 The Saint Benedict medal
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Monte cassino(the major monastery established by Benedict)
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 Saint Benedict holding the "Rule"
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IN THIS PAGE,YOU WILL LOOK AT THE PERSONAL LIFE OF ST.BENEDICT IN LOT OF DETAILS.
sT.BENEDICT'S LIFE
St Benedict of Nursia was born in c.480 in Nursia, a small town near Spoleto, a province in Italy.Both of his parents were Roman nobles.His schooling was done in Rome, until he reached his higher studies. While studying Law and literature in college, he realized the immoral environment of the city that he lived in. He desired to move away from Rome with a servant in his house. He forsaked his father’s wealth and along with the servant went in search of a place where he could reach his dream of serving god, by becoming a hermit. He was not yet twenty when he decided to go away from Rome.
Benedict and his servant decided to settle in this village named Enfide, in Sabine Mountains, thirty miles away from Rome. While staying in the village, he had miraculously mended an earthenware sieve which his servant had broke. In order to escape the gossip amongst the villagers about this, he decided to leave Sabine mountains along with his servant. As he went up the hills, he found this place named Subiaco.Over there, he made acquaintance with a monk named Romanus and expressed his desire to become a monk. Romanus accommodated him to live inside a cave and made him wear clothing made of animal skin. Romanus, who lived above him, always offered food for him to eat. He was able to live a solitary life in the cave. But soon so many men discovered his cave and started offering him food. A priest had also found him in the cave and had called him for a dinner on Easter and had meditated with him. When people got attracted by his holiness and solitary life, he organized 12 monasteries with 12 monks and an abbot in each. In 529, he moved his community to Monte Cassino, a hill 75 miles southeast of Rome.He and his monks demolished an old temple of St Apollo in the summit and replaced it with a chapel dedicated to St Martin and began his construction of a huge group of monastery buildings.He became a very sacred image amongst his fellow monks and abbots with the monastic skills that he acquired from starting new monasteries.He had written a book called the Rule which consisted of the rules of monasticism. He described the average day of a monk by saying that –a monk should spend four hours in liturgical prayers, five hours in spiritual prayer and study,six hours of labor, one hour for eating and eight hours of sleep.
He became very successful in establishing the monasteries and preaching the ideals and characteristics of Christian monasticism When an abbot of a monastery in a neighboring town had died, the monks and the villagers begged Benedict to become the new abbot.Because he thought that their teachings and discipline would be different from what he has preached his monks he refused to take the position.Those monks decided to poison him, but as he prayed over each poison, it disappeared. From this time his miracles became frequent and people came to receive his guidance. Along with his 12 monasteries in Subiaco, he found the great Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, which lies in a hilltop between Rome and Naples.He died of high fever in Monte Cassino in 21 March 543 or 547 not long after his twin sister Scholastica died. It was the day when god told him he would die and he was buried at the same place where his sister was buried.He was declared the protector of Europe by Pope Paul VI in 1964. In 1980, Pope John Paul II declared him angel of Europe, together with Saints Cyril and Methodius.
Benedict and his servant decided to settle in this village named Enfide, in Sabine Mountains, thirty miles away from Rome. While staying in the village, he had miraculously mended an earthenware sieve which his servant had broke. In order to escape the gossip amongst the villagers about this, he decided to leave Sabine mountains along with his servant. As he went up the hills, he found this place named Subiaco.Over there, he made acquaintance with a monk named Romanus and expressed his desire to become a monk. Romanus accommodated him to live inside a cave and made him wear clothing made of animal skin. Romanus, who lived above him, always offered food for him to eat. He was able to live a solitary life in the cave. But soon so many men discovered his cave and started offering him food. A priest had also found him in the cave and had called him for a dinner on Easter and had meditated with him. When people got attracted by his holiness and solitary life, he organized 12 monasteries with 12 monks and an abbot in each. In 529, he moved his community to Monte Cassino, a hill 75 miles southeast of Rome.He and his monks demolished an old temple of St Apollo in the summit and replaced it with a chapel dedicated to St Martin and began his construction of a huge group of monastery buildings.He became a very sacred image amongst his fellow monks and abbots with the monastic skills that he acquired from starting new monasteries.He had written a book called the Rule which consisted of the rules of monasticism. He described the average day of a monk by saying that –a monk should spend four hours in liturgical prayers, five hours in spiritual prayer and study,six hours of labor, one hour for eating and eight hours of sleep.
He became very successful in establishing the monasteries and preaching the ideals and characteristics of Christian monasticism When an abbot of a monastery in a neighboring town had died, the monks and the villagers begged Benedict to become the new abbot.Because he thought that their teachings and discipline would be different from what he has preached his monks he refused to take the position.Those monks decided to poison him, but as he prayed over each poison, it disappeared. From this time his miracles became frequent and people came to receive his guidance. Along with his 12 monasteries in Subiaco, he found the great Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, which lies in a hilltop between Rome and Naples.He died of high fever in Monte Cassino in 21 March 543 or 547 not long after his twin sister Scholastica died. It was the day when god told him he would die and he was buried at the same place where his sister was buried.He was declared the protector of Europe by Pope Paul VI in 1964. In 1980, Pope John Paul II declared him angel of Europe, together with Saints Cyril and Methodius.
