Saint Benedict of Nursia

In the year 480, St. Benedict of Nursia was born into a noble family in the Italian village of Nursia. He spent his early youth in Rome, but his fellow students' dissolute lives prompted him at the age of 16 to give up everything and seek salvation as a lone hermit in a hidden cave high above Subiaco. After a few years, during which he matured rapidly in mind and character, reports of his sanctity, his miracles, and his gift of directing souls attracted more and more earnest disciples. He organized these into 12 monasteries, each comprising 12 monks with its superior.

Benedict also instituted schools for the Christian education of the young. He accepted a providential donation of some land further south from the father of his pupil Placidus and, after 28 years at Subiaco, moved to Monte Cassino in 529. There, he established the great abbey, which became the motherhouse of the Benedictine Order for the reclamation and regeneration of Christian Europe. It is this achievement that led Pope Pius XII to bestow upon him the title "Father of Europe," and Pope Paul VI to declare him the "Patron Saint of all Europe" on 24 October 1964.

In contrast to the seclusion of Subiaco, the new foundation was set like a great beacon on a mountaintop halfway between Rome and Naples. Benedict's Holy Rule of 526 aimed at the moral and spiritual training of the monks according to the evangelical counsels. It gradually became the norm for all Western monasteries because of its reasonableness, moderation, and adaptability to every clime and age. It emphasized the importance of community life and complete cheerful obedience. By performing work that had always been regarded as that of serfs and by reclaiming war-devastated and abandoned land, his monks now vested manual labor with dignity. The vows comprised poverty, chastity, obedience, and the stable attachment to one monastery for life. The Benedictine monastery was not only self-supporting but also in a position to succor the poor, the sick, and the afflicted and give shelter to the stranger.

Bishops, Abbots, nobles, and simple folk came to consult the holy founder and were inspired by his quiet, dignified, balanced view and way of life. Superiors, he thought, should always endeavor to cultivate love rather than fear in their subjects. The poor found in him a sympathetic protector. St. Benedict died on 21 March 547 in his abbey church, his hands raised heavenward in prayer after receiving Holy Communion before the high altar, and was buried next to his sister, St Scholastica, in the Oratory of St John the Baptist at Cassino. Though not a priest himself, his Order has given the Church no less than 24 Popes, 4600 Bishops, and over 5,000 Saints! 

St. Benedict, obtain for us the grace to live and die as faithful children of God, be ever submissive to His holy will, and attain eternal happiness. 

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,

Most High Servant,

Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed  and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)