CrucisSt. Benedict of Nursia
St. Benedict of Nursia was born around the year 480 at Nursia (modern Norcia) in central Italy, and died around 547 at Monte Cassino. Sent as a young man to study in Rome, he was repelled by the city's decadence and withdrew to live as a hermit in a cave at Subiaco for three years. As disciples gathered around him, he organized them into communities, and eventually founded the great monastery of Monte Cassino, which became the cradle of Western monasticism. His twin sister, St. Scholastica, is honored as the first Benedictine nun.
He is best known for the Rule of St. Benedict, a wise and moderate guide to communal monastic life summed up in the motto ora et labora ('pray and work'), balancing prayer, study, and manual labor. The Rule became the foundation of monasticism throughout the West, and Benedictine monasteries preserved learning and faith through the collapse of the Roman world and the early Middle Ages. Canonized by long tradition, he was proclaimed patron of Europe by Pope St. Paul VI in 1964.
Selected quotes
“The tools of good works are not exotic — they are love, patience, truth, and the daily discipline of a life lived for God.”
“Where there is true charity, God is present; and where God is present, there is a peace that does not depend on favorable circumstances.”
“In silence the monk learns what the noisy world can never teach — that God's word is the only word that finally satisfies the deepest hunger of the soul.”