Saint Benedict

Following this resolution, he abandoned Rome and all his relatives and friends, and, by a wise folly and a learned ignorance, to use the terms of Saint Gregory, he went to seek in the deserts, and outside the commerce of the world, a way of life in which he could serve God with more fervor and less peril. His nurse, who was named Cyrilla, and who loved him tenderly, followed him: and it was on her account that, having arrived at a village called Affile, he performed the first of his miracles of which knowledge has come down to us; this woman having accidentally broken an earthenware vase that she had borrowed from some poor people of the place, the Saint rejoined the pieces and restored it by his prayer to the same state it was in before; in memory of this miracle, the inhabitants attached it to the door of their church, where it remained until the incursion of the Lombards. Benedict was soon looked upon as a Saint throughout the neighborhood: this was an extremely powerful motive for him to withdraw from it. He therefore stole away secretly from those who had been witnesses of the prodigy, and from his nurse herself, and went to a place forty miles distant from Rome, called Subiaco, where Sublac Place of monastic retreat and formation in Italy. there were monks who lived in a very holy austerity. Saint Hildegard assures us, in her revelations, that he was led there by two angels, who had also brought him out of Rome. As he was climbing a mountain to find the place he desired, God permitted him to be seen by one of these solitaries, named Romanus; the latter, admiring his fervor, offered to assist him and to cooperate with his pious design in everything that would be possible for him. Benedict having accepted this offer, Romanus first gave him a religious habit, then he led him into an extremely secret and almost inaccessible cavern, which nature had carved in the recess of a rock, and which is now called the Holy Grotto. This was in the year 494.

It was there that this great Saint, covered in a hairshirt and separated from all men, began that terrible penance, the thought of which is capable of astonishing the boldest. Romanus fed him there for three years, lowering to him from time to time, in a basket, a piece of bread, which made up his entire subsistence. He did not break his silence for that, but he called him with a bell attached to the rope of the basket. The common enemy of men, unable to bear either the austerity of the one or the charity of the other, broke this bell one day. But his malice did not prevent them from always continuing their holy commerce, until it pleased God to reveal to the world the holiness of his servant, and to make him appear there for the salvation of an infinity of persons. Here is how the thing happened.

A holy priest, pastor, if one is to believe tradition, of a town called Monte-Preclaro, four miles distant from this grotto, had had dinner prepared for him for Easter day; Our Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said to him: "My servant is dying of hunger in a cavern, and you are preparing delicious dishes for yourself." At this voice, he rises, and taking what had been prepared for his table, he sets out on the way to seek the unknown saint. He walked for a long time between the mountains and the rocks without knowing where he was going or where he should go; but the hand of God leading him, he finally arrived at the grotto of Benedict. He found the Saint there, joined in prayer with him, and, after the orison, invited him to take the food that Our Lord was sending him, because it was that day the feast of His Resurrection, in which the Church is accustomed to break the fast. Saint Benedict, knowing that God had sent him, acquiesced to his prayer: they ate together of what he had brought, and after a conversation full of light and unction, on the means of pleasing God and arriving at perfection, they separated, the priest returning to his church and the Saint remaining in his grotto, full of gratitude toward his divine benefactor. Some time later, shepherds perceived him from afar, and were even frightened by it, first because he was covered in animal skins, then because they could not imagine that a man like others could make his ordinary dwelling in these rocks. But having approached, they recognized, with their own eyes and through the salutary instructions he gave them, that it was indeed a man, and several were so touched that, coarse as they were, they became men of grace and spiritual persons, as Saint Gregory remarks. It is thus that this admirable Solitary was discovered little by little, and subsequently several people from the neighborhood came to visit him, and, bringing him what was necessary for his living, they received from him a much more excellent food, that is to say, the word of God.

Such happy beginnings having cast terror into the mind of Satan, he resolved to stifle this nascent holiness in its cradle. To succeed in this, he took the figure of a blackbird, and, under this figure, he came to flutter around him, and he even approached so close that the holy young man could have easily taken him by the hand; but as this brave soldier of Jesus Christ was already well experienced in the spiritual militia, suspecting what it was, he formed the sign of the cross over him: which immediately made this prestige vanish. However, he felt at the same instant such a furious temptation of the flesh that he was on the point of succumbing to it, and that, in the trouble he was in, he was beginning almost to deliberate whether he should not leave his solitude. But the spirit of grace was stronger in him than this temptation, and immediately gave him the skill and the courage to strip himself and throw himself naked into a field of thorns and briars, in the middle of which he rolled for so long that, through an infinity of scratches and wounds, he made blood flow from all parts of his body; thus, by the sensible pain and by these streams of blood, he extinguished the ardor that concupiscence had ignited in his members. Since then, the seraphic Saint Francis, visiting the grotto of Saint Benedict out of devotion, embraced and kissed these briars and thorns out of devotion, and, making the sign of the cross over them, he changed them into roses which have since served to give health to a quantity of the sick. The victory of our Saint was so perfect that he was endowed, from that day on, with an angelic purity, and the demon no longer had the power to tempt him on this matter.

After this triumph, he went from being a soldier to a captain, and from a novice to a great master in the school of virtue. Indeed, he began from that moment to teach it, either by word of mouth or by his good examples, to many who came to place themselves under his discipline. The abbot of a neighboring monastery had died; the religious immediately cast their eyes upon him and elected him in his place. But as they had fallen into great laxity and could not bear the strength of his remonstrances, they soon repented of their choice and went to the extreme of fury, conspiring together for his death and putting poison in a glass they presented to him. They could not, however, harm him, because God, who reveals the most secret thoughts of men when He pleases, made known to His servant the peril he was in, as if a stone had fallen into it. The conspiracy being thus discovered, the Saint said to them without being troubled: "May God forgive you, my brothers! Did I not tell you that your ways did not agree with mine at all? Seek another abbot to govern you as you please; as for me, I will not remain with you any longer."

Saint Benedict therefore left this place where he produced no fruit and withdrew to his first solitude; having only his body on earth, he led a life more angelic than human, absorbing himself in the contemplation of divine perfections and studying to form within himself an image and a vivid likeness of them. But the charity that consumed his heart could not hide its flames, and many people, desirous of imitating him, came to this desert; soon, instead of the one monastery he had left, he founded twelve; in each, he first placed twelve religious with a superior to lead them. And for himself, as the superintendent of all, he watched over them and went from one to the other to assist them in their needs. These monasteries were in the province of Valeria, not far from one another; that of Saint Scholastica, where the Saint made his residence, and that of the Holy Grotto are the only ones that survive today. There is nothing left in the place of the others but ruins and a few cells. He was not only sought out by those who wished to leave the world and enlist under the banner of the cross: he was also sought by several lords who, out of a singular esteem for his person, brought him their children so that he might form them by his own hand in the practice of virtue and that they might learn human sciences under the masters he would provide for them: Equitius brought him his son Maurus, aged twelve, and Tertullus, a patrician, brought him his son Placidus, aged only seven. Thi s ma Maur Disciple of Saint Benedict who saved Placidus from drowning. y give reason to believe what some authors have written: our Saint, Placide Young disciple saved from the waters by Maur on the order of Benedict. according to them, made a journey to Rome during the foundation of these first twelve convents and performed so many miracles there over two years that he won the esteem and affection of the entire senate and the most considerable persons of the city. It is true that Saint Gregory does not speak of this journey, but he may have omitted it, either to be brief or for other reasons that we cannot know. It has already been spoken of, in the life of Saint Maurus, regarding the signal miracle that the holy Abbot had him perform to rescue little Placidus from a lake where he was about to drown; Saint Maurus walked upon the waters on dry feet as if on solid ground. Saint Gregory notes others that preceded his departure from the solitude of Subiaco.

In one of his monasteries, there was a religious who could not remain at prayer; but as soon as the brothers prostrated themselves to perform it, he would leave the oratory to give full freedom to his thoughts. The superior often corrected him for it, but as it was without success, he brought him to Saint Benedict so that the authority of such a great man might prevail over him where his own remonstrances could not. This poor brother promised to be more fervent in the future, but his resolution lasted only two days, so that the superior was obliged to inform the Saint that the scandal continued. He came himself to provide a remedy and brought Saint Maurus in his company; having begun to pray with the brothers, he saw a black child pulling the religious by his robe: "Do you perceive," he said to the superior and to Saint Maurus, "the one who is corrupting this brother?" They replied that they did not: "Let us then pray to Our Lord," he added, "that He may reveal this secret to you." After two days, Saint Maurus saw him, and Saint Benedict having followed this vagabond, who had gone out according to his custom, took a rod and struck the culprit with it, which delivered him entirely from this temptation of the demon. Among the twelve houses he had built, there were three on the rocks that had no water. The religious, who had extreme difficulty going down to fetch it in the lake because the descent was difficult and dangerous, begged him to be able to move or to change their dwelling; he promised to satisfy them, and, having made a fervent prayer, he caused a fountain to spring from the rock whose waters still flow abundantly down into the plain. One of his novices, a Goth by nation, working near the lake to clear its banks, struck such a great blow into the wood that the iron of his tool, detaching itself from the handle, jumped into the water without there being any way to retrieve it. The Saint came there, took the handle from the hand of his novice, put it into the lake, and immediately the iron rose of its own accord and, swimming on the water, came to put itself back into its handle. The Saint returned the tool to the novice and, having consoled him, commanded him to continue his work.

These wonders and an infinity of others made the reputation of this new Elisha fly in all directions; but the demon, whom such happy progress put into an extreme rage, undertook to disturb his rest by means of an envious man. It was an ecclesiastic named Florentius, who lived near the principal of the twelve monasteries: the on Florent Author of the ancient biography of Rusticula. e where Saint Benedict usually made his residence. This man, truly unworthy of his Order and his character, first attacked the Saint with secret slanders: "He was not as holy as he made himself out to be; he was in reality only a hypocrite and a deceiver who, under beautiful appearances of virtue, was plotting some evil design." But seeing that he was not advancing at all against his reputation with all his evil talk, he tried to take his life with a poisoned loaf, which he sent him as a mark of friendship and benevolence, just as one still sent blessed bread in the last century. The Saint thanked him very civilly, although he was not ignorant of the quality of this bread. But a raven, which he fed from his hand, having flown toward him, the Saint ordered it to take the bread and carry it to a place hidden from the sight of men; the animal did not dare to do so for fear of the poison, until the holy Abbot had assured it that it would receive no harm, because he was not commanding it to eat it, but only to carry it to an unknown place where it could harm no one. That is not all: this wretched man thought of another malice even blacker than the previous ones: he won over seven girls of ill repute and had them enter the garden of the monastery secretly to dance there without modesty and commit a thousand insolences in view of the cells of the religious. Having been unable to harm the holy Abbot, neither in his reputation by slander nor in his life by poison, he wished at least to afflict him in his children by the scandal he would give them; that was touching him in the apple of his eye. Thus the holy Father, who had not been moved by the calumnies of his persecutor nor by the attempt he had committed against his person by wanting to kill him, gave up the struggle at this point and, yielding to the storm, withdrew from this monastery with some of his disciples. But what can the malice of man do against the wisdom of God? The calumnies had dissipated, and the attempt, having been discovered, had had no effect; likewise, the victory that Florentius claimed to have won by the flight of the Saint was not of long duration; as he was amusing himself on a gallery of his dwelling, it collapsed under his feet and crushed him in its fall, the rest of the house remaining intact, just as it was before. In this regard, we do not wish to omit an act of the perfect charity of Saint Benedict: seeing that his disciple Maurus appeared joyful in informing him of the death of Florentius and in telling him that he could well return in safety, since his enemy was no longer in the world, he rebuked him sharply and imposed a severe penance upon him. On this occasion, Peter the Deacon, following Saint Gregory, exclaimed that this great man was filled with the spirit of all the Saints, since he shows the spirit of Moses, in drawing water from a rock; the spirit of Elijah, in making himself obeyed by a raven; the spirit of Elisha, in making iron swim upon the waters; the spirit of Saint Peter, in giving to Maurus, his disciple, the power to walk upon a great lake as if on solid ground; and the spirit of David, in forgiving so generously the one who sought to destroy him and in weeping bitterly for his death.

This was not the only good that God drew from the malice of the priest Florent: for Saint Benedict having absented himself, as we have said, with some of his children, God made him know that He wished to use him for the conversion of many souls, that He favored him in all that he would undertake, and would render his name and his congregation famous throughout the world. The Saint blessed God for such a favorable disposition and left with joy the rocks of Subiaco, sanctified by his penances and by so many miraculous works that he had performed there, to go where heaven called him. It was to Monte Cass ino, locate Mont-Cassin Reference monastery for the Benedictine Rule. d in the kingdom of Naples, twelve and a half leagues from Subiaco, and eighteen leagues from Rome. Two angels, in the form of young men, led him there and put him in possession of the place which, from being a bishopric, was changed into a famous abbey, head of an infinity of monasteries o f the Order founded by this glorious P Ordre fondé par ce glorieux Patriarche Religious order occupying the monastery of Honnecourt. atriarch. There were still, on this mountain and in the surroundings, as in several other provinces of Italy, some remains of paganism, among others a temple of Apollo, where this idol was honored as a God by the peasants of the region. The first thing that Saint Benedict did, after a retreat and a fast of forty days to prepare himself for the functions of the apostolate, was to overturn the altar, to break the idol into pieces, and to burn the neighboring grove, which served for the superstitions of paganism; having thus purged the temple, he changed it into an oratory to which he gave the name of Saint Martin, and built another in honor of Saint John the Baptist, at the same place where the idol of Apollo was before. He then worked, through fervent preaching, for the conversion of the people around, and not content to do it by himself, he trained his religious for such a holy ministry; and thus, as much by their means as by his great miracles and his entirely celestial life, which admirably supported his word, he made a considerable change everywhere; in a very short time, the country was rid of the superstitions and vices that Satan had sown there, and that the prelates had let grow through their negligence. Such was the origin of the famous monastery of Monte Cassino, of which the great Saint Benedict laid the first foundations in the year 529, in the forty-eighth year of his age, the third of Justinian, under the pontificate of Felix IV, Athalaric being king of the Goths in Italy.

The demon, terrified by so many glorious victories, renewed his first persecutions against the Saint. It was not at night nor in a dream that he appeared to him: he obsessed him continually under horrible figures, throwing fire from his eyes, his mouth, and his nostrils, and saying to him in fury: "Benedict! Benedict!" and as the Saint did not pretend to see or hear him, in order to show him more contempt, this enemy added: "Cursed be you, and not blessed! What have you come to do in these parts? What do you have to settle with me? Why do you take pleasure in persecuting me?" All these efforts being useless, he undertook to hinder the construction of the new monastery that the Saint was beginning to build. One day, when the brothers wanted to lift a stone to put it to work, he placed himself on it and made it so heavy that it was quite impossible to move it. They warned the Saint: he came to the place, made the sign of the cross on the stone, and the blessing had so much force that this stone passed all at once from this extreme weight to an extraordinary lightness, which meant that it was lifted without any difficulty. It is still kept at present at Monte Cassino, in memory of the miracle. Immediately after, they dug, by the order of the Saint, at the same place from which it had been pulled, and they found there a small copper idol. The religious carried it into the kitchen without any design; but there immediately appeared such a great fire that it seemed to want to consume all the offices; everyone set about extinguishing it by throwing water on it, but the Saint, having come down at the noise he heard, made them see that the flame was only imaginary, and that it was only a prestige that had deceived their sight. Another time, when the religious were working by obedience to raise a wall, the demon came into his cell, and told him brazenly that he was going to visit his workers. The good Father understood well what he meant, and sent immediately to the brothers to warn them to be on their guard. Scarcely had they received this notice, when a section of the wall fell and crushed under its ruins a small novice, a child of patrician race. This accident afflicted his confreres infinitely; they went to find their holy Abbot, and exposed to him with sighs the misfortune of this young man. He commanded that the body of the deceased be brought to him, but it was so broken that it had to be carried in a sack. He made a prayer for him with extraordinary fervor, and, scarcely had he finished it, than the dead man resurrected and returned to the same state in which he was before this accident. The Saint, to triumph more perfectly over the enemy, ordered him to return to work and to re-establish, with the others, the wall under which he had been crushed. Thus, all the artifices of the demon could not prevent him from building this house, which was to be the dwelling of so many Saints, and the head of this Order which was soon to spread throughout the world.

But this prophetic spirit appeared with much greater brilliance in the encounter he had wi th Totila, King of th Totila, roi des Goths King of the Goths who spared Rome following the intervention of Aurelian. e Goths. This prince, who was ravaging all of Italy, having heard that Benedict was a great Prophet from whom nothing could be hidden, wished to verify this by his own experience; he advanced toward his monastery and sent word for him to come in person to meet him. Before approaching, in order to better test the Saint, he had one of his squires dressed as a king, had him accompanied by his guards and the chief officers of his court, and commanded him to walk before him in this attire, to see if Benedict would be deceived by it. The squire obeyed, went as far as the monastery enclosure and to the place where the Saint was; but this great man was not moved at all by the tumult of these barbarians, and, as soon as he believed the squire could hear him, he cried out: "Put off, my son, put off these royal ornaments: they do not belong to you." At these words, this squire, who had previously been acting proud, and all those in his retinue, prostrated themselves on the ground, and, not daring to approach the Saint or speak to him, they returned to tell Totila what they had seen and heard. Totila came himself, and, having caught sight of Saint Benedict who was seated on a stool, he also threw himself to the ground without daring to advance any closer. The Saint called out to him two or three times to rise; but he had to come and raise him up himself. Then, he spoke to him with more force and freedom than the prophet Nathan had ever spoken to David, since, without using parables or fearing to offend a king who made all of Italy tremble, he reproved him for his crimes and predicted the final adventures of his life: "You do much evil," he told him: "you have done much; it is time that you put an end to your iniquities; you will enter Rome, you will cross the sea, you will reign for nine years, and in the tenth you will die." At this oracle, Totila was struck with a new fear: he urgently commended himself to the prayers of the Saint and withdrew. From that time on, he was not as cruel as he had been before. He took Rome, crossed into Sicily, and, at the end of ten years, by a just judgment of God, he lost his kingdom and his life.

The time at which he compos ed his r sa règle Monastic code of life written by Benedict. ule is not entirely certain; Saint Hildegard asserts, in her Revelations, to have learned from the Blessed Virgin that he composed it while still at Subiaco; nevertheless, it is highly probable that he retouched it since that time, and that he added several things which experience and the marvelous propagation of his Order led him to judge necessary; and it may be that the admirable light he received in the vision of which we have just spoken contributed much to its final perfection. Be that as it may, nothing can be added to the praises that the Fathers and authors who have lived since have given it. Saint Gregory the Great says that the life of Saint Benedict being entirely holy, it cannot be that his rule was not also entirely holy, because this great man prescribed no other laws than those he already gave by his examples; he adds that this rule must be placed in the rank of his miracles, and that it is especially admirable for the wisdom and discretion it maintains in all its ordinances. Various councils, held in France and Germany, have also spoken of it with great honor; and, to say it all, it was called by excellence the Holy Rule. Another Saint Benedict, founder of the abbey of Aniane, and later abbot of Inden, near Aachen, showed, through an excellent book called the Concord of Rules, that it was entirely in conformity with that of the holy Fathers who had preceded our Saint; and, since this concord, it was the rule of the entire monastic Order in Europe, the monasteries that were older than Saint Benedict having submitted to it. There are even good authors who hold that it was received everywhere before that time, that is to say before the year 817; and that the Concord which the holy abbot of Inden made was only to renew the zeal and observance, which had been extremely weakened, in many places, by the misery of wars: which we leave to be examined by learned critics. We add only that this rule spread greatly during the lifetime of the holy Patriarch; for it is thought that he brought it himself to Rome, and that it found a great number of disciples there: it is certain that he sent it to Sicily by Saint Placid, to France by Saint Maur, and to Sardinia by Saint Rayner.

It is time to come to his blessed passing. God had revealed the time to him several months before, and he had declared it to his disciple, Saint Maur, before having him leave for France. Six days before this term, having had the sepulcher opened where his sister, Saint Scholastica, slept, he was seized by a fever that tormented him extremely; it did not prevent him, however, from preparing for this final passage with all the ardor and piety that one can imagine in a man who breathed only for heaven.

On the sixth day, however weak he was, he had himself carried to the oratory consecrated to Saint John the Baptist: there, supported on the arms of his disciples, he received the body and blood of his Savior; then, placing himself at the edge of the grave, but at the foot of the altar, and with his arms extended toward heaven, he died standing while pronouncing a final prayer. It was Holy Saturday, March 21, the year of Our Lord 543: he was 62 or 63 years old.

At the moment when the holy Patriarch passed away, a religious, who was in the same monastery, and Saint Maur, who was at Font-Rouge, near Auxerre, in France, saw like a great street, covered with precious carpets and bordered by an infinity of torches, which extended into heaven, and a venerable and all-radiant man who said to them: "This is the way by which Benedict, the beloved of God, has ascended into heaven." Thus he fulfilled the promise he had made, to let his absent disciples know the blessed moment when he would go to enjoy glory. Benedict was of tall and well-proportioned stature, and in his exterior he had a gravity mixed with so much sweetness that he compelled all those who looked at him to love and respect him. His abstinence was prodigious; during Lents, he ate only twice a week and contented himself then with bread and water. Benedict lived a virgin and died a virgin. He loved solitude extremely, and although his Order spread on all sides, one hardly finds that he left Monte Cassino twice. It is that he found his delights in praying and in conversing alone with his God. His body was buried in the chapel of Saint John the Baptist, which he himself had had built and which he had destined for his burial. Our Lord did not honor him less there after his death by miracles than he had done during his life. Entire books have been written about them, which can be seen in the great libraries and in the continuators of Bollandus.

Saint Gregory paints in two words the character of the glorious patriarch of the monks of the West: he says of him, in recounting his return from Vicovaro to Subiaco, that he dwelt with himself. These words carry with them the idea of the greatest, the most sublime perfection. What is it, in effect, in the language of the Saints, to dwell with oneself? It is to join the solitude of the soul to that of the body; it is to empty one's heart of all attachment to earthly things; it is to concentrate oneself in the knowledge of God and of oneself. A man can be alone, can be enclosed in a cloister, without possessing the great art of dwelling with himself. Such are all those who, after separating themselves from the world, let their imagination wander over a thousand objects which at first dissipate them, then captivate their heart, by exciting in it a crowd of frivolous and often criminal desires. It is not enough, therefore, to put a bridle on one's tongue and to contain one's senses; one must, to be truly solitary, impose an absolute silence on all the faculties of one's soul, and possess it in a continual recollection, stopping one's thoughts only on God and on oneself, purifying one's affections and inflaming them by the contemplation of the sovereign good.

Of all the virtues, there was none that Saint Benedict inculcated more strongly the practice of than humility; he marked twelve degrees of it in his rule: 1st, to excite oneself to a lively compunction of heart, to fear God and his judgments, to walk unceasingly humbled in the divine presence; 2nd, to renounce entirely one's own will; 3rd, to obey promptly and without reserve; 4th, to support patiently sufferings and injuries; 5th, to discover humbly one's most secret thoughts to one's superior or director; 6th, to be content and to rejoice in humiliations; to take pleasure in exercising the lowest ministries, in wearing poor clothes, etc.; to love simplicity and poverty; to look upon oneself as a bad servant in all that is ordered; 7th, to esteem oneself the most miserable, the last of men, the greatest of all sinners; 8th, to avoid singularity in words and actions; 9th, to love and observe silence; 10th, to guard against vain joy and immoderate laughter; 11th, not to speak in a loud voice, and to observe the rules of modesty in all one's words; 12th, to be humble in all one's exterior actions. Saint Benedict adds that, when one has passed through these different degrees of humility, one will arrive at that perfect charity which banishes fear.

We will not recall all the attributes that, in the arts, characterize Saint Benedict: we will mention those that are more or less founded on history.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS. — ABBEY OF MONTE CASSINO.]

The monastery of Monte Cassino having been ruined by the Lombards in 583, the relics of Saint Benedict, buried under the rubble, remained unknown there for a long time. Saint Aigulphus, a monk of the abbey of Fleury, since called Saint-Benoît-sur-Loir Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire Location of the relics of Benedict in France. e, having been sent to Monte Cassino around the year 650 by Saint Monmoie, his abbot, had the good fortune to find them in the ruins and to bring them to France, to his monastery. This translation having taken place on July 11, its memory was celebrated on the same day in all the monasteries of France; and on December 4, another solemnity took place, called the Illution, in memory of a second translation of the same relics, when, having been transferred to Orleans for fear of the Normans, they were brought back to the monastery of Fleury.

The monks of Monte Cassino, in Italy, claim, against those of Fleury, in France, that they are in possession of the blessed remains of their holy Patriarch, and produce in their favor a bull of Pope Urban II, by which he pronounces anathema against those who deny that the body of Saint Benedict is at Monte Cassino; but as the most enlightened, and especially Cardinal Baronius in his Annals, have well recognized that this bull was forged, and that, moreover, the ancient tradition, confirmed by an infinity of miracles, entirely favors the monks of Fleury, we are obliged to recognize with them that it is France, and not Italy, that possesses such a great treasure. However, a small portion of the relics of Saint Benedict had to be returned to Monte Cassino, following the claims of the blessed Carionan, uncle of Charlemagne and a monk of that monastery, claims supported by Pope Saint Zachary.

Mgr Bernier, Bishop of Orleans, having visited Fleury-sur-Loire on October 15, 1803, found in the chest containing the relics of Saint Benedict: 1st, twelve bones, among which were the two femurs and several bone fragments; 2nd, several bulls of various popes, relating to these holy relics; 3rd, a manuscript book, composed by the Benedictine Sandot, intended to establish the authenticity of the relics.

The Benedictine nuns of Perpetual Adoration, in Paris, obtained, on August 3, 1810, a fragment of one of the ribs of Saint Benedict. In 1828, the Bishop of Orleans intended to send to the abbey of Solesmes, in the diocese of Le Mans, where the work of Saint Benedict was being rebuilt, the relics of the Saint kept at Fleury-sur-Loire; but the population, having learned of this project, opposed it with threats. The bishop backed down in the face of this kind of riot, and contented himself with sending to Solesmes a part of the skull, taken from the back. This distinguished relic is kept with great honor in the abbey church. The Trappists obtained, under Mgr de Beauregard, numerous fragments of the ribs of Saint Benedict. Mgr Dupanloup gave an entire rib to the abbey of Einsiedeln, and another rib to the monastery of La Pierre-qui-Vire.

To ratify and complete what we have said, according to the authors, in the note on page 573, we will give here the interesting information that Dom Albéric M. Panella, provost of the Order of Saint Benedict, at Subiaco, sent us on June 3, 1872, regarding the miraculous statue of Saint Benedict and the two monasteries of Saint Scholastica and the Holy Grotto of Subiaco:

« The marble statue representing Saint Benedict at the age of fifteen is placed in the grotto, which he inhabited for three years. This statue is not kneeling (as French travelers have said), but seated on a stone, in the attitude of contemplation. It is very true, as you believe, that a kind of sweat or manna escapes from the grotto, and even sometimes from the statue; which is regarded as the omen of imminent calamities. I will only cite a few recent dates:

« 1853, June 29 and 30, sweat in the whole grotto and on the whole statue: famine, epidemic, especially in Rome and its suburbs; earthquake, war in the East;

« 1858, oozing in the grotto on the day of Corpus Christi: war in Lombardy the following year;

« 1859, July 5, 6, and 7, oozing in the grotto, sweat on the statue: battles of Solferino and Castelblardo;

« 1860, from November 13 to June 25 of the following year, oozing in the grotto without interruption: the events of which Italy was the theater at that time are sufficiently known;

« 1870, oozing in the grotto IN THE MONTH OF MAY: War between France and Prussia, invasion of Rome;

« 1871, from the beginning of June to August 24, a drop remains suspended, without ever falling, then withdraws. This has been interpreted as the announcement of a new scourge whose effect divine mercy has suspended.

« This liquid is preserved and given to some people: one obtains extraordinary graces through its means.

« The two monasteries of Saint Scholastica and the Holy Grotto are in the following conditions: First of all, it must be known that in 1850 Pius IX called from Genoa the Abbot Father Cesaretto with a colony of young monks of a monastic reform, which this abbot had made for several years, so that he might populate these monasteries and make the ancient Observance of the Illustrious Congregation of Monte Cassino flourish there again. The thing succeeded, not without great difficulties. This reform has spread throughout Europe and even beyond. Consequently, the Holy Father permitted the drafting of proper constitutions, which were definitively approved this year, 1872. Pius IX, thus seeing the Congregation of Monte Cassino renewed and rejuvenated, distinguished it from the other by calling it the Congregation of Monte Cassino of the Strict Observance.

« The monastery of Saint Scholastica of Subiaco has become the residence of the Abbot General of this new Congregation. The Holy Grotto is frequented by a large number of pilgrims ».

Here is, on the abbey of Monte Cassino, an interesting note written by M. de Montalembert:

« The traveler who visits the abbey of Monte Cassino finds at every step the memories of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica, to which is joined that of Abondance, that happy mother, who preceded her blessed lineage in the heavens. One enters the monastery through a long and dark grotto made of pebbles, in which, according to tradition, Benedict lived. Above, one is shown the cell and the window from which the pious solitary saw the soul of his blessed sister take its flight toward heaven. In this cell, erected as a chapel, a graceful painting represents this touching episode in the life of the holy Abbot. The appearance of the brilliant basilica, and of its double courtyard at the summit of this rustic solitude of the Apennines, is marvelous. Upon entering the first of these courtyards, one immediately perceives on each side of the staircase the colossal statues of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica...

« In the middle of the first courtyard is a well: according to the traditions of the cloister, it is the symbol of that living water of Scripture, which is required in eternal life. A wide and beautiful staircase leads into the second courtyard, around which gratitude has placed the statues of the benefactors of the abbey: there live again Gregory the Great, Gregory II, Zachary, Victor III, Benedict XIII, Benedict XIV, Urban V, and Clement XI, alongside Ferdinand IV, Charles III of Bourbon, Robert Guiscard, Lothaire III, and the Illustrious Charlemagne...

« But let us enter the church; its brilliance and magnificence dazzle the eyes; marble and gold shine everywhere within its enclosure: of the three doors that correspond to the three naves, one of them, ordered in Constantinople by Desiderius in 1066, offers remarkable sculptures: one sees there in silver letters the names of the lands, castles, and villages depending on the abbey. Rich chapels, numerous paintings, among which one notices in the middle nave the Consecration of the church, by Pope Alexander II, a praised fresco by Giordano; the dome of Coronzio; the high altar, adorned with precious stones, alabaster, antique black and green, lapis lazuli, and brocatelle; finally, a superb organ case, contribute to the ornament of this magnificent temple ».

Saint Benedict is the father of this immense Benedictine family whose influences have been so great in the religious, social, and literary world. Before him, the monastic Order already existed, not only in the East, where it had cast a vivid brilliance, but even in the West, since the 5th century. With the goal of satisfying in a more vast and intelligent manner the aspirations for the cenobitic life that were manifesting themselves in the Church, Saint Benedict composed a Rule and retained, from the ancient institutes, the common celebration of the divine offices, a sermon, and severe abstinence; work, divided into manual operations and reading: but these various exercises were tempered by a discretion and wisdom that did not take long to make the new Rule received in all the monasteries of the West. This was the means that Providence used to save Christianity and civilization, so gravely compromised by the invasion of the barbarians and the forced renewal of European customs after this great event. The Benedictines were the apostles of the Anglo-Saxons, the Germans, the Slavs, the Scandinavians; they preserved the deposit of letters; they cleared forests, built cities, and one saw them simultaneously seated on the chair of Saint Peter, on the various seats of Christendom, in the council of emperors and kings.

Here is, in brief, the history of the various branches of the Institute of Saint Benedict.

Saint Benedict first founded twelve monasteries in the solitude of Subiaco, where he began his career. Later he went to Monte Cassino, where he built the famous abbey which must be considered as the center of the whole Order.

Sicily was the first region where the Rule of Saint Benedict was brought. This great patriarch sent Saint Placid there around the year 534. A few years later, Saint Maur was designated to go to France, where he arrived in 543. He built on the Loire the monastery of Glanfeuil, which has taken his name.

The new Institute spread rapidly, not only in the Gauls and in Italy, but also in Spain, throughout Germany, and the kingdom of the North.

The laxity, which had slipped into this holy institution, made a reform necessary in the 10th century. It took place in all the monasteries of France and other countries subject to Louis the Pious, by the care of this emperor and the zeal of Saint Benedict, Abbot of Aniane. The Council of Aachen, in 817, proclaimed articles of observance that gave new life to this vast body. Since that time, the internal vigor of the Benedictine Order has produced new reforms, every time that laxity has made it necessary. The first reforms themselves took the name of Orders, mainly when they began in some new monastery that produced a filiation; such are the Orders of Cluny, the Camaldolese, Vallombrosa, Grandmont, Cîteaux, etc., although these institutions are themselves, strictly speaking, only branches of the Order of Saint Benedict. The reforms that took place by the union of several already existing monasteries, which committed themselves to keeping the same constitutions and observances, took the name of Congregations, leaving the appellation of Order to the whole of the Benedictine family.

The first and most illustrious of the Reforms is the Order of Cluny. Founded in 910, it counted under its jurisdiction up to two thousand monasteries; but because of laxity, wars, nationalities, and the commendam, one saw, after three centuries, this vast power reduced to very weak proportions. It underwent a last reform that began in 1612, by the care of Dom Jacques d'Arbouze, grand prior, and took the name of Strict Observance of Cluny.

The Order of the Camaldolese was founded, under the Rule of Saint Benedict, by Saint Romuald, in 1012. Its principal seat is at the abbey of Camaldoli, in Tuscany. Dom Paul Giustiniani began a famous reform of this Congregation on Mount Corona, in 1518.

In 1036, the Order of Vallombrosa was founded by Saint John Gualbert. It has not had a reform.

In 1082, the Congregation, known by the name of Grandmontines, because of the abbey of Grandmont, near Muret, was founded, under the Rule of Saint Benedict, by Saint Stephen of Muret.

In 1098, the Order of Cîteaux was founded, which is, after that of Cluny, the most important fraction of the Benedictine family. It counts three founders: Saint Robert, Abbot of Molesmes, Saint Alberic, and Saint Stephen. Fifty years after its establishment, five hundred abbeys had already issued from it, and after a century the total number exceeded eighteen hundred. One gives the name of Daughters of Cîteaux to the four abbeys of La Ferté, Pontigny, Clairvaux, and Morimond, because they are the first of the filiation of this abbey. The principal reforms of the Order of Cîteaux are, in Spain, the Congregation of the Observance, founded in 1425, by Dom Martin de Vargas; in Tuscany and Lombardy, the Congregation called of Saint Bernard, founded in 1497; the Congregation of the Feuillants, established in France, in 1574, by Jean de la Barrière; the Strict Observance of Cîteaux, which owes its origin to Denys l'Argentier, Abbot of Clairvaux, in 1615. Then come three reforms of too minimal an extension to be counted among the Congregations. These are: Orval, reformed in 1605 by Bernard de Montgaillard; La Trappe, in 1662, by the famous Abbot de Rancé; Sept-Fonts, in 1663, by Eustache Beaufort. Since the suppression of the monastic Orders in France by the Constituent Assembly, the title of Abbot General of Cîteaux is devolved to the abbot of the monastery of Saint Bernard at the Baths, in Rome, and the various monasteries of La Trappe, established in France since 1815, are governed by the abbot of the Great Trappe, near Mortagne. Inquel, by virtue of an apostolic decree of 1835, takes the title of vicar general of the Abbot of Cîteaux.

In 1099, the Order of Fontevraud was founded by the blessed Robert of Arbrissel.

In 1102, the abbey of Tiron was founded, under the Rule of Saint Benedict, by the blessed Bernard.

In 1119, Saint William of Vercelli was preparing on Mount Vergilian, soon called Montevergine, near Naples, a new monastic institution that was to increase the number of Benedictine Congregations.

In 1156, the Williamites were founded, near Siena, by Saint William of Malavalle.

The Humiliati were founded in Milan, in the 13th century.

In 1231, Fabriano, in the March of Ancona, saw the rise of the Congregation of the Sylvestrines.

In 1254, the Order of the Celestines was founded, under the Rule of Saint Benedict, by Saint Peter of Morrone (Celestine V), in the kingdom of Naples.

In 1319, the Congregation of the Olivetans, so called because of the abbey of Monte Oliveto, near Siena, and which was the cradle of this new work, was founded by Saint Bernard Tolomei.

This last Congregation was the only one that the 14th century saw rise. The Order of Saint Benedict had weakened, and, to save the remnants, the best means was to reform the entire Order; that is why, in a famous constitution, called the Benedictine Bull, Pope Benedict XII, in 1330, promulgated regulations intended to bring back the Observance in all Benedictine monasteries. This bull divides the Order of Saint Benedict into thirty-seven provinces, and it counts in this division entire kingdoms as provinces, such as Scotland, Bohemia, Denmark, etc.

In 1408, Louis Barbo, provided to the abbey of Saint Justina of Padua by Pope Gregory XII, began, the following year, a reform that soon spread throughout Italy, to such an extent that the abbey of Monte Cassino, in 1584, requested to be itself united to this Congregation. Out of honor for the seat of Saint Benedict, the sovereign Pontiff decreed that the reform of Saint Justina would take the name of Congregation of Monte Cassino, keeping however, in second place, the title of Saint Justina of Padua. Presently, the wars that have devastated Italy for half a century, having brought about the suppression of the abbey of Saint Justina, have led the Congregation of Monte Cassino, already itself much weakened, to remove from its title the name of this same abbey.

In 1418, one saw the beginning, in the abbey of Melk, of an important Congregation that reformed all the monasteries of Austria; it owed its origin to the piety of Archduke Albert V of Austria.

In 1419, the Congregation of Bursfelde, in Germany, was founded by John of Meden. However, this Congregation was powerless to retain within itself all the abbeys that had shown themselves at first disposed to take it as their center. In the 17th century, various fractions of this body constituted themselves into Congregations. Thus, in 1602, began the Helvetic Congregation, formed of the nine abbeys of Switzerland, of which Saint Gall was the principal, and Einsiedeln the second; in 1686, Pope Innocent XI erected the nineteen monasteries of Bavaria into a Congregation under the title of the Holy Guardian Angels. Four other German Congregations were constituted, namely: that of Saint Peter, of Salzburg, formed of nine abbeys; that of Swabia, whose principal monastery was at Constance and which counted eleven abbeys; another of Swabia, different from the previous one, and whose headquarters was a monastery of Augsburg, composed of seven abbeys; finally that of Alsace and Brisgau, which had eleven.

In Spain, the Congregation of Valladolid, whose head was the monastery of Saint Benedict founded in that city in 1391, did not begin until 1490, and was not approved by Innocent VIII until 1492. This reform was in full exercise in 1493, when Ferdinand V and Isabella decreed that all Benedictine monasteries must be incorporated into it. The abbeys that did not merge into this Congregation formed the clausural or Tarragonian Congregation.

In 1488, a reform was being prepared in the abbey of Chezal-Benoît, in the diocese of Bourges. It was composed of only five abbeys and merged, in 1634, into the Congregation of Saint Maur.

In 1566, the Portuguese Congregation, erected by Pius V, counted more than twenty abbeys.

Around 1569, the Congregation of Saint Vaast, established by Dom Sarrazin, counted seven abbeys.

In 1580, the Congregation of the Exempt was formed, whose principal monasteries were Marmoutier, the Trinity of Vendôme, Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Rhodon, etc. The abbey of Saint Denis having joined it later, this Congregation changed its first name to that of Congregation of Saint Denis. The monasteries that composed it merged into that of Saint Maur.

In 1600, the Congregation called of Saint Vanne and Saint Hydulph was founded by Dom Didier de la Cour. It counted up to forty monasteries; but its greatest honor was to give birth to the Congregation of Saint Maur (1618), which counted up to one hundred and eighty monasteries. One knows what immense services the Congregation of Saint Maur rendered to historical science, as much by its research on ecclesiastical antiquity as by its labors on our national origins. Some of its members attempted to revive it in 1817; but the lack of legal authorization caused the enterprise to fail.

In 1617, the Congregation of the English Benedictines was founded by Dom Sigebert Buckley; it was able to form several houses in England.

In 1618, the Congregation of the Low Countries began with the reform of the famous abbey of Saint Hubert, in the Ardennes. It was composed of only a small number of monasteries and was destroyed by conquest at the end of the last century.

The Benedictines, in the days of Chivalry, produced valiant military Orders, such as those of the Temple (1146), Calatrava (1158), Alcantara (1177), Aviz (1204), Christ, in Portugal (1319), Montesa (1316), Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1572), Saint Stephen, in Tuscany (1561), etc.

Such is the abridged table of the principal Congregations of the Order of Saint Benedict, until the time of the violent destructions that annihilated them.

Since that fateful time, several Congregations have risen, some of which were erected by Gregory XVI. The first was founded by King Louis I of Bavaria, in his States, with the goal of propagating religious instruction there. It counts several monasteries, the principal of which is Saint Stephen of Augsburg. The second was erected by apostolic letters of September 1, 1837, under the title of Congregation of France, succeeding the Congregations of Cluny, Saint Vanne, and Saint Maur. The seat of this Congregation, whose first origin dates from 1833, is at the monastery of Solesmes, diocese of Le Mans, which has been erected into an abbey, with the right of filiation. The third was canonically re-established, in 1872, under the title of Congregation of the Celestines of the Order of Saint Benedict. The seat of this Congregation, established first at the monastery of Notre-Dame de la Duchère, in the diocese of Nantes, was transferred to the suburb of Taillebourg, at Saint-Jean-d'Angély (diocese of La Rochelle).

Besides these foundations, there is also that of the Benedictines of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in 1850, by the Rev. Father Mourd, at the monastery of La Pierre-qui-Vire, in the diocese of Sens. Very recently, the Congregation of the Olivetans has just been re-established in the diocese of Auch. A Congregation of Cistercians was formed, in 1849, in the diocese of Avignon, first at Notre-Dame de la Cavalerie, then in the ancient abbey of Sénanque. These monks devoted themselves mainly to agriculture, like the Trappists.

The number of Benedictine nuns, or religious women living under the Rule of Saint Benedict, has been immense; for, besides an infinity of monasteries of girls subject to the ordinaries, most of the Congregations of which we have spoken, up to that of the Olivetans inclusively, have produced one or more branches of religious women of their reform. There were formed, moreover, some Congregations of Benedictine girls, among which one must distinguish that of Notre-Dame du Calvaire, established, in 1617, by Antoinette of Orleans; and that of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, founded in 1653 by Catherine Mechtilde de Bar.