21 MARCH – SAINT BENEDICT OF NORCIA (Abbot)

Benedict was born of a noble family at Norcia. He was sent to Rome that he might receive a liberal education, but not long after he withdrew to a place called Subiaco and there hid himself in a very deep cave, that he might give himself entirely to Jesus Christ. He passed three years in that retirement, unknown to all save to a monk named Romanus, who supplied him with the necessaries of life. The devil having one day excited him to a violent temptation of impurity, he rolled himself amid prickly brambles and extinguished within himself the desire of carnal pleasure by the pain he thus endured. The fame of his sanctity, however, became known beyond the limits of his hiding-place and certain monks put themselves under his guidance. He sharply rebuked them for their wicked lives, which rebuke so irritated them that they resolved to put poison in his drink. Having made the sign of the Cross over the cup as they proffered it to him, it broke and he, leaving that monastery, returned to his solitude.

But whereas many daily came to Benedict, beseeching him to take them as his disciples, he built twelve monasteries and drew up the most admirable rules for their government. He afterwards went to Monte Cassino, where he destroyed an image of Apollo which was still adored in those parts. And having pulled down the altar and burnt the groves, he built a chapel in that same place in honour of Saint Martin, and another in honour of Saint John. He instructed the inhabitants in the Christian religion. Day by day did Benedict advance in the grace of God and he also foretold, in a spirit of prophecy, what was to take place. Totila, the King of the Goths, having heard of this and being anxious to know if it were the truth, went to visit him but first sent his sword-bearer who was to pretend that he was the king and who, for this end, was dressed in royal robes and accompanied by attendants. As soon as Benedict saw him, he said: “Put off, my son, put off this dress, for it is not yours.” But he foretold to Totila that he would reach Rome, cross the sea, and die at the end of nine years.

Several months before Benedict departed from this life, he foretold to his disciples the day on which he should die. Six days previous to his death he ordered them to open the sepulchre in which he wished to be buried. On the sixth day, he desired to be carried to the church, and there having received the Eucharist with his eyes raised in prayer towards Heaven, and held up by his disciples, he breathed forth his soul. Two monks saw it ascending to Heaven, adorned with a most precious robe and surrounded by shining lights. They also saw a most beautiful and venerable man who stood above the saint’s head, and they heard him thus speak: “This is the way by which Benedict, the beloved of the Lord, ascended to Heaven.”

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Forty days after the white dove of Cassino had mounted to Heaven, Benedict, her glorious brother, ascended by a bright path to the blissful abode where they were to be united forever. Both of them reached the heavenly country during that portion of the year which corresponds with the holy Season of Lent. It frequently happens, however, that Saint Scholastica’s feast is kept before Lent has begun whereas Saint Benedict’s day, the twenty-first of March, always comes during the Season of penance. God who is the Sovereign Master of time willed that the faithful, while practising their exercises of penance, should always have before their eyes a Saint whose example and intercession should inspire them with courage.

With what profound veneration ought we not to celebrate the festival of this wonderful Saint who, as Saint Gregory says, “was filled with the spirit of all the Just!” If we consider his virtues, we find nothing superior in the annals of perfection presented to our admiration by the Church. Love of God and man, humility, the gift of prayer, dominion over the passions, form him into a masterpiece of the grace of the Holy Ghost. Miracles seem to constitute his life: he cures the sick, commands the elements, casts out devils and raises the dead to life. The spirit of prophecy unfolds futurity to him and the most intimate thoughts of men are not too distant for the eye of his mind to scan. These superhuman qualifications are heightened by a sweet majesty, a serene gravity and a tender charity which shine in every page of his wonderful Life, and it is one of his holiest children who wrote it —Saint Gregory the Great. It is this holy Pope and Doctor who had the honour of telling posterity all the wonders which God vouchsafed to work in His servant Benedict.

Yes, posterity had a right to know the life and virtues of a man whose salutary influence on the Church and society has been so observable during the ages of the Christian era. To describe the influence exercised by the spirit of Saint Benedict we should have to transcribe the annals of all the nations of the Western Church from the seventh century down to our own times. Benedict is the Father of Europe. By his Benedictines, numerous as the stars of Heaven and as the sands of the sea-shore, he rescued the last remnants of Roman vigour from the total annihilation threatened by the invasion of Barbarians. He presided over the establishment of the public and private laws of those nations which grew out of the ruins of the Roman Empire. He carried the Gospel and civilisation into England, Germany and the Northern countries, including Sclavonia. He taught agriculture. He put an end to slavery. And to conclude, he saved the precious deposit of the arts and sciences from the tempest which would have swept them from the world and would have left mankind a prey to a gloomy and fatal ignorance.

And Benedict did all this by that little book which we call his “Rule.” This admirable code of Christian perfection and prudence disciplined the countless legions of Religious by whom the Holy Patriarch achieved all these prodigies. During the ages which preceded the promulgation of this “Rule” — so wonderful in its simple eloquence —the monastic life in the Western Church had produced some few saintly men. But there was nothing to justify the hope that this kind of life would become, even more than it had been in the East, the principal means of the Christian regeneration and civilisation of so many nations. This “Rule” once written — and all others gradually give place to it, as the stars are eclipsed when the sun has risen. The West was peopled with monasteries, and from these monasteries flowed upon Europe all those blessings which have made it the privileged quarter of the globe.

An incredible number of Saints, both men and women, who look up to Benedict as their father purify and sanctify the world which had not yet emerged from the state of semi-barbarism. A long series of Popes who had once been Novices in the Benedictine cloister preside over the destinies of this new world and form for it a new legislation which, being based exclusively on the moral law, is to avert the threatening prevalence of brutal despotism.

Bishops innumerable, trained in the same school of Benedict, consolidate this moral legislation in the provinces and cities over which they are appointed. The Apostles of twenty barbarous nations confront their fierce and savage tribes and, with the Gospel in one hand, and the “Rule” of their Holy Father in the other, lead them into the fold of Christ. For many centuries the learned men, the Doctors of the Church and the instructors of youth, belong, almost exclusively, to the Order of the great Patriarch who, by the labours of his children, pour forth on the people the purest beauty of light and truth.

This choir of heroes in every virtue, of Popes, of Bishops, of Apostles, of holy Doctors, proclaiming themselves as his disciples and joining with the universal Church in glorifying that God whose holiness and power shine forth so brightly in the life and actions of Benedict, what a corona, what an aureola of glory for one Saint to have!

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O Benedict! Vessel of Election! Palm of the Wilderness! Angel of Earth! We offer you the salutation of our love! What man was ever chosen to work on the Earth more wonders than you have done! The Saviour has crowned you as one of His principal co-operators in the work of the salvation and sanctification of men. Who could count the millions of souls who owe their eternal happiness to you, your immortal Rule having sanctified them in the cloister, and the zeal of your Benedictines having been the means of their knowing and serving the great God, who chose you? Around you, in the realms of glory, a countless number of the Blessed acknowledge themselves indebted to you, after God, for their eternal happiness. And upon the Earth whole nations profess the true faith because the Gospel was first preached to them by your disciples.

Father of so many people, look down on your inheritance and once more bless this ungrateful Europe which owes everything to you, yet has almost forgotten your name! The light which your children imparted to it has become dimmed. The warmth they imparted to the societies they founded and civilised by the Cross, has grown cold. Thorns have covered a large portion of the land in which they sowed the seed of salvation. Come and forward your own work. And by your prayers keep in its expiring life. Give firmness to what has been shaken. May a new Europe — a Catholic Europe — spring up in place of that which heresy and false doctrines have formed. Patriarch of the Servants of God, look down from Heaven on the vineyard which your hand has planted and see into what a state of desolation it has fallen. There was a time when your name was honoured as that of a Father in thirty thousand monasteries from the shores of the Baltic to the borders of Syria, and from the green Erin to the steppes of Poland. Now, alas, few and feeble are the prayers that ascend to you from the whole of that immense patrimony which the faith and gratitude of the people had once consecrated to you. The blight of heresy and the rapaciousness of avarice have robbed you of these harvests of your glory. The work of sacrilegious spoliation is now centuries old and unceasingly has it been pursued. At one time, having recourse to open violence, and at another, pleading the urgency of political interests. Sainted Father of our Faith, you have been robbed of those thousands of sanctuaries which, for long ages, were fountains of life and light to the people. The race of your children has become almost extinct: watch over them that still remain, and are labouring to perpetuate your Rule. An ancient tradition tells us how our Lord revealed to you that your Order would last to the end of the world, and that your children would console the Church of Rome and confirm the faith of many in the last great trials. Deign to protect, by your powerful intercession, the remnants of that Family which still calls you its Father. Raise it up again. Multiply it. Sanctify it: let the Spirit which you have deposited in your Holy Rule flourish in its midst, and show, by thus blessing it, that you are ever “Benedict,” the servant of God.

Support the Holy Church by your powerful intercession, dear Father! Assist the Apostolic See which has been so often occupied by disciples of your School. Father of so many Pastors of your people, obtain for us Bishops like those sainted ones whom your Rule has formed. Father of so many Apostles! Ask for the countries which have no faith preachers of the Gospel who may convert the people by their blood and by their words, as did those who went out missionaries from your cloisters. Father of so many holy Doctors, pray that the science of sacred literature may revive to aid the Church and confound error. Father of so many sublime Ascetics, rekindle the zeal of Christian perfection which has grown so cold among the Christians of our days. Patriarch of the Religious Life in the Western Church, bless all the Religious Orders which the Holy Spirit has given successively to the Church. They all look on you with admiration as their venerable predecessor. Pour out upon them the influence of your fatherly love.

Lastly, Blessed favourite of God, pray for all the Faithful of Christ during these days which are consecrated to thoughts and works of penance. It was in the midst of the holy austerities of Lent that you mounted to the abode of everlasting delight. Help us Christians who are, at this very time, in the same campaign of penance. Rouse our courage by your example and precepts. Teach us to keep down the flesh and subject it to the spirit, as you did. Obtain for us a little of your blessed spirit, that turning away from this vain world, we may think on the eternal years. Pray for us that our hearts may never love, nor our thoughts ever dwell, on joys so fleeting as are those of time.

Catholic piety invokes you as one of the patrons, as well as one of the models, of a dying Christian. It loves to tell men of the sublime spectacle you presented at your death when standing at the foot of the altar, leaning on the arms of your disciples and barely touching the earth with your feet, you gave back, in submission and confidence, your soul to its Creator. Obtain for us, dear Saint, a death courageous and sweet as was yours. Drive from us, at our last hour, the cruel enemy who will seek to ensnare us. Visit us by your presence, and leave us not till we have breathed forth our soul into the bosom of the God who has made you so glorious a Saint.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria, under the emperor Constantine and the governor Philagrius, the commemoration of the holy martyrs who were attacked and murdered by the Arians and the Gentiles while they were in church on Good Friday.

The same day, the holy martyrs Philemon and Domninus.

At Catania, St. Birillus, who was consecrated bishop by the blessed Apostle St. Peter. After converting many Gentiles to the faith, in extreme old age he rested in peace.

At Alexandria, blessed Serapion, anchoret and bishop of Thmuis, a man of great virtue, who being forced into exile by the enraged Arians, went to heaven.

In the territory of Lyons, the abbot St. Lupicinus whose life was resplendent with the lustre of holiness and miracles.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.