Wisdom of Saints: St Benedict of Nursia

Feast of Benedict, Abbot of Monte Cassino, Italy, c. 540

O ALMIGHTY God, who willest to be glorified in thy Saints, and didst raise up thy servant Benedict to shine as a light in the world: Shine, we pray thee, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth thy praises, who hast called us out of darkness into thy marvellous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St Benedict of Nursia is considered to be the founder of monasticism in the Christian West. St Benedict founded the Benedictine Order in the 6th century, setting the tone for Western monasticism, and creating an enduring tradition which remains popular throughout the West to this day. A good deal is known about his life from the Dialogues of Pope St Gregory the Great.

St Benedict was born in Nursia, Italy. The son of a Roman noble, St Benedict moved with his family to Rome where he received his education. Around the age of twenty, he became convinced of the need to abandon the lifestyle he was growing into in Rome, and which he saw among his companions. Instead, he turned to the Gospels and sought to dedicate his life exclusively to God. Ultimately this led him to leave Rome, not to take the hermit’s path, but rather to find somewhere away from the temptations and sin on display in the Roman capital. After a brief period living in a small town 30 miles from Rome with a servant he had brought with him. There his first recorded miracle took place, as he miraculously restored a piece of earthenware his servant had accidentally broken. As news of this miracle spread, he grained significant notoriety throughout the town. This attention on him eventually convinced him to take the hermit’s path, and he moved to a cave in some nearby mountains where he lived a more ascetic lifestyle for the next three years, supported only by the abbot Romanus who had a monastery near St Benedict’s cave.

Even in seclusion, he earned a reputation for his pious asceticism and devotion to God. This eventually led to him being asked to become the abbot for a nearby monastery at Vicovaro. He ultimately agreed and went with them for a time. He attempted to impose a more rigid discipline on the monastery emulating his own more ascetic lifestyle, but soon after the monastery’s monks came to regret their invitation to St Benedict to lead them. They found it difficult to follow his strict rules, and ultimately attempted to poison him. Although they failed, St Benedict realised that his tenure as leader was not working out and he returned to his cave.

He began to earn a reputation as a miracle worker, and the number of recorded miracles attributed to him in this period are many. This attracted followers in sufficient numbers to establish twelve new monasteries in the region. In 530 he began construction of his own personal monastery at Monte Cassino in a site where he had previously destroyed a pagan temple to Apollo. In these monasteries, he began working on the development of his Rule which would be used to organize the monastic communities he had established.

The Rule he developed was based on the use of common sense, moderate asceticism, prayer, study of the Scriptures and the saints, work and a life lived in community in obedience, stability (the Rule provided for a regular daily schedule of work, prayer and rest) and the use of the Divine Offices.

He remained the Abbot at Monte Cassino until his death, but has been immortalised by his Rule.

The Rule of St Benedict is the surviving record of the Rule of Life monks in his monasteries were required to live by, but far beyond sketching out the life of a secluded monk, they are an excellent guide to the mink of pious Christian living. In the Book of Common Prayer, after the Catechism is a supplementary instruction section, at the end of which is this exhortation:

Every Christian man or woman should from time to time frame for himself a RULE OF LIFE in accordance with the precepts of the Gospel and the faith and order of the Church; wherein he may consider the following:
The regularity of his attendance at public worship and especially at the holy Communion.
The practice of private prayer, Bible-reading, and self-discipline.
Bringing the teaching and example of Christ into his everyday life.
The boldness of his spoken witness to his faith in Christ.
His personal service to the Church and the community.
The offering of money according to his means for the support of the work of the Church at home and overseas. (BCP, 555)

This exhortation contains within it a framework for a Rule of Life wholly consistent with the Rule of St Benedict.

The first suggestion is regular attendance to public worship, especially to receive the Holy Eucharist. For St Benedict’s monks, this was not necessarily possible as most monks (including St Benedict himself) were nor ordained and could not themselves celebrate the Eucharist. They were still required to attend Sunday mass and receive communion, but all monks were required to communally pray the Daily Offices. St Benedict explains why:

We believe that the divine presence is everywhere and that “the eyes of the Lord are looking on the good and the evil in every place” (Prov. 15:3). But we should believe this especially without any doubt when we are assisting at the Work of God... Let us therefore consider how we ought to conduct ourselves in sight of the Godhead and of His Angels, and let us take part in the psalmody in such a way that our mind may be in harmony with our voice. (RoB, Ch. XIX)

The second area the BCP encourages the creation of a Rule is in prayer, reading of Scripture and self-discipline. The Rule of Benedict requires prayer multiple times a day. In the first chapter it describes the character of a good monk as a person of prayer, “And first of all, whatever good work you begin to do, beg of Him with most earnest prayer to perfect it, that He who has now deigned to count us among His children may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds.” Similarly, Scripture was read constantly. Included in the Rule was the provision that no meal should go without Scripture reading, and therefore the monks were to establish a schedule for a regular rotation of readers. The only interruption allowed would be if the Superior of the monastery wanted to briefly interrupt the reading to explain part of it. Finally, self-discipline was at the core of the Rule, which provided for poverty of monks, limits on food and clothing to avoid becoming too ostentatious (historically, some monks maintained lavish lifestyles despite vows of poverty because their monasteries became rich and the fine clothes and food the monks enjoyed technically belonged to the monastery itself and did not violate their personal vows of poverty).

The remaining four suggestions in the BCP are all related. Living a Christ-like life, speaking the Word of God boldly (in the way Christ taught), offering service to the Church and community (again in the model of Christ), offering money according to your means, as Christ taught. In the Rule of Benedict, there are a number of requirements that relate to these particular aspects of the Christian life. Chapter 4 of the Rule provides for a list of 61 “instruments of Good Works.” These include various instructions of Christ, including the Beatitudes, a summary of the Decalogue, and other rules related to the asceticism prescribed by St Benedict.

St Benedict’s rule remains in common use throughout the Western world by Christian monastics, but it also provides a guide for a Rule of Life for any Christian.