built two chapels, St.John the Baptist and St. Martin. In about 530 Benedict began to build the monastery of Monte Cassino that was to be the birthplace of Western monasticism. Soon disciples again flocked to him as his reputation for holiness, wisdom, and miracles spread far and wide. He organized the monks into a single monastic community and wrote his famous rule, the mature outcome of his experience in guiding and governing aspirants to the monastic life of perfection.   The disturbances of the time, the wars between the invading Goths and the Byzantine Empire from 534 onwards, probably helped to increase the numbers of those who sought a peaceful shelter at Monte Cassino.  While ruling his monks, Benedict counseled rulers and Popes, ministered to the poor and destitute about him, and tried to repair the ravages brought about the invasion of the Goths.   Important personalities came to Monte Cassino to hear the “Saint’s words of wisdom”.   Celebrated among these visits was that of Totila, King of the invading Goths, in the year 543. Benedict “rebuked Totila for his wicked deeds, and in a few words told him all that should befall him”. Totila left Monte Cassino keeping in his heart Benedict’s words.   Totila's visit to Monte Cassino in 543 is a very important certain date we have in Benedict’s life.   Benedict died at Monte Cassino on March 21, approximately in the year 550.   His body was buried near his sister Scholastica’s tomb in the chapel of St. John Baptist on Monte Cassino. Scholastica had been dedicated to the service of God from her earliest youth. She was in charge of a monastery very near the one founded by her brother on Monte Cassino. Both Benedict and Scolastica have been declared Saints by the Church.     The principal Monastery of the Benedictine Order, founded by Saint Benedict in 529 sits on a hill overlooking the town of Monte Cassino. It is located about halfway between Rome and Naples.     Monte Cassino was destroyed by the Lombards in 585, by the Saracens in 884, by the Normans in 1046, by an earthquake in 1349, and by the Americans, during World War II, in February of 1944. Most of the art collection was destroyed in 1944, but many valuable manuscripts were saved. It was once again restored and reconsecrated in 1964. It was designated an Italian National Monument in 1866 with the monks acting as guardians.   2. A short history of the development of the Benedictine movement   The community at Monte Cassino continued to prosper and to be a sign of hope for all in the middle of great turmoils until 581 when the monastery was destroyed by the invading Lombards and the monks had to flee to Rome, the universal refuge of those days, carrying with them the copy of the Rule written by Benedict’s own hand. In Rome there was already a Benedictine monastery, St Andrew monastery, established in 575 by Gregory (the future Pope Gregory the Great). This monastery would become famous in 598, when Pope Gregory the Great sent St Augustine and the forty Benedictine monks to England to evangelize the country.   2a. A very important factor for the further development of Benedictine monasticism in Europe was the enthusiastic acceptance of the Rule of Benedict by the Franks. As early as 670, a local Synod in France (followed by a series of other synods) declared the Rule of Benedict as “the only standard for monasteries and the norm for convents both for monks and nuns”.   The most influential Benedictine Abbey in France was Cluny, established in 910.   Cluny soon grew into a very autonomous monastic centre. During the first 250 years of its existence, Cluny was governed by a series of remarkable abbots, men who have left their mark upon the history of Western Europe and who were prominently concerned with all the great political questions of their day. By the year 1156, Cluny had reached the zenith of its influence and fame, at which time it was second only to Rome as the chief centre of the Christian world. The Abbey-Church of Cluny was the largest Church in Europe. Cluny became a home of learning and a training school for popes. Four monks from Cluny were called from its cloisters to rule the Universal Church. Monasteries dependent from Cluny were established in England, in Scotland and other parts of Europe.   2b. But soon it became clear that the spirit and the organization of Cluny was a distinct departure from the Benedictine tradition, though its monks continued all along to be recognized as members of the Benedictine family. Before the birth of Cluny, every monastery had been independent and autonomous, though the observance of the same rule in all constituted a bond of union; but when Cluny began to throw out offshoots and to draw other houses under its influence, each such house, instead of forming a separate family, was retained in absolute dependence upon the central abbey. The superiors of such houses were subject to the Abbot of Cluny and were his nominees, not the elect of their own communities, as is the normal Benedictine custom. Every profession chosen by a monk, even in the most distant monastery of the congregation, required the sanction of Cluny’s Abbot and every monk had to pass some years at Cluny itself.   Cluny encouraged monks and nuns to be freer from manual work and to have more time to worship and to intercede for society.    Such a system cut at the root of the old family ideal and resulted in a kind of feudal hierarchy consisting of one great central monastery and a number of dependencies spread over many lands. The Abbot of Cluny or his representative made annual visitations of the dependent houses, and he had for his assistant in the government of so vast an organization a coadjutor with the title Grand-Prior of Cluny.   With regard to the Divine Office, the monks of Cluny differed from the original Benedictine rule.   2c. Between the 10th and 11th centuries so many Benedictine houses adopted the Cluniac reforms that Cluny became the centre of Christian monastic life in Europe. This period coincided with the emergence of the feudal system, which placed monasteries under the power of an outside authority such as a king or secular lord to whom the monks owed military service. Corruption, nepotism, abuse of power in the monastery, excessive interference of civil authorities, which allowed lay people to govern monasteries, all these factors contributed to the decline of monasticism in Europe.   2d. The spiritual decline in monastic life led certain groups to found new orders, such as the Cistercians and Carmelites, with the intention of revivifying monasticism.   During the Reformation the monasteries in England and Scandinavia were dissolved, and the wars of religion destroyed many monasteries in France and southern Germany. The Council of Trent tried to reform monastic life in the Church. The reform of monastic life went hand in hand with the reform of the whole Church. The anti-religious trends of the 18th century once again threatened European monasticism. The French revolution of 1789, the re-emergence of the Napoleon Empire and the rule of Joseph II of Austria led to the secularization or destruction of Benedictine houses. Cluny, today is only an historical memory. In the last centuries the Benedictine order has gradually recovered, with new Benedictine communities established in many parts of the world.   Today monastic life is attracting youth from all Christian denominations. There are hundreds of monasteries scattered all over the world with a huge population of monks and nuns.     3. St Benedict’ legacy   Benedict was not the founder of Christian monasticism, since he lived two and a half to three centuries after its beginnings in Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor.   The first Christian monks appeared in the East, especially in the Egyptian desert, during and after the last persecutions of the Roman Emperors in 240 and 304, which were very fierce. These persecutions had forced thousands of Christians to flee into the Egyptian desert, where they began practicing a form of community life. After the Church acquired freedom, some of these communities continued to live in the desert. Christians considered these “monks of the desert” or “hermits” as the perfect type of Christian living and considered them  the “white martyrs” of the Church, in the sense of the authentic “witnesses of the Gospel” in a moment of laxity of life.   Among the massive contributions of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria and head of the Church in Egypt for nearly fifty years, was his “Life of St. Antony (Anthony)” a work monumental in its influence. His subject, St. Antony of Egypt, who is commonly considered the father of eremitical monasticism, regarded his vocation as a call to the perfect fulfillment of Gospel teachings. Antony was the first Christian monk. History records that by the year 394, it was reported that there were thousands and thousands of monks and nuns in the Egyptian desert.   The life of a hermit was popularly viewed as being the summit of holiness. Before Benedict, monasticism was alive in Italy and other parts of Europe too. When Benedict withdrew to Subiaco, he met many hermits and communities of monks.  Benedict became a monk as a young man and thereafter learned the tradition by associating with monks and reading the monastic literature. He was caught up in the monastic movement but ended by channeling the stream into new and fruitful ways. This is evident in the Rule which he wrote for monasteries and which was and is still used in many monasteries and convents around the world.   Benedict’s Rule is considered the Magna Charta of Western Monasticism and Benedict is considered the founder of Western Monasticim.   3a. St Benedict’s Rule   Especially since the celebration of the fourteen-hundredth anniversary of Benedict's birth in 1880, his Rule has been made the subject of thoroughgoing studies, and it is everywhere recognized as a code which corresponded admirably to its purpose of regulating the common life of the western monks. Besides the requirements of poverty, silence, and chastity, others appear for the first time: that of “stability” or a permanent residence in one monastery as opposed to the wandering life of the earlier monks, and a specially designated habit.   The exact time and place at which Benedict wrote his Rule are not known, nor can it be determined whether the Rule, as we now possess it, was composed as a single whole or whether it gradually took shape in response to the needs of his monks. Somewhere about 530 however, may be taken as a likely date, and Monte Cassino as a more probable place than Subiaco, for the Rule certainly reflects St. Benedict's matured monastic and spiritual wisdom.     It is worth noting here that Emperor Charlemagne was so interested in the Rule of Benedict that he visited Monte Cassino towards the end of the eighth century, and at his request a most careful transcript of the Rule was made for him, as an exemplar of the text to be disseminated throughout the monasteries of his empire. Several copies of the Rule were later made from the Charlemagne text.   The fact that the Benedictines still glory in their Rule, guard it with jealousy, and point to it as the exemplar according to which they are endeavouring to model their lives, is in itself the strongest proof that they are still imbued with its spirit, though recognizing its latitude of application and its adaptability to various conditions.   (i) The first striking note of the Rule is that it was written for laymen, not for clerics. Benedict’s purpose was not to institute an order of clerics with clerical duties and offices, but an organization and a set of rules for the domestic life of such laymen, who wished to live as fully as possible the type of life presented in the Gospel. “My words”, Benedict says, “are addressed to you, whoever you are, that, renouncing your own will, you do put on the strong and bright armour of obedience in order to fight for the Lord Christ, our true King.” In the beginning, the Benedictines were lay people.     Later, the Church imposed the clerical state upon them, and with the state came a preponderance of clerical and sacerdotal duties, but the note of the lay origin of the Benedictines has remained, and is perhaps the source of some of the characteristics which mark them off from later orders.   (ii) The Rule is not a cold legalistic system. It shows much compassion, wise moderation and gentleness. This appears especially in the regulations for meals, of which he allows two daily, except at times of fasting; it comes out in the rules for labor, which show consideration for the weaker brethren, and also in the system of punishment.   In his provisions for the clothing of the monks, Benedict took account of the climatic differences between the hill-country or plain land and between different regions.   The introductory words of the Rule give a domestic tone to the text: “Listen carefully, my son, to the Master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice. The labor of obedience will bring you back to him from whom you had drifted through the sloth of disobedience. This message of mine is for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience to do battle for the true king, Christ the Lord.”   (iii) Another characteristic feature of Benedict’s Rule is its view of work. His community was not established to carry on any particular work or to meet any special crisis in the Church, as has been the case with other orders. With Benedict the work of his monks was only a means to goodness of life. The great disciplinary force for human nature is work; idleness is its ruin. The purpose of his Rule was to bring human beings “back to God by the labour of obedience, from whom they had departed by the idleness of disobedience”. Work was the first condition of all growth in goodness. It was in order that his own life might be “wearied with labours for God’s sake” that Benedict chose Subiaco, where his “laborious existence could be at the same time useful to man and pleasing to God”.   Benedict had the revolutionary idea that work was a necessary instrument of virtue almost on a par with prayer, and often indistinguishable from it. To him it was the natural condition of man, and he envisioned a state of life in which the physical components of work, prayer and reading were in all ways equal. He warned against outward expressions of piety and excessive mortification, especially when they were found to be, as is most often the case, an end in themselves. His was a voice of moderation and reason; his Rule is, indeed, a document about how a man can live with God in an imperfect world.   Work is not, as the civilization of the time taught, the condition peculiar to slaves; it is the universal lot of mankind, necessary for his well-being as a human being, and essential as a Christian. Thus during the life of Benedict we find what has ever since remained a characteristic feature of Benedictine houses, i.e. the members take up any work which is adapted to their peculiar circumstances, any work which may be dictated by their necessities. Thus we find the Benedictines teaching in poor schools and in the universities, practicing the arts and following agriculture, undertaking the care of souls, or devoting themselves wholly to study. No work is foreign to the Benedictine, provided only it is compatible with living in community and with the performance of the Divine Office. This freedom in the choice of work was necessary in a Rule which was to be suited to all times and places. This differs from the founders of later orders, who often had in view some special work to which they wished their disciples to devote themselves. Benedict’s purpose was only to provide a Rule by which anyone might follow the Gospel counsels, and live, and work and pray, and save his soul.   (iv) Religious life, as conceived by Benedict is essentially social. Solitary monasticism, Benedict says, is for a few people. Community life is the norm of family life. There is no class distinction or any other distinction among members.   (v) Although private ownership is most strictly forbidden by the Rule, it was no part of  Benedict’s conception of monastic life that his monks, as a body, should strip themselves of all wealth and live upon the alms of the people; rather his purpose was to restrict the requirements of the individual to what was necessary and simple, and to secure that the use and administration of the corporate possessions should be in strict accord with the teaching of the Gospel. The Benedictine ideal of poverty is quite different from other orders. The Benedictine takes no explicit vow of poverty; he only vows obedience according to the Rule. The rule allows all that is necessary to each individual, together with sufficient and varied clothing, abundant food, wine and ample sleep. Possessions could be held in common, they might be large, but they were to be administered for the furtherance of the work of the community and for the benefit of others. While the individual monk was poor, the monastery was to be in a position to give alms, not to be compelled to seek them. It was to relieve the poor, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick, to bury the dead, to help the afflicted, to entertain all strangers.   (vi) The Rule describes a form of government, which is very original and still valid today. Upon entering the community, a member freely accepts the Rule and promises to live in the community for life. Members democratically elect their superior, who acts as a “father’ in a family. The community has an active role in the government of its life and each community is autonomous.   (vii)  “Moderation” is given as the rule for community prayer. The Rule deals directly and explicitly only with public prayer. Benedict only insists on reciting the whole Psalter in the course of a week; for the rest, Benedicts adds, if any superior does not like his arrangement he is free to make another. On the other hand, Benedict checks indiscreet zeal by laying down the general rule “that prayer made in common must always be short”. Public prayer, which should be short, is to be said at intervals, at night and at seven distinct hours during the day, so that, when possible, there shall be no great interval without a call to formal, vocal, prayer.   Again must be reiterated that Benedict invitation to public prayer is for all Christians, not only for the clerics.   The Benedictine community that lives prays and works together is a most visible witness of Jesus’ Gospel in the midst of society.     3b. St Benedict and European Culture   On the occasion of the dedication of the rebuilt monastery of Monte Cassino in 1964, Pope Paul VI proclaimed St. Benedict the principal, heavenly patron of the whole of Europe.   (later, Pope John Paul II added Cyril and Methodius as Co-patron Saints of Europe).   To someone this sounded “pious exaggeration”. But this is historically correct. Benedict has sown the seed which contributed to the birth of a new European culture.   (i) Though it was no part of Benedict’s design that his spiritual descendants should make a figure in the world as authors or statesmen, as preservers of pagan literature, as pioneers of civilization, as revivers of agriculture, or as builders of castles and cathedrals, yet circumstances brought them into all these spheres. Benedict’s sole idea was the moral and spiritual training of his disciples, and yet in carrying this out he made the cloister a school of useful workers, a real refuge for society, and a solid bulwark of the Church. The Rule, instead of restricting the monk to one particular form of work, makes it possible for him to do almost any kind of work, and that in a manner spiritualized and elevated above the labour of merely secular craftsmen. In this lies one of the secrets of its success.   (ii) The results of the fulfillment of the precepts of the Rule are abundantly apparent in history. That of manual labour, for instance, which Benedict laid down as absolutely essential for his monks, produced many of the architectural triumphs which are the glory of the Christian world. Many cathedrals (especially in England), abbeys, and churches, scattered up and down the countries of Western Europe, were the work of Benedictine builders and architects. The cultivation of the soil, encouraged by Benedict, was another form of labour to which his followers gave themselves without reserve and with conspicuous success, so that many regions have owed much of their agricultural prosperity to the skillful husbandry of the sons of Benedict. The hours ordered by the Rule to be devoted daily to systematic reading and study, have given to the world many of the foremost scholars and writers, so that the term “Benedictine erudition” has been for long centuries a byword indicative of the learning and laborious research fostered in the Benedictine cloister. The regulations regarding the reception and education of children, moreover, were the seed from which sprang up a great number of famous monastic schools and universities which flourished in the Middle Ages.   (iii) For some six centuries or more the Christian culture of medieval Europe was nearly identical with the monastic centers of piety and learning. Benedictine communities had a sound human and spiritual foundation. Their Rule was a model of ancient Roman law applied to a spiritual family. Benedictine monasteries became the guardians of learning and literature. The rule required the monks, in addition to their manual labor and liturgical prayer, to devote one or two hours daily to reading; it provided for a convent library from which the monks were to take certain books for study at appointed times; each brother was to have his tablet and stylus.   The library of Cluny was for many centuries one of the richest and most important in France and the storehouse of a vast number of most valuable manuscripts. When the abbey was sacked by the Huguenots, in 1562, many of these priceless treasures perished and others were dispersed. Of those that were left at Cluny, some were burned during the French  Revolution.   (iv) All historians admit that Benedict is an important personality in the history of Europe. Within the Church, his monastic movement was a powerful factor of renewal, and the Christian Church was an important unifying cultural factor among the various nations of Europe. The Benedictine monasteries, as we have seen, were centres of learning and studies. They spread all over Europe that culture that eventually would become the common ground which united various European nations. Spiritual values, ethical principles, belief in one God, value of the human person and freedom etc. make up the spiritual treasure of Europe, which has become in sense the soul of the continent.     3c. St Benedict and Evangelization   Benedict never expressly planned a missionary society, as we know them today, for the sole purpose of evangelizing non-Christians. Neither was he establishing a society of traveling missionaries in the adjacent areas for the pastoral care of baptized people. Benedict’s aim was to establish a community of monks whose main desire would be “to search for God through prayer and labour and to place Jesus always as the first choice.”   It was the community of “holy men”, their active engagement in daily labour, prayer and cultural formation that gave witness to Jesus’ Gospel and announced Jesus to all, both Christians and non-Christians.   It was the compassion and love for all poor (both materially or spiritually poor), it was the spirit of the Rule, that created a new culture and a new order of society, which attracted people to Jesus’ Gospel.   Benedict knew too well that once God’s love does take hold of the monk’s heart, it would overflow and reach out to other people.   Benedict’s encounter with Totila, king of the Goths, is most significant. Totila must have been attracted by the fame and miracles of the “holy man”. Benedict’s wisdom, holiness and gift of prophecy overwhelmed so much the very powerful and violent Totila, that he even accepted Benedict’s rebukes foretelling him that his kingdom would not last long.   The missionary spirit of Benedict sprang spontaneously from his intense union with God and his decision to “prefer nothing but Jesus”.   Historical happenings confirm this. Benedictine Monasteries became beacons of light attracting people of the area. At the same time great missionaries were born in these communities. Pope Gregory the Great, who did so much to rekindle the missionary spirit in the Church, was Benedictine. He established the Benedictine monastery of St Andrew in Rome, from where St Augustine and the 40 Benedictine monks were sent to evangelize England. St Boniface the great missionary of the Germans was Benedictine too. Contemplation overflows into evangelization and evangelization leads to contemplation.