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 of God, and the joys of eternity.
She had joined a community of religious women in Aquino and eventually ruled it as Abbess. In everything, she resembled her saintly brother. Her capable leadership matched his, as well as her fervor for God’s service.
Benedict and Scholastica would meet once a year in a house belonging to his community not far from Monte Cassino. There they spent the happy day in prayer and saintly conversation.
“Please, brother – do not leave me tonight, but let us speak of the delights of Heaven till dawn.”
When they met together in 547, Scholastica, whose soul was closely united to her heavenly Spouse, knew that this would be her last meeting with her brother here on earth. At the end of the day, Benedict arose with his monks to leave, but Scholastica pleaded, “Please, brother – do not leave me tonight, but let us speak of the delights of Heaven till dawn.”
“Impossible, Sister, I must not remain outside my monastery.”
“Impossible, Sister,” he replied. “I must not remain outside my monastery.” Scholastica bowed her head in silent prayer, tears rolling down her cheeks. Suddenly, cloud storms filled the sky, and it opened up with torrential rain, thunder, and lightning.
“I asked a favor of you, and you refused to hear me,I asked my Lord, and He heard me. Leave now, if you can. Leave me here and go back to your monastery. ”
“May Almighty God forgive you, Sister!” Benedict cried as he backed away from the door, “What have you done?” “I asked a favor of you, and you refused to hear me,” replied Scholastica, “I asked my Lord, and He heard me. Leave now, if you can. Leave me here and go back to your monastery.”
Benedict, the great monastic legislator of the West, was vanquished by the humble prayer of the Bride of Christ. Saint Gregory comments, “It is no wonder that on this occasion she was more powerful than her brother whom she yearned to see, for Saint John says: ‘God is love’, and therefore it was quite right that she had the greater power since her love was greater.”
Benedict turned back with great humility and remained with Scholastica through the night, speaking of the joys of eternal life.
Scholastica did not have long to wait to see those eternal joys of her Heavenly Spouse. Three days after their visit, Benedict saw the soul of his sister ascend to Heaven in the form of a dove. He had her body interred at his monastery and prepared his own grave next to hers.
Towards the end of his life, Benedict foretold many future events, including the exact day of his death, at the age of sixty-seven. With tears, he foretold the destruction of his monastery at Monte Cassino by the barbarian Lombards. Through his prayers, he secured from God the protection of his monks but was unable to avert the plundering of his abbey, which took place at the end of the 6th century.
Final Days
Within a month of Scholastica’s death, Benedict was taken with a consuming fever. As death approached, he asked to be taken to the chapel, to receive Holy Communion. Supported by his monks, he stood and lifted his arms to Heaven. His wearied body was emaciated by the penance and fatigues of a life completely consumed in God’s service.
In this attitude of adoring prayer, he passed to his eternal reward. It was March 21, 547. Far away in France, Maurus witnessed Benedict’s soul entering Heaven. He also saw a man of radiant countenance standing by a path, shining with innumerable lights, proceeding directly from Benedict’s cell eastward up to Heaven. The apparition, perhaps the Saint’s guardian angel, spoke to them saying, “This is the way whereby Benedict, the beloved of the Lord, has gone to Heaven.”
“This man, despising the world and triumphing over earthly things, has laid up treasure in Heaven by word and deed.”
The Magnificat antiphon of the Second Vespers for the feast of Saint Benedict best summarizes his holy death: “This man, despising the world and triumphing over earthly things, has laid up treasure in Heaven by word and deed.”
He was buried next to his sister in his beloved Abbey. In the year following his death, the Abbey at Monte Cassino became “an ornate centerpiece of priceless Christian heritage, beautiful in its art, from mosaic to painting, enlightened in its library full of carefully copied and illustrated scrolls, devoted to music and all forms of learning. Though built like a fortress, it did inevitably attract the attention of the barbarians. It was thrashed by the Lombards towards the end of the sixth century, destroyed by the Saracens in the ninth, and finally bombed to rubble in the Second World War. It has now been rebuilt as the Abbey of Saint Benedict, but it should also serve as a reminder that the barbarian is always with us.”
Through his monasteries, Benedict created cells of monks who brought the barbarians to God in every outpost of the West, thus making Europe a Catholic civilization.
Saint Benedict was rightly proclaimed the “Father of Europe” by Pope Pius XII. Under the dedicated leadership of his monks, education, art, and literature flourished, as did the fruits of manual labor through the trades and agriculture.
The Benedictine monasteries were autonomous, self-sufficient sanctuaries. As such, the material needs of food, clothing, and shelter were to be supplied by the industry of the monks themselves. What developed under Benedict’s work structure were actually monastic cities, some with as many as 1,000 monks, whose efforts supplied not only their needs but the laity’s as well.
