Saint Scholastica

Scholastica made great progress in virtue, and proved herself faithful in responding to divine graces; far from imitating the daughters of the century, who begin, so to speak, by opening their eyes to the luxury and vanities of the world, she, on the contrary, closed them forever to all kinds of pleasures, and despised beauty, riches, and the alliances of the greatest princes, meditating day and night only on the means to renounce all earthly things, and to make a complete divorce from the children of men to be the spouse of the Son of God. Indeed, instead of attaching herself to the immense wealth of which her brother had left her the sole heiress, she resolved to imitate him in his retreat.

She spoke of it to her father who was still living, begging him with tears, and with all the affections of her heart, to allow her to enter a monastery near their house, in order to serve God there with greater purity all the days of her life. Eutropius easily consented; for, although he seemed to become a widower a second time in losing this daughter, nevertheless, remembering the vow he had made to God at her birth, he could not oppose her resolution.

Thus Scholastica became a nun, and fully entered the school of Jesus; she soon gave beautiful examples of virtue there. Abstinence, vigils, and silence were her ordinary practices; gentleness and kindness seemed to be natural to her; the candor and simplicity of her soul were visible on her face with such radiance that all the other nuns looked upon her as a model of perfection; but it can be said that, of all the virtues, the one that excelled most in her was prayer, which she possessed to a very eminent degree.

While this holy Virgin applied herself thus to the practice of virtue, and made new progress in it every day, she learned that her brother Saint Benedic t had moved saint Benoît Founder of the Benedictine Order, cited as a chronological reference point. from Subiaco to Monte Cass ino, and wa Mont-Cassin A location in Italy where the relics of Saint Scholastica were kept. s leading an apostolic life there, enlightening those idolatrous peoples with the splendors of the Gospel, overturning the temples of false gods, and abolishing all marks of paganism; and, furthermore, that he had under him a great number of disciples whom he was forming in perfection, and governing in the capacity of father and abbot, having drawn up a rule for them to maintain them all in the uniformity of the same observance; in a word, that he excelled in the guidance of souls. At this news, she resolved to go and find him, and to place herself under his discipline, in order to participate in this new spirit that God was spreading in the world through his ministry. She obtained permission from her superiors, and the consent of the other nuns, who, touched by a heavenly inspiration, dared not oppose this design of Scholastica. Indeed, Our Lord wished, through her, to pave the way for queens, empresses, princesses, and so many illustrious daughters who, following her example, have embraced the rule of Saint Benedict, of which she was the first to make profession.

To better succeed in her design, and to draw closer to her brother, it is believed that she had the monastery of Plombar iole built, Plombariole Monastery of women founded by Scholastica. a league and a half distant from that of Monte Cassino, although there are some doubts about this. This house was immediately populated with holy daughters, who were attracted to this new way of life by the pleasant odor of the Saint's virtues. They lived under the direction and guidance of the great Saint Benedict, who gave them his rule, to which they submitted with a willing heart, as much as the weakness of their sex would allow them.

Among the beautiful instructions that Saint Scholastica gave them, one of the most important was to flee from outside conversation, and even from devout persons; she believed that it was much more advantageous for them to remain in their cell than to seek out these conversations, and that it was easier to preserve the spirit of recollection by conversing with God than by dealing with creatures. To teach them, by her example, what she told them by word of mouth, although she could have received great consolations by conferring often with Saint Benedict, she was nevertheless content to speak with him only once a year, to receive from his mouth the necessary instructions, whether for her own particular conduct or for the government of her daughters, who consulted her on all their difficulties; and this single lesson per year from such a master was sufficient for such a wise student. The day of the meeting, she came accompanied by some of her nuns, and the Saint was there assisted by several of his brothers. So that neither one nor the other would stray too far from their monastery, they divided the path between them, and met at a farm of the Abbey of Monte Cassino at the foot of the mountain, where a chapel was built in memory of these holy visits. These conferences were all the more desired as they were less frequent; and as they were always profitable, Saint Scholastica did not fail to share them with her daughters who, through this pious commerce, lived with great perfection in the monastery of Plombariola.

Finally, the time arrived when it pleased Our Lord to call the brother and sister to Himself; and as they both had a revelation of this, they wished to see each other one last time on earth, in order to converse about the joys of paradise, of which they hoped soon to have perfect enjoyment.

This last conference took place on February 6th or 7th; moreover, it was very different from the others: they no longer spoke of the exercises of penance and mortification, but only of the eternal glory promised to the just: this occupied them the entire day, which even seemed to them shorter than the others. At the hour of Vespers, they gave some nourishment to their bodies, their souls having been holily satiated; but Saint Scholastica, being still impatient to hear of the delights of paradise, begged her brother most insistently to grant her the favor of continuing this conversation, and to give her at least one night to treat more at leisure of this blessed life. This request seemed so extraordinary to the Saint, who was a finished model of regularity and observance, that he refused it immediately. Although it was his sister, and for such a good subject, he replied in a rather severe manner: "What are you saying, my sister? Do you not see that it is impossible for me to grant you what you ask?" The Saint, seeing her brother's firmness, answered him nothing; but, addressing the heavenly Spouse, she heaved sighs and shed tears to pray Him to decide this innocent quarrel in favor of whomever He pleased. At that very moment, the sky poured down torrents of water: for, although it was serene and no cloud appeared in the air, there arose such a furious storm of wind, rain, lightning, and thunder that it was humanly impossible for Saint Benedict to leave that place. The servant of God, recognizing in this an evident miracle, and considering that at the same instant that his holy sister had shed tears, the rain of heaven had descended upon the earth, was obliged to admit, in his heart, that the Son of God loved marvelously her whose desires He had so promptly granted, and to whose sighs He had appeared so sensitive. He nevertheless made some complaint to her; but the Saint, for her part, reproached him for having been so hard in granting her request. "My brother," she said to him with her angelic sweetness, "I had begged you to spend some time here; but, seeing that you refused me, I addressed myself to my

Lord who heard me, and who has done what you see and what you hear." Saint Benedict, knowing by these wonders that it was the good pleasure of God that he should remain, resumed his discourse on the excellence of beatitude; it was all that the Saint desired: the more a stone approaches its center, the more it descends with speed and impetuosity; likewise, the soul of Saint Scholastica, seeing itself on the point of being reunited with its God, who is the true center of the just, took more pleasure in hearing of this happiness, which she desired with such passion.

On the morning of the following day, the storm having entirely ceased, the Saint and the holy woman took leave of one another and each retired to their own monastery, to await there the will of God, in the firm hope that they would soon see each other again in the other life: which indeed came to pass; for the violence of love, to use the expression of the Bride of the Canticles, having wounded the heart of Saint Scholastica, caused her to exhale her beautiful soul without any illness, four days later, around February 10, in the year of Our Lord 543, and in the sixty-third year of her age. This soul, cherished by God, was seen rising to heaven in the form of a brilliant dove by her brother Saint Benedict, who was then praying at a window of his cell: this spot was later marked by a chapel. The holy abbot was so enraptured by this vision that he began to sing hymns and canticles to the praise of Jesus Christ; then he gave notice to his monks, whom he sent to lift the body from the monastery of Plombariole and transport it to the tomb he had had prepared for himself, so that, just as their souls had had but one spirit and one will in this life, their bodies might also have but one sepulcher after their death.

## RELICS OF SAINT SCHOLASTICA.

These holy relics were brought to France more than two hundred years later, on the occasion that I am about to relate, and which deserves to be known. In the year 583, the Lombards ravaged Italy and ruined the abbey of Monte Cassino, as God had revealed long before to Saint Benedict; his holy body and that of his sister were buried again under the ruins of this beautiful edifice. But, around the year 660, Saint Monmole, the first abbot of Fl Fleury Site of the initial translation of relics in France. eury, reading the passage in the Dialogues of Saint Gregory where this revelation is spoken of, and seeing that it had already taken effect, was moved with compassion that the bodies of these two Saints remained thus without honor under the debris of the monastery. As the French Christians have always been careful of the relics of the Saints, he himself, inspired by h eaven, s Aiguiffe Religious of Fleury who brought back relics from Italy. ent Aiguiffe, one of his monks, who later suffered martyrdom, to bring back the body of their holy Father. He arrived at Monte Cassino at the moment when some people from Le Mans, excited by a similar inspiration, had gone there with the intention of seeking the body of Saint Scholastica. Both parties performed their duty so well that, having found the holy bodies, they took them and brought them to Fleury, where a holy dispute arose, because the monks of this monastery wanted to keep them both to place them together in the same sepulcher, and the people from Le Mans wanted to have that of Saint Scholastica. Finally, it was decided that the latter would have the body of the Saint, and that the body of the Saint would remain at Fleury. But here is a new difficulty: Saint Aiguiffe having mixed all the bones in the same chest, one could not discern which were those of the brother or those of the sister. They therefore separated the large ones, which they imagined to be those of Saint Benedict, from the smaller ones, which they believed to be those of the Saint; and God made the truth known by this miracle: it happened that they were carrying two bodies to the ground, one of a boy and the other of a girl, and, in doubt, they brought the body of the girl near the larger bones, and it did not resurrect; but it resurrected as soon as it touched the small ones, and reciprocally that of the boy, upon touching the small ones, gave no sign of life; on the contrary, from the instant that the large ones were applied to him, he resurrected. In memory of this miracle, a chapel was erected a small league from the abbey of Fleury, under the title of Saint Scholastica.

The truth being recognized, the body of the Saint was transported to the city of Le Mans, which received it with incredible joy and deposited it with great pomp in a church of Saint-Pierre, built for the Benedictines, and which was occupied, in the 17th century, by canons. In memory of such a particular favor, every year, on July 11, the people of Le Mans celebrate the feast of this translation with a general procession throughout the city: the streets are hung with tapestries, strewn with flowers, and embellished with paintings and other marks of devotion toward Saint Scholastica, their dear patroness. They also experienced a very tangible assistance from her in 1563; for the heretics having surprised the city of Le Mans, burning and sacking all sacred things, even the bones of the Saints, could not remove those of this holy Virgin; but on the very night of July 11, on which the feast of her translation is celebrated, they were seized with such a panic terror that they all fled in disorder and confusion, without anyone pursuing them. They even forgot the registers of their consistory, which are now found in the public library of Le Mans. This event increased the devotion of the people toward Saint Scholastica. The clergy holds a second general procession in memory of this signal benefit.

Abbé Léon Chanson, professor of ecclesiastical history at the seminary of Le Mans, had the kindness to transmit to us the verifications we had requested of him regarding the translation of the relics of Saint Scholastica and their preservation:

Here there is a slight error: the body of Saint Scholastica, brought from the abbey of Fleury to the city of Le Mans in 660, was deposited in a monastery of virgins, which the bishop Saint Béraire I had built to receive it... The holy relics remained under the care of these nuns until the end of the 9th century (874). At that time, the Normans, who were infesting the region, burned the monastery built by Saint Béraire. The body of Saint Scholastica was saved from the pillage and hidden in a private house.

In 969, under the pontificate of Bishop Sigefroy, Hugh, the first hereditary count of Maine, had the church of Saint-Pierre built near his palace to place the precious relic there. Hugh had chaplains placed in this church; later it was erected as a royal collegiate church. The relics of Saint Scholastica remained there until the French Revolution. They escaped the favor of the revolutionaries and are deposited in a parish church, known as Saint-Benoît. The collegiate church known as Saint-Pierre has not existed since the Revolution.

The feast of the translation of Saint Scholastica is mentioned in all the old liturgical books of Le Mans. It disappeared from the calendar in the 18th century, at the time of the reformation of the breviary and the missal (1748); it resumed its place on July 11 in the diocesan Proper, approved on March 2, 1855, by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

The procession and the pomp described in the passage to be verified have not taken place in Le Mans since the Revolution, although the cult of Saint Scholastica and her relics is still very popular in this city.

What is said next about the protection whose effects the city of Le Mans experienced in 1562 is historical; likewise, it is proven that a portion of the relics of Saint Scholastica was granted to Charles the Bald and to Richilde, his wife. The latter had them carried to the abbey of Juvigny, diocese of Verdun.

"The relics of Saint Scholastica are still at Juvigny-les-Dames, not at the abbey which no longer exists, but at the parish church. The abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes obtained a notable portion of them in 1870.

"There was also in Le Mans a confraternity of Saint Scholastica authorized by several bulls of the sovereign Pontiffs, the originals of which are still at the church of Saint-Benoît, in Le Mans."

The Roman Martyrology, those of Bede, of Umard, of Ado, and of the Benedictines speak of her honorably. Pope Saint Gregory makes ample menti on of her in the se pape saint Grégoire Pope and author of the Dialogues, primary narrator of the life of Servulus. cond book of his Dialogues. Saint Berthaire, martyr and abbot of Monte Cassino, wrote a homily in praise of this Saint: it is found in the seventh volume of the works of the Venerable Bede.