Saint Saint Benedict of Nursia, Abbot, Patron of Europe

Saint Saint Benedict of Nursia, Abbot, Patron of Europe

480–547 · Medieval · Benedictines

Feast day: July 11

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Prayer and work. (Ora et labora)

Biography

Benedict of Nursia (Latin: Benedictus Nursiensis; Italian: Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March 480 – 21 March 547), often known as Saint Benedict, was a monk and the founder of the Order of Saint Benedict. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old Catholic Churches. In 1964, Pope Paul VI declared Benedict a patron saint of Europe. Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco in present-day Lazio, Italy (about 65 kilometres (40 mi) to the east of Rome), before moving southeast to Monte Cassino in the mountains of central Italy. The present-day Order of Saint Benedict emerged later and, moreover, is not an "order" as the term is commonly understood, but a confederation of autonomous congregations. Benedict's main achievement, the Rule of Saint Benedict, contains a set of rules for his monks to follow. Heavily influenced by the writings of John Cassian (c. 360 – c. 435), it shows strong affinity with the earlier Rule of the Master, but it also has a unique spirit of balance, moderation and reasonableness (ἐπιείκεια, epieíkeia), which persuaded most religious orders and communities founded throughout the Middle Ages to adopt it. As a result, Benedict's monastic rule became one of the most influential in Western Christendom. For this reason, Giuseppe Carletti regarded Benedict as the founder of Western Christian monasticism. Apart from a short poem attributed to Mark of Monte Cassino, the only ancient account of Benedict is found in the second volume of Pope Gregory I's four-book Dialogues, thought to have been written in 593, although the authenticity of this work is disputed. Gregory's account of Benedict's life, however, is not a biography in the modern sense of the word. It provides instead a spiritual portrait of the gentle, disciplined abbot.

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Prayers

  • Prayers for a Novena to Saint Benedict

    novena

    1. By that extraordinary love which you, O great patriarch St. Benedict, evinced for retirement and mortification when you concealed yourself at the age of fifteen in the wilderness, where you were not content to feed solely on roots and to sleep on the bare ground, but also tormented your body with a rough hair-shirt which you wore till your death: obtain for us all the grace to abhor all the pomps and vanities of the seductive world, and to apply ourselves continually to the abnegation of our own will and the mortification of the flesh. Glory be to the Father, etc. 2. By the heroic intrepidity with which you, O great patriarch St. Benedict, despised all the artifices of the devil, who attempted to drive you from your solitude, and by the complete victory which you obtained over your evil imaginations by casting yourself naked amidst thorns and briars: obtain for us all the grace to rise superior to all the assaults of the infernal enemy, and to be always ready to endure any evil rather than to stain our souls with a single sin. Glory be to the Father, etc. 3. By the generosity with which you, O great patriarch St. Benedict, pardoned your subjects, who, after having chosen you superior, began to persecute you in the most unworthy manner, even attempting to poison you: obtain for us all the grace to suffer in peace the persecutions and contempt with which it shall please God to visit us during the few days of this our mortal life. Glory be to the Father, etc. 4. By that truly apostolic zeal with which you, O great patriarch St. Benedict, established the faith of Jesus Christ, through the whole neighborhood of Monte Cassino—pulling down the Pagan temples and building up your monasteries—and by that ardent love of God and your neighbor which led you to lay the foundation of that great order which has given to the Church hundreds of saints, and so many distinguished laborers in literature and science, obtain for us the grace to employ our powers for the good of our neighbor. Glory be to the Father, etc. 5. By that supernatural light, by which you, great patriarch St. Benedict, revealed to your religious brethren the time at which you would pass to eternity, obtain for us all the grace to be always like you, humble, mortified, and fervent, and that we may receive from God the lights needful to guide us in the way of sanctity, and may continually and diligently seek our eternal salvation.

    — Blessed Sacrament Book (F.X. Lasance), 1913 edition, p. 1124 (Prayers for a Novena to St. Benedict; attr. Pagani, "Book of Novenas")

Patronages

Sources: Wikipedia (2). Wikipedia content used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related saints

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