From the Housetops – Saint Benedict

Sister  Mary Clair, MICM  Saint   Benedict  Family Joys   Saint Benedict’s twin sister, Scholastica, had also consecrated her life to God from a young age. She looked to Benedict as her master in the mystical life. At rare times when they were together, she loved to speak with him about the spiritual life, the goodness […]

Sister  Mary Clair, MICM  Saint   Benedict   The   Sword   of  Sorrow   Life was peaceful at Monte Cassino. Benedict was rejoined by Maurus, who became Saint Benedict’s assistant in everything. Now the Order was established, the Rule composed, and new foundations were being built. In 534, three years before his death, he appointed the young monk

Sister  Mary Clair, MICM  Saint   Benedict  The Benedictine Life   Soon, another landowner offered Benedict a piece of property in Terracina, just a few miles from Monte Cassino. Benedict appointed twelve men to establish a new foundation there. So, the light of this new movement began to spread; wild land was cleared and cultivated, and

Sister  Mary Clair, MICM  Saint   Benedict  Monte Cassino   Benedict arrived at Monte Cassino in 529, at the age of 49. He fell in love with the impressive ruins of a Roman fortress owned by Placid’s father. Tertullus gave it to Benedict in the hopes that the monks would establish Christianity among the locals, who

Sister  Mary Clair, MICM  Saint   Benedict   Prayer  and Work   Originally, monastic life began in the East. The great Desert Fathers, Saints Antony, Paul, Pachomius, and Macarius, are some of the venerable names that come to mind of those heroic solitaries. Terrifying in their austerity but beloved in their simplicity, these towering figures paved a

Sister  Mary Clair, MICM Saint Benedict Father of Western Monasticism It was the end of the world. At least, so it seemed when from his cave in Bethlehem, Saint Jerome cried out in an impassioned voice, “My voice is choked and sobs interrupt the words which I write; the city is captured which took captive