By DEB PIROCH
Benedict (480-547) was born only about fifty years after the last of the “games” at the Colosseum, where human and animal sacrifice gave sport. Rome had fallen and violence reigned as barbarian hordes overran the once-ordered empire. But one day, the Christian world would fill the vacuum. Benedict of Nursia would revolutionize religious life around the globe for over 1,500 years, and the rebuilt St. Peter’s would pilfer stones from the once triumphant Colosseum.
Born Roman, Benedict had a twin, St. Scholastica. Once older, he was sent to Rome to study, but he grew disenchanted and was shocked by the licentiousness of life there. Before the age of 20 he left, withdrawing first to the town of Enfide, where the first known miracle through his intercession occurred. But he craved to be somewhere where he garnered no attention, so he removed himself to Subiaco. This small cave still exists, and here he lived and prayed for three years. Assisted by a monk named Romanus, who lived nearby, and lowered bread to him in a basket from above him on a cliff, Benedict matured in spiritual awareness.
We know that he was tempted by the Devil with a vision of a beautiful woman. Benedict summarily ended the episode by rolling in brambles, after which he said he felt absolutely no lure at all. His cave, incidentally, was located near the ruins of a giant palace of Nero, a folly that the evil emperor had built at great expense and abandoned after his suicide. Ashes to ashes. . . .
Remote as he was, Benedict’s example still attracted others. A nearby abbot died, leaving its community without a head, and the men asked Benedict to lead them. Benedict advised them his way was much stricter, less indulgent. But they insisted, then rebelled. One of them actually poisoned his wine. When Benedict went to bless the drink, the cup shattered, protecting him. One wonders why the unhappy ones did not simply leave!
And yet, Benedict stayed and went on to form 12 monasteries, serving as abbot to each with 12 monks. Yet spiritual fruit provoked envy in an unfortunate priest named Florentius, who tried to poison Benedict with a loaf of bread. Benedict had a bird carry off the loaf far away to dispose of it, knowing what it contained. Florentius also sent naked ladies to show themselves at the monasteries, as a temptation to the monks. Benedict decided leaving would stop this nonsense without endangering his communities. The next destination would remain his home for the rest of his life, Monte Cassino.
In the Second Book of the Dialogues of St. Gregory (the Great), a contemporary of St. Benedict, he describes aspects of the saint’s life and many miracles. Here he tells of his arrival at Cassino and how he drove out paganism so thoroughly the Devil himself complained:
“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 on all sides, there were woods for the service of the devils, in which even to that very time, the mad multitude of infidels offered most wicked sacrifice. The man of God coming there, beat the idol into pieces, 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.
“By his continual preaching, he br ought the people dwelling in those parts to embrace the faith of Christ. The old enemy of mankind, not taking this in good spirit, presented himself to the eyes of that holy father, not privately or in a dream, but in open sight. With great outcries the Devil complained that Benedict had offered him violence.”
Cassino, if anywhere, would be the logical place Benedict would have been most bothered by the Devil. It was here that he decided rather than multiple monasteries to house all men within one monastery. And it was here that he wrote the Rule, which ordered the day into short periods of public prayer, along with work, private prayer, silence and other guidelines, all this while living as a community in a spirit of poverty, chastity, and obedience. It is not enough to remain within the walls and pray; the charism of the Benedictines is a flexible one, in that the work may be growing food for its members, to educating local children, to helping the local poor. For centuries it became the guide for religious life not just in Europe, but everywhere in the Christian world
Structured prayer begins before dawn with vigils, then lauds around the time of early morning Mass, prime, terce, sext, vespers, and finally, held in the dark, compline. One should never go long without prayer, he thought. And after his years in isolation, Benedict determined that being alone or overly deprived were not good aids to salvation. Instead the goal was to help one another get to Heaven and, while not owning anything on one’s own, the monastery should still have enough to share with the surrounding poor.
When the time came, Benedict foresaw his own death. Not long before our Lord had permitted him to see the soul of his sister, Scholastica, rising to Heaven upon her death like a dove. Now he let people know his own time was coming, and six days before had the grave reopened so as to be interred with his sister. As his health faded, he asked his brothers to take him to the church for Communion, and then asked them to hold up his arms in prayer. In this posture he died.
Today at the northernmost part of Scotland lies an old Benedictine abbey from the thirteenth century. Many of its stones disappeared, as they were used for buildings after it had to be abandoned at the Reformation. Then, in the twentieth century, a donor who had bought back the property, returned it to Anglican Benedictines who later entered the Catholic Church.
It did take extensive building work to put back the roof and make other necessary repairs after about five hundred years of non-occupancy, but they made the abbey ready again. The night before everyone returned, I was told that singing was heard on the property. There was no one to be seen, but it was assumed after fruitless searching that monks of centuries ago were welcoming their brothers back to the abbey.
Pluscarden is only medieval abbey in Britain still being used for its intended purpose. There you hear them ring the bell for prayer, and chant in Latin . . . and may it be so without interruption till the end of time.
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