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July 11, 2010 revised
For the Feast of St. Benedict*

by Sister Meg Funk

Introduction:

Our Rule is compelling and more than instructive. It is a transmission. We can become Benedictines by following the spirit and directives of the Rule.

We also know something of the 6th C. Benedict of Norcia thanks to St. Gregory the Great. We can imitate his saintly life. While we have no personal autobiographical writings from Benedict like we do of St. Augustine, we have the meaning and significance of Benedict like we have of Jesus, thanks to the New Testament communities and evangelists.

Many other orders east and west have an official biography of their founder so that they not only have a Rule, but a Life to imitate, such as The Life of Augustine, Basil, Francis, Teresa, John of the Cross, or even the Lives of the Desert Elders are handed down to us for our benefit.

Pope Gregory immortalizes St. Benedict in his book, Life and Miracles of St. Benedict. Even though this is a specific literary genre we can learn much from this hagiographical text.

Perhaps we can imitate Benedict in each of his three stages of life:

A student in Rome, awake and discerning
A student in solitude, awake and discerning
An Abbot in community, awake and discerning

First stage:

As a student in Rome this young man sent by his distinguished parents of Norcia came to Rome to do a classical liberal education (mathematics, grammar, rhetoric, astronomy, literature). Most likely today we’d say he was being trained to become an attorney or political leader. Trade and crafts would have had a different curriculum, not liberal arts (training in being).



Benedict was awake, he noticed his peer students were abandoning themselves to vice and worldliness. Benedict feared that what he was learning toward was eternal ruin. “He wanted to please God alone,” in the words of St. Gregory.

He discerned (sorted through and concluded) to turn his back on further studies, give up home and inheritance and resolve to embrace the religious life. “He took this step, fully aware of his ignorance; yet he was truly wise, uneducated though he may have been” (Ch.1 p.2).

Benedict abandoned his studies and went into solitude, accompanied only by his nurse, who loved him dearly.

Second stage:

Renouncing his former way of life as a student he went to Affile and stayed near the Church of St. Peter (35 miles east of Rome).

Awake to the sorrow of his maid who accidentally broke a valuable dish he prayed, even to the point of tears, and mended the dish.

He was given public praise beyond his humility so he discerned that he’d prefer to suffer ill treatment from the world rather than enjoy its praises. He wanted to spend himself laboring for God, not to be honored by the applause of men.

So he fled to Subiaco (equi-distant from Rome 35 miles) and was clothed by Romanus.

He lived in a narrow cave for three years tended by the monk Romanus who lived under the rule of Abbot Deodatus. During Easter of third year a priest came to break his fast. After several trials both internal and external Benedict passed the discerning period of solitude and trained into living a live toward God rather than self or evil.



He was sought out to be abbot of Vicovaro 20 miles down the mountain. These wayward monks would not submit to obedience and tried to poison Benedict who said, “Did I not tell you at the outset that my way was not yours? Go and find yourselves an abbot to your liking. It is impossible for me to stay here any longer.”

Then he went back to the wilderness he loved, to live alone with himself in the presence of his heavenly Father.

Benedict sorted himself out from the Roman students, from the adulating town and now sorted himself out from the crowd of unfaithful monks. Awake and discerning was he! He came to himself!

Third stage:

Awake to his vocation Benedict established in Subicao a monastery system of twelve monks in each with a dean as head.

He gained a reputation for miracles, conversions and political influence for peace during very dark times in Italy. Like Moses finding running water (Exod 17.1-7; Num 20:1:11), or like Eliseus with the iron blade that rose from the bottom of the lake (4 Kings 6.4-7). The walking on the water recalls St. Peter (Matt 14:28-29), the obedience of the raven is like Elias (3Kings 17:6), and finally the grief at the death of an enemy is like David (2 Kings 1:11-12; 18:33).

Benedict was filled with the spirit of all the just.

After Subiaco he founded another system of coenobitic monasticism at Monte Cassino where the entire community lived in one structure that is the model written about in the Rule.

And he was known for his discernment:

Gregory wrote, “Holy men do know the Lord’s thoughts, Peter, in so far as they are one with Him. Benedict interpreted God for his monks and those who came to seek spiritual direction from him” (p. 40). 



The only one who bested Benedict was his twin sister who insisted Benedict stay in holy colloquy and what he would not do by grace he was forced to do by nature when a storm kept him into the night in holy conversation with Scholastica.



To depart from the edifying stories and commentary of St. Gregory we know from our study of the Rule of Benedict that his discernment goes beyond him and his saintly life. The Rule is a transmission of that great gift from the Holy Spirit mediated by Benedict to us.

Conclusion:



Three periods of Benedict’s life:

*A student who renounced his former way of life
*A hermit who preferred solitude to premature notoriety
*An Abbot who renounced being led by wicked monks and founded a middle way for a community of monastics who seek God under an abbot and under a Rule.



We have different times but the same story of phases in our life to renounce and follow, renounce and follow. The method requires that we are awake and discern God’s Call over and over again. It seems that leaders, especially those of Church and religious life, ought not jump from being an academic student to being an abbot without the school of solitude.

Nor should a student finish the original course work as there might be a more important degree for one’s life’s work. And finally being called by members to be a leader is a dangerous method of appointment. We must be in our own skin, yes and the take off our sandals before the burning bush.

When we rise we renounce and follow because we are awake and discerning.

Christ is our center, our only one, yet we do this seeking in common. Community is shared faith that God alone satisfies our heart's desire.

*Life and Miracles of St. Benedict. Book Two of the Dialogues by Pope Gregory the Great. Translated by odo J. Zimmermann and Benedict R. Avery. Liturgical Press: Collegeville MN 
ISBN 0-8146-0321-1