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 locals were gradually converted and educated, all by the monks who followed the same rules and way of life as the prototype given at Monte Cassino. The Benedictine monk’s vow of stability ended the roving of the barbarian people who had been devastating Italy for over a century. The Benedictine monasteries provided a place around which these nomadic people settled for both spiritual and material survival.
When the secular authority crumbled, and people, broken by war and famine, fell into degenerate living, it was “the Church’s duty to become the bearer and defender of Roman civilization and to stand opposed both in government and in religion against anyone who would desecrate and defile this inheritance. As Philip Hughes writes, from ‘the fifth century, down to the time of the discovery of America in the fifteenth, Europe and the Catholic Church are two names for the one thing.’ That one thing was the melding of the Catholic Religion – which survived the torches, rape, and pillages of the Vandals and others – with the memory of Roman grandeur and the virtues of the rough-hewn, honor-driven, warlike Germanic peoples.”
Historian H. W. Crocker writes: “… Benedict began a monastic life that was to find its culmination in the Rule of Saint Benedict – the touchstone of Catholic Monasticism and a reminder of the Church’s Roman heritage. For more than anything else, Rome was the lawgiver to the world and Benedict was the conscience lawgiver to the monasteries, establishing a regular, moderate, practical order as a classically Roman mode of life. In contrast to the excesses of the East, Benedict argues that monasticism is a ‘school of divine service’ in which ‘all things must be done in moderation for the sake of the less hardy’ and which sternly avoids all forms of self-fl agellation. Even common prayer, Benedict says, is to be kept short. The rule is thus Aristotelian in spirit. It requires communal obedience to a routine of work, prayer, study, fasting, and self-denial. The only acceptable will is the will of the law, enforced by the abbot, who governs the monks like a good father governs his family. An abbot gains his position by election and retains it for life. Like a good paterfamilias, the abbot is ‘not to be suspicious, or he will never be at rest’ and even in executing the law, justice comes second to mercy. The abbot should always remember that his role is to serve and that he should govern by example rather than dictate…
Saint Benedict wrote his rule at Monte Cassino so that the new establishments would be united in spirit to the Abbot’s vision of the holy monk. Benedict’s Rule is believed to have been inspired by God.
“The point of the Benedictine rule is to approximate as much as possible the life of Christ—a life of chastity, prayer, work, temperance, and obedience. The Benedictines established the classical medieval formula that to work is to pray. Benedictines are meant to be self-supporting and generous. It is a life of service, teaching children, serving the sick, providing refuge and hospitality, doing whatever needs to be done, corporal and spiritual, and with typical moderation, avoiding the frenetic activity of the busybody, always remembering that to work is to pray.”
Saint Benedict wrote his rule at Monte Cassino so that the new establishments would be united in spirit to the Abbot’s vision of the holy monk. Benedict’s Rule is believed to have been inspired by God.
The Rule for Monks gives us a more complete picture of Benedict as the venerable Father of the Western Monks. As one historian states: “Though Benedict never permits himself autobiographical reminiscences, we may find these sometimes by reading between the lines, as the personality of the man shines through the monastic legislator. Indeed, we may find out more about what kind of person Benedict was in the Rule than in the Dialogues.”
The crusader in Benedict emerges in the first part of the Rule: “My words are addressed to thee, whoever thou art” he writes, “that renouncing thine own will, dost put on the strong armor of obedience to fight for the Lord Christ our true King.”
The crusader in Benedict emerges in the first part of the Rule: “My words are addressed to thee, whoever thou art” he writes, “that renouncing thine own will, dost put on the strong armor of obedience to fight for the Lord Christ our true King.”
The prologue is a powerful exhortation to walk in the way of the Lord by faith and good works, “That we may deserve to see in His kingdom Him Who has called us.” The Gospel is Benedict’s guide in leading his monks to imitate Christ. “We must then, prepare our hearts and bodies for the battle of holy obedience to His instruction.”
Benedict is adamant that nothing comes before the love of Christ. Every good work must begin with prayer, that God may bring it to perfection. The Rule continues with guidelines for the abbot: how he must be holy, humble, wise, and moderate; he must set an example in everything, and give his monks “no cause for grumbling.” He must also be able to adjust himself to the varying circumstances of his responsibility; “threatening and coaxing by turns, stern as a taskmaster, devoted and tender as only a father can be.”
