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July 11
St. Benedict
(480?-543)
It is
unfortunate that no contemporary biography was written of a man who has exercised
the greatest influence on monasticism in the West. Benedict is well recognized
in the later Dialogues of St. Gregory, but these are sketches to illustrate
miraculous elements of his career.
Benedict was
born of a distinguished family in central Italy, studied at Rome and early in
life was drawn to the monastic life. At first he became a hermit, leaving a
depressing world—pagan armies on the march, the Church torn by schism, people
suffering from war, morality at a low ebb.
He soon
realized that he could not live a hidden life in a small town any better than
in a large city, so he withdrew to a cave high in the mountains for three
years. Some monks chose him as their leader for a while, but found his
strictness not to their taste. Still, the shift from hermit to community life
had begun for him. He had an idea of gathering various families of monks into
one “Grand Monastery” to give them the benefit of unity, fraternity, permanent
worship in one house. Finally he began to build what was to become one of the
most famous monasteries in the world—Monte
Cassino, commanding three narrow valleys running
toward the mountains north of Naples.
The Rule
that gradually developed prescribed a life of liturgical prayer, study, manual labor and living together in community under a common
father (abbot). Benedictine asceticism is known for its moderation, and
Benedictine charity has always shown concern for the people in the surrounding
countryside. In the course of the Middle Ages, all
monasticism in the West was gradually brought under the Rule of St. Benedict.
Today the
Benedictine family is represented by two branches: the Benedictine Federation
and the Cistercians.
Comment:
The Church has been blessed through Benedictine devotion to the liturgy, not
only in its actual celebration with rich and proper ceremony in the great
abbeys, but also through the scholarly studies of many of its members. Liturgy
is sometimes confused with guitars or choirs, Latin or Bach. We should be
grateful to those who both preserve and adapt the genuine tradition of worship
in the Church.
Quote:
“Rightly, then, the liturgy is considered as an exercise of the priestly office
of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy the sanctification of man is manifested by
signs perceptible to the senses...; in the liturgy full public worship is
performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his
members.
“From this
it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ
the priest and of his Body the Church, is a sacred action, surpassing all
others” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 7).
Patron Saint of:
Europe
Kidney disease
Poisoning
Schoolchildren
St. Benedict,
Pray for us.
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