Name: Benedict of Nursia, Abbot Born: 2nd March 480, Nursia (Norcia, Italy) Died: 21st March 547; Rome Feast Day: 11th July Patron Saint of: Europe; monks; farmers; against witchcraft St Benedict is best known as the founder of the Benedictines, an order of monks who follow the Rule of St Benedict. When as a youth Benedict moved to Rome for studies he was shocked by the licentiousness of his peers. He saw that his own character risked being corrupted by such a culture and fled with his childhood nurse to a remote village near Subiaco. His retreat into the wild mountainous terrain brought him into contact with the solitary monk, Romanus, who encouraged Benedict to pursue the monastic life. Romanus gave Benedict a monk’s habit and for three years Benedict lived in near-total isolation in a mountain cavern perch high above a lake. Romanus would periodically bring Benedict food pulled up in a basket by rope. This life of radical asceticism forms a Western parallel to the desert Fathers of northern Africa (eg. St Anthony of Egypt) – and like them Benedict’s life of prayer and solitude began to make him a magnet for those seeking to advance in the spiritual life.
One of the neighbouring monasteries became determined to appoint Benedict as their Abbot. Benedict immediately recognised the irreconcilable differences between their objectives and his own, but they were insistent. Before too long the monks became resentful of the austerities Benedict introduced into the community and even attempted to poison his drink to be rid of him. Benedict blessed the poisoned cup which immediately shattered, to the astonishment of the monks. Not surprisingly, Benedict left the monastery intending to resume his former life as a hermit, yet God had other plans. Quite spontaneously, a flow of aspiring monks sought out Benedict desiring to imitate his life of prayer and work (ora et labora). Before long,Subiaco blossomed into a thriving religious community of monks with Benedict as their Abbot. It was during this time, in 516AD that Benedict wrote his Regula – ‘The Rule of St Benedict’. This work has formed the template of monastic life in the Western Church for 1500 years.
With the monastic foundation of Subiaco well established, Benedict moved to Monte Cassino and by about 530AD had laid the foundations for a new monastic community. The monastery of Monte Cassino is to this day probably the most famous monastery in the world. Throughout his life Benedict attained the reputation as a living saint: he gained fame as a miracle worker (even raising the dead to life), yet he was also sought out as a man of great wisdom and common sense. He died a holy death surrounded by his fellow monks, and was instantly revered as a saint. There are few saints in the history of the Church who have been more singularly influential in shaping the course of Western Christianity than St Benedict. This is not mere pious hyperbole. To weigh up such a claim one has to understand the broader historical context of the decline of the pagan Roman Empire by the fifth century. Rome’s political and military decline left it vulnerable to invasion and plundering from Barbarians, and the collapse of Pagan religious belief and Roman civic values ensured the cohesion of the Empire was doomed. This left an immense cultural vacuum, civically, intellectually, morally and administratively, and Christianity had not yet the institutional potency to affect a new cultural homogeneity. The notion of Europe as “Christendom” was at this point inconceivable. Rather than conform to the cultural decay of Rome, Benedict’s monastic Rule created a completely new culture, one that would act as ‘salt’ and ‘light’ for the whole of Europe, as monastic foundations spread across the entire continent. Pope Benedict XVI, (who with great intent chose Benedict as the patron of his pontificate) wrote of his name’s sake: “the Saint’s work and particularly his Rule were to prove heralds of an authentic spiritual leaven which, in the course of the centuries, far beyond the boundaries of his country and time, changed the face of Europe following the fall of the political unity created by the Roman Empire, inspiring a new spiritual and cultural unity, that of the Christian faith shared by the peoples of the continent. This is how the reality we call “Europe” came into being.” (Benedict XVI, Holiness is Always in Season, Ignatius, 2009 p.164)
Today we see the entirety of the Christian West at a point of cultural disintegration, in a manner analogous to the collapse of the Roman Empire in St Benedict’s time. There is no longer a unifying Christian faith, culture, or set of values. As Christian Faith evaporates, Europe’s innumerable cathedrals and churches (among the highest expressions of Christian culture) are now mostly empty, reduced to being mere tourist attractions. In 2017 Rod Dreher wrote the New York Times best-seller, The Benedict Option in which he accurately diagnosed the gravity of the decline of our Post-Christian Western culture. He proposed that the path to recovery consisted less in Christians reclaiming our captured institutions (governments, schools, universities, etc.), and more in following Benedict’s example of creating completely new, grassroots, pockets of Christian culture which can act as leaven in our communities. As our morally bankrupt Western civilisation destroys itself by repudiating all that is True, Good and Beautiful, decent folk will be drawn to alternatives if they are available. From the cultural rubble of his own times, St Benedict began the task of rebuilding an authentically Christian culture and in doing so sparked a cultural renewal that endured through millennia. Let’s pray that our own interior conversion to Jesus Christ will enable us to become the architects and builders of a new civilisation of Christian love, that can rise up phoenix-like from the ash-heap of this past century.