Saint Benoît
Benoît de Nursie, patriarche des moines d'Occident (+ v. 547)
C'était un jeune noble de Nursie en Ombrie. A 15 ans, on l'envoie à Rome faire ses études, accompagné de sa nourrice. Rome est terrible aux âmes pures : tentations charnelles, tentations intellectuelles et politiques.
Benoît s'enfuit, car c'est "Dieu seul" qu'il cherche et il ne veut pas courir le risque de le perdre. Il aboutit à une caverne de Subiaco où un ermite accepte de lui servir de guide dans sa quête de Dieu. Benoît y médite de la meilleure façon de vivre pour trouver Dieu. Mais il est difficile de passer inaperçu quand on rayonne de sainteté.
Les moines d'un monastère voisin l'invitent à devenir leur Père abbé. Bien mal leur en a pris : il veut les sanctifier et les réformer. Ils en sont décontenancés et tentent de l'empoisonner.
Il retourne à sa caverne de Subiaco où des disciples mieux intentionnés viennent le rejoindre. Il les organise en prieuré et c'est ainsi que va naître la Règle bénédictine. La jalousie d'un prêtre les en chasse, lui et ses frères, et ils se réfugient au Mont-Cassin qui deviendra le premier monastère bénédictin.
Il y mourra la même année que sa soeur sainte Scholastique. Emportées au Moyen Age d'une manière assez frauduleuse, leurs reliques sont désormais sur les bords de la Loire, à Fleury sur Loire, devenu Saint Benoît sur Loire-45730.
Saint patron de l'Europe: "Messager de paix, fondateur de la vie monastique en Occident...
Lui et ses fils avec la Croix, le livre et la charrue, apporteront le progrès chrétien aux populations s'étendant de la Méditerranée à la Scandinavie, de l'Irlande aux plaines de Pologne" (Paul VI 1964)
Père du monachisme, patron de l'Europe: La catéchèse le 9 avril 2008 a été consacrée à la figure de saint Benoît de Nursie, "le père du monachisme occidental, dont la vie et les oeuvres imprimèrent un mouvement fondamental à la civilisation et à la culture occidentale. La source principale pour approcher la vie de Benoît est le second livre des Dialogues de saint Grégoire le grand, qui présente le moine comme un astre brillant indiquant comment sortir "de la nuit ténébreuse de l'histoire", d'une crise des valeurs et des institutions découlant de la fin de l'empire romain. Son œuvre et la règle bénédictine ont exercé une influence fondamentale pendant des siècles dans le développement de la civilisation et de la culture en occident, bien au-delà de son pays et de son temps. Après la fin de l'unité politique il favorisa la naissance d'une nouvelle Europe, spirituelle et culturelle, unie par la foi chrétienne commune aux peuples du continent".
"Benoît naquit vers 480 dans une famille aisée qui l'envoya étudier à Rome. Mais avant de les avoir terminées, il gagna une communauté monastique dans les Abruzzes. Trois ans plus tard il gagnait une grotte de Subiaco dans laquelle il vécut isolé trois ans... résistant aux habituelles tentations humaines comme l'auto-affirmation de soi et le nombrilisme, la sensualité, la colère et la vengeance. Sa conviction -a précisé le Saint-Père- était que seul après avoir dominé ces épreuves" il aurait été en mesure d'aider autrui. En 529, Benoît fonda l'ordre monastique qui porte son nom et se transporta à Montecassino, site élevé et visible de loin. "Selon saint Grégoire, ce choix symbolique voulait dire que si la vie monastique trouve sa raison d'être dans l'isolement, le monastère a également une fonction publique dans la vie de l'Église comme de la société".
Toute l'existence de Benoît de Nursie, a dit le Pape, "est imprégnée de la prière, qui fut le fondement de son œuvre, car sans elle il n'y a pas expérience de Dieu. Son intériorité n'était cependant pas détachée de la réalité et, dans l'inquiétude et la confusion de son temps, Benoît vivait sous le regard de Dieu, tourné vers lui, tout en étant attentif aux devoirs quotidiens envers les besoins concrets des gens". Il mourut en 547 et sa règle donne des conseils qui, au-delà des moines, sont utiles pour qui chemine vers Dieu. "Par sa mesure, son humanité et son clair discernement entre l'essentiel et le secondaire en matière spirituelle, ce texte reste éclairant jusqu'à nos jours".
En 1964 Paul VI fit de Benoît le saint patron de l'Europe, de ce continent qui, profondément blessé car "à peine sorti de deux guerres et de deux idéologies tragiques, était à la recherche d'une nouvelle identité. Pour forger une nouvelle unité stable les moyens politiques, économiques et juridiques sont importants. Mais il faut trouver un renouveau éthique et spirituel tiré des racines chrétiennes de l'Europe. Sans cette lymphe vitale, l'homme reste exposé au danger de succomber à la vieille tentation de se racheter tout seul...ce qui est que la vielle utopie du XXe siècle européen...qui a provoqué un recul sans précédent dans une histoire humaine déjà tourmentée". (Source: VIS 080409 540)
L'église abbatiale de Fleury a pris le vocable de St-Benoît lorsque les reliques du Saint furent ramenées du Mont Cassin en 703. La première en France a avoir suivi la règle de St-Benoît. (diocèse d'Orléans)
(…)
Mémoire (en Europe: Fête) de saint Benoît, abbé. Né à Nursie en Ombrie, après des études à Rome, il commença par vivre en ermite à Subiaco, rassembla autour de lui de nombreux disciples, puis s’établit au Mont-Cassin, où il fonda un monastère célèbre et composa une Règle, qui se répandit dans toutes les régions, au point qu’il mérite d’être appelé patriarche des moines d’Occident. La tradition place sa mort le 21 mars 547, mais dès le VIIIe siècle, on a célébré sa mémoire en ce jour.
Martyrologe romain
Quand tu entreprends une bonne action, demande lui par une très instante prière qu’il la parachève. Alors celui qui a daigné nous compter au nombre de ses fils n’aura pas un jour à s’attrister de nos mauvaises actions.
Règle de saint Benoît - Prologue
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1483/Saint-Benoit.html
Benediktusmedaille
von Desiderius Lenz, Mönch im Kloster Beuron, geschaffen zum 1400.
Geburtsjubiläum von Benedikt im Jahre 1880, im Auftrag gegeben von Erzabt
Nikolaus d'Orgement vom Montecassino - heute die am weitestens verbreitete Form
der Benediktusmedaille.
Benedict
depicted on a Jubilee Saint Benedict Medal for the 1,400th
anniversary of his birth in 1880
Saint Benoît, abbé
Benoît naquit à Norcia (Ombrie). Après avoir étudié à Rome, il se retira dans une grotte de Subiaco, « ne préférant rien à l'amour de Dieu ». Des disciples vinrent à lui. Mais, au bout d'un certain temps, Benoît dut quitter Subiaco et s'établir avec eux au Mont-Cassin. C'est là qu'il écrivit sa Règle monastique et mérita d'être appelé le Patriarche des moines d'Occident. Il y mourut vers 547. L'œuvre évangélisatrice et culturelle des bénédictins qui façonnèrent l'Europe au Moyen-Age lui valut encore d'être choisi par le pape Paul VI pour être le premier patron de l'Europe. Il est aussi le nom que choisit le cardinal Ratzinger lors de son élection au Siège de Pierre en 2005.
_-_Sacristy_-_triptych_by_Giovanni_Bellini_-_Saint_Benedict_of_Nursia_and_Saint_Mark.jpg)
Giovanni
Bellini, Triptych Madonna and Child. Benedict of Nursia and Saint Mark the Evangelist Oil on panel
1488. Size: 2.75 x 2.50, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari,
Sacristy
Giovanni Bellini, Triptyque Vierge à
l'Enfant. Benoît de Nursie et Marc l’évangéliste . Huile sur panneaux
de bois 1488, 2,75 x 2,50, Basilique Santa Maria
Gloriosa dei Frari, Sacristie
Giovanni Bellini, Trittico Madonna col
Bambino . Benedetto da Norcia e Marco Evangelista Olio su pannelli di legno
1488, 2.75 x 2.50, Basilica di Santa Maria
Gloriosa dei Frari, Sacrestia
SAINT BENOÎT
Père des Moines
d'Occident
(480-543)
Benoît naquit dans une
petite ville des montagnes de l'Ombrie, d'une des plus illustres familles de ce
pays. Le Pape saint Grégoire assure que le nom de Benoît lui fut
providentiellement donné comme gage des bénédictions célestes dont il devait
être comblé.
Craignant la contagion du
monde, il résolut, à l'âge de quatorze ans, de s'enfuir dans un désert pour
s'abandonner entièrement au service de Dieu. Il parvint au désert de Subiaco, à
quarante milles de Rome, sans savoir comment il y subsisterait; mais Dieu y
pourvut par le moyen d'un pieux moine nommé Romain, qui se chargea de lui faire
parvenir sa frugale provision de chaque jour.
Le jeune solitaire excita
bientôt par sa vertu la rage de Satan; celui-ci apparut sous la forme d'un
merle et l'obséda d'une si terrible tentation de la chair, que Benoît fut un
instant porté à abandonner sa retraite; mais, la grâce prenant le dessus, il
chassa le démon d'un signe de la Croix et alla se rouler nu sur un buisson
d'épines, tout près de sa grotte sauvage. Le sang qu'il versa affaiblit son
corps et guérit son âme pour toujours. Le buisson s'est changé en un rosier
qu'on voit encore aujourd'hui: de ce buisson, de ce rosier est sorti l'arbre
immense de l'Ordre bénédictin, qui a couvert le monde.
Les combats de Benoît
n'étaient point finis. Des moines du voisinage l'avaient choisi pour maître
malgré lui; bientôt ils cherchèrent à se débarrasser de lui par le poison; le
saint bénit la coupe, qui se brisa, à la grande confusion des coupables.
Cependant il était dans
l'ordre de la Providence que Benoît devînt le Père d'un grand peuple de moines,
et il ne put se soustraire à cette mission; de nombreux monastères se fondèrent
sous sa direction, se multiplièrent bientôt par toute l'Europe et devinrent une
pépinière inépuisable d'évêques, de papes et de saints.
Parmi ses innombrables
miracles, citons les deux suivants: Un de ses moines avait, en travaillant,
laissé tomber le fer de sa hache dans la rivière; Benoît prit le manche de
bois, le jeta sur l'eau, et le fer, remontant à la surface, revint prendre sa
place. Une autre fois, cédant aux importunes prières d'un père qui le
sollicitait de ressusciter son fils, Benoît se couche sur l'enfant et dit:
"Seigneur, ne regardez pas mes péchés, mais la foi de cet homme!"
Aussitôt l'enfant s'agite et va se jeter dans les bras paternels.
La médaille de saint
Benoît est très efficace contre toutes sortes de maux. On l'emploie avec un
grand succès pour la guérison et la conservation des animaux.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_benoit.html
Saint
Benoît donnant sa règle à son disciple saint Maur
St.
Benedict delivering his Rule to St. Maurus and other monks of his order. France,
Monastery of St. Gilles, Nimes, 1129
Saint Benoît de Nursie
Chers frères et sœurs,
Je voudrais parler aujourd'hui de saint Benoît, fondateur du monachisme
occidental, et aussi Patron de mon pontificat. Je commence par une parole de
saint Grégoire le Grand, qui écrit à propos de saint Benoît: "L'homme de
Dieu qui brilla sur cette terre par de si nombreux miracles, ne brilla pas
moins par l'éloquence avec laquelle il sut exposer sa doctrine" (Dial. II,
36). Telles sont les paroles que ce grand Pape écrivit en l'an 592; le saint
moine était mort à peine 50 ans auparavant et il était encore vivant dans la
mémoire des personnes et en particulier dans le florissant Ordre religieux
qu'il avait fondé. Saint Benoît de Nursie, par sa vie et par son œuvre, a
exercé une influence fondamentale sur le développement de la civilisation et de
la culture européenne. La source la plus importante à propos de la vie de ce
saint est le deuxième livre des Dialogues de saint Grégoire le Grand. Il ne
s'agit pas d'une biographie au sens classique. Selon les idées de son temps, il
voulut illustrer à travers l'exemple d'un homme concret - précisément saint
Benoît - l'ascension au sommet de la contemplation, qui peut être réalisée par
celui qui s'abandonne à Dieu. Il nous donne donc un modèle de la vie humaine
comme ascension vers le sommet de la perfection. Saint Grégoire le Grand
raconte également dans ce livre des Dialogues de nombreux miracles accomplis
par le saint, et ici aussi il ne veut pas raconter simplement quelque chose
d'étrange, mais démontrer comment Dieu, en admonestant, en aidant et aussi en
punissant, intervient dans les situations concrètes de la vie de l'homme. Il
veut démontrer que Dieu n'est pas une hypothèse lointaine placée à l'origine du
monde, mais qu'il est présent dans la vie de l'homme, de tout homme.
Cette perspective du "biographe" s'explique également à la lumière du
contexte général de son époque: entre le V et le VI siècle, le monde était
bouleversé par une terrible crise des valeurs et des institutions, causée par
la chute de l'Empire romain, par l'invasion des nouveaux peuples et par la
décadence des mœurs. En présentant saint Benoît comme un "astre
lumineux", Grégoire voulait indiquer dans cette situation terrible,
précisément ici dans cette ville de Rome, l'issue de la "nuit obscure de
l'histoire" (Jean-Paul II, Insegnamenti, II/1, 1979, p. 1158). De fait,
l'œuvre du saint et, en particulier, sa Règle se révélèrent détentrices d'un
authentique ferment spirituel qui transforma le visage de l'Europe au cours des
siècles, bien au-delà des frontières de sa patrie et de son temps, suscitant
après la chute de l'unité politique créée par l'empire romain une nouvelle
unité spirituelle et culturelle, celle de la foi chrétienne partagée par les
peuples du continent. C'est précisément ainsi qu'est née la réalité que nous
appelons "Europe".
La naissance de saint Benoît se situe autour de l'an 480. Il provenait, comme
le dit saint Grégoire, "ex provincia Nursiae" - de la région de la
Nursie. Ses parents, qui étaient aisés, l'envoyèrent suivre des études à Rome
pour sa formation. Il ne s'arrêta cependant pas longtemps dans la Ville
éternelle. Comme explication, pleinement crédible, Grégoire mentionne le fait
que le jeune Benoît était écoeuré par le style de vie d'un grand nombre de ses
compagnons d'étude, qui vivaient de manière dissolue, et qu'il ne voulait pas
tomber dans les mêmes erreurs. Il voulait ne plaire qu'à Dieu seul; "soli
Deo placere desiderans" (II Dial. Prol. 1). Ainsi, avant même la
conclusion de ses études, Benoît quitta Rome et se retira dans la solitude des
montagnes à l'est de Rome. Après un premier séjour dans le village d'Effide
(aujourd'hui Affile), où il s'associa pendant un certain temps à une
"communauté religieuse" de moines, il devint ermite dans la proche
Subiaco. Il vécut là pendant trois ans complètement seul dans une grotte qui,
depuis le Haut Moyen-âge, constitue le "coeur" d'un monastère
bénédictin appelé "Sacro Speco". La période à Subiaco, une période de
solitude avec Dieu, fut un temps de maturation pour Benoît. Il dut supporter et
surmonter en ce lieu les trois tentations fondamentales de chaque être humain:
la tentation de l'affirmation personnelle et du désir de se placer lui-même au
centre, la tentation de la sensualité et, enfin, la tentation de la colère et
de la vengeance. Benoît était en effet convaincu que ce n'était qu'après avoir
vaincu ces tentations qu'il aurait pu adresser aux autres une parole pouvant
être utile à leur situation de besoin. Et ainsi, son âme désormais pacifiée
était en mesure de contrôler pleinement les pulsions du "moi" pour
être un créateur de paix autour de lui. Ce n'est qu'alors qu'il décida de
fonder ses premiers monastères dans la vallée de l'Anio, près de Subiaco.
En l'an 529, Benoît quitta Subiaco pour s'installer à Montecassino. Certains
ont expliqué ce déplacement comme une fuite face aux intrigues d'un
ecclésiastique local envieux. Mais cette tentative d'explication s'est révélée
peu convaincante, car la mort soudaine de ce dernier n'incita pas Benoît à
revenir (II Dial. 8). En réalité, cette décision s'imposa à lui car il était
entré dans une nouvelle phase de sa maturation intérieure et de son expérience
monastique. Selon Grégoire le Grand, l'exode de la lointaine vallée de l'Anio
vers le Mont Cassio - une hauteur qui, dominant la vaste plaine environnante,
est visible de loin - revêt un caractère symbolique: la vie monastique cachée a
sa raison d'être, mais un monastère possède également une finalité publique
dans la vie de l'Eglise et de la société, il doit donner de la visibilité à la
foi comme force de vie. De fait, lorsque Benoît conclut sa vie terrestre le 21
mars 547, il laissa avec sa Règle et avec la famille bénédictine qu'il avait
fondée un patrimoine qui a porté des fruits dans le monde entier jusqu'à
aujourd'hui.
Dans tout le deuxième livre des Dialogues, Grégoire nous montre la façon dont
la vie de saint Benoît était plongée dans une atmosphère de prière, fondement
central de son existence. Sans prière l'expérience de Dieu n'existe pas. Mais
la spiritualité de Benoît n'était pas une intériorité en dehors de la réalité.
Dans la tourmente et la confusion de son temps, il vivait sous le regard de
Dieu et ne perdit ainsi jamais de vue les devoirs de la vie quotidienne et
l'homme avec ses besoins concrets. En voyant Dieu, il comprit la réalité de
l'homme et sa mission. Dans sa Règle, il qualifie la vie monastique
d'"école du service du Seigneur" (Prol. 45) et il demande à ses
moines de "ne rien placer avant l'Œuvre de Dieu [c'est-à-dire l'Office
divin ou la Liturgie des Heures]" (43, 3). Il souligne cependant que la
prière est en premier lieu un acte d'écoute (Prol. 9-11), qui doit ensuite se
traduire par l'action concrète. "Le Seigneur attend que nous répondions
chaque jour par les faits à ses saints enseignements", affirme-t-il (Prol.
35). Ainsi, la vie du moine devient une symbiose féconde entre action et
contemplation "afin que Dieu soit glorifié en tout" (57, 9). En
opposition avec une réalisation personnelle facile et égocentrique, aujourd'hui
souvent exaltée, l'engagement premier et incontournable du disciple de saint
Benoît est la recherche sincère de Dieu (58, 7) sur la voie tracée par le
Christ humble et obéissant (5, 13), ne devant rien placer avant l'amour pour
celui-ci (4, 21; 72, 11) et c'est précisément ainsi, au service de l'autre,
qu'il devient un homme du service et de la paix. Dans l'exercice de
l'obéissance mise en acte avec une foi animée par l'amour (5, 2), le moine
conquiert l'humilité (5, 1), à laquelle la Règle consacre un chapitre entier
(7). De cette manière, l'homme devient toujours plus conforme au Christ et
atteint la véritable réalisation personnelle comme créature à l'image et à la
ressemblance de Dieu.
A l'obéissance du disciple doit correspondre la sagesse de l'Abbé, qui dans le
monastère remplit "les fonctions du Christ" (2, 2; 63, 13). Sa
figure, définie en particulier dans le deuxième chapitre de la Règle, avec ses
qualités de beauté spirituelle et d'engagement exigeant, peut-être considérée
comme un autoportrait de Benoît, car - comme l'écrit Grégoire le Grand -
"le saint ne put en aucune manière enseigner différemment de la façon dont
il vécut" (Dial. II, 36). L'Abbé doit être à la fois un père tendre et
également un maître sévère (2, 24), un véritable éducateur. Inflexible contre
les vices, il est cependant appelé à imiter en particulier la tendresse du Bon
Pasteur (27, 8), à "aider plutôt qu'à dominer" (64, 8), à
"accentuer davantage à travers les faits qu'à travers les paroles tout ce
qui est bon et saint" et à "illustrer les commandements divins par
son exemple" (2, 12). Pour être en mesure de décider de manière
responsable, l'Abbé doit aussi être un personne qui écoute "le conseil de
ses frères" (3, 2), car "souvent Dieu révèle au plus jeune la
solution la meilleure" (3, 3). Cette disposition rend étonnamment moderne
une Règle écrite il y a presque quinze siècles! Un homme de responsabilité
publique, même à une petite échelle, doit toujours être également un homme qui
sait écouter et qui sait apprendre de ce qu'il écoute.
Benoît qualifie la Règle de "Règle minimale tracée uniquement pour le
début" (73, 8); en réalité, celle-ci offre cependant des indications
utiles non seulement aux moines, mais également à tous ceux qui cherchent un
guide sur leur chemin vers Dieu. En raison de sa mesure, de son humanité et de
son sobre discernement entre ce qui est essentiel et secondaire dans la vie
spirituelle, elle a pu conserver sa force illuminatrice jusqu'à aujourd'hui.
Paul VI, en proclamant saint Benoît Patron de l'Europe le 24 octobre 1964,
voulut reconnaître l'œuvre merveilleuse accomplie par le saint à travers la
Règle pour la formation de la civilisation et de la culture européenne.
Aujourd'hui, l'Europe - à peine sortie d'un siècle profondément blessé par deux
guerres mondiales et après l'effondrement des grandes idéologies qui se sont révélées
de tragiques utopies - est à la recherche de sa propre identité. Pour créer une
unité nouvelle et durable, les instruments politiques, économiques et
juridiques sont assurément importants, mais il faut également susciter un
renouveau éthique et spirituel qui puise aux racines chrétiennes du continent,
autrement on ne peut pas reconstruire l'Europe. Sans cette sève vitale, l'homme
reste exposé au danger de succomber à l'antique tentation de vouloir se
racheter tout seul - une utopie qui, de différentes manières, a causé dans
l'Europe du XX siècle, comme l'a remarqué le Pape Jean-Paul II, "un recul
sans précédent dans l'histoire tourmentée de l'humanité" (Insegnamenti,
XIII/1, 1990, p. 58). En recherchant le vrai progrès, nous écoutons encore
aujourd'hui la Règle de saint Benoît comme une lumière pour notre chemin. Le
grand moine demeure un véritable maître à l'école de qui nous pouvons apprendre
l'art de vivre le véritable humanisme.
* * *
Je suis heureux de vous accueillir chers pèlerins francophones. Je salue en
particulier le groupe de la Vallée de l’Andelle dans le diocèse d’Évreux ainsi
que les jeunes venus notamment de Neuilly, de Rueil-Malmaison et de Pontivy. A
l’exemple de saint Benoît, donnez une place importante à la prière et à la
contemplation du visage du Christ ressuscité présent et agissant dans votre
vie! Bon temps pascal!
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
LETTRE ENCYCLIQUE
FULGENS RADIATUR (*)
DE S. S. PIE XII
À L’OCCASION DU 14ème
CENTENAIRE DE
LA MORT DE SAINT BENOÎT
Vénérables Frères,
Salut et Bénédiction Apostolique.
Rayonnant comme un astre dans les ténèbres de la nuit, Benoît de Nursie honore
non seulement l’Italie, mais l’Eglise tout entière. Celui qui observe sa vie
illustre et étudie sur les documents authentiques l’époque ténébreuse et
trouble qui fut la sienne, éprouve sans aucun doute la vérité des divines
paroles par lesquelles le Christ promit à ses Apôtres et à la société fondée
par lui : « Je serai avec vous tous les jours jusqu’à la fin des siècles. » (Mt
28, 20). Certainement à aucune époque, ces paroles et cette promesse ne perdent
de leur force, mais elles se réalisent au cours de tous les siècles, qui sont
entre les mains de la divine Providence. Davantage, quand les ennemis du nom
chrétien l’attaquent avec plus de fureur, quand la barque portant le sort de
Pierre est agitée par des bourrasques plus violentes, quand tout semble aller à
la dérive et que ne luit plus aucun espoir de secours humain, voici qu’alors
apparaît le Christ, garant, consolateur, pourvoyeur de force surnaturelle, par
laquelle il excite ses nouveaux athlètes à défendre le monde catholique, à le
renouveler, et à lui susciter, avec l’inspiration et le secours de la grâce
divine, des progrès toujours plus étendus.
Parmi eux resplendit d’une vive lumière notre Saint « Benoît » « qui l’est et
de grâce et de nom » (1), et qui par une disposition spéciale de la divine
Providence, se dresse au milieu des ténèbres du siècle, à l’heure où se
trouvaient très gravement compromises les conditions d’existence, non seulement
de l’Eglise, mais de toute la civilisation politique et humaine. L’Empire
romain, qui était parvenu au faîte d’une si grande gloire et qui s’était
aggloméré tant de peuples, de races et de nations grâce à la sage modération et
à l’équité de son droit, de telle sorte qu’on « aurait pu l’appeler avec plus
de vérité un patronat sur le monde entier qu’un Empire » (2), désormais, comme toutes
les choses terrestres, en était venu à son déclin ; car, affaibli et corrompu à
l’intérieur, ébranlé sur ses frontières par les invasions barbares, se ruant du
septentrion, il avait été écrasé dans les régions occidentales, sous ses ruines
immenses.
Dans une si violente tempête et au milieu de tant de remous, d’où vint luire
l’espérance sur la communauté des hommes, d’où se levèrent pour elle le secours
et la défense capables de la sauver du naufrage, elle-même et quelques restes à
tout le moins de ses biens ? Justement de l’Eglise catholique. Les entreprises
de ce monde, en effet, et toutes les institutions de l’homme, l’une après
l’autre au cours des âges, s’accroissent, atteignent à leur sommet, et puis de
leur propre poids, déclinent, tombent et disparaissent ; au contraire la
communauté fondée par notre divin Rédempteur, tient de lui la prérogative d’une
vie supérieure et d’une force indéfectible ; ainsi entretenue et soutenue par
lui, elle surmonte victorieusement les injures des temps, des événements et des
hommes, au point de faire surgir de leurs disgrâces et de leurs ruines une ère
nouvelle et plus heureuse en même temps qu’elle crée et élève dans la doctrine
chrétienne et dans le sens chrétien une nouvelle société de citoyens, de
peuples et de nations. Or il Nous plaît, Vénérables Frères, de rappeler
brièvement et à grands traits dans cette Encyclique la part que prit Benoît à
l’œuvre de cette restauration et de ce renouveau, l’année même, à ce qu’il
semble, du quatorzième centenaire, depuis le jour où, ayant achevé ses
innombrables travaux pour la gloire de Dieu et le salut des hommes, il changea
l’exil de cette terre pour la patrie du ciel.
I. La figure historique de saint Benoît
« Né de noble race dans la province de Nursie » (3), Benoît « fut rempli de
l’esprit de tous les justes » (4), et il soutint merveilleusement le monde
chrétien par sa vertu, sa prudence et sa sagesse. Car, tandis que le siècle
s’était vieilli dans le vice, que l’Italie et l’Europe offraient l’affreux
spectacle d’un champ de bataille pour les peuples en conflit, et que les
institutions monastiques, elle-mêmes, souillées par la poussière de ce monde,
étaient moins fortes qu’il n’aurait fallu pour résister aux attraits de la
corruption et les repousser, Benoît, par son action et sa sainteté éclatantes,
témoigna de l’éternelle jeunesse de l’Eglise, restaura par la parole et par
l’exemple la discipline des mœurs, et entoura d’un rempart de lois plus
efficaces et plus sanctifiantes la vie religieuse des cloîtres. Plus encore :
par lui-même et par ses disciples, il fit passer les peuplades barbares d’un
genre de vie sauvage à une culture humaine et chrétienne, et les convertissant
à la vertu, au travail, aux occupations pacifiques des arts et des lettres, il
les unit entre eux par les liens des relations sociales et de la charité
fraternelle.
Dès sa prime jeunesse, il se rend à Rome, pour s’occuper de l’étude des
sciences libérales (5) ; mais, à sa très grande tristesse, il se rend compte
que des hérésies et des erreurs de toute sorte s’insinuent, les trompant et les
déformant, en beaucoup d’esprits ; il voit les mœurs privées et publiques
tomber en décadence, un grand nombre de jeunes surtout, mondains et efféminés,
se vautrer lamentablement dans la fange des voluptés ; si bien qu’avec raison
on pouvait affirmer de la société romaine : « Elle meurt et elle rit. C’est
pourquoi, dans toutes les parties du monde, des larmes suivent nos rires » (6).
Cependant Benoît, prévenu par la grâce de Dieu, « ne s’adonna à aucun de ces plaisirs,…
mais, voyant beaucoup de ses compagnons côtoyer les abîmes du vice et y tomber,
il retira le pied qu’il y avait posé presque dès son entrée dans le monde...
Renonçant aux études littéraires, il quitta la maison paternelle et tous ses
biens, ne désirant plaire désormais qu’à Dieu, et il chercha une sainte manière
de vivre » (7). Il dit un cordial adieu aux commodités de la vie et aux appâts
d’un monde corrompu, de même qu’à l’attrait de la fortune et aux emplois
honorables auxquels son âge mûr pouvait prétendre. Quittant Rome, il se retira
dans des régions boisées et solitaires où il lui serait loisible de vaquer à la
contemplation des réalités surnaturelles. Il gagna ainsi Subiaco, où
s’enfermant dans une étroite caverne, il commença à mener une vie plus divine
qu’humaine.
Caché avec le Christ en Dieu (Cf. Col 3, 3), il s’efforça très efficacement
durant trois ans à poursuivre cette perfection évangélique et cette sainteté
auxquelles il se sentait appelé par une inspiration divine. Fuir tout ce qui est
terrestre pour n’aspirer de toutes ses forces qu’à ce qui est céleste ;
converser jour et nuit avec Dieu, et Lui adresser de ferventes prières pour son
salut et celui du prochain ; réprimer et maîtriser le corps par une
mortification volontaire ; réfréner et dominer les mouvements désordonnés des
sens : telle fut sa règle. Dans cette manière de vivre et d’agir, il goûtait
une si douce suavité intérieure qu’il prenait en suprême dégoût les richesses
et commodités de la terre et en oubliait même les charmes qu’il avait éprouvés
jadis. Un jour que l’ennemi du genre humain le tourmentait des plus violents
aiguillons de la concupiscence, Benoît, âme noble et forte, résista sur le
champ avec toute l’énergie de sa volonté ; et se jetant au milieu des ronces et
des orties, il éteignit par leurs piqûres volontaires le feu qui le brûlait au
dedans ; sorti de la sorte vainqueur de lui-même, il fut en récompense confirmé
dans la grâce divine. « Depuis lors, comme il le raconta plus tard à ses
disciples, la tentation impure fut si domptée en lui qu’il n’éprouvât plus rien
de semblable... Libre ainsi du penchant au vice, il devint désormais à bon
droit maître de vertus » (8).
Renfermé dans la grotte de Subiaco durant ce long espace de vie obscure et
solitaire, Notre Saint se confirma et s’aguerrit dans l’exercice de la sainteté
; il jeta ces solides fondements de la perfection chrétienne sur lesquels il
lui serait permis d’élever par la suite un édifice d’une prodigieuse hauteur.
Comme vous le savez bien, Vénérables Frères, les œuvres d’un saint zèle et d’un
saint apostolat restent sans aucun doute vaines et infructueuses si elles ne
partent pas d’un cœur riche en ces ressources chrétiennes, grâce auxquelles les
entreprises humaines peuvent, avec le secours divin, tendre sans dévier à la
gloire de Dieu et au salut des âmes. De cette vérité Benoît avait une intime et
profonde conviction ; c’est pourquoi, avant d’entreprendre la réalisation et
l’achèvement de ces grandioses projets auxquels il se sentait appelé par le
souffle de l’Esprit Saint, il s’efforça de tout son pouvoir, et il demanda à
Dieu par d’instantes prières, de reproduire excellemment en lui ce type de
sainteté, composé selon l’intégrité de la doctrine évangélique, qu’il désirait
enseigner aux autres.
Mais la renommée de son extraordinaire sainteté se répandait dans les environs,
et elle augmentait de jour en jour. Aussi non seulement les moines qui
demeuraient à proximité voulurent se mettre sous sa direction, mais une foule
d’habitants eux-mêmes commencèrent à venir en groupes auprès de lui, désireux
d’entendre sa douce voix, d’admirer son exceptionnelle vertu et de voir ces
miracles que par un privilège de Dieu il opérait assez souvent. Bien plus,
cette vive lumière qui rayonnait de la grotte obscure de Subiaco, se propagea
si loin qu’elle parvint en de lointaines régions. Aussi « nobles et personnes
religieuses de la ville de Rome commencèrent à venir à lui, et ils lui
donnaient leurs fils à élever pour le Tout-Puissant » (9).
Notre Saint comprit alors que le temps fixé par le décret de Dieu était venu de
fonder un ordre religieux, et de le conformer à tout prix à la perfection
évangélique. Cette œuvre débuta sous les plus heureux auspices. Beaucoup, en
effet, « furent rassemblés par lui en ce lieu pour le service du Dieu
Tout-Puissant..., si bien qu’il put, avec l’aide du Tout-Puissant Seigneur
Jésus-Christ, y construire douze monastères, à chacun desquels il assigna douze
moines sous des supérieurs désignés ; il en retint quelques-uns avec lui, ceux
qu’il jugea devoir être formés en sa présence » (10).
Toutefois, au moment où, — comme Nous l’avons dit ,— l’initiative procédait
heureusement, où elle commençait à produire d’abondants fruits de salut et en
promettait plus encore pour l’avenir, Notre Saint, avec une immense tristesse
dans l’âme, vit se lever sur les moissons grandissantes une noire tempête,
soulevée par une jalousie aiguë et entretenue par des désirs d’ambition
terrestre. Benoît était guidé par une prudence non humaine, mais divine ; pour
que cette haine, qui s’était déchaînée surtout contre lui, ne tournât point,
par malheur, au dommage de ses fils, « il céda le pas à l’envie ; mit ordre à
tous les lieux de prière construits par lui, en remplaçant les supérieurs et en
ajoutant de nouveaux frères ; puis, ayant pris avec lui quelques moines, il
changea l’endroit de sa résidence » (11). C’est pourquoi, se fiant à Dieu et
sûr de son très efficace secours, il s’en alla vers le sud, et s’établit dans
la localité « appelée Mont Cassin, au flanc d’une haute montagne... ; sur
l’emplacement d’un très ancien temple, où un peuple ignorant et rustique
vénérait Apollon à la manière des vieux païens. Tout à l’entour, des bois
consacrés au culte des démons avaient grandi, et, à cette époque encore, une
multitude insensée d’infidèles s’y livrait à des sacrifices sacrilèges. A peine
arrivé l’homme de Dieu brisa l’idole, renversa l’autel, incendia les bosquets
sacrés ; sur le temple même d’Apollon il édifia la chapelle du Bienheureux
Martin, et là où se trouvait l’autel du même Apollon il construisit l’oratoire
de S. Jean ; enfin, par sa continuelle prédication, il convertit à la foi les
populations qui habitaient aux environs » (12).
Le Mont-Cassin, tout le monde le sait, a été la demeure principale du S.
Patriarche et le principal théâtre de sa vertu et de sa sainteté. Des sommets
de ce mont, quand presque de toutes parts les ténèbres de l’ignorance et des
vices se propageaient dans un effort pour tout recouvrir et pour tout ruiner,
resplendit une lumière nouvelle qui, alimentée par les enseignements et la
civilisation des peuples anciens, et surtout échauffée par la doctrine
chrétienne ; éclaira les peuples et les nations qui erraient à l’aventure, les
rappela et les dirigea vers la vérité et le droit chemin. Si bien qu’on peut
affirmer à bon droit que le saint monastère édifié là devint le refuge et la
forteresse des plus hautes sciences et de toutes les vertus, et en ces temps
troublés « comme le soutien de l’Eglise et le rempart de la foi » (13).
C’est là que Benoît porta l’institution monastique à ce genre de perfection,
auquel depuis longtemps il s’était efforcé par ses prières, ses méditations et
ses expériences. Tel semble bien être, en effet, le rôle spécial et essentiel à
lui confié par la divine Providence : non pas tant apporter de l’Orient en
Occident l’idéal de la vie monastique, que l’harmoniser et l’adapter avec
bonheur au tempérament, aux besoins et aux habitudes des peuples de l’Italie et
de toute l’Europe. Par ses soins donc, à la sereine doctrine ascétique qui
florissait dans les monastères de l’Orient, se joignit la pratique d’une
incessante activité, permettant de « communiquer à autrui les vérités
contemplées » (14), et, non seulement de rendre fertiles des terres incultes,
mais de produire par les fatigues de l’apostolat des fruits spirituels. Ce que
la vie solitaire avait d’âpre, d’inadapté à tous et même parfois de dangereux
pour certains, il l’adoucit et le tempéra par la communauté fraternelle de la
famille bénédictine, où, successivement adonnée à la prière, au travail, aux
études sacrées et profanes, la douce tranquillité de l’existence ne connaît
cependant ni oisiveté ni dégoût ; où l’action et le travail, loin de fatiguer
l’esprit et l’âme, de les dissiper et de les absorber en futilités, les
rassérènent plutôt, les fortifient et les élèvent aux choses du ciel. Ni excès
de rigueur, en effet, dans la discipline, ni excès de sévérité dans les
mortifications, mais avant tout l’amour de Dieu et une charité fraternellement
dévouée envers tous : voilà ce qui est ordonné. Si tant est que Benoît «
équilibra sa règle de manière que les forts désirent faire davantage et que les
faibles ne soient pas rebutés par son austérité... Il s’appliquait à régir les
siens par l’amour plutôt qu’à les dominer par la crainte » (15). Prévenu,
certain jour, qu’un anachorète s’était lié avec des chaînes et enfermé dans une
caverne, pour ne plus pouvoir retourner au péché et à la vie du siècle, il le
réprimanda doucement en disant : « Si tu es un serviteur de Dieu, ce n’est pas
une chaîne de fer, mais la chaîne du Christ qui doit te retenir » (16).
C’est ainsi qu’aux coutumes et préceptes propres à la vie érémitique, qui la
plupart du temps n’étaient pas nettement fixés et codifiés, mais dépendaient
souvent du caprice du supérieur, succéda la règle monastique de S. Benoît, chef
d’œuvre de la sagesse romaine et chrétienne, où les droits, les devoirs et les
offices des moines sont tempérés par la bonté et la charité évangéliques, et
qui a eu et a encore tant d’efficacité pour stimuler un grand nombre à la
poursuite de la vertu et de la sainteté.
Dans cette règle bénédictine, la prudence se joint à la simplicité, l’humilité
chrétienne s’associe au courage généreux ; la douceur tempère la sévérité et
une saine liberté ennoblit la nécessaire obéissance. En elle, la correction
conserve toute sa vigueur, mais l’indulgence et la bonté l’agrémentent de
suavité ; les préceptes gardent toute leur fermeté, mais l’obéissance donne
repos aux esprits et paix aux âmes ; le silence plaît par sa gravité, mais la
conversation s’orne d’une douce grâce ; enfin l’exercice de l’autorité ne
manque pas de force, mais la faiblesse ne manque pas de soutien (17).
Il n’y a donc pas à s’étonner que tous les gens sensés d’aujourd’hui exaltent
de leurs louanges la « règle monastique écrite par S. Benoît, règle fort
remarquable par sa discrétion et par la lumineuse clarté de son expression »
(18) ; et il Nous plaît d’en souligner ici et d’en dégager les traits
essentiels, avec la confiance que Nous ferons œuvre agréable et utile non
seulement à la nombreuse famille du S. Patriarche, mais à tout le clergé et à
tout le peuple chrétien.
La communauté monastique est constituée et organisée à l’image d’une maison
chrétienne, dont l’abbé, ou cénobiarche, comme un père de famille, a le
gouvernement, et tous doivent dépendre entièrement de sa paternelle autorité. «
Nous jugeons expédient — écrit S. Benoît — pour la sauvegarde de la paix et de
la charité, que le gouvernement du monastère dépende de la volonté de l’abbé »
(19). Aussi tous et chacun doivent-ils lui obéir très fidèlement par obligation
de conscience (20), voir et respecter en lui l’autorité divine elle-même.
Toutefois que celui qui, en fonction de la charge reçue, entreprend de diriger
les âmes des moines et de les stimuler à la perfection de la vie évangélique,
se souvienne et médite avec grand soin qu’il devra un jour en rendre compte au
Juge suprême (21) ; qu’il se comporte donc, dans cette très lourde charge, de
manière à mériter une juste récompense « quand se fera la reddition des comptes
au terrible jugement de Dieu » (22). En outre, toutes les fois que des affaires
de plus grande importance devront être traitées dans son monastère, qu’il
rassemble tous ses moines, qu’il écoute leurs avis librement exposés et qu’il
en fasse un sérieux examen avant d’en venir à la décision qui lui paraîtra la
meilleure (23).
Dès les débuts pourtant, une grave difficulté et une épineuse question furent
soulevées, à propos de la réception ou du renvoi des candidats à la vie
monastique. En effet, des hommes de toute origine, de tout pays, de toute
condition sociale accouraient dans les monastères pour y être admis : Romains
et barbares, hommes libres et esclaves, vainqueurs et vaincus, beaucoup de
nobles patriciens et d’humbles plébéiens. C’est avec magnanimité et délicatesse
fraternelle que Benoît résolut heureusement ce problème ; « car, dit-il,
esclaves ou hommes libres, nous sommes tous un dans le Christ, et sous le même
Seigneur nous servons à égalité dans sa milice... Que la charité soit donc la
même en tous ; qu’une même discipline s’exerce pour tous selon leurs mérites »
(24). A tous ceux qui ont embrassé son Institut, il ordonne que « tout soit
commun pour l’avantage de tous » (25), non par force ou contrainte en quelque
sorte, mais spontanément et avec une volonté généreuse. Que tous en outre
soient maintenus dans l’enceinte du monastère par la stabilité de la vie
religieuse, de telle façon pourtant qu’ils vaquent non seulement à la prière et
à l’étude,(26) mais aussi à la culture des champs (27), aux métiers manuels
(28) et enfin aux saints travaux de l’apostolat. Car « l’oisiveté est l’ennemie
de l’âme ; c’est pourquoi à des heures déterminées les frères doivent être
occupés au travail des mains... » (29). Toutefois que, pour tous, le premier
devoir, celui qu’ils doivent s’efforcer de remplir avec le plus de diligence et
de soin, soit de ne rien faire passer avant l’office divin (« opus Dei ») (30).
Car bien que « nous sachions que Dieu est présent partout... nous devons
cependant le croire sans la plus minime hésitation quand nous assistons à
l’office divin... Réfléchissons donc sur la manière qu’il convient de nous
tenir en présence de Dieu et des anges, et psalmodions de façon que notre
esprit s’harmonise avec notre voix. » (31)
Par ces normes et maximes plus importantes, qu’il Nous a paru bon de déguster
pour ainsi dire dans la Règle bénédictine, il est facile de discerner et
d’apprécier non seulement la prudence de cette règle monastique, son
opportunité et sa merveilleuse correspondance et accord avec la nature de
l’homme, mais aussi son importance et son extrême élévation. Car, dans ce
siècle barbare et turbulent, la culture des champs, les arts mécaniques et
industriels, l’étude des sciences sacrées et profanes, étaient totalement
dépréciés et malheureusement délaissés de tous ; dans les monastères
bénédictins, au contraire, alla sans cesse croissante une foule presque
innombrable d’agriculteurs, d’artisans et de savants qui, chacun selon ses
talents, parvinrent, non seulement à conserver intactes les productions de
l’antique sagesse, mais à pacifier de nouveau, à unir et à occuper activement
des peuples vieux et jeunes souvent en guerre entre eux ; et ils réussirent à
les faire passer de la barbarie renaissante, des haines dévastatrices et des
rapines à des habitudes de politesse humaine et chrétienne, à l’endurance dans
le travail, à la lumière de la vérité et à la reprise des relations normales
entre nations, s’inspirant de la sagesse et de la charité.
Mais ce n’est pas tout ; car, dans l’Institut de la vie Bénédictine,
l’essentiel est que tous, autant les travailleurs manuels qu’intellectuels,
aient à cœur et s’efforcent le plus possible d’avoir l’âme continuellement
tournée vers le Christ, et brûlant de sa très parfaite charité. En effet, les
biens de ce monde, même tous rassemblés, ne peuvent rassasier l’âme humaine que
Dieu a créée pour le chercher lui-même ; mais ils ont bien plutôt reçu de leur
Auteur la mission de nous mouvoir et de nous convertir, comme par paliers
successifs, jusqu’à sa possession. C’est pourquoi il est tout d’abord
indispensable que « rien ne soit préféré à l’amour du Christ » (32), « que rien
ne soit estimé de plus haut prix que le Christ » (33) ; « qu’absolument rien ne
soit préféré au Christ, qui nous conduit à la vie éternelle ». (34)
A cet ardent amour du Divin Rédempteur doit correspondre l’amour des hommes,
que nous devons tous embrasser comme des frères, et aider de toute façon. C’est
pourquoi, à l’encontre des haines et des rivalités qui dressent et opposent les
hommes les uns aux autres ; des rapines, des meurtres et des innombrables maux
et misères, conséquences de cette trouble agitation de gens et de choses,
Benoît recommande aux siens ces très saintes lois : « Qu’on montre les soins
les plus empressés dans l’hospitalité, spécialement à l’égard des pauvres et
des pèlerins, car c’est le Christ que l’on accueille davantage en eux » (35). «
Que tous les hôtes qui nous arrivent soient accueillis comme le Christ, car
c’est Lui qui dira un jour : J’ai été étranger, et vous m’avez accueilli »
(36). « Avant tout et par-dessus tout, que l’on ait soin des malades, afin de
les servir comme le Christ lui-même, car il a dit : J’étais malade, et vous
m’avez visité » (37).
Inspiré et emporté de la sorte par un amour très parfait de Dieu et du
prochain, Benoît conduisit son entreprise à bonne fin, jusqu’à la perfection.
Et quand tressaillant de joie et rempli de mérites, il aspirait déjà les brises
célestes de l’éternelle félicité et en goûtait à l’avance les douceurs, « le
sixième jour avant sa mort..., il fit creuser sa tombe. Consumé bientôt de
fièvre, il commença à ressentir l’ardente brûlure du feu intérieur ; et comme
la maladie s’aggravait de plus en plus, le sixième jour il se fit porter par
ses disciples à l’église ; là il se pourvut, pour l’ultime voyage, de la
réception du Corps et du Sang du Seigneur, et entre les bras de ses fils qui
soutenaient ses membres déficients, les mains levées vers le ciel, il se tint
immobile et, en murmurant encore des paroles de prière, il rendit le dernier
soupir » (38).
II. Bienfaits de S. Benoît et de son Ordre pour l’Eglise et la Civilisation
Lorsque, par une pieuse mort, le très saint Patriarche se fut envolé au ciel,
l’ordre de moines qu’il avait fondé, loin de tomber en décadence, sembla bien
plutôt, non seulement conduit, nourri et façonné à chaque instant par ses
vivants exemples, mais encore maintenu et fortifié par son céleste patronage,
au point de connaître d’année en année de plus larges développements.
Avec quelle force et efficacité l’Ordre bénédictin exerça son heureuse
influence au temps de sa première fondation, que de nombreux et grands services
il rendit aux siècles suivants, tous ceux-là doivent le reconnaître, qui
discernent et apprécient sainement les événements humains, non selon des idées
préconçues, mais au témoignage de l’histoire. Car, outre que, nous l’avons dit,
les moines Bénédictins furent presque les seuls, en des siècles ténébreux, au
milieu d’une telle ignorance des hommes et de si grandes ruines matérielles, à
garder intacts les savants manuscrits et les richesses des belles lettres, à
les transcrire très soigneusement et à les commenter, ils furent encore des
tout premiers à cultiver les arts, les sciences, l’enseignement, et à les
promouvoir de toutes leurs industries. De la sorte, ainsi que l’Eglise
catholique, surtout pendant les trois premiers siècles de son existence, se
fortifia et s’accrut d’une façon merveilleuse par le sang sacré de ses martyrs,
et ainsi qu’à cette date et aux époques suivantes l’intégrité de sa divine
doctrine fut sauvegardée contre les attaques perfides des hérétiques par
l’activité vigoureuse et sage des Saints Pères, on est de même en droit
d’affirmer que l’Ordre bénédictin et ses florissants monastères furent suscités
par la sagesse et l’inspiration de Dieu : cela pour qu’à l’heure même où
s’écroulait l’Empire romain et où des peuples barbares, qu’excitait la furie
guerrière, l’envahissaient de tous côtés, la chrétienté pût réparer ses pertes,
et de plus, avec une vigilance inlassable, amener des peuples nouveaux,
qu’avaient domptés la vérité et la charité de l’Evangile, à la concorde
fraternelle, à un travail fécond, en un mot à la vertu, qui est régie par les
enseignements de notre Rédempteur et alimentée par sa grâce.
Car, de même qu’aux siècles passés les légions Romaines s’en allaient sur les
routes consulaires pour tenter d’assujettir toutes les nations à l’empire de la
Ville Eternelle, ainsi des cohortes innombrables de moines, dont les armes ne «
sont pas celles de la chair, mais la puissance même de Dieu » (2 Cor 10, 4),
sont alors envoyées par le Souverain Pontife pour propager efficacement le
règne pacifique de Jésus-Christ jusqu’aux extrémités de la terre, non par
l’épée, non par la force, non par le meurtre, mais par la Croix et par la
charrue, par la vérité et par l’amour.
Partout où posaient le pied ces troupes sans armes, formées de prédicateurs de
la doctrine chrétienne, d’artisans, d’agriculteurs et de maîtres dans les sciences
humaines et divines, les terres boisées et incultes étaient ouvertes par le fer
de la charrue ; les arts et les sciences y élevaient leurs demeures ; les
habitants sortis de leur vie grossière et sauvage, étaient formés aux relations
sociales et à la culture, et devant eux brillait en un vivant exemple la
lumière de l’Evangile et de la vertu. Des apôtres sans nombre, qu’enflammait la
céleste charité, parcoururent les régions encore inconnues et agitées de
l’Europe ; ils arrosèrent celles-ci de leurs sueurs et de leur sang généreux,
et, après les avoir pacifiées, ils leur portèrent la lumière de la vérité
catholique et de la sainteté. Si bien que l’on peut affirmer à juste titre que,
si Rome, déjà grande par ses nombreuses victoires avait étendu le sceptre de
son empire sur terre et sur mer, grâce à ces apôtres pourtant, « les gains que
lui valut la valeur militaire furent moindres que ce que lui assujettit la paix
chrétienne » (39). De fait, non seulement l’Angleterre, la Gaule, les Pays
Bataves, la Frise, le Danemark, la Germanie et la Scandinavie, mais aussi de
nombreux pays Slaves se glorifient d’avoir été évangélisés par ces moines
qu’ils considèrent comme leurs gloires, et comme les illustres fondateurs de
leur civilisation. De leur Ordre, combien d’Evêques sont sortis, qui
gouvernèrent avec sagesse des diocèses déjà constitués, ou qui en fondèrent un
bon nombre de nouveaux, rendus féconds par leur labeur ! Combien d’excellents
maîtres et docteurs élevèrent des chaires illustres de lettres et d’arts libéraux,
éclairèrent de nombreuses intelligences, qu’obnubilait l’erreur, et donnèrent à
travers le monde entier aux sciences sacrées et profanes une forte impulsion !
Combien enfin, rendus célèbres par leur sainteté, qui, dans les rangs de la
famille bénédictine s’efforcèrent d’atteindre selon leurs forces la perfection
évangélique et propagèrent de toutes manières le Règne de Jésus-Christ par
l’exemple de leurs vertus, leurs saintes prédications et même les miracles que
Dieu leur permit d’opérer ! Beaucoup d’entre eux, vous le savez, Vénérables
Frères, furent revêtus de la dignité épiscopale, ou de la majesté du Souverain
Pontificat. Les noms de ces apôtres, de ces Evêques, de ces Saints, de ces
Pontifes suprêmes sont écrits en lettres d’or dans les annales de l’Eglise, et
il serait trop long de les rapporter ici nommément ; au reste, brillent-ils
d’une si vivante splendeur et tiennent-ils dans l’histoire une si grande place,
qu’il est facile à tous de se les rappeler.
III. Enseignements de la « Règle bénédictine » au monde actuel
Nous croyons, en conséquence, très opportun que ces faits, rapidement esquissés
dans Notre lettre, soient attentivement médités durant les solennités de ce
centenaire et qu’à tous les regards ils revivent en pleine lumière, afin que
plus aisément tous en conçoivent, non seulement le désir d’exalter et de louer
ces fastueuses grandeurs de l’Eglise, mais la résolution de suivre d’un cœur
prompt et généreux les exemples de vie et les enseignements qui en découlent.
Car ce n’est pas uniquement les siècles passés qui ont profité des bienfaits
incalculables de ce grand Patriarche et de son Ordre ; notre époque elle aussi
doit apprendre de lui de nombreuses et importantes leçons. En tout premier lieu
— Nous n’en doutons nullement — que les membres de sa très nombreuse famille
apprennent à suivre ses traces avec une générosité chaque jour plus grande et à
faire passer dans leur propre vie les principes et les exemples de sa vertu et
de sa sainteté. Et sûrement, il arrivera que, non seulement ils correspondront
magnanimement, activement et fructueusement à cette voix céleste, dont ils
suivirent un jour l’appel surnaturel, lorsqu’ils ont débuté dans la vie
monastique ; que non seulement ils assureront la paix sereine de leur
conscience et surtout leur salut éternel, mais encore qu’ils pourront
s’adonner, d’une façon très fructueuse, au bien commun du peuple chrétien et à
l’extension de la gloire de Dieu.
De plus, si toutes les classes de la société, avec une studieuse et diligente
attention, observent la vie de S. Benoît, ses enseignements et ses hauts faits,
elles ne pourront pas ne pas être attirées par la douceur de son esprit et la
force de son influence ; et elles reconnaîtront d’elles-mêmes que notre siècle,
rempli et désaxé lui aussi par tant de graves ruines matérielles et morales,
par tant de dangers et de désastres, peut lui demander des remèdes nécessaires
et opportuns. Qu’elles se souviennent pourtant avant tout et considèrent
attentivement que les principes sacrés de la religion et les normes de vie
qu’elle édicte sont les fondements les plus solides et les plus stables de
l’humaine société ; s’ils viennent à être renversés ou affaiblis, il s’ensuivra
presque fatalement que tout ce qui est ordre, paix, prospérité des peuples et des
nations sera détruit progressivement. Cette vérité, que l’histoire de l’Ordre
Bénédictin, comme Nous l’avons vu, démontre si éloquemment, un esprit distingué
de l’antiquité païenne l’avait déjà comprise lorsqu’il traçait cette phrase : «
Vous autres, Pontifes... vous encerclez plus efficacement la ville par la
religion que ne le font les murailles elles-mêmes » (40). Le même auteur
écrivait encore : « ...Une fois disparues (la sainteté et la religion), suit le
désordre de l’existence, avec une grande confusion ; et je ne sais si, la piété
envers les dieux supprimée, ne disparaîtront pas également la confiance et la
bonne entente entre les mortels, ainsi que la plus excellente de toutes les
vertus, la justice » (41).
Le premier et le principal devoir est donc celui-ci : révérer la divinité,
obéir en privé et en public à ses saintes lois ; celles-ci transgressées, il
n’y a plus aucun pouvoir qui ait des freins assez puissants pour contenir et
modérer les passions déchaînées du peuple. Car la religion seule constitue le
soutien du droit et de l’honnêteté.
Notre saint Patriarche nous fournit encore une autre leçon, un autre
avertissement, dont notre siècle a tant besoin : à savoir, que Dieu ne doit pas
seulement être honoré et adoré ; il doit aussi être aimé, comme un Père, d’une
ardente charité. Et parce que cet amour s’est malheureusement aujourd’hui
attiédi et alangui, il en résulte qu’un grand nombre d’hommes recherchent les
biens de la terre plus que ceux du ciel, et avec une passion si immodérée,
qu’elle engendre souvent des troubles, qu’elle entretient les rivalités et les
haines les plus farouches. Or, puisque le Dieu éternel est l’auteur de notre
vie et que de Lui nous viennent des bienfaits sans nombre, c’est un devoir
strict pour tous de l’aimer par-dessus toutes choses, et de tourner vers Lui,
avant tout le reste, nos personnes et nos biens. De cet amour envers Dieu doit
naître ensuite une charité fraternelle envers les hommes, que tous, à quelque
race, nation ou condition sociale qu’ils appartiennent, nous devons considérer
comme nos frères dans le Christ ; en sorte que de tous les peuples et de toutes
les classes de la société se constitue une seule famille chrétienne, non pas
divisée par la recherche excessive de l’utilité personnelle, mais cordialement
unie par un mutuel échange de services rendus. Si ces enseignements, qui
portèrent jadis Benoît, ému par eux, à construire, recréer, éduquer et
moraliser la société décadente et troublée de son époque, retrouvaient
aujourd’hui le plus grand crédit possible, plus facilement aussi, sans nul
doute, notre monde moderne pourrait émerger de son formidable naufrage, réparer
ses ruines matérielles ou morales, et trouver à ses maux immenses d’opportuns
et efficaces remèdes.
Le législateur de l’Ordre Bénédictin nous enseigne encore, Vénérables Frères,
une autre vérité — vérité que l’on aime aujourd’hui à proclamer hautement, mais
que trop souvent on n’applique pas comme il conviendrait et comme il faudrait —
à savoir que le travail de l’homme n’est pas chose exempte de dignité, odieuse
et accablante, mais bien plutôt aimable, honorable et joyeuse. La vie de
travail, en effet, qu’il s’agisse de la culture des champs, des emplois
rétribués ou des occupations intellectuelles, n’avilit pas les esprits, mais
les ennoblit ; elle ne les réduit pas en servitude, mais plus exactement elle
les rend maîtres en quelque sorte et régisseurs des choses qui les environnent
et qu’ils traitent laborieusement. Jésus lui-même, adolescent, quand il vivait
à l’ombre de la demeure familiale, ne dédaigna pas d’exercer le métier de
charpentier dans la boutique de son père nourricier et il voulut consacrer de
sa sueur divine le travail humain. Que donc, non seulement ceux qui se livrent
à l’étude des lettres et des sciences, mais aussi ceux qui peinent dans des
métiers manuels, afin de se procurer leur pain quotidien, réfléchissent qu’ils
ont une très noble occupation, leur permettant de pourvoir à leurs propres
besoins, tout en se rendant utiles au bien de la société entière. Qu’ils le fassent
pourtant, comme le Patriarche Benoît nous l’enseigne, l’esprit et le cœur levés
vers le ciel ; qu’ils s’y adonnent non par force, mais par amour ; enfin, quand
ils défendent leurs droits légiTimes New Roman, qu’ils le fassent, non en
jalousant le sort d’autrui, non désordonnément et par des attroupements, mais
d’une manière tranquille et avec droiture. Qu’ils se souviennent de la divine
sentence : « Tu mangeras ton pain à la sueur de ton front » (Gn 3, 19) ;
précepte que tous les hommes doivent observer en esprit d’obéissance et
d’expiation.
Qu’ils n’oublient pas surtout que nous devons nous efforcer chaque jour
davantage de nous élever des réalités terrestres et caduques, qu’il s’agisse de
celles qu’élabore ou découvre un esprit aiguisé, ou de celles qui sont
façonnées par un métier pénible, à ces réalités célestes et perdurables, dont
l’atteinte peut seule nous donner la véritable paix, la sereine quiétude et
l’éternelle félicité.
IV. La reconstruction du Monastère du Mont-Cassin, juste tribut de reconnaissance
Quand la guerre, toute récente, se porta sur les limites de la Campanie et du
Latium, elle frappa violemment, vous le savez, Vénérables Frères, les hauteurs
sacrées du Mont Cassin ; et bien que, de tout Notre pouvoir, par des conseils,
des exhortations, des supplications, Nous n’ayons rien omis pour qu’une si
cruelle atteinte ne soit pas portée à une très vénérable religion, à de
splendides chefs-d’œuvre et à la civilisation elle-même, le fléau a néanmoins
détruit et anéanti cette illustre demeure des études et de la piété, qui, tel
un flambeau vainqueur des ténèbres, avait émergé au-dessus des flots
séculaires. C’est pourquoi, tandis que, tout autour, villes, places fortes,
bourgades devenaient des monceaux de ruines, il s’avéra que le monastère du
Mont Cassin lui-même, maison-mère de l’Ordre bénédictin, dût comme partager le
deuil de ses fils et prendre sa part de leurs malheurs. Presque rien n’en resta
intact, sauf le caveau sacré où sont très religieusement conservées les
reliques du S. Patriarche.
Là où l’on admirait des monuments superbes, il n’y a plus aujourd’hui que des
murs chancelants, des décombres et des ruines, que de misérables ronces
recouvrent ; seule une petite demeure pour les moines a été récemment élevée à
proximité. Mais pourquoi ne serait-il pas permis d’espérer que, durant la
commémoraison du XIVe centenaire depuis le jour où, après avoir commencé et
conduit à bon terme une si grandiose entreprise, notre Saint alla jouir de la
céleste béatitude, pourquoi, disons-Nous, ne pourrions-nous pas espérer qu’avec
le concours de tous les gens de bien, surtout des plus riches et des plus
généreux, cet antique monastère ne soit rétabli au plus vite dans sa primitive
splendeur ? C’est assurément une dette à Benoît de la part du monde civilisé,
qui, s’il est éclairé aujourd’hui d’une si grande lumière doctrinale et s’il se
réjouit d’avoir conservé les antiques monuments des lettres, en est redevable à
ce Saint et à sa famille laborieuse. Nous formons donc l’espoir que l’avenir
réponde à ces vœux, qui sont Nôtres ; et que pareille entreprise soit non
seulement une œuvre de restauration intégrale, mais un augure également de
temps meilleurs, où l’esprit de l’Institut bénédictin et ses très opportuns
enseignements viennent de jour en jour à refleurir davantage. Dans cette très
douce espérance, à chacun de vous, Vénérables Frères, ainsi qu’au troupeau
confié à vos soins, comme à l’universelle famille monacale, qui se glorifie
d’un tel législateur, d’un tel maître et d’un tel père, Nous accordons de toute
Notre âme, en gage des grâces célestes et en témoignage de Notre bienveillance,
la Bénédiction Apostolique.
Donné à Rome, près Saint Pierre, le 21e jour du mois de Mars, en la fête de
Saint Benoît, l’an 1947, neuvième de Notre Pontificat.
PIUS PP. XII
NOTES
(*) Pius PP. XII, Litt. enc. Fulgens radiatur decimoquarto exacto saeculo a
pientissimo S. Benedicti obitu, [Ad venerabiles Fratres Patriarchas, Primates,
Archiepiscopos, Episcopos, aliosque locorum Ordinarios pacem et communionem cum
Apostolica Sede habentes], 21 martii 1947: AAS 39(1947), pp.137-155 ; texte
officiel français dans DC 44 (1947), col. 513-528.
I. L'incomparable figure historique du patriarche : origines et premières
orientations de saint Benoît ; à Subiaco ; au Mont-Cassin ; prière et travail ;
vie de famille ; frères en Jésus-Christ ; le monastère bénédictin, petit «
royaume de Dieu » ; sa sainte mort. - II. Immenses bienfaits de saint Benoît et
de son Ordre pour l’Eglise et la civilisation. - III. Enseignements de la «
Règle bénédictine » au monde actuel. IV. La reconstruction du monastère du
Mont-Cassin, tribut juste et général de reconnaissance.
(1) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, Prol. : PL 66, 126.
(2) Cf. Cicéron, De Officiis, II, 8.
(3) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, Prol. : PL 66, 126.
(4) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, 8 : PL 66, 150.
(5) Cf. S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, Prol. : PL 66, 126.
(6) Salvien, De gubernatione mundi, VII, 1 : PL 53, 130.
(7) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, Prol. : PL 66, 126.
(8) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, 3 : PL 66, 132.
(9) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, 3 : PL 66, 140.
(10) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, 3 : PL 66, 140.
(11) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, 8 : PL 66, 148.
(12) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, 8 : PL 66, 152.
(13) Pie X, Lettre apost. Archicoenobium Casinense, 10 fév. 1913 : AAS 5(1913),
p. 113.
(14) S. Thomas d’Aquin, Somme théologique, II-II, q. 188, a. 6.
(15) Mabillon, Annales Ord. S. Bened., Lucae 1739, t. I, p. 107.
(16) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, III, 16 : PL 67, 261.
(17) Cf. Bossuet, Panégyrique de S. Benoît : Oeuvres compl., vol. XII, Paris
1863, p. 165.
(18) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, 36 : PL 66, 200.
(19) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 65.
(20) Cf. Règle de S. Benoît, c. 3.
(21) Cf. Règle de S. Benoît, c. 2.
(22) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 2.
(23) Cf. Règle de S. Benoît, c. 3.
(24) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 2.
(25) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 33.
(26) Cf. Règle de S. Benoît, c. 48.
(27) Cf. Règle de S. Benoît, c. 48.
(28) Cf. Règle de S. Benoît, c. 57.
(29) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 48.
(30) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 43.
(31) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 19.
(32) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 4.
(33) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 5.
(34) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 72.
(35) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 53.
(36) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 53.
(37) Règle de S. Benoît, c. 36.
(38) S. Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, II, 37 : PL 67, 202.
(39) Cf. S. Léon le Grand, Sermon I pour la fête des Apôtres Pierre et Paul :
PL 54, 423.
(40) Cicéron, De natura Deorum, II, c. 40.
(41) Cicéron, De natura Deorum, I, c. 2.
SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_21031947_fulgens-radiatur_fr.html
Spinello Aretino (1350–1410), St
Benedict (wing of a polyptych, 1383-1384, 127.5 x 44.5, Hermitage Museum
Saint Benoît
Les disciples de St Benoît, réfugiés au Latran suite aux ravages des Lombards au Mont-Cassin en 580, apportèrent à Rome le culte de leur patriarche, mort vers 547. Rome était la ville monastique par excellence, entre le Ve et le Xe siècle, on y recense 157 monastères.
Odon de Cluny vint y insuffler l’esprit de la réforme lui-même en 936.
Il n’est pas étonnant que tous les témoins liturgiques du XIe siècle attestent
la fête de St Benoît.
Saint Benoît était célébré par deux fêtes au Moyen-Âge : son natale le 21 mars,
et la translation de ses reliques le 11 juillet.
Leçons des Matines avant 1960
Quatrième leçon. Benoît né à Nursie, de famille noble, commença ses études à
Rome, puis, afin de se donner tout entier à Jésus-Christ se retira dans une
profonde caverne en un lieu appelé Subiaco. Il y demeura caché pendant trois
ans, sans que personne d’autre le sût qu’un moine nommé Romain, qui lui
fournissait les choses nécessaires à la vie. Le diable ayant un jour excité en
lui une violente tentation d’impureté, il se roula sur des épines, jusqu’à ce
que, son corps étant tout déchiré, le sentiment de la volupté fût étouffé par
la douleur. Déjà la renommée de sa sainteté se répandant hors de sa retraite,
quelques moines se mirent sous sa conduite ; mais parce qu’ils ne pouvaient
supporter des réprimandes méritées par leur vie licencieuse, ils résolurent de
lui donner du poison dans un breuvage. Quand ils le lui présentèrent, le Saint
brisa le vase d’un signe de croix, puis, quittant le monastère, il retourna
dans la solitude.
Cinquième leçon. Mais comme de nouveaux disciples venaient chaque jour en grand
nombre trouver Benoît, il édifia douze monastères et les munit de lois très
saintes. Il se rendit ensuite au mont Cassin, où, trouvant une idole d’Apollon
qu’on y honorait encore, il la brisa, renversa son autel, mit le feu au bois
sacré, et construisit en ce lieu un petit sanctuaire à saint Martin et une chapelle
à saint Jean ; il enseigna aussi aux habitants de cette contrée les préceptes
de la religion chrétienne. Benoît croissait de jour en jour dans la grâce de
Dieu ; il annonçait l’avenir par un esprit prophétique. Totila, roi des Goths,
l’ayant appris, voulut éprouver s’il en était ainsi. 11 alla le trouver en se
faisant précéder de son écuyer à qui il avait donné une suite et des ornements
royaux, et qui feignait d’être le roi. Dès que Benoît l’eut aperçu, il lui dit
: « Dépose, mon fils, dépose ce que tu portes, car cela n’est pas à toi ». Le
Saint prédit à Totila lui-même qu’il entrerait dans Rome, qu’il passerait la
mer, et qu’il mourrait au bout de neuf ans.
Sixième leçon. Quelques mois avant de sortir de cette vie, Benoît annonça à ses
disciples le jour de sa mort. Il commanda d’ouvrir le tombeau dans lequel il
voulait être inhumé ; c’était six jours avant que l’on y déposât son corps. Le
sixième jour, il voulut être porté à l’église, et c’est là, qu’après avoir reçu
l’Eucharistie, et priant, les yeux au ciel, il rendit l’âme, entre les mains de
ses disciples. Deux moines le virent monter au ciel paré d’un manteau très
précieux, et environné de flambeaux resplendissants ; et ils entendirent un
homme à l’aspect vénérable et tout éclatant qui se tenait un peu plus haut que
la tête du Saint, et qui disait : Ceci est le chemin par lequel Benoît, le
bien-aimé du Seigneur, est monté au ciel.
Pietro Perugino (1448–1523), San
Benedetto, 1495-1498, Pinacoteca Vaticana
Dom Guéranger, l’Année Liturgique
Quarante jours s’étaient à peine écoules depuis l’heureux moment où la blanche
colombe du Cassin s’éleva au plus haut des cieux ; et Benoît, son glorieux
frère, montait à son tour, par un chemin lumineux, vers le séjour de bonheur
qui devait les réunir à jamais. Le départ de l’un et de l’autre pour la patrie
céleste eut lieu dans cette période du Cycle qui correspond, selon les années,
au saint temps du Carême ; mais souvent il arrive que la fête de la vierge
Scholastique a déjà été célébrée, lorsque la sainte Quarantaine ouvre son cours
; tandis que la solennité de Benoît tombe constamment dans les jours consacrés
à la pénitence quadragésimale. Le Seigneur, qui est le souverain maître des
temps, a voulu que ses fidèles, durant les exercices de leur pénitence, eussent
sous les yeux, chaque année, un si illustre modèle et un si puissant
intercesseur.
Avec quelle vénération profonde nous devons approcher aujourd’hui de cet homme
merveilleux, de qui saint Grégoire a dit « qu’il fut rempli de l’esprit de tous
les justes » ! Si nous considérons ses vertus, elles l’égalent à tout ce que
les annales de l’Église nous présentent de plus saint ; la charité de Dieu et
du prochain, l’humilité, le don de la prière, l’empire sur toutes les passions,
en font un chef-d’œuvre de la grâce du Saint-Esprit. Les signes miraculeux
éclatent dans toute sa vie par la guérison des infirmités humaines, le pouvoir
sur les forces de la nature, le commandement sur les démons, et jusqu’à la
résurrection des morts. L’Esprit de prophétie lui découvre l’avenir ; et les
pensées les plus intimes des hommes n’ont rien de caché aux yeux de son esprit.
Ces traits surhumains sont relevés encore par une majesté douce, une gravité
sereine, une charité compatissante, qui brillent à chaque page de son admirable
vie ; et cette vie, c’est un de ses plus nobles enfants qui l’a écrite : c’est
le pape et docteur saint Grégoire le Grand, qui s’est chargé d’apprendre à la
postérité tout ce que Dieu voulut opérer de merveilles dans son serviteur
Benoît.
La postérité, en effet, avait droit de connaître l’histoire et les vertus de
l’un des hommes dont l’action sur l’Église et sur la société a été le plus
salutaire dans le cours des siècles : car, pour raconter l’influence de Benoît,
il faudrait parcourir lus annales de tous les peuples de l’Occident, depuis le
VIIe siècle jusqu’aux âges modernes. Benoît est le père de l’Europe ; c’est lui
qui, par ses enfants, nombreux comme les étoiles du ciel et comme les sables de
la mer, a relevé les débris de la société romaine écrasée sous l’invasion des
barbares ; présidé à l’établissement du droit public et privé des nations qui
surgirent après la conquête ; porté l’Évangile et la civilisation dans
L’Angleterre, la Germanie, les pays du Nord, er jusqu’aux peuples slaves ; enseigné
l’agriculture ; détruit l’esclavage ; sauvé enfin le dépôt des lettres et des
arts, dans le naufrage qui devait les engloutir sans retour, et laisser la race
humaine en proie aux plus désolantes ténèbres.
Et toutes ces merveilles, Benoît les a opérées par cet humble livre qui est
appelé sa Règle. Ce code admirable de perfection chrétienne et de discrétion a
discipliné les innombrables légions de moines par lesquels le saint Patriarche
a opéré tous les prodiges que nous venons d’énumérer. Jusqu’à la promulgation
de ces quelques pages si simples et si touchantes, l’élément monastique, en
Occident, servait à la sanctification de quelques âmes ; mais rien ne faisait
espérer qu’il dût être, plus qu’il ne l’a été en Orient, l’instrument principal
de la régénération chrétienne et de la civilisation de tant de peuples. Cette
Règle est donnée ; et toutes les autres disparaissent successivement devant
elle, comme les étoiles pâlissent au ciel quand le soleil vient à se lever.
L’Occident se couvre de monastères, et de ces monastères se répandent sur
l’Europe entière tous les secours qui en ont fait la portion privilégiée du
globe.
Un nombre immense de saints et de saintes qui reconnaissent Benoit pour leur
père, épure et sanctifie la société encore à demi-sauvage ; une longue série de
souverains Pontifes, formés dans le cloître bénédictin, préside aux destinées
de ce monde nouveau, et lui crée des institutions fondées uniquement sur la loi
morale, et destinées à neutraliser la force brute, qui sans elles eût prévalu ;
des évoques innombrables, sortis de l’école de Benoît, appliquent aux provinces
et aux cités ces prescriptions salutaires ; les Apôtres de vingt nations
barbares affrontent des races féroces et incultes, portant d’une main
l’Évangile et de l’autre la Règle de leur père ; durant de longs siècles, les
savants, les docteurs, les instituteurs de l’enfance, appartiennent presque
tous à la famille du grand Patriarche qui, par eux, dispense la plus pure
lumière aux générations. Quel cortège autour d’un seul homme, que cette armée
de héros de toutes les vertus, de Pontifes, d’Apôtres, de Docteurs, qui se
proclament ses disciples, et qui aujourd’hui s’unissent à l’Église entière pour
glorifier le souverain Seigneur dont la sainteté et la puissance ont paru avec un
tel éclat dans la vie et les œuvres de Benoît !
L’Ordre Bénédictin célèbre son illustre Patriarche par les trois Hymnes
suivantes.
HYMNE.
Faites entendre, ô fidèles, des chants harmonieux ; temples, retentissez
d’hymnes solennelles : aujourd’hui Benoît s’élève dans les hauteurs des cieux.
C’est à l’âge où la vie commence à fleurir, qu’on le vit enfant quitter une
patrie qui lui était chère, et se retirer seul au fond d’un antre silencieux.
Sur les buissons semés d’orties et d’épines, il terrassa les passions coupables
de la jeunesse : par la il devint digne d’écrire les règles admirables de la
vie parfaite.
Il renversa la statue d’airain du profane Apollon : il détruisit le bois
consacre à Vénus ; et sur le sommet de la sainte montagne il éleva un temple à
Jean-Baptiste.
Maintenant, fixé dans l’heureuse région du ciel, mêlé au chœur ardent des
Séraphins, il voit encore ses protégés, et ranime leurs âmes de ses douces
influences.
Gloire au Père et au Fils qu’il engendre ! à vous honneur égal, Esprit de l’un
et de l’autre ! gloire au Dieu unique dans tout le cours des siècles ! Amen.
IIe HYMNE
Tout ce que chantèrent les anciens Prophètes, tout ce que contiennent les
livres de la loi éternelle, la vie de notre grand Patriarche l’a reproduit avec
gloire.
La piété glorifia Moïse, le plus doux des hommes ; le grand Abraham s’est
illustré dans son fils ; l’honneur d’Isaac parut dans la beauté de son épouse
et dans sa soumission à l’ordre rigoureux de son père.
Chargé d’une ample moisson de vertus, l’auguste Patriarche de notre famille a
réuni en lui Moïse, Abraham et Isaac.
Qu’il daigne être propice à ceux qu il a sauvés du naufrage du monde ; que son
souffle bienfaisant les pousse au port où règne un doux repos que l’inquiétude
ne trouble jamais.
Gloire au Père et au Fils qu’il engendre ! à vous honneur égal, Esprit de l’un
et de l’autre ! gloire au Dieu unique dans tout le cours des siècles !
Amen.
Cette troisième Hymne du Bréviaire monastique a été composée par le célèbre
Pierre le Vénérable, abbé de Cluny et ami de saint Bernard.
IIIe HYMNE.
Au milieu des héros qui portent dans les cieux la couronne immortelle qu’ils
méritèrent dans leur lutte sacrée, tu brilles, ô Benoit, de l’éclat de tes
mérites sublimes.
Dès l’enfance, la sagesse d’un vieillard régla ta vie ; l’amour des voluptés ne
gagna rien sur toi, la fleur du monde sembla vile et fanée à tes yeux
accoutumés à regarder le ciel.
Par une fuite généreuse, tu quittas patrie et famille ; courageux habitant du
désert, tu triomphas de la chair, et devenu son tyran, tu l’assujettis au
Christ ;
Mais le secret des antres ne couvrit pas longtemps ta gloire ; tes prodiges,
tes saintes œuvres te trahirent bientôt ; et l’heureuse renommée de tes mérites
vola promptement par le monde.
Gloire au Père et au Fils qu’il engendre ! à vous honneur égal, Esprit de l’un
et de l’autre ! gloire au Dieu unique, dans tout le cours des siècles !
Amen.
La Prose suivante orne la Messe de saint Benoît, dans le Missel monastique.
SÉQUENCE.
Cette journée qui resplendit d’un éclat nouveau, est celle où notre grand chef
entra dans son repos.
La grâce a visite l’âme filiale de ses enfants ; que leurs chants soient dignes
de l’amour qui enflamme leurs cœurs.
Admirons notre Patriarche qui s’élève par un chemin céleste, à l’orient.
L’innombrable famille sortie de lui l’a fait l’égal d’Abraham semblable au
soleil.
C’est Élie cache au fond de son antre ; un corbeau exécute ses ordres.
C’est Élisée, quand il retire la hache tombée au fond du lac.
Par la pureté de sa vie il ressemble à Joseph ; par son esprit prophétique il
retrace Jacob.
Qu’il daigne se souvenir des enfants dont il est le Père, et qu’il nous
conduise aux joies éternelles du Christ qui demeure à jamais ! Amen.
L’Église grecque n’a point omis les louanges du grand Abbé des occidentaux,
dans sa Liturgie. Nous plaçons ici quelques-unes des strophes qu’elle a
consacrées, dans les Menées, à célébrer ses mérites et sa gloire.
(DIE XXI MARTII.) J’entreprends, ô Benoît, de célébrer par une hymne ton
illustre mémoire ; obtiens-moi par tes prières la grâce du Seigneur, et la
rémission de tous mes péchés. Dès l’enfance, tu portas la croix au désert, tu
suivis le Tout-Puissant, et, mortifiant ta chair, tu méritas la vie, o
bienheureux ! Marchant dans le sentier étroit, tu t’es établi dans les vastes
plaines du Paradis, vainqueur des ruses et des embûches du démon, ô bienheureux
! Semblable à un arbre fécond, tu as été arrosé de tes larmes, ô Benoit ! la
vertu de Dieu t’a fait produire en abondance le fruit divin des signes et des
prodiges. Les membres de ta chair subirent le joug de la pénitence, au milieu
des combats de la chasteté, ô bienheureux ! En retour, tes prières ont
ressuscité les morts, tu as rendu la vigueur aux boiteux, tu as guéri toutes
sortes de maladies, ô Père ! qui attirais la foi et l’admiration. Ta parole
vivifiante, ô bienheureux ! a rendu fécondes des âmes sèches et arides, à la
vue de tes prodiges. Pasteur divinement inspiré, tu es devenu la plus éclatante
gloire des moines. Tu t’adressas au Dieu plein de miséricorde, ô père comblé de
sagesse ! comme Elie, tu remplis tout à coup le vase d’une huile miraculeuse, ô
bienheureux ! qui attirais la foi et l’admiration. Ravi hors de toi-même, à
cause de la pureté de ton âme, la terre entière parut à tes regards, comme dans
un rayon de la gloire de Dieu, qui daignait t’éclairer de sa lumière, ô
bienheureux Benoît ! Tu commandes au nom du Christ ; et une source d’eau vive
se met à couler, par l’effet de ta prière à l’auteur de tout bien ; cette
fontaine, monument du prodige, coule encore aujourd’hui, ô Benoit ! Tout
éclatant de la splendeur de l’Esprit-Saint, tu as dissipé les ténèbres des
démons pervers, ô Benoit, opérateur de prodiges, lumineux flambeau des moines !
On voulut, ô bienheureux ! te faire périr par un breuvage empoisonné, toi que
protégeait la divine main du Créateur de l’univers, ces insensés furent
confondus ; ta science par l’Esprit-Saint avait deviné leur malice. Les chœurs
des moines que tu as rassemblés te célèbrent le jour et la nuit ; ils
conservent ton corps au milieu du sanctuaire ; de ce sacré corps émane une
source abondante de miracles, et une lumière qui éclaire continuellement les
pas de tes enfants, ô père plein de sagesse ! Par ton obéissance aux divins
préceptes, ton éclat, ô père, surpasse les rayons du soleil ; élevé jusqu’à
cette région où la lumière ne se couche pas, obtiens le pardon de leurs péchés
à ceux qui t’honorent avec foi, illustre Benoît !
Nous vous saluons avec amour, ô Benoît, vase d’élection, palmier du désert,
homme angélique ! Quel mortel a été choisi pour opérer sur la terre plus de
merveilles que vous n’en avez accompli ? Le Christ vous a couronné comme l’un
de ses principaux coopérateurs dans l’œuvre du salut et de la sanctification
des hommes. Qui pourrait compter les millions d’âmes qui vous doivent la
béatitude éternelle, soit que votre Règle immortelle les ait sanctifiées dans
le cloître, soit que le zèle de vos fils ait été pour elles le moyen de
connaître et de servir le grand Dieu qui vous a élu ? Autour de vous, dans le
séjour de la gloire, un nombre immense de bienheureux se reconnaît redevable à
vous, après Dieu, de la félicité éternelle ; sur la terre, des nations entières
professent la vraie foi, parce qu’elles ont été évangélisées par vos disciples.
O Père de tant de peuples, abaissez vos regards sur votre héritage, et bénissez
encore cette Europe ingrate qui vous doit tout, et qui a presque oublié votre
nom. La lumière que vos enfants lui apportèrent a pâli ; la chaleur par
laquelle ils vivifièrent les sociétés qu’ils fondèrent et civilisèrent par la
Croix, s’est refroidie ; les ronces ont couvert en grande partie le sol dans
lequel ils jetèrent la semence du salut : venez au secours de votre œuvre ; et,
par vos prières, retenez la vie qui menace de s’éteindre. Consolidez ce qui est
ébranlé ; et qu’une nouvelle Europe, une Europe catholique, s’élève bientôt à
la place de celle que l’hérésie et toutes les fausses doctrines nous ont faite.
O Patriarche des Serviteurs de Dieu, considérez du haut du ciel la Vigne que
vos mains ont plantée, et voyez à quel état de dépérissement elle est déchue.
Jadis, en ce jour, votre nom était loué comme celui d’un Père dans trente mille
monastères, des cotes de la Baltique aux rivages de la Syrie, de la verte Erin
aux steppes de la Pologne : maintenant, on n’entend plus retentir que de rares
et faibles concerts, qui montent vers vous du sein de cet immense patrimoine
que la foi et la reconnaissance des peuples vous avaient consacré. Le vent
brûlant de l’hérésie a consumé une partie de vos moissons, la cupidité a
convoité le reste, et la spoliation depuis .les siècles ne s’est jamais arrêtée
dans son cours, soit qu’elle ait appelé la politique à son aide, soit qu’elle
ait eu recours à la violence ouverte. Vous avez été dépossédé, ô Benoit, de ces
milliers de sanctuaires qui furent si longtemps pour les peuples le principal
foyer de vie et de lumière ; et la race de vos enfants s’est presque éteinte.
Veillez, ô Père, sur leurs derniers rejetons. Selon une antique tradition, le
Seigneur vous révéla un jour que votre filiation devait persévérer jusqu’aux
derniers jours du monde, que vos enfants combattraient pour la sainte Église
Romaine, et qu’ils confirmeraient la foi de plusieurs, dans les suprêmes
épreuves de l’Église ; daignez, par votre bras puissant, protéger les débris de
cette famille qui vous nomme encore son Père. Relevez-la, multipliez-la,
sanctifiez-la ; faites fleurir chez elle l’esprit que vous avez déposé dans
votre Règle sainte, et montrez par vos œuvres que vous êtes toujours le béni du
Seigneur.
Soutenez la sainte Église par votre intercession puissante, ô Benoît ! Assistez
le Siège Apostolique, si souvent occupé par vos enfants. Père de tant de
Pasteurs des peuples, obtenez-nous des Évêques semblables à ceux que votre
Règle a formés. Père de tant d’Apôtres, demandez poulies pays infidèles des
envoyés évangéliques qui triomphent par le sang et par la parole, comme ceux
qui sortirent de vos cloîtres. Père de tant de Docteurs, priez, afin que la
science des saintes lettres renaisse pour le secours de l’Église et pour la
confusion de l’erreur. Père de tant d’Ascètes sublimes, réchauffez le zèle de
la perfection chrétienne, qui languit au sein de nos chrétientés modernes.
Patriarche de la Religion dans l’Occident, vivifiez tous les Ordres Religieux
que l’Esprit-Saint a donnés successivement à l’Église ; tous vous regardent
avec respect comme un ancêtre vénérable ; répandez sur eux tous l’influence de
votre paternelle charité.
Enfin, ô Benoît, ami de Dieu, priez pour les fidèles du Christ, en ces jours
consacrés aux sentiments et aux œuvres de la pénitence. C’est du sein même de
la sainte Quarantaine que vous vous êtes élancé vers le séjour des joies
éternelles : soyez propice aux chrétiens qui combattent en ce moment dans cette
même arène. Elevez leur courage par vos exemples et par vos préceptes ; qu’ils
apprennent de vous à dompter la chair, à la soumettre à l’esprit ; qu’ils
recherchent comme vous la retraite, pour y méditer les années éternelles ;
qu’ils détachent leur cœur et leurs pensées des joies fugitives du monde. La
piété catholique vous invoque comme l’un des patrons et des modèles du chrétien
mourant ; elle se souvient du spectacle sublime qu’offrit votre trépas, lorsque
debout au pied de l’autel, soutenu sur les bras de vos disciples, touchant à
peine la terre de vos pieds, vous rendîtes votre âme à son Créateur, dans la
soumission et la confiance ; obtenez-nous, ô Benoît, une mort courageuse et
tranquille comme la vôtre. Écartez de nous, à ce moment suprême, toutes les
embûches de l’ennemi ; visitez-nous par votre présence, et ne nous quittez pas
que nous n’ayons exhalé notre âme dans le sein du Dieu qui vous a couronné.
Bhx Cardinal Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum
La fête du saint Patriarche du monachisme occidental est entrée dans le
Sacramentaire Grégorien dès le haut moyen âge, alors que le pontificat romain,
l’épiscopat, la hiérarchie, la vie religieuse, l’apostolat parmi les païens, la
science sacrée et profane, semblaient identifiés avec l’activité de la famille
bénédictine. Le premier auteur de ce culte universel envers saint Benoît fut
saint Grégoire le Grand, qui, moins de cinquante ans après sa mort, écrivit son
histoire et propagea sa Règle. Ce fut grâce à lui que ce code immortel de perfection,
conservé comme un trésor dans les archives papales du Latran, exclut
promptement en Europe toute autre forme antérieure de vie monastique et devint
la Regula Monachorum, c’est-à-dire la Règle romaine et papale par excellence de
l’ascèse monastique. Voici ce qu’écrivait un contemporain de saint Grégoire à
la louange de ce code immortel de sainteté, considéré par cet illustre Pontife
comme un des plus grands prodiges accomplis par saint Benoît :
QUI • LENI • IVGO • CHRISTI • COLLA • SVBMITTERE • CVPIS
REGVLAE • SPONTE • DA • MENTEM • DVLCIA • VT • CAPIAS • MELLA
HIC • TESTAMENTI • VETERIS • NOVIQVE • MANDATA
HIC • ORDO • DIVINVS • HICQVE• CASTISSIMA • VITA
HOC • BENEOICTVS • PATER • CONSTITVIT • SACRVM • VOLVMEN
SVISQVE • MANDAVIT • HAEC • SERVANDA • ALVMNIS
SIMPLICIVS • FAMVLVS • CHRISTIQVE • MINISTER
MAGISTRI • LATENS • OPVS • PROPAGAVIT • IN • OMNES
VNA • TAMEN • MERCES • VTRISQVE • MANET • IN • AEVVM
Toi qui aspires à ployer le cou sous le suave joug du Christ,
Applique-toi de bon cœur à méditer la Règle, et tu en retireras un doux miel.
Elle renferme l’enseignement de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament.
Ici est décrite une méthode toute divine, une vie toute pure.
Ce fut le patriarche Benoît qui établit ce Code sacré
Et le donna à observer à ses disciples.
Simplicius [1] serviteur et ministre du Christ
Propagea de toutes parts le volume du Maître, tenu d’abord presque caché.
L’un et l’autre d’ailleurs ont obtenu la même récompense dans l’éternité.
La Rome médiévale comptait plus de quatre-vingts monastères bénédictins chargés
du chant des divins offices dans les principales basiliques ; en outre, elle
avait un nombre considérable d’églises, d’oratoires et d’autels dédiés au saint
Législateur du monachisme romain, jadis son concitoyen, qui, ayant abandonné
ses études, s’enfuit bien de Rome et se retira dans la solitude de Subiaco,
mais conserva toujours au cœur l’amour de sa ville natale, si bien que, imitant
le geste héroïque de Léon Ier qui arrêta Attila et Genséric, Benoît, par ses menaces
et son autorité, frappa Totila de terreur et rendit moins désastreuse la chute
de l’Urbs entre les mains de ce roi goth.
Nous nous bornerons à citer quelques églises de Rome consacrées au nom du grand
patriarche Cassinien, pour donner aux lecteurs une idée de l’importance et de
la popularité du culte rendu à saint Benoît dans l’antique piété romaine : S.
Benedicti in Arenula, S. Benedicti de cacabis, S. Benedicti de thermis, S.
Benedicti in piscinula, S. Benedicti Scottorum, S. Benedicti « della ciambella
». Toutefois pour comprendre la place qu’occupait le Patriarche du monachisme
latin durant le moyen âge, nous devons aussi mentionner une célèbre peinture de
l’église de Sainte-Marie in Pallara, où l’on voit saint Benoît entre les deux
Princes des Apôtres eux-mêmes, Pierre et Paul.
Mais l’on peut dire qu’alors, grâce à ses nombreux monastères, toute la Ville
éternelle était bénédictine, puisque l’esprit de la Regula Sancta, comme on
l’appelait, informait la société tout entière. Le siècle de fer vint hélas ! et
alors la famille monastique commença à décliner. De plus, à l’apparition des
Ordres mendiants, voués plus spécialement aux œuvres de la vie active, étant
donnés les nouveaux besoins de la famille catholique, une multitude d’autres
astres brillèrent au ciel de l’Église. Saint Benoît demeura toutefois toujours
comme le grand patriarche de tout ce chœur de fondateurs. C’est lui en effet
qui, tel un autre Moïse, a guidé l’Église pendant de nombreux siècles à travers
le désastreux désert du haut moyen âge. Et de même qu’après Moïse, pour
perpétuer son œuvre, parurent les Juges dont la gloire n’obscurcit point celle
du grand Législateur d’Israël, ainsi la célébrité des illustres restaurateurs
de la vie religieuse en Occident après le XIIe siècle n’enleva rien à l’auréole
qui entoure le front de saint Benoît, qu’une splendide armée de papes, de
docteurs, d’apôtres des diverses nations de l’Europe, de martyrs et de saints
saluent comme leur père et leur législateur.
Les deux derniers pontifes qui, au XIXe siècle, professèrent la Règle de
Saint-Benoît, furent Pie VII et Grégoire XVI. Le pape Benoît XV nourrissait
pour saint Benoît une tendre dévotion. Il en vénérait l’image sur sa table de
travail et récitait chaque jour des prières spéciales au glorieux patriarche.
Il célébrait la fête de saint Benoît comme celle du Patron de son pontificat,
et en ce jour il attribuait au tableau de saint Benoît suspendu au mur derrière
son bureau, la place d’honneur aux dépens de celui représentant l’apôtre saint
Jacques le Majeur, dont ce Pape avait reçu le nom au baptême.
Il n’est pas rare de trouver dans les anciens manuscrits du Sacramentaire
Grégorien des messes splendides, avec collectes et préfaces propres pour la
fête de saint Benoît, dont le nom était parfois prononcé durant le Canon.
Néanmoins dans le Missel actuel la messe est entièrement du Commun des Abbés.
Le rite double-majeur ne fut accordé que par Léon XIII en 1883, à la prière de
l’Ordre bénédictin, qui voyait avec regret la fête de son patriarche très souvent
omise dans le Calendrier de l’Église universelle, du fait seul que, coïncidant
avec un dimanche ou une férié privilégiée de Carême, elle ne pouvait être
transférée à un autre jour. En quelques Sacramentaires monastiques du début du
moyen âge, la fête de saint Benoît était précédée d’une vigile. L’abbaye de
Farfa conserve encore cette antique tradition liturgique.
Saint Grégoire le Grand, racontant une célèbre vision du grand patriarche
Benoît, qui, dans un rayon de lumière céleste, put observer toute la création,
considère que, pour cela, il ne fut pas nécessaire que le monde se rapetissât,
mais qu’il suffit que l’âme du Saint, ravie en Dieu, fût dilatée dans la vision
de la gloire déifique, puisque, comme le dit si bien le saint Docteur : à qui
contemple le Créateur, toute créature paraît petite.
Voici précisément le grand secret pour surmonter tout le charme des choses
mondaines, et pour ne pas se laisser effrayer par les oppositions des hommes,
qui peuvent bien menacer, certes, mais qui ne peuvent nous arracher un cheveu
sans la permission de la Providence de Dieu.
En l’honneur du Patriarche et Législateur d’innombrables abbayes érigées dans
toute l’Europe au moyen âge ; du Maître illuminé, à l’école duquel furent
formés les Docteurs de l’Église universelle, tels que Grégoire le Grand, Bédé
le Vénérable, Pierre Damien, Anselme et Bernard ; du Père de plus de vingt
souverains pontifes sortis des rangs de ses disciples ; du Thaumaturge, dont
les magnifiques miracles furent décrits par la plume autorisée de saint
Grégoire Ier et traduits en grec par le pape saint Zacharie, nous transcrivons
ici la collecte et la préface de la fête de ce jour, telles qu’on les trouve en
plusieurs recensions du Sacramentaire Grégorien :
« Natale sancti Benedicti abbatis. »
Oratio.
Omnipotens, sempiterne Deus, qui per gloriosa exempla humilitatis, triumphum
nobis ostendisti aeternum ; da quaesumus, ut viam tibi placitae oboedientiae,
qua venerabilis Pater illesus antecedebat Benedictus, nos, praeclaris eius
mentis adiuti, sine errore subsequamur.
Praefatio.
Vere dignum... aeterne Deus, et gloriam tuam profusis precibus exorare ; ut qui
beati Confessoris tui Benedicti veneramur festa, eius sanctitatis imitari
valeamus exempla. Et cuius merita nequaquam possumus coaequari, eius precibus
mereamur adiuvari, per Christum, etc.
« Natale de saint Benoît abbé. »
Prière.
Dieu tout-puissant et éternel, qui par les glorieux exemples de l’humilité nous
avez montrés le triomphe éternel ; donnez-nous, nous vous en prions, de suivre
sans erreur la voie de l’obéissance qui vous plaît, sur laquelle le vénérable
Père Benoît nous a précédé pour son bien, en étant aidé de la lumière de son
esprit.
Préface.
Il est vraiment digne… Dieu éternel : et de supplier votre gloire par nos
prières abondantes ; nous célébrons la fête de votre bienheureux Confesseur
Benoît, puissions-nous imiter les exemples de sa sainteté. Et comme nous ne
pourrons jamais égaler ses mérites, faites que nous méritions d’être aidé de
ses prières, par le Christ…
Dans l’Ordo Romanus XI de la collection de Migne, il est prescrit d’omettre le
Consistoire papal aux trois fêtes de saint Grégoire le Grand, de saint Benoît
et de l’Annonciation de la sainte Vierge [2]. Nous mettrons fin à ces notes sur
l’antique solennité romaine en l’honneur de saint Benoît, en rapportant
quelques vers de saint Aldhelme dans son De Laudibus Virginum, où il unit les
louanges du saint patriarche Cassinien à celles de saint Grégoire le Grand et
des quarante moines romains qui, sur l’ordre du saint Pontife, partirent du
Latran pour aller évangéliser l’Angleterre et y introduire la Règle bénédictine
:
Cuius praeclaram pandens ab origine vitam
Gregorius Praesul chartis descripserat olim,
Donec aethralem felix migraret in arcem.
Huius alumnorum numero glomeramus ovantes,
Quos gerit in gremio foecunda Brittania cives ;
A quo iam no bis baptismi gratia fluxit
Atque magistrorum veneranda caterva cucurrit.
La vie admirable (de Benoît) depuis son enfance.
Fut décrite jadis par le pontife Grégoire ;
Il la conduisit jusqu’à l’heureuse entrée du Saint dans les demeures
éternelles.
Nous nous glorifions d’appartenir au nombre de ses disciples,
Ceux que la Bretagne, féconde mère de citoyens, berce en son sein.
De Benoît en effet nous vint la grâce du Baptême
Et la vénérable troupe de nos premiers docteurs.
[1] Ce Simplicius fut le troisième Abbé du Mont-Cassin, et saint Grégoire le
Grand le cite parmi les témoins dont il tenait ses notices historiques sur la
vie de saint Benoît : « Simplicio quoque, qui congregationem illitts post Eum
teriius rexit » (Dial. II, Prolog.) ; P. L., LXVI, col. 126.
[2] P. L., LXXVIII, col. 1228.
Dom Pius Parsch, le Guide dans l’année liturgique
Rien ne doit être préféré au service de Dieu. (Extrait de sa règle).
Saint Benoit : Jour de mort : 21 mars, vers 542. — Tombeau : au Mont Cassin ;
d’après d’autres, ses ossements furent transférés en France, à
Fleury-sur-Loire. Les Bénédictins célèbrent d’ailleurs, le 11 juillet, la fête
de la Translation. Image : On le représente en Abbé avec la crosse et le livre
de la règle, un corbeau à ses pieds. Vie : Saint Benoît, le père des moines
d’Occident, le fondateur de l’Ordre des Bénédictins, est un des grands hommes
de l’Église. « C’était un homme de vie vénérable, un Béni (Benedictus) selon la
grâce comme selon le nom. Dès sa jeunesse, il manifestait le sérieux d’un
vieillard. Riche en caractère avant de l’être en années, jamais il n’abandonna
son âme à un plaisir. Pendant qu’il demeurait sur cette terre, il n’eut, pour
le monde et ses charmes dont il aurait pu jouir librement pour cette vie
temporelle, que du mépris, comme s’il était déjà flétri » (Saint Grégoire le
Grand). « Les fruits de l’œuvre de Benoît sont d’une grandeur immense. Mais ce
qui, dans ses œuvres sociales et historiques, est particulièrement grand, c’est
qu’il semble lui-même n’y avoir jamais songé. C’est le signe distinctif de la
vraie grandeur de faire les plus grandes choses sans bruit, sous l’impulsion
seule d’une pensée humble et pure que Dieu transforme et bénit au centuple »
(Montalembert). Sa règle monastique est un livre qui a traversé les siècles,
c’est un livre d’éducation pour tous les temps. Nous lui devons la belle et
pieuse prière du soir de l’Église, les complies. On peut bien dire qu’aucun homme
sur la terre n’a préparé autant de foyers ardents de la liturgie que lui.
Pratique : Saint Benoît donna à ses communautés, comme programme, ce point
capital de sa règle : « Rien ne doit être préféré au service de Dieu » (il
écrivait : l’œuvre de Dieu, opus Dei). La liturgie encadre et pénètre toute la
vie de sa famille religieuse. Il a créé ainsi des familles liturgiques idéales,
qui chantent réellement la louange liturgique de Dieu en unissant à cette
louange les travaux les plus sérieux dans tous les domaines.
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/21-03-St-Benoit-abbe
Maître de Meßkirch, Saint Benoît en prière,
1530, 106 x 75, Staatsgalerie (Stuttgart)
SAINT BENOÎT
Benoît est ainsi nommé ou parce qu'il a bénit beaucoup, ou parce qu'il a reçu
en cette vie beaucoup de bénédictions, ou parce que tous le bénissaient, ou
bien parce qu'il a mérité la bénédiction éternelle. Sa vie fut écrite par saint
Grégoire.
Benoît était originaire de. la province de Nurcie. Ayant été placé à Rome pour
faire ses études, tout jeune encore, il abandonna les lettres et résolut de
s'en aller au désert. Sa nourrice, qui le chérissait avec une grande tendresse,
le suivit jusqu'en un lieu qu'on nomme OEside, où elle demanda à emprunter un
crible pour nettoyer du froment, mais en le mettant sans précaution sur une
table, le crible tomba et fut cassé en deux. Saint Benoît la voyant pleurer
prit les deux parties du crible et se levant, après une prière, il les trouva
solidement réunies. Peu De temps après, il quitta à la dérobée sa, nourrice et
vint en un endroit où il resta trois ans inconnu aux hommes, à l’exception d'un
moine appelé Romain, dont les soins assidus lui assuraient le nécessaire. Or,
comme de l’antre où Benoît restait, jusqu'au monastère de Romain il n'y avait
pas de chemin, celui-ci liait le pain au bout d'une très longue corde et c'est
ainsi qu'il avait coutume de le faire passer. A cette corde, il attacha aussi
une sonnette, afin que, averti par le son, l’homme de Dieu sût quand Romain lui
apportait du pain et pût sortir pour le prendre. Mais l’antique ennemi de
l’homme jaloux de la charité du premier et de la manière dont le second se
sustentait, jeta une pierre et cassa la sonnette : cela toutefois n'empêcha pas
Romain de servir Benoît. Après quoi le Seigneur apparut dans une vision à un
prêtre qui se préparait à manger le jour de la solennité de Pâques, et lui dit
: « Tu te prépares des friandises et mon serviteur meurt de faim en tel lieu.»
Le prêtre se leva incontinent, et étant parvenu à trouver Benoît après de
grandes difficultés : « Levez-vous, lui dit-il, et prenons de la nourriture,
parce que c'est aujourd'hui la Pâque du Seigneur.» Benoît lui répondit : « Je
vois bien qu'il est Pâques, puisque j'ai l’avantage de vous voir. » Placé en
effet loin des hommes, il ne savait pas que ce jour fût celui de la solennité
de Pâques. Le prêtre lui dit : «Vraiment c'est aujourd'hui le jour de la résurrection
de N.-S. : aussi ne, convient-il pas que vous fassiez abstinence; c'est pour
cela que je vous ai été envoyé. » Et après avoir béni Dieu, ils prirent de la
nourriture. — Un jour un oiseau noir, nommé merle, se mit à voler d'une manière
importune autour de la figure de Benoît, de sorte que le saint aurait pu le
saisir avec la main; mais il fit le signe de la croix et l’oiseau se retira.
Bientôt après, le diable lui ramena devant les yeux de l’esprit une femme qu'il
avait vue autrefois, et il alluma dans son coeur une telle passion pour cette
personne, que, vaincu par la volupté, il était près de quitter le désert. Mais
rendu subitement à lui-même par la grâce divine, il quitta ses vêtements, et se
roula sur les épines et les ronces éparses çà et là, avec tant de violence que
son corps en fut tout meurtri, il guérit ainsi par les plaies de sa chair les
plaies de sa pensée : il vainquit le péché! en déplaçant l’incendie. A dater de
ce moment aucune tentation ne s'éleva en son corps. Sa renommée avait grandi;
l’abbé d'un monastère étant mort, toute la communauté vint le trouver et lui
demander de la gouverner. Il refusa longtemps, et dit d'avance aux moines que
leurs moeurs ne s'accordaient point avec les siennes; enfin il fut forcé de
donner son consentement. Mais comme il commandait que là règle fût observée
selon toute sa rigueur dans le cloître, les moines se reprochaient l’un à
l’autre de l’avoir demandé pour leur chef, car leur irrégularité blessait
l’amour qu'il avait pour le devoir. Quand ils s'aperçurent qu'avec lui il ne
leur était plus possible de faire le mal et que c'était chose pénible de rompre
leurs habitudes, ils mêlèrent du poison avec son vin et le lui servirent à
table. Mais Benoît fit le signe de la croix, ce qui brisa le verre comme par un
coup de pierre. Il comprit donc qu'il y avait là une boisson de mort,
puisqu'elle n'avait pu recevoir le signe de la vie; il se leva aussitôt et il
dit avec calme : « Que le Dieu tout-puissant ait pitié de vous, mes frères; ne
vous ai-je pas dit que vos moeurs et les miennes ne s'accordaient pas? » Il
revint alors à la solitude qu'il avait quittée; et où ses miracles qui se
multipliaient tous les jours le rendirent célèbre. Une foule de personnes étant
venues à lui, il bâtit douze monastères. En l’un d'eux, il y avait un moine qui
ne pouvait pas vaquer longtemps à la prière, mais pendant que les autres
étaient à l’oraison, il allait dehors et se livrait à des distractions
terrestres et futiles. L'abbé de ce monastère en ayant instruit saint Benoît,
celui-ci s'empressa de venir; il vit qu'un petit enfant noir tirait dehors, par
le bord de son habit, ce moine qui ne pouvait pas rester à la prière ; et il
dit à l’abbé du monastère et au moine saint Maur : « Est-ce que vous ne voyez
pas quel est celui qui le tire ? » Et comme ils répondaient : « Non; » il dit :
« Prions pour que vous le voyiez aussi. » Et pendant qu'ils priaient, saint
Maur vit, mais l’abbé ne put voir. Un autre jour donc, après la prière, l’homme
de Dieu rencontra le moine dehors, et le frappa avec une verge à cause de son
aveuglement; depuis ce temps, il resta à la prière, sans plus sortir. Ce fut
ainsi que l’antique ennemi de l’homme n'osa plus maîtriser les pensées du
moine, comme s'il eût reçu lui-même les coups. De ces monastères il y en avait
trois élevés sur les rochers d'une montagne, et c'était avec un grand labeur
qu'on tirait l’eau d'en bas : comme les frères priaient souvent l’homme de Dieu
de changer les monastères de lieu, une nuit il alla avec un enfant au haut de
la montagne où, après avoir prié longtemps, il mit trois pierres en cet endroit
pour servir de signe. Rentré le matin à la maison, les frères vinrent le
trouver pour la même causé et il leur dit : « Allez creuser au milieu de la
roche sur laquelle vous trouverez trois pierres, car le Seigneur peut vous en
faire jaillir de l’eau: » Ils y allèrent et ils trouvèrent cette roche déjà
couverte de gouttes; ils y creusèrent un trou et bientôt ils le virent plein
d'eau : elle coule encore jusqu'à présent en assez grande quantité pour
descendre du sommet de la montagne jusqu'en bas. Une fois, un homme coupait des
ronces avec une faux autour du monastère de l’homme de Dieu; or, le fer sauta
du manche et tomba dans uri lac profond; et comme cet homme s'en tourmentait
fort, saint Benoît mit le manche sur le lac et un instant après le fer vint
nager vers son manche.
Un jeune moine appelé Placide, en allant puiser de l’eau, tomba dans le fleuve;
bientôt l’eau l’emporta et l’entraîna loin de ta terre presque à la distance du
jet d'une flèche. Or, l’homme de Dieu qui était assis dans sa cellule vit cela
en esprit tout aussitôt; il appela Maur, lui raconta l’accident arrivé à cet
enfant et lui commanda d'aller le sauver. Après avoir reçu la bénédiction du
saint, Maur, s'empressa d'y aller, et pensant qu'il marchait sur la terre, il
vint sur l’eau jusqu'auprès de l’enfant qu'il tira en le prenant par les
cheveux : puis il revint rapporter à l’homme de Dieu ce qui lui était arrivé;
mais le saint l’attribua non pas à ses mérites, mais à l’obéissance de Maur. —
Un prêtre du nom de Florent, envieux du saint, conçut une telle aversion contre
lui qu'il envoya à l’homme de Dieu un pain empoisonné pour du pain bénit. Le
saint le reçut avec reconnaissance, et le jeta au corbeau qui avait coutume de
recevoir du pain dé, ses mains, en lui disant : « Au nom de J.-C., prends ce
pain et jette-le en tel endroit que homme vivant ne le puisse prendre. » Alors
le corbeau ouvrit le bec, étendit les ailes, se mit à courir autour du pain et
à croasser avec force, comme s'il eût voulu dire qu'il voulait bien obéir, mais
que cependant il ne pouvait faire ce qui lui était commandé. Le saint lui
commanda à diverses reprises en disant : « Prends, prends, n'aie pas peur, et
jette-le, ainsi que j'ai dit. » Enfin le corbeau prit le pain, ne revint que
trois jours après et reçut de la main de Benoît sa ration accoutumée. Florent,
voyant donc qu'il ne pouvait pas tuer le corps de son maître; résolut de tuer
les âmes des religieux : il fit alors folâtrer et chanter sept jeunes filles
toutes nues dans le jardin du monastère, afin d'exciter les moines à la luxure.
Le saint ayant vu cela de sa cellule et craignant que ses disciples ne
tombassent dans le péché, céda la place a l’envieux et prit quelques frères
avec lesquels il alla habiter ailleurs. Mais Florent, qui se trouvait sur une
terrasse, le voyant s'en .aller, en conçut de la joie, lorsque tout à coup la
terrasse s'affaissa et le tua à l’instant. Alors. Maur courut dire à l’homme de
Dieu : « Revenez, parce que celui qui vous persécutait est tué. Aussitôt qu'il
eut entendu cela, le saint poussa de grands gémissements, soit à cause de la
mort de son ennemi, soit parce que son disciple s'en était réjoui. Il lui
infligea une pénitence de ce qu'en lui annonçant; un pareil malheur, il avait
eu la présomption de se réjouir de la, mort d'un méchant. Quant à Benoît, il
n'évita pas l’ennemi en changeant le lieu de sa demeure : car il vint au mont
Cassin, et du temple d'Apollon qui s'y trouvait, il fit un oratoire en
l’honneur de saint Jean-Baptiste ; et convertit de l’idolâtrie tout le peuple
d'alentour. Mais l’antique ennemi, supportant cela avec peine, lui apparaissait
visiblement sous une forme hideuse; sa bouche et ses yeux paraissaient jeter
des flammes; il l’insultait en disant : «Benoît, Benoît, » mais comme le saint
ne lui répondait rien, au lieu de Benoît, Bénedict; il disait : « Maudit,
maudit, pourquoi me persécutes-tu? » Un jour les frères voulaient élever une
pierre qui était par terre pour la mettre en oeuvre, mais ils ne pouvaient y
parvenir. Des hommes en grand nombre qui étaient là ne pouvaient non plus la
soulever, quand l’homme de Dieu arrivant, donna sa bénédiction et la pierre
fut, élevée avec la plus grande célérité; ce qui fit juger que le diable était
assis dessus et empêchait de la mouvoir. Quand la muraille eut atteint une
certaine hauteur, le démon apparut à l’homme de Dieu et lui fit signe d'aller
trouver les frères : aussitôt il leur envoya dire par un exprès
« Mes frères, prenez garde à vous, parce que le malin esprit vient vers vous. »
A peine le messager, eut-il fini de parler que le démon fait tomber la muraille
dont la chute écrasa un jeune religieux. Mais l’homme de Dieu fit apporter le
mort tout brisé en un sac, le ressuscita par une prière et le renvoya à son
travail.
Un laïc, homme d'honnête vie, avait coutume, chaque année, de venir à jeun
visiter saint Benoît. Un jour qu'il. y venait, s'adjoignit à lui un autre
personnage, chargé de vivres, pour son voyage : or, comme il se faisait tard,
ce dernier dit : « Frère, venez et mangeons pour que nous ne soyons pas
fatigués en chemin. » Sur sa réponse qu'il ne goûterait à aucune nourriture en
route, l’autre se tut pour l’heure; peu de temps après, il lui fit encore la
même invitation, mais le laïc ne voulut pas céder. Enfin une heure entière
s'étant écoulée, dans la fatigue du voyage, ils arrivèrent à un pré avec une
fontaine, et où l’on pouvait se reposer et se rafraîchir. Alors le voyageur en
lui montrant ce lieu le pria de s'y arrêter un instant pour manger, Ces paroles
ayant flatté les oreilles du laïc et le lieu ayant charmé ses yeux, il
consentit. Lorsqu'il fut arrivé auprès de saint Benoît, l’homme de Dieu lui dit
: « Frère, voici que le malin n'a pas pu vous persuader une première fois, ni
une seconde fois, mais la troisième il l’a emporté. » Alors le laïc se jeta à
ses pieds et pleura sa faute. — Totila, roi des Goths, voulant éprouver si
l’homme de Dieu avait l’esprit de prophétie, donna à un de ses gardés ses
vêtements royaux et l’envoya au monastère avec tout l’appareil d'un souverain.
Quand Benoît le vit venir, il dit: « Otez, mon fils, ôtez : ce que vous portez
n'est pas à vous. » Celui-ci se jeta à l’instant à terre, et il eut une grande
frayeur d'avoir osé vouloir se jouer d'un si, grand homme. — Un clerc,
tourmenté par le diable, fut amené à Benoît pour en recevoir guérison, et quand
le diable eut été chassé de son corps, Benoît dit : « Allez et dorénavant ne
mangez pas de viande, et n'approchez pas des saints ordres : car le jour où
vous aurez la présomption de les recevoir, vous appartiendrez au démon. » Le
clerc garda cette recommandation un certain temps; mais voyant que l’époque
approchait de passer des ordres mineurs aux ordres sacrés, il ne tint pas
compte des paroles du saint, comme si un long espace de temps les lui eût fait
oublier, et reçut l’ordre sacré. Mais aussitôt le diable, qui l’avait quitté,
s'empara de lui et ne cessa de le tourmenter jusqu'à ce qu'il lui eût fait
rendre l’âme. - Un homme envoya, par un enfant, à saint Benoît, deux flacons de
vin; or, l’enfant en cacha un dans le chemin et porta l’autre; l’homme de Dieu
reçut avec reconnaissance cet unique flacon et donna cet avis à l’enfant lors
de son départ : « Mon fils, garde-toi de boire de ce flacon que tu as caché;
mais incline-le avec précaution et regarde ce qu'il contient. » Celui-ci se
retira tout confus : en revenant, il voulut s'assurer de ce que le saint lui
avait dit; et quand il eut incliné le flacon, aussitôt il en sortit un serpent.
— Une fois, l’homme de Dieu soupait alors qu'il faisait nuit; un moine, fils
d'un avocat, l’assistait en tenant une lampe, et par esprit d'orgueil se mit à
penser à part soi : « Quel est cet homme pendant le repas duquel j'assiste,
auquel je tiens une lampe, que je suis réduit à servir? Qui suis-je moi pour
que je sois son serviteur? » Aussitôt l’homme de Dieu lui dit : « Fais le signe
de la croix sur ton coeur, mon frère, fais le signe de croix sur ton coeur;
qu'as-tu à dire? » Et il appela les frères, leur dit de prendre la lampé de ses
mains ; pour lui, il le fit aller au monastère et lui commanda de rester en
repos: — Un Goth appelé Zalla, hérétique arien du temps du roi Totila, exerça
avec fureur des actes atroces de cruauté contre les personnes religieuses
appartenant à la foi catholique; tout clerc ou tout moine qui venait en sa
présence, ne sortait pas de ses mains la vie sauve. Un jour, poussé par
l’esprit d'avarice et ne pensant que rapine, ce roi faisait endurer à un
habitant de la campagne des tourments cruels, et lui infligeait différentes
torturés; vaincu par la douleur, le paysan déclara avoir mis sa personne et ses
biens sous la protection du serviteur de Dieu, Benoît. Le bourreau le crut et
cessa de tourmenter le patient qui revint à la vie. Mais en cessant de le
tourmenter, Zallalui fit lier les bras avec de fortes courroies, et le fit
marcher en avant de son cheval pour qu'il lui montrât ce Benoît qui avait reçu
son bien. Le paysan marcha donc devant lui, les bras liés, et le mena au
monastère du saint homme qu'il trouva seul assis à la porte de sa cellule et
faisant une lecture. Le paysan, dit à Zalla qui le suivait par derrière et qui
le tourmentait : « Voici celui dont je vous ai parlé, le Père Benoît. » Zalla;
l’esprit échauffé, le regarda avec un air méchant et croyant agi avec lui comme
avec les autres, il se mit à crier de toutes ses forces en disant : « Lève-toi,
lève-toi; rends les biens de ce rustaud : rends ce que tu as pris. » A cette
voix, l’homme de Dieu leva vite les yeux, cessa de lire, puis jeta un coup d'oeil
sur Zalla et sur le paysan qu'il remarqua être tenu par des liens: Ayant tourné
les yeux vers les bras de cet homme, les courroies qui le liaient se
détachèrent miraculeusement avec une telle vitesse que personne, tout habile
qu'il eût été, n'eût pu le faire en si peu de temps. Le captif ayant été
soudain mis en liberté, Zalla, effrayé d'un pareil trait de puissance, se jeta
contre terre et baissant sa tête cruelle jusqu'aux pieds du saint, il se
recommanda à ses prières. Quant au saint homme, il ne se leva pas, il
n'interrompit point sa lecture mais il appela les frères auxquels il enjoignit
d'introduire Zalla dans la maison pour y recevoir la bénédiction. A son retour,
il l’avertit de ne plus se livrer à de pareils excès de cruauté. Zalla prit une
réfection, s'en alla, et ne s'avisa plus de réclamer rien du paysan que l’homme
de Dieu avait délié non pas avec les mains, mais de son regard.
A une époque, la famine exerçait ses ravages sur le pays de la Campanie. On
était en proie à la disette et déjà au monastère de saint Benoît le blé
manquait ; presque tous les pains avaient été mangés, de sorte qu'il n'y en
avait plus que cinq pour la collation des frères. Le vénérable abbé, qui les
voyait tous consternés, s'attacha à les reprendre avec modération de leur
pusillanimité, et à les encourager peu à peu par des promesses, en disant : «
Pourquoi donc votre esprit est-il dans la tristesse de ce qu'il n'y a pas de
pain? Aujourd'hui, Il est vrai, il est en petite quantité, mais demain, il y en
aura en abondance. » Or, le jour suivant, on trouva devant la porte du couvent
deux cents boisseaux de farine dans des sacs que le Dieu tout puissant avait
envoyés sans qu'on sache encore à présent par quels moyens. A cette vue, les
frères rendirent grâces à Dieu et apprirent qu'il ne fallait s'inquiéter ni de
l’abondance ni de la disette. — On lit encore, qu'un homme avait un fils
attaqué d'un éléphantiasis * en sorte que déjà ses cheveux tombaient, sa peau
s'enflait et il n'était plus possible de cacher la sanie qui allait en
augmentant. Le père l’envoya à Benoît qui lui rendit, subitement sa santé
première. Ils en témoignèrent de grandes grâces à Dieu et dans la suite
l’enfant persévéra dans de bonnes oeuvres, et mourut heureusement dans le
Seigneur. — Lé saint avait envoyé un certain nombre de frères en un endroit
pour y élever un monastère, et les prévint que tel jour il viendrait les voir
pour leur donner le plan des constructions. Or, la nuit qui précédait le jour
indiqué, il apparut en songe à un moine qu'il avait mis à la tête de l’oeuvre
et à son prévost, et leur désigna en détail chacun des endroits où ils devaient
bâtira Mais comme ils n'ajoutaient pas foi à la vision qu'ils avaient eue et
qu'ils attendaient le saint, à la fin ils retournèrent le trouver et lui dirent:
« Père, nous attendions que vous viendriez comme vous l’aviez promis, et vous
n'êtes pas venu. » Il leur dit : « Frères, pourquoi dire cela? Ne vous ai-je
point apparu et ne vous ai-je, pas désigné chaque endroit? Allez et disposez
tout ainsi que vous l’avez vu. »
Non loin du monastère de Benoît, vivaient deux religieuses de noble lignée, qui
ne contenaient pas leur langue; parleurs propos indiscrets, elles portaient
souvent à la colère leur supérieur : celui-ci en informa l’homme de Dieu qui
fit donner cet avis aux religieuses : « Réprimez votre langue, autrement je
vous excommunierai (excommunication qu'il ne lança pas par ces paroles, mais
dont il les menaça). Ces religieuses ne changèrent point et moururent quelques
jours après, elles furent ensevelies dans l’élise. Mais pendant la messe et
quand le diacre dit comme de coutume : « Que celui qui n'est pas de la
communion sorte dehors,» la nourrice de ces religieuses, qui toujours offrait
l’oblation pour elles les vit sortir de leurs tombés, et sortir de l’église :
ceci ayant été rapporté à Benoît, le saint donna de ses propres mains une
offrande en disant : « Allez et présentez cette offrande pour elles, et elles
ne seront plus excommuniées désormais. » Ce qui ayant été exécuté, lorsque le
diacre chantait la formule d'ordinaire, on ne les vit plus quitter l’église. —
Un moine était sorti pour visiter ses parents sans avoir la bénédiction, et le
jour qu'il arriva chez eux, il mourut. Quand il fut enterré, la terre le rejeta
une première et une deuxième fois. Ses parents vinrent trouver saint Benoît et
le prièrent de lui donner sa bénédiction. Il prit alors le corps de N. S. et
dit : « Allez poser ceci sur la poitrine du mort et ensevelissez-le ainsi. » On
le fit et la terre garda le corps ainsi enseveli et ne le rejeta plus. — Un
moine, qui ne voulait pas rester dans le monastère, insista tant auprès de
l’homme de Dieu que celui-ci, tout contrarié, lui permit de s'en aller. Mais il
ne fut pas plutôt hors du cloître qu'il rencontra en son chemin un dragon, la
gueule ouverte. Dans l’intention de s'en) garer, il se mit à crier : «
Accourez, accourez, il y a un rayon ; il me veut dévorer. » Les frères
accoururent, mais ne trouvèrent point de dragon,; alors ils ramenèrent au
monastère le moine tout tremblant et ébranlé. Il promit à (instant que jamais
il ne sortirait du moustier. — Une famine extraordinaire ravageait tout le pays
et l’homme de Dieu avait donné aux pauvres tout ce qu'il avait pu trouver; en
sorte qu'il ne restait, dans le monastère, qu'un peu d'huile dans un vase de
verre; il commanda alors au célérier de donner ce peu d'huile à un pauvre. Le
célérier entendit bien ce que saint Benoit lui commandait, mais il se décida à
faire fi de ses ordres, parce qu'il ne restait plus d'huile pour les frères. Dès
que l’homme de Dieu s'en aperçut, il commanda de jeter le vase de verre avec
l’huile par la fenêtre afin qu'il ne restât rien dans le monastère contre
l’obéissance. On jeta donc le vase qui tomba sur des blocs de pierres, sans que
ce vase fût brisé, ni l’huile répandue; alors le saint le fit ramasser et
donner en entier au pauvre. Puis il reprocha au moine sa désobéissance et sa
défiance ; il se mit ensuite en prières: aussitôt un grand tonneau qui se
trouvait là se remplit d'huile ; elle montait en si grande abondance qu'elle
paraissait sourdre du pavé.
Une fois il était descendu pour, faire visite à sa soeur, et comme il était
resté jusqu'à l’heure du souper, elle le pria de passer la nuit chez elle :
comme il n'y voulait pas consentir, elle s'inclina, appuya la tête sur ses
mains pour prier le Seigneur et quand elle se, releva, il se fit de si grands
éclairs et du tonnerre si violent, la pluie tomba avec tant d'abondance, qu'il
n'eût su où poser les pieds, quoique un instant auparavant le ciel fût parfaitement
serein. Or, en répandant un torrent de larmes, elle avait fait changer la
sérénité de l’air, et attiré la pluie L'homme de Dieu tout contristé lui dit :
« Que le Dieu tout puissant vous le pardonne, ma soeur; qu'est-ce que vous avez
fait? » Elle lui répondit : « Je vous ai prié et vous n’avez pas voulu
m’écouter; j’ai prié le Seigneur et il m’a bien entendue. Sortez maintenant, si
vous le pouvez. » Et il en advint ainsi pour qu'ils pussent passer la nuit
toute entière en s'édifiant mutuellement dans de saints entretiens. Trois jours
après qu'il fut revenu au monastère, en levant les yeux, il vit l’âme de sa
soeur, sous la forme d'une colombe qui pénétrait jusqu'aux profondeurs du ciel:
et bientôt il fit porter son corps au monastère où il fut inhumé dans un
tombeau qu'il avait fait préparer pour lui. — Une nuit que le serviteur de Dieu
regardait par une fenêtre et priait Dieu, il vit se répandre en l’air une
lumière qui dissipa toutes les ténèbres de la nuit. Or, à l’instant tout
l’univers s'offrit à ses yeux comme s'il eût été rassemblé sous un rayon de
soleil et il vit l’âme de saint Germain, évêque de Capoue, portée au ciel :
dans la, suite il put s'assurer évidemment que c'était l’heure à laquelle elle,
quitta le corps du prélat.
L'année même de sa mort, il en prédit le jour à ses frères : et avant le
sixième qui précéda son trépas, il fit ouvrir son sépulcre. Bientôt il fut
saisi de la fièvre, et comme la faiblesse augmentait à chaque instant, le
sixième jour, il se fit porter à l’oratoire, où il se prépara à la mort par la
réception du corps et du sang de N. S.; alors, soutenant ses membres
défaillants sur les mains des frères, il se tint debout, les yeux élevés vers
le ciel et rendit son dernier soupir en priant. Le jour même que l’homme de
Dieu passa de cette vie au ciel, deux frères, dont un était dans sa cellule, et
l’autre fort éloigné, eurent la même révélation : ils virent une traînée de
lumière, ornée de tapis et resplendissante d'une quantité innombrable de
lampes, qui, partant de la cellule de saint Benoît, se dirigeait vers le ciel
du côté de l’orient. L'un d'eux demanda à un personnage vénérable qui parut
tout brillant sur cette trace, ce que c'était que ce chemin qu'ils voyaient,
car ils ne le savaient pas, et il leur fut dit : «Voilà le chemin par lequel
Benoît, l’homme chéri de Dieu, monte au ciel. » II fut inhumé dans l’oratoire
de saint Jean-Baptiste qu'il avait construit lui-même sur un autel dédié à
Apollon et qu'il avait renversé. Il vécut vers l’an du Seigneur 518, au temps
de Justin l’ancien.
* Maladie qui rend la peau rugueuse comme celle de l’éléphant.
La Légende dorée de Jacques de Voragine nouvellement traduite en
français avec introduction, notices, notes et recherches sur les sources par
l'abbé J.-B. M. Roze, chanoine honoraire de la Cathédrale d'Amiens, Édouard
Rouveyre, éditeur, 76, rue de Seine, 76, Paris mdcccci
SOURCE : http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/voragine/tome01/051.htm
Juan
Rizi (1600–1681), La cena de San Benito (San Benito de Nursia), XVIIe, 185 x 216, Museo del Prado
Saint Benoît
La fête de saint Benoît, célébrée le 11 juillet, est celle de la translation de
ses reliques. Le corps de saint Benoît reposa d’abord au Mont Cassin qui, après
le passage des Lombards, resta vide de moines. En 672, l’abbé de Fleury, Mummolus,
envoya au Mont Cassin une troupe de moines, sous la conduite d’Aigulphe, pour
récupérer les reliques de saint Benoît. Petronax ayant restauré le Mont Cassin,
le pape Zacharie, en 750, demanda la restitution du corps de saint Benoît dont
l’abbé de Fleury ne rendit qu’une part, entre 755 et 757.
La naissance de saint Benoît ne devrait pas être pour nous un simple fait d'une
histoire fort ancienne, tant l’esprit de saint Benoît est toujours présent et à
l'œuvre dans l'Eglise. La Règle qu'il nous a laissée et dont on a pu dire
qu'elle nous donnait un reflet particulièrement pur de l'Evangile, comme le
témoignage de sa vie sont pleinement actuels non seulement pour ses fils et ses
filles, les moines et les moniales, mais aussi pour tous les fidèles. C'est, pour
chacun d'entre nous une invitation à la prière, à la médiation des textes
saints et à la charité fraternelle.
Plutôt que sur la naissance de Benoît à Nursie (vers 480), attardons-nous sur
sa mort, c'est-à-dire sur sa naissance à la vie qui ne finit pas, et
transportons-nous en esprit en l'an 547, sur le Mont-Cassin où Benoît s'était
établi près de vingt ans auparavant après avoir été contraint de quitter ses
fondations de Subiaco.
Ecoutons le saint pape Grégoire-le-Grand : Six jours avant son trépas, il
ordonna d'ouvrir sa tombe, et bientôt il fut pris d'une fièvre qui l'épuisa. Le
mal s'aggravant de jour en jour, le sixième il se fit porter à l'oratoire par
ses disciples, et là il reçut le corps et le sang du Seigneur pour en munir son
départ. Puis, appuyant ses membres affaiblis sur les bras de ses disciples, il
se mit debout, les mains levées au ciel, et dans son dernier souffle murmurait
des prières. Ce jour-là, deux frères, l'un en cellule, l'autre plus loin,
eurent la même apparition d'une vision identique. ils virent une voie jonchée
de tapis et brillant d'innombrables feux, qui, droit vers l'Orient, allait de
la cellule de Benoît jusqu'au ciel. Un homme d'aspect surnaturel s'y tenait,
étincelant, et leur demanda quel était ce chemin. Les disciples avouèrent ne
pas le savoir ; alors il leur dit : « C'est la voie par laquelle Benoît,
précieux au Seigneur, est monté au ciel. » (Dialogue, XXXVII.)
Saint Benoît a donc vécu sa mort comme une célébration de la venue et de la
rencontre du Seigneur, résumé et couronnement de sa vie. Lui, qui avait fait
don de toute sa vie, va recevoir la couronne de vie (Apocalypse II 10). Dans
l'Office divin, Benoît avaient, chaque semaine, repris ce verset du psalmiste :
Je veux te bénir en ma vie, à ton Nom élever les mains (Psaume LXIII), parole
qu'il vivait en plénitude ; corps et âme tendus vers son Seigneur, au moment de
la Rencontre, il incarnait le dernier des psaumes des montées qui
accompagnaient le pèlerinage à Jérusalem, figure de la vie terrestre : Voici maintenant
le moment de bénir le Seigneur, vous tous, les serviteurs du Seigneur, ous qui
vous tenez dans la Maison du Seigneur, dans les parvis de la Maison de notre
Dieu. Au long des nuits, levez vos mains vers le Sanctuaire et bénissez le
Seigneur (Psaume 134).Voilà le terme de la route où Benoît attend la parole que
le Seigneur avait jadis dite à Moïse : Voici une place près de moi (Exode
XXXIII, 21)
Benoît meurt les bras levés et soutenus par ses disciples, attitude qui
rappelle ce passage du Livre de l'Exode où Moïse sur la montagne intercédait
pour Josué et tout le peuple combattant dans la plaine contre les Amlécites :
Moïse, Aaron et Hur étaient montés sur le sommet de la colline. Or, tant que
Moïse tenait ses bras levés, Israël était le plus fort. Quand il les laissait
retomber, Amalek avait l'avantage. Comme les bras de Moïse étaient engourdis,
ils prirent une pierre et la déposèrent sous lui. Il s'assit dessus tandis
qu'Aaron et Hur lui soutenaient les bras, l'un d'un côté, l'autre de l'autre.
Ainsi les bras de Moïse ne fléchirent plus juqu'au coucher du soleil. Josué
décima Amalek et ses gens par le fil de l'épée (Exode XVII 10-13).
Ce texte, traditionnellement, sert de référence lorsqu'on veut évoquer le rôle
des contemplatifs, et ce n'est pas un hasard si saint Grégoire a retenu le
récit du miracle de la source jaillie de la montagne : trois monastères perchés
sur la montagne n’avaient pas de source, Benoît qui, après avoir longuement
prié, avait disposé trois pierres et dit aux frères : Allez ; vous trouverez
sur un rocher trois pierres superposées. Creusez un peu, et vous verrez que le
Dieu Tou-Puissant sait tirer de l'eau, même au sommet de la montagne, pour vous
épargner ce chemin difficile. Nul doute que, pour saint Grégoire, saint Benoît
soit un nouveau Moïse. Moïse, guidé par Dieu, n'avait-il pas fait jaillir, dans
le désert, l'eau du rocher (Nombres, XX, I sq.) ?Or Benoît n’est un nouveau
Moïse, que parce que, disciple du Christ, il possède en plénitude l’Esprit
Saint qui avait animé Moïse et tous les prophètes.
Ce geste coutumier des orants qui fut celui de saint Benoît au moment de sa
mort est aussi un rappel de la croix qui nous sauve. C'est le geste du Christ
qui étendit les mains à l'heure de sa passion, afin que soit brisée la mort, et
que la Résurrection soit manifestée.
Ce dernier épisode de la vie terrestre de saint Benoît est riche de plusieurs
enseignements. Il nous apprend tout d'abord, que c'est à chaque instant que
nous avons à préparer, amoureusement, notre rencontre avec le Seigneur et que,
pour ce faire, il nous faut prier sans cesse, comme nous y invite saint Paul,
pour être dans la joie et dans la paix. Cependant, saint Benoît, Sachons que
nous serons exaucés non dans un flot de paroles, mais dans la pureté du cœur...
(Règle, XX) et encore : Hâtons-nous de faire maintenant ce qui doit nous
avancer pour l'éternité. Saint Benoît, par sa mort, nous enseigne aussi à ne
pas être pleins de tristesse comme ceux qui n'ont pas d'espérance (1
Thessaloniciens IV, 13). Le Seigneur est affranchit de la mort, et dans le
mystère de sa Résurrection, chaun de nous est déjà ressuscité.
Je vous salue par le Coeur de Jésus,
grand saint Benoît !
Je me réjouis de votre gloire
et je rends grâces à Notre Seigneur
de tous les bienfaits dont il vous a comblé.
Je le loue et le glorifie
et vous offre en accroissement de joie et d'honneur,
le Coeur très pacifique de Jésus.
Daignez donc,
ô Père bien-aimé,
prier pour nous afin que nous devenions selon le Coeur de Dieu.
Prière de Jean-Paul
II en l'honneur de saint Benoît
O saint Patriarche, nous vous invoquons : levez vos bras paternels largement
ouverts vers le Très Sainte Trinité et priez pour le monde, pour l'Eglise, et
particulièrement pour l'Europe, pour votre Europe dont vous êtes le patron
céleste : pour que celle-ci n'oublie pas, ne refuse pas, ne rejette pas
l'extraordinaire trésor de la foi chrétienne qui, pendant des siècles a animé
et fécondé l'histoire et le progrès moral, civil, culturel, artistique de ses
différentes nations ; que, par la vertu de sa matrice chrétienne, elle soit
porteuse et génératrice d'unité et de paix parmi les peuples du continent et
ceux du monde entier ; qu'elle garantisse à tous ses citoyens la sérénité, la
paix, le travail, la sécurité, les droits fondamentaux, comme ceux qui
concernent la religion, la vie de famille, le mariage.
Prière
Benoît, aimé du Seigneur,
s'étant fortifié
par la réception du Corps et du Sang de Jésus-Christ,
était debout dans l'église,
appuyant ses membres défaillants
sur les bras de ses disciples.
Les mains élevées vers le ciel,
il exhala son âme dans les paroles de la prière ;
et on le vit monter au ciel
par une voie couverte de riches tapis
et resplendissante de l'éclat d'innombrables flambeaux.
Vous avez apparu en pleine gloire
en la présence du Seigneur ;
- Et c'est pour cela que le Seigneur vous a revêtu de beauté.
O Dieu, qui avez honoré de tant et de si glorieux privilèges la précieuse mort
du très saint Père Benoît, daignez à accorder à nous qui honorons sa mémoire,
la grâce d'être protégés contre les embûches de nos ennemis, à l'heure de notre
mort, par sa bienheureuse présence. Par le Christ, notre Seigneur.
- Amen.
Avant tout, demande à Dieu par une très instante prière qu'il mène à bonne fin tout bien que tu entreprends. Ainsi, celui qui a déjà daigné nous admettre au nombre de ses enfants n'aura pas sujet, un jour, de s'affliger de notre mauvaise conduite. Car, en tout temps, il faut avoir un tel soin d'employer à son service les biens qu'il a mis en nous, que non seulement il n'ait pas lieu, comme un père offensé, de priver ses fils de leur héritage, mais encore qu'il ne soit pas obligé, comme un maître redoutable et irrité de nos méfaits, de nous livrer à la punition éternelle, tels de très mauvais serviteurs qui n'auraient pas voulu le suivre pour entrer dans la gloire. Levons-nous donc enfin, l'Écriture nous y invite : l'heure est venue, dit-elle, de sortir de notre sommeil. Ouvrons les yeux à la lumière qui divinise. Ayons les oreilles attentives à l'avertissement que Dieu nous adresse chaque jour : Si vous entendez aujourd'hui sa voix, n'endurcissez pas vos cœurs, et ailleurs : Que celui qui a des oreilles entende ce que l'Esprit dit aux Églises. Et que dit-il ? Venez, mes fils, écoutez-moi, je vous enseignerai la crainte du Seigneur. Courez, pendant que vous avez la lumière de la vie, de peur que les ténèbres de la mort ne vous saisissent.
Le Seigneur, cherchant son ouvrier dans la multitude du peuple à laquelle il fait entendre ces appels, dit encore : Quel est celui qui désire la vie et souhaite voir des jours heureux ? Que si, à cette demande, tu lui réponds : « C'est moi », Dieu te réplique: Si tu veux jouir de la vie véritable et éternelle, garde ta langue du mal et tes lèvres de toute parole trompeuse ; détourne-toi du mal et fais le bien; recherche la paix et poursuis-la. Et lorsque vous agirez de la sorte, mes yeux veilleront sur vous et mes oreilles seront attentives à vos prières, et avant même que vous ne m'invoquiez, je vous dirai : Me voici. Quoi de plus doux, frères très chers, que cette voix du Seigneur qui nous invite ; Voyez comme le Seigneur lui-même, dans sa bonté, nous montre le chemin de la vie. Ceignons donc nos reins par la foi et la pratique des bonnes œuvres; sous la conduite de l'Évangile, avançons dans ses chemins, afin de mériter de voir un jour Celui qui nous a appelés dans son royaume. Si nous voulons habiter dans le tabernacle de ce royaume, sachons qu'on n'y parvient que si l'on y court par les bonnes actions.
Comme il y a un zèle amer, mauvais, qui sépare de Dieu et conduit en enfer, de même il y a un bon zèle qui éloigne des vices, et conduit à Dieu et à la vie éternelle. C'est ce zèle que les moines doivent pratiquer avec une ardente charité, c'est-à-dire : Ils s'honoreront mutuellement de leurs prévenances. Ils supporteront très patiemment les infirmités d'autrui, tant celles du corps que celles de l'esprit. Ils s'obéiront à l'envi les uns aux autres. Nul ne recherchera ce qu'il juge utile pour soi, mais bien plutôt ce qui l'est pour autrui. Ils se rendront chastement les devoirs de la charité fraternelle. Ils auront pour Dieu une crainte inspirée par l'amour : ils auront pour leur abbé un amour humble et sincère. Ils ne préféreront absolument rien au Christ, qui veut nous conduire tous ensemble à la vie éternelle.
SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/07/11.php
Notre saint Père Benoît vit
le jour vers 480, à Nursie, petite ville de province située dans les montagnes
au nord-est de Rome, au sein d'une famille chrétienne pieuse et aisée. Envoyé à
Rome pour ses études, celui qui avait acquis dès son enfance la sagesse d'un
vieillard, désireux de plaire à Dieu seul, dédaigna les plaisirs du monde et
ses vaines promesses, pour se mettre en quête du saint habit monastique.
Comme il s'était arrêté dans la bourgade d'Effide, sa nourrice, qui l'avait
suivi avec l'attachement d'une mère, emprunta un crible en terre cuite pour
nettoyer le grain, en vue de préparer du pain. Mais le vase se brisa en tombant
à terre. Voyant le chagrin de sa nourrice, le jeune garçon se mit à prier avec
larmes et lorsqu'il se releva il lui remit l'objet intact. Dans leur admiration
pour ce miracle, les habitants suspendirent le crible à la porte de l'église.
Mais, craignant de se voir privé de la faveur divine par la vaine gloire des
hommes, Benoît s'enfuit alors clandestinement et se retira à Subiaco, dans une
grotte perchée à plus de six cents mètres d'altitude, où il demeura inconnu des
hommes, sauf d'un moine cénobite, Romain, qui l'avait revêtu du saint habit
monastique et venait lui apporter en secret des provisions qu'il économisait
sur sa propre portion.
Au bout de trois ans Dieu, qui ne voulait pas laisser cachée sa vertu, révéla
la cachette de son serviteur à un Prêtre qui, le jour de Pâques, vint lui
apporter de la nourriture. Benoît, qui avait oublié toute notion du temps, le
salua en disant : « Je sais bien que c'est Pâques, puisque j'ai l'honneur de te
voir! » Peu après des bergers le découvrirent à leur tour et, dès lors, un
grand nombre de personnes vint lui rendre visite pour recevoir une parole de
salut.
Un jour, alors que le Saint priait seul, le démon lui apparut sous la forme
d'un merle noir et, aussitôt après, il fut terriblement assailli par les feux
de la tentation chamelle, à tel point qu'il était presque décidé à quitter sa
solitude lorsque, sous l'impulsion de la Grâce, il se jeta nu dans un buisson
d'orties et de ronces, et remporta ainsi, par la douleur, une victoire
définitive sur la volupté. Gratifié par Dieu de l'impassibilité de la chair, il
pouvait à bon droit devenir dès lors maître de vertu pour les autres, comme un
homme mûr.
Le supérieur du Monastère voisin de Vicovaro étant venu à mourir, les moines insistèrent
auprès de Benoît et parvinrent à le convaincre de prendre leur direction. Mais,
dès que celui-ci voulut leur imposer une stricte discipline évangélique, qui se
heurtait à leur conduite tortueuse, ils commencèrent à murmurer contre lui et
en vinrent même à tenter de l'empoisonner. Mais aussitôt que l'homme de Dieu
fit le signe de croix au-dessus de la carafe contenant le breuvage de mort
qu'on lui présentait, celle-ci se brisa. Le visage serein et l'âme en paix,
sans aucune haine pour ses ennemis, il quitta ceux qui étaient incorrigibles et
retourna au désert, pour habiter avec lui-même et veiller constamment sur son
coeur en présence de son Créateur, sans laisser l'oeil de son âme répandre ses
regards à l'extérieur. ,
Comme il allait croissant en vertus et dans la contemplation, il attira à lui
de nombreux disciples et des nobles de Rome vinrent lui confier leurs fils :
Maur (cf. le 27 janvier) et l'enfant Placide2. Il les organisa en douze
monastères, répartis aux alentours et comportant chacun douze moines, à la tête
desquels se trouvait un supérieur qui rendait compte à l'homme de Dieu de tout
ce qui concernait la vie commune et l'avancement spirituel de chaque moine.
Benoît était à la fois leur père spirituel et le modèle vivant de la parfaite observance
monastique. Il subvenait à tous leurs besoins matériels par l'assistance de la
grâce divine et, discernant les pensées secrètes de leur coeur, il n'hésitait
pas, dans son amour paternel, à les corriger, parfois par des peines
corporelles, pour leur faire quitter leurs mauvaises habitudes.
Ses vertus et de tels miracles suscitèrent cependant de nouvelles tribulations
au Saint. Un Prêtre nommé Florent, pris de jalousie à son égard sous la
suggestion du diable, se mit à répandre sur lui toutes sortes de calomnies, en
vue d'éloigner ses visiteurs, et il alla même jusqu'à lui envoyer, un jour, un
pain empoisonné. En recevant ce cadeau maléfique, Benoît le tendit à un
corbeau, qui avait coutume de venir prendre sa pitance de sa main, et lui
ordonna d'aller le jeter dans un lieu où personne ne pourrait le trouver. Le
Prêtre indigne n'en cessa pas pour autant de dresser des embûches au Saint et,
voyant qu'il ne pouvait rien contre Benoît lui-même, il entreprit de faire
tomber ses disciples en envoyant sept jeunes filles danser nues sous leurs
regards, dans le jardin du monastère. Craignant de devenir cause de chute pour
ses frères, Benoît décida de ne pas résister davantage au méchant et, après
avoir donné ses dernières recommandations aux supérieurs des monastères, il
quitta Subiaco à la tête d'un petit groupe de disciples (vers 529). Quand il
apprit, quel que temps après, la mort accidentelle de Florent, l'Homme de Dieu
se lamenta sincèrement sur lui et soumit à la pénitence un de ses disciples qui
s'en était réjoui.
Ils parvinrent au Mont Cassin, montagne élevée située à mi-chemin entre Rome et
Naples, au sommet de laquelle se trouvait un temple jadis dédié au culte
d'Apollon. Le Saint commença par briser l'idole et renversa l'autel pour
transformer le temple en une église dédiée à Saint Martin de Tours (cf. 11
novembre). Il rasa les bois, où les habitants se livraient encore aux cultes
idolâtres et réussit à les convertir par sa parole apostolique. Criant de dépit
et maudissant Benoît, Satan essaya de dresser des embûches aux moines dans la
construction du monastère, mais chaque fois la puissance de Dieu le mettait en
déroute.
Le roi des Ostrogoths, Totila, qui ravageait alors l'Italie par une guerre
sanguinaire, voulant éprouver l'esprit prophétique du Saint, envoya à sa place
son écuyer revêtu de tous ses ornements royaux, mais dès qu'il vit apparaître
le brillant équipage, l'homme de Dieu cria : « Quitte, mon fils, ce qui ne
t'appartient pas! » Totila vint alors en personne se prosterner aux pieds du Saint
qui le releva lui-même, lui reprocha ses mauvaises actions et lui prédit qu'il
trouverait la mort après dix ans de règne dans Rome. Cette prédiction se
réalisa exactement, en 556.
Une autre fois, il apparut en songe au supérieur qu'il avait désigné pour un
monastère à Terracine, et il lui indiqua tous les emplacements des bâtiments
conventuels qu'il devait construire.
En temps de disette, il fit, par sa prière, abonder le blé et l'huile au
monastère, afin de laisser ses moines vaquer sans soucis à l'oeuvre de Dieu, à
laquelle rien ne doit être préférable3. Il avait organisé la louange de Dieu
avec mesure, pour qu'elle soit accessible à tous, en se fondant sur la
tradition des Pères d'Orient et sur les usages romains de son temps.
Constamment uni à Dieu par la prière, il n'en dédaignait pas pour autant le
travail manuel avec ses moines. Un jour, en revenant des champs, il vit à la
porte du monastère le corps inanimé d'un enfant que son père avait déposé là.
Poussé par sa compassion, Benoît supplia le Seigneur au nom de la foi de ce
père éploré, et l'enfant reprit vie. Les paroles mêmes du Saint avaient une
puissance divine et elles avaient aussi le pouvoir de châtier ou de délier les
âmes des défunts.
En ces temps de guerres et d'invasions, il prédit qu'au dépérissement de Rome,
naguère capitale du monde, devait succéder la destruction du Mont Cassin par
les Lombards (583). C'est peut-être en ayant en vue cette prophétie que, sur la
fin de ses jours, il rédigea sa Règle, document admirable de discernement
spirituel et d'une sobriété toute latine, qui devint la véritable charte des
moines d'Occident4. En se fondant sur les écrits des Saints Pères : Pachôme,
Basile et Cassien, et sur les institutions monastiques qu'il avait adoptées
dans son propre monastère, il y expose les principes et les lois de
fonctionnement d'un monastère cénobitique.
Pour Saint Benoît le monastère est l'Eglise en résumé et une école où l'on
apprend le service du Seigneur5 sous la conduite de l'Abbé et au moyen de la
sainte obéissance aux commandements évangéliques. C'est là qu'en persévérant
jusqu'à la mort et en prenant part, par la patience, à la Passion de notre
Seigneur Jésus-Christ, que les moines pourront progresser de vertu en vertu
afin d'atteindre son Royaume éternel. Si, dans les débuts, il leur faut faire
violence à la nature rétive, dans la mesure où ils se libéreront de leur
égoïsme leur coeur se dilatera et ils pourront courir dans la voie des
préceptes de Dieu avec une ineffable douceur d'amour.
Tout comme l'Evêque dans l'église locale, l'Abbé tient dans le monastère la
place du Christ6, et il doit rendre compte devant Dieu de l'obéissance de ses
disciples, en donnant tout son soin à les instruire, certes par sa parole mais
surtout par l'exemple de sa propre vie. Père spirituel plein d'amour, il doit
aussi savoir tempérer sa douceur par une juste sévérité et, s'il a toute
autorité dans le domaine spirituel, il doit agir avec conseil en ce qui
concerne la vie matérielle de la communauté et doit répartir les responsabilités
entre les différents "officiers". Après avoir exposé les instruments
des bonnes oeuvres, les vertus monastiques et les degrés de l'humilité qui nous
fait accéder à la charité, c'est-à-dire l'union avec Dieu, Saint Benoît définit
comment doivent être célébrés les Offices divins du jour et de la nuit, et
précise qu'on doit s'y tenir, en présence de Dieu et des Anges en psalmodiant
de telle sorte que notre esprit soit en accord avec notre voix8.
Il passe ensuite en revue tous les aspects de la vie communautaire, en relevant
de manière infaillible tout ce qui pourrait être occasion de chute ou de
négligence dans les devoirs sacrés des moines : les repas, le sommeil, les
vêtements, les services ménagers, le travail manuel, les sorties du monastère,
la réception des hôtes, et les rapports des frères entre eux et avec les
étrangers. Rien n'échappe à sa sollicitude pastorale et en quelques mots il
précise ce qu'il convient de faire pour que tout s'accomplisse « dignement et
dans l'ordre » (I Cor. 14:40).
Finalement, après avoir humblement rappelé que cette Règle ne saurait être
qu'une ébauche et le commencement de la vie spirituelle, il renvoie à
l'enseignement des Saints Pères ceux qui désirent se livrer à la contemplation
pour atteindre la patrie céleste.
Quelque temps après le merveilleux et ultime entretien du saint avec sa sœur
sainte Scholastique9 et le décès de celle-ci, alors qu'il se tenait de nuit à
sa fenêtre en prière, il vit soudain une lumière fulgurante repousser les
ténèbres et, au cœur de cette lumière, il contempla le monde entier comme
ramassé sous un seul rayon de soleil. Elevé au-dessus du monde et hors de
lui-même par son union au Créateur, Benoît pouvait en effet contempler toute la
création, tout ce qui est au-dessous de Dieu, dans la lumière divine qui
jaillissait de son coeur. Ayant atteint les confins de la vie future, il vit
alors, dans cette lumière, l'âme de Germain, l'Evêque de Capoue, qui s'envolait
vers le ciel. Saint Benoît appartenait dès lors plus au ciel qu'à la terre et,
ayant annoncé le jour de sa mort, il ordonna qu'on ouvrît son tombeau, dans
lequel avait été déposé quelque temps plus tôt le corps de sa soeur, puis il
fut saisi d'une violente fièvre. Il se fit conduire à l'oratoire, reçut la
Sainte Communion et, se tenant debout, soutenu par des frères, il éleva les
mains vers le ciel et rendit son dernier soupir en murmurant les paroles d'une
ultime prière (vers 560). Le même jour des frères virent un chemin jonché de
riches tapis et illuminé d'innombrables torches s'élever de son monastère
jusqu'au ciel, et un vénérable vieillard apparut au sommet pour leur révéler
que c'était par là que le Saint était passé pour rejoindre sa patrie céleste.
Les miracles abondèrent par la suite auprès des Reliques de Saint Benoît. Mais
après la destruction du monastère par les Lombards, celles-ci furent oubliées,
jusquà ce que des moines du Monastère de Fleury-sur-Loire viennent les prendre,
au début du VIIIe siècle, pour les transférer dans leur monastère, où l'on peut
encore les vénérer de nos jours (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire).
1. Nous résumons le Livre II des Dialogues de St Grégoire, qui lui est
entièrement consacré.
2. Mémoire le 5 octobre dans l'Eglise latine.
3. Règle de Saint-Benoît, 43.
4. Cf. Notice de St Benoît d'Aniane au 12 février.
5. Règle, Prologue.
6. Ibidem.
7. Idem, 2.
8. Idem, 19.
9. Cf. la notice de celle-ci, le 10 février
SOURCE : http://calendrier.egliseorthodoxe.com/sts/stsmars/mars14bis.html
Also known as
Benedict of Narsia
Benedict of Norsia
Benedetto da Norcia
Founder of Western Monasticism
11 July (Latin
Rite since 1969;
translation of relics)
21 March (Benedictines; Norway; Monte
Cassino)
Profile
Born to the Roman nobility. Twin brother of Saint Scholastica. Studied in Rome, Italy,
but was dismayed by the lack of discipline and the lackadasical attitude of his
fellow students.
Fled to the mountains near Subiaco, Italy,
living as a hermit in
a cave for three years; reported to have been fed by a raven.
Friend of Saint Romanus
of Subiaco who lived as a nearby hermit;
spiritual teacher of Saint Placid.
Benedict’s virtues caused an abbey to
request him to lead them. Founded the monastery at Monte
Cassino, where he wrote the Rule of
his order. His discipline was such that an attempt was made on his life;
some monks tried
by poison him,
but he blessed the
cup and rendered it harmless. He returned to his cave, but continued to attract
followers, and eventually established twelve monasteries.
Had the ability to read consciences, the gift of prophesy, and could forestall
attacks of the devil. Destroyed pagan statues
and altars, drove demons from
groves sacred to pagans.
At one point there were over 40,000 monasteries guided
by the Benedictine
Rule. A summation of the Rule:
“Pray and work.”
Born
21 March 547 of
a fever while
in prayer at Monte
Cassino, Italy
buried beneath
the high altar there
in the same tomb as Saint Scholastica
1220 by Pope Honorius
III
servants
who have broken their master’s belongings
Italian farmers (proclaimed on 12 July 1959 by Pope John XXIII)
Europe (proclaimed
on 24
October 1964 by Pope Paul
VI)
Institute
of Christ the King Sovereign Priest
Storefront
broken cup
broken cup and serpent representing
poison
broken utensil
man in a Benedictine cowl holding
Benedict’s rule or a rod of discipline
Additional Information
A
Garner of Saints, by Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.
Book
of Saints, by Father Lawrence
George Lovasik, S.V.D.
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Saint Benedict of Nursia
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Rule of Saint Benedict
Fulgens
Radiatur, by Pope Pius
XII
Golden
Legend, by Jacobus
de Voragine
In
God’s Garden, by Amy Steedman
Life
of Our Most Holy Father Saint Benedict, by Pope Saint Gregory
the Great
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Pillars
of the Church, by Theodore Maynard
Pope
Benedict XVI: General Audience, 9 April 2008
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
Saints
of the Order of Saint Benedict, by Father Aegedius
Ranbeck, O.S.B.
Short
Lives of the Saints, by Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly
Stories
of the Saints for Children, by Mary Seymour
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other sites in english
Catholic Cuisine: Bread and Raven
Olga’s Gallery
Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, by the Australian Catholic
Truth Society
Vatican Radio: Celebrating Saint Benedict
images
audio
The
Idea of Saint Benedict, by Alleluia Audio Books
Saint Benedict, by Mother Frances Alice Forbes (Librivox
audiobook)
The Rule of Saint Benedict (Librivox audiobook)
e-books
Life
and Times of Saint Benedict, Patriarch of the Monks of the West, by a
Benedictine
Life
of Saint Benedict, Patriarch of the Western Monks, by Father Aurelius
McMahon, OSB
Saint
Benedict, by Mother Frances Alice Forbes
The
Rule of Saint Benedict, A Commentary, by Father Paul DeLatte
The
Teaching of saint Benedict, by Father Francis Cuthbert Doyle, OSB
video
sitios en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
sites en français
Abbé Christian-Philippe Chanut
fonti in italiano
nettsteder i norsk
Readings
Prayer ought to be short and pure, unless it be
prolonged by the inspiration of Divine grace. – Saint Benedict
Girded with a faith, and the performance of good
works, let us follow in Christ’s path by the guidance of the Gospel; then we
shall deserve to see him “who has called us into his kingdom.” If we wish to
attain a dwelling place in his kingdom, we shall not reach it unless we hasten
there by our good deeds. Just as there exists an evil fervor, a bitter spirit,
which divides us from God and leads us to hell, so there is a good fervor which
sets us apart from evil inclinations and leads us toward God and eternal life.
No one should follow what he considers to be good for himself, but rather what
seems good for another. Let them put Christ before all else; and may he lead us
all to everlasting life. – from the Rule of Saint Benedict
MLA Citation
“Saint Benedict of Nursia“. CatholicSaints.Info.
3 July 2021. Web. 12 July 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-benedict-of-nursia/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-benedict-of-nursia/
Giovanni del Biondo (fl 1356–1399). Vision
of St. Benedict, tempera and gold leaf on wood, 35.8
x 39.3, Art Gallery of Ontario
Saint Benedict
It is unfortunate that no contemporary biography was
written of a man who has exercised the greatest influence on monasticism in the
West. Benedict is well recognized in the later Dialogues of St. Gregory, but
these are sketches to illustrate miraculous elements of his career.
Benedict was born of a distinguished family in central
Italy, studied at Rome and early in life was drawn to the monastic life. At
first he became a hermit, leaving a depressing world—pagan armies on the march,
the Church torn by schism, people suffering from war, morality at a low ebb.
He soon realized that he could not live a hidden life
in a small town any better than in a large city, so he withdrew to a cave high
in the mountains for three years. Some monks chose him as their leader for a
while, but found his strictness not to their taste. Still, the shift from
hermit to community life had begun for him. He had an idea of gathering various
families of monks into one “Grand Monastery” to give them the benefit of unity,
fraternity, permanent worship in one house. Finally he began to build what was
to become one of the most famous monasteries in the world—Monte Cassino,
commanding three narrow valleys running toward the mountains north of Naples.
The Rule that gradually developed prescribed a life of
liturgical prayer, study, manual labor and living together in community under a
common father (abbot). Benedictine asceticism is known for its moderation, and
Benedictine charity has always shown concern for the people in the surrounding
countryside. In the course of the Middle Ages, all monasticism in the West was
gradually brought under the Rule of St. Benedict.
Today the Benedictine family is represented by two branches: the Benedictine Federation and the Cistercians.
SOURCE : http://ucatholic.com/saints/benedict/
Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506), Saint
Lucas altarpiece, 1453-1454, tempera on wood, Pinacoteca di Brera
St. Benedict of Nursia
Founder of western
monasticism, born at Nursia, c. 480; died at Monte
Cassino, 543. The only authentic life ofBenedict of
Nursia is that contained in the second book of St.
Gregory's "Dialogues". It is rather
a charactersketch than a biography and consists, for the most part, of a
number of miraculous incidents,
which, although they illustrate the life of the saint,
give little help towards a chronological account of his career. St.
Gregory'sauthorities for all that he relates were the saint's own disciples,
viz. Constantinus, who succeeded him as Abbotof Monte
Cassino; and Honoratus, who was Abbot of Subiaco when St.
Gregory wrote his "Dialogues".
Benedict was the son of a Roman noble of Nursia, a small town near Spoleto, and a tradition, which St. Bedeaccepts, makes him a twin with his sister Scholastica. His boyhood was spent in Rome, where he lived with hisparents and attended the schools until he had reached his higher studies. Then "giving over his books, and forsaking his father's house and wealth, with a mind only to serve God, he sought for some place where he might attain to the desire of his holy purpose; and in this sort he departed [from Rome], instructed with learnedignorance and furnished with unlearned wisdom" (Dial. St. Greg., II, Introd. in Migne, P.L. LXVI). There is much difference of opinion as to Benedict's age at the time. It has been very generally stated as fourteen, but a carefulexamination of St. Gregory's narrative makes it impossible to suppose him younger than nineteen or twenty. He was old enough to be in the midst of his literary studies, to understand the real meaning and worth of the dissolute and licentious lives of his companions, and to have been deeply affected himself by the love of a woman (Ibid. II, 2). He was capable of weighing all these things in comparison with the life taught in the Gospels, and chose the latter, He was at the beginning of life, and he had at his disposal the means to a career as a Romannoble; clearly he was not a child, As St. Gregory expresses it, "he was in the world and was free to enjoy the advantages which the world offers, but drew back his foot which he had, as it were, already set forth in the world" (ibid., Introd.). If we accept the date 480 for his birth, we may fix the date of his abandoning the schoolsand quitting home at about A.D. 500.
Benedict does not seem to have left Rome for the purpose of becoming a hermit, but only to find some place away from the life of the great city; moreover, he took his old nurse with him as a servant and they settled down to live in Enfide, near a church dedicated to St. Peter, in some kind of association with "a company of virtuousmen" who were in sympathy with his feelings and his views of life. Enfide, which the tradition of Subia coidentifies with the modern Affile, is in the Simbrucini mountains, about forty miles from Rome and two fromSubiaco. It stands on the crest of a ridge which rises rapidly from the valley to the higher range of mountains, and seen from the lower ground the village has the appearance of a fortress. As St. Gregory's account indicates, and as is confirmed by the remains of the old town and by the inscriptions found in the neighbourhood, Enfidewas a place of greater importance than is the present town. At Enfide Benedict worked his first miracle by restoring to perfect condition an earthenware wheat-sifter (capisterium) which his old servant had accidentallybroken. The notoriety which this miracle brought upon Benedict drove him to escape still farther from social life, and "he fled secretly from his nurse and sought the more retired district of Subiaco". His purpose of life had also been modified. He had fled Rome to escape the evils of a great city; he now determined to be poor and to live by his own work. "For God's sake he deliberately chose the hardships of life and the weariness of labour" (ibid., 1).
A short distance from Enfide is the entrance to a narrow, gloomy valley, penetrating the mountains and leading directly to Subiaco. Crossing the Anio and turning to the right, the path rises along the left face oft the ravine and soon reaches the site of Nero's villa and of the huge mole which formed the lower end of the middle lake; across the valley were ruins of the Roman baths, of which a few great arches and detached masses of wall still stand. Rising from the mole upon twenty five low arches, the foundations of which can even yet be traced, was the bridge from the villa to the baths, under which the waters of the middle lake poured in a wide fall into the lake below. The ruins of these vast buildings and the wide sheet of falling water closed up the entrance of the valley to St. Benedict as he came from Enfide; today the narrow valley lies open before us, closed only by the far off mountains. The path continues to ascend, and the side of the ravine, on which it runs, becomes steeper, until we reach a cave above which the mountain now rises almost perpendicularly; while on the right hand it strikes in a rapid descent down to where, in St. Benedict's day, five hundred feet below, lay the blue waters of the lake. The cave has a large triangular-shaped opening and is about ten feet deep. On his way from Enfide, Benedict met a monk, Romanus, whose monastery was on the mountain above the cliff overhanging the cave. Romanus had discussed with Benedict the purpose which had brought him to Subiaco, and had given him the monk's habit. By his advice Benedict became a hermit and for three years, unknown to men, lived in this cave above the lake. St. Gregory tells us little of these years, He now speaks of Benedict no longer as a youth (puer), but as a man (vir) of God. Romanus, he twice tells us, served the saint in every way he could. The monk apparently visited him frequently, and on fixed days brought him food.
During these three years of solitude, broken only by occasional communications with the outer world and by the visits of Romanus, he matured both in mind and character, in knowledge of himself and of his fellow-man, and at the same time he became not merely known to, but secured the respect of, those about him; so much so that on the death of the abbot of a monastery in the neighbourhood (identified by some with Vicovaro), the community came to him and begged him to become its abbot. Benedict was acquainted with the life and discipline of the monastery, and knew that "their manners were diverse from his and therefore that they would never agree together: yet, at length, overcome with their entreaty, he gave his consent" (ibid., 3). The experiment failed; themonks tried to poison him, and he returned to his cave. From this time his miracles seem to have become frequent, and many people, attracted by his sanctity and character, came to Subiaco to be under his guidance. For them he built in the valley twelve monasteries, in each of which he placed a superior with twelve monks. In a thirteenth he lived with "a few, such as he thought would more profit and be better instructed by his own presence" (ibid., 3). He remained, however, the father or abbot of all. With the establishment of thesemonasteries began the schools for children; and amongst the first to be brought were Maurus and Placid.
The remainder of St. Benedict's life was spent in realizing the ideal of monasticism which he has left us drawn out in his Rule, and before we follow the slight chronological story given by St. Gregory, it will be better to examine the ideal, which, as St. Gregory says, is St. Benedict's real biography (ibid., 36). We will deal here with the Ruleonly so far as it is an element in St. Benedict's life. For the relations which it bore to the monasticism of previous centuries, and for its influence throughout the West on civil and religious government, and upon the spiritual life of Christians, the reader is referred to the articles MONASTICISM and RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT.
The Benedictine rule
1. Before studying St. Benedict's Rule it is necessary to point out that it is written for laymen, not for clerics. Thesaint's purpose was not to institute an order of clerics with clerical duties and offices, but an organization and a set of rules for the domestic life of such laymen as wished to live as fully as possible the type of life presented in the Gospel. "My words", he says, "are addressed to thee, whoever thou art, that, renouncing thine own will, dost put on the strong and bright armour of obedience in order to fight for the Lord Christ, our true King." (Prol. toRule.) Later, the Church imposed the clerical state upon Benedictines, and with the state came a preponderance of clerical and sacerdotal duties, but the impress of the lay origin of the Benedictines has remained, and is perhaps the source of some of the characteristics which mark them off from later orders.
2. Another characteristic feature of the saint's Rule is its view of work. His so-called order was not established to carry on any particular work or to meet any special special crisis in the Church, as has been the case with otherorders. With Benedict the work of his monks was only a means to goodness of life. The great disciplinary force forhuman nature is work; idleness is its ruin. The purpose of his Rule was to bring men "back to God by the labour of obedience, from whom they had departed by the idleness of disobedience". Work was the first condition of all growth in goodness. It was in order that his own life might be "wearied with labours for God's sake" that St. Benedict left Enfide for the cave at Subiaco. It is necessary, comments St. Gregory, that God's elect should at the beginning, when life and temptations are strong in them, "be wearied with labour and pains". In the regenerationof human nature in the order of discipline, even prayer comes after work, for grace meets with no co-operation in the soul and heart of an idler. When the Goth "gave over the world" and went to Subiaco, St. Benedict gave him a bill-hook and set him to clear away briars for the making of a garden. "Ecce! labora!" go and work. Work is not, as the civilization of the time taught, the condition peculiar to slaves; it is the universal lot of man, necessary for his well-being as a man, and essential for him as a Christian.
3. The religious life, as conceived by St. Benedict is essentially social. Life apart from one's fellows, the life of ahermit, if it is to be wholesome and sane, is possible only for a few, and these few must have reached an advanced stage of self-discipline while living with others (Rule, 1). The Rule, therefore, is entirely occupied with regulating the life of a community of men who live and work and pray and eat together, and this is not merely for a course of training, but as a permanent element of life at its best. The Rule conceives the superiors as always present and in constant touch with every member of the government, which is best described as patriarchal, or paternal (ibid., 2, 3, 64). The superior is the head of a family; all are the permanent members of a household. Hence, too, much of the spiritual teaching of the Rule is concealed under legislation which seems purely socialand domestic organization (ibid. 22-23, 35-41). So intimately connected with domestic life is the whole framework and teaching of the Rule that a Benedictine may be more truly said to enter or join a particular household than to join an order. The social character of Benedictine life has found expression in a fixed type formonasteries and in the kind of works which Benedictines undertake, and it is secured by an absolute communismin possessions (ibid. 33, 34, 54, 55), by the rigorous suppression of all differences of worldly rank - "no one of noble birth may [for that reason] be put before him that was formerly a slave" (ibid. 2). and by the enforced presence of everyone at the routine duties of the household.
4. Although private ownership is most strictly forbidden by the Rule, it was no part of St. Benedict's conception ofmonastic life that his monks, as a body, should strip themselves of all wealth and live upon the alms of thecharitable; rather his purpose was to restrict the requirements of the individual to what was necessary and simple, and to secure that the use and administration of the corporate possessions should be in strict accord with the teaching of the Gospel. The Benedictine ideal of poverty is quite different from the Franciscan. TheBenedictine takes no explicit vow of poverty; he only vows obedience according to the Rule. The rule allows all that is necessary to each individual, together with sufficient and varied clothing, abundant food (excluding only the flesh of quadrupeds), wine and ample sleep (ibid., 39, 40, 41, 55). Possessions could be held in common, they might be large, but they were to be administered for the furtherance of the work of the community and for the benefit of others. While the individual monk was poor, the monastery was to be in a position to give alms, not to be compelled to seek them. It was to relieve the poor, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick, to bury the dead, to help the afflicted (ibid., 4), to entertain all strangers (ibid., 3). The poor came to Benedict to get help to pay their debts (Dial. St. Greg., 27); they came for food (ibid., 21, 28).
5. St. Benedict originated a form of government which is deserving of study. It is contained in chapters 2, 3, 31, 64, 65 of the Rule and in certain pregnant phrases scattered through other chapters. As with the Rule itself, so also his scheme of government is intended not for an order but for a single community. He presupposes that the community have bound themselves, by their promise of stability, to spend their lives together under the Rule. The superior is then elected by a free and universal suffrage. The government may be described as a monarchy, with the Rule as its constitution. Within the four corners of the Rule everything is left to the discretion of theabbot, the abuse of whose authority is checked by religion (Rule, 2), by open debate with the community on all important matters, and with its representative elders in smaller concerns (ibid., 3). The reality of these checks upon the wilfulness of the ruler can be appreciated only when it is remembered that ruler and community were bound together for life, that all were inspired by the single purpose of carrying out the conception of life taught in the Gospel, and that the relation of the members of the community to one another and to the abbot, and of theabbot to them, were elevated and spiritualized by a mysticism which set before itself the acceptance of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount as real and work-a-day truths.
6. (a) When a Christian household, a community, has been organized by the willing acceptance of its social dutiesand responsibilities, by obedience to an authority, and, further, is under the continuous discipline of work andself-denial, the next step in the regeneration of its members in their return to God is prayer. The Rule deals directly and explicitly only with public prayer. For this Benedict assigns the Psalms and Canticles, with readings from the Scriptures and Fathers. He devotes eleven chapters out of the seventy-three of his Rule to regulating this public prayer, and it is characteristic of the freedom of his Rule and of the "moderation" of the saint, that he concludes his very careful directions by saying that if any superior does not like his arrangement he is free to make another; this only he says he will insist on, that the whole Psalter will be said in the course of a week. The practice of the holy Fathers, he adds, was resolutely "to say in a single day what I pray we tepid monks may get through in a whole week" (ibid., 18). On the other hand, he checks indiscreet zeal by laying down the general rule "that prayer made in common must always be short" (ibid., 20). It is very difficult to reduce St. Benedict's teaching on prayer to a system, for this reason, that in his conception of the Christian character, prayer is coexistent with the whole life, and life is not complete at any point unless penetrated by prayer. .
(b) The form of prayer which thus covers the whole of our waking hours, St. Benedict calls the first degree of humility. It consists in realizing the presence of God (ibid., 7). The first step begins when the spiritual is joined to the merely human, or, as the saint expresses it, it is the first step in a ladder, the rungs of which rest at one end in the body and at the other in the soul. The ability to exercise this form of prayer is fostered by that care of the "heart" on which the saint so often insists; and the heart is saved from the dissipation that would result fromsocial intercourse by the habit of mind which sees in everyone Christ Himself. "Let the sick be served in very deed as Christ Himself" (ibid., 36). "Let all guests that come be received as Christ" (ibid., 53). "Whether we beslaves or freemen, we are all one in Christ and bear an equal rank in the service of Our Lord" (ibid., 2).
(c) Secondly, there is public prayer. This is short and is to be said at intervals, at night and at seven distinct hours during the day, so that, when possible, there shall be no great interval without a call to formal, vocal,prayer (ibid., 16). The position which St. Benedict gave to public, common prayer can best be described by saying that he established it as the centre of the common life to which he bound his monks. It was the consecration, not only of the individual, but of the whole community to God by the oft-repeated daily public actsof faith. and of praise and adoration of the Creator; and this public worship of God, the opus Dei, was to form the chief work of his monks, and to be the source from which all other works took their inspiration, their direction, and their strength.
(d) Lastly, there is private prayer, for which the saint does not legislate. It follows individual gifts - "If anyone wishes to pray in private, let him go quietly into the oratory and pray, not with a loud voice, but with tears and fervour of heart" (ibid., 52). "Our prayer ought to be short and with purity of heart, except it be perchance prolonged by the inspiration of divine grace" (ibid., 20). But if St. Benedict gives no further directions on privateprayer, it is because the whole condition and mode of life secured by the Rule, and the character formed by its observance, lead naturally to the higher states of prayer. As the Saint writes: "Whoever, therefore, thou art that hastenest to thy heavenly country, fulfil by the help of Christ this little Rule which we have written for beginners; and then at length thou shalt arrive, under God's protection, at the lofty summits of doctrine and virtue of which we have spoken above" (ibid., 73). for guidance in these higher states the Saint refers to the Fathers, Basil and Cassian.
From this short examination of the Rule and its system of prayer, it will be obvious that to describe the Benedictine as a contemplative order is misleading, if the word is used in its modern technical sense as excluding active work; the "contemplative" is a form of life framed for different circumstances and with a different object from St. Benedict's. The Rule, including its system of prayer and public psalmody, is meant for every class ofmind and every degree of learning. It is framed not only for the educated and for souls advanced in perfection, but it organizes and directs a complete life which is adapted for simple folk and for sinners, for the observance of the Commandments and for the beginnings of goodness. "We have written this Rule", writes St. Benedict, "that by observing it in monasteries, we may shew ourselves to have some degree of goodness in life and a beginning of holiness. But for him who would hasten to the perfection of religion, there are the teachings of the holyFathers, the following whereof bringeth a man to the height of perfection" (ibid., 73). Before leaving the subject of prayer it will be well to point out again that by ordering the public recitation and singing of the Psalter, St. Benedict was not putting upon his monks a distinctly clerical obligation. The Psalter was the common form ofprayer of all Christians; we must not read into his Rule characteristics which a later age and discipline have made inseparable from the public recitation of the Divine Office.
We can now take up again the story of Benedict's life. How long he remained at Subiaco we do not know. Abbot Tosti conjectures it was until the year 529. Of these years St. Gregory is content to tell no more than a few stories descriptive of the life of the monks, and of the character and government of St. Benedict. The latter was making his first attempt to realize in these twelve monasteries his conception of the monastic life. We can fill in many of the details from the Rule. By his own experiment and his knowledge of the history of monasticism thesaint had learnt that the regeneration of the individual, except in abnormal cases, is not reached by the path of solitude, nor by that of austerity, but by the beaten path of man's social instinct, with its necessary conditions ofobedience and work; and that neither the body nor the mind can be safely overstrained in the effort to avoid evil(ibid., 64). Thus, at Subiaco we find no solitaries, no conventual hermits, no great austerities, but men living together in organized communities for the purpose of leading good lives, doing such work as came to their hand - carrying water up the steep mountain-side, doing the other household work, raising the twelve cloisters, clearing the ground, making gardens, teaching children, preaching to the country people, reading and studying at least four hours a day, receiving strangers, accepting and training new-comers, attending the regular hours of prayer, reciting and chanting the Psalter. The life at Subiaco and the character of St. Benedict attracted many to the newmonasteries, and their increasing numbers and growing influence came the inevitable jealousy and persecution, which culminated with a vile attempt of a neighboring priest to scandalize the monks by an exhibition of nakedwomen, dancing in the courtyard of the saint's monastery (Dial. St. Greg., 8). To save his followers from furtherpersecution Benedict left Subiaco and went to Monte Cassino.
Upon the crest of Monte Cassino "there was an ancient chapel in which the foolish and simple country people, according to the custom of the old Gentiles, worshipped the god Apollo. Round about it likewise upon all sides there were woods for the service of devils, in which, even to that very time, the mad multitude of infidels didoffer most wicked sacrifice. The man of God, coming hither, beat in pieces the idol, overthrew the altar, set fire on the woods and in the temple of Apollo built the oratory of St. Martin: and where the altar of the same Apollo was, he made an oratory of St. John: and by his continual preaching he brought the people dwelling in those parts to embrace the faith of Christ" (ibid., 8). On this spot the saint built his monastery. His experience atSubiaco had led him to alter his plans, and now, instead of building several houses with a small community in each, he kept all his monks in one monastery and provided for its government by appointing a prior and deans(Rule, 65, 21). We find no trace in his Rule, which was most probably written at Monte Cassino, of the view which guided him when he built the twelve small monasteries at Subiaco. The life which we have witnessed at Subiacowas renewed at Monte Cassino, but the change in the situation and local conditions brought a corresponding modification in the work undertaken by the monks. Subiaco was a retired valley away in the mountains and difficult of access; Cassino was on one of the great highways to the south of Italy, and at no great distance fromCapua. This brought the monastery into more frequent communication with the outside world. It soon became a centre of influence in a district in which there was a large population, with several dioceses and other monasteries. Abbots came to see and advise with Benedict. Men of all classes were frequent visitors, and he numbered nobles and bishops among his intimate friends. There were nuns in the neighbourhood whom themonks went to preach to and to teach. There was a village nearby in which St. Benedict preached and made many converts (Dial. St. Greg., 19). The monastery became the protector of the poor, their trustee (ibid., 31), their refuge in sickness, in trial, in accidents, in want.
Thus during the life of the saint we find what has ever since remained a characteristic feature of Benedictinehouses, i.e. the members take up any work which is adapted to their peculiar circumstances, any work which may be dictated by their necessities. Thus we find the Benedictines teaching in poor schools and in theuniversities, practising the arts and following agriculture, undertaking the care of souls, or devoting themselves wholly to study. No work is foreign to the Benedictine, provided only it is compatible with living in community and with the performance of the Divine Office. This freedom in the choice of work was necessary in a Rule which was to be suited to all times and places, but it was primarily the natural result of the which St. Benedict had in view, and which he differs from the founders of later orders. These later had in view some special work to which they wished their disciples to devote themselves; St. Benedict's purpose was only to provide a Rule by which anyone might follow the Gospel counsels, and live, and work and pray, and save his soul. St. Gregory's narrative of the establishment of Monte Cassino does little more for us than to supply disconnected incidents which illustrate the daily life of the monastery. We gain only a few biographical facts. From Monte Cassino St. Benedict founded another monastery near Terracina, on the coast, about forty miles distant (ibid., 22). To the wisdom of long experience and to the mature virtues of the saint, was now added the gift of prophecy, of which St. Gregorygives many examples. Celebrated among these is the story of the visit of Totila, King of the Goths, in the year 543, when the saint "rebuked him for his wicked deeds, and in a few words told him all that should befall him, saying 'Much wickedness do you daily commit, and many sins have you done: now at length give over your sinfullife. Into the city of Rome shall you enter, and over the sea shall you pass: nine years shall you reign, and in the tenth shall you leave this mortal life.' The king, hearing these things, was wonderfully afraid, and desiring theholy man to commend him to God in his prayers he departed: and from that time forward he was nothing so cruel as before he had been. Not long after he went to Rome, sailed over into Sicily, and in the tenth year of his reign he lost his kingdom together with his life." (ibid., 15).
Totila's visit to Monte Cassino in 543 is the only certain date we have in the saint's life. It must have occurred when Benedict was advanced in age. Abbot Tosti, following others, puts the saint's death in the same year. Just before his death we hear for the first time of his sister Scholastica. "She had been dedicated from her infancy toOur Lord, and used to come once a year to visit her brother. To whom the man of God went not far from the gate to a place that did belong to the abbey, there to give her entertainment" (ibid., 33). They met for the last time three days before Scholastica's death, on a day "when the sky was so clear that no cloud was to be seen". The sister begged her brother to stay the night, "but by no persuasion would he agree unto that, saying that he might not by any means tarry all night out of his abbey.... The nun receiving this denial of her brother, joining her hands together, laid them on the table; and so bowing her head upon them, she made her prayers toAlmighty God, and lifting her head from the table, there fell suddenly such a tempest of lightening and thundering, and such abundance of rain, that neither venerable Bennet, nor the monks that were with him, could put their head out of door" (ibid., 33). Three days later, "Benedict beheld the soul of his sister, which was departed from her body, in the likeness of a dove, to ascend into heaven: who rejoicing much to see her greatglory, with hymns and lauds gave thanks to Almighty God, and did impart news of this her death to his monkswhom also he sent presently to bring her corpse to his abbey, to have it buried in that grave which he had provided for himself" (ibid., 34).
It would seem to have been about this time that St. Benedict had that wonderful vision in which he came as near to seeing God as is possible for man in this life. St. Gregory and St. Bonaventure say that Benedict saw God and in that vision of God saw the whole world. St. Thomas will not allow that this could have been. Urban VIII, however, does not hesitate to say that "the saint merited while still in this mortal life, to see God Himself and in God all that is below him". If he did not see the Creator, he saw the light which is in the Creator, and in that light, as St. Gregory says, "saw the whole world gathered together as it were under on beam of the sun. At the same time he saw the soul of Germanus, Bishop of Capua, in a fiery globe carried up by the angels to Heaven" (ibid., 35). Once more the hidden things of God were shown to him, and he warned his brethren, both "those that lived daily with him and those that dwelt far off" of his approaching death. "Six days before he left this world he gave orders to have his sepulchre opened, and forthwith falling into an ague, he began with burning heat to wax faint; and when as the sickness daily increased, upon the sixth day he commanded his monks to carry him into the oratory, where he did arm himself receiving the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ; and having his weak body holden up betwixt the hands of his disciples, he stood with his own hands lifted up to heaven; and as he was in that manner praying, he gave up the ghost" (ibid., 37). He was buried in the same grave with his sister "in the oratory of St. John the Baptist, which [he] himself had built when he overthrew the altar of Apollo" (ibid.). There is some doubt whether the relics of the saint are still at Monte Cassino, or whether they were moved in the seventh century to Fleury. Abbot Tosti in his life of St. Benedict, discusses the question at length (chap. xi) and decides the controversy in favour of Monte Cassino.
Perhaps the most striking characteristics in St. Benedict are his deep and wide human feeling and his moderation. The former reveals itself in the many anecdotes recorded by St. Gregory. We see it in his sympathy and care for the simplest of his monks; his hastening to the help of the poor Goth who had lot his bill-hook; spending the hours of the night in prayer on the mountain to save his monks the labour of carrying water, and to remove from their lives a "just cause of grumbling"; staying three days in a monastery to help to induce one of the monks to "remain quietly at his prayers as the other monks did", instead of going forth from the chapel and wandering about "busying himself worldly and transitory things". He lets the crow from the neighboring woods come daily when all are at dinner to be fed by himself. His mind is always with those who are absent; sitting in his cell he knows that Placid is fallen into the lake; he foresees the accident to the builders and sends a warning to them; in spirit and some kind of real presence he is with the monks "eating and refreshing themselves" on their journey, with his friend Valentinian on his way to the monastery, with the monk taking a present from thenuns, with the new community in Terracina. Throughout St. Gregory's narrative he is always the same quiet, gentle, dignified, strong, peace-loving man who by the subtle power of sympathy becomes the centre of the lives and interests of all about him. We see him with his monks in the church, at their reading, sometimes in the fields, but more commonly in his cell, where frequent messengers find him "weeping silently in his prayers", and in the night hours standing at "the window of his cell in the tower, offering up his prayers to God"; and often, as Totila found him, sitting outside the door of his cell, or "before the gate of the monastery reading a book". He has given his own portrait in his ideal picture of an abbot (Rule, 64):
It beseemeth the abbot to
be ever doing some good for his brethren rather than to be presiding
over them. He must, therefore, be learned in the law of God,
that he may know whence
to bring forth things new and old; he must be chaste, sober, and merciful,
ever preferring mercy to justice,
that he himself may obtain mercy. Let him hate sin and love the
brethren. And even in his corrections, let him act withprudence,
and not go too far, lest while he seeketh too eagerly to scrape off the rust,
the vessel be broken. Let him keep his own frailty ever before his eyes,
and remember that the bruised reed must not be broken. And by this we
do not mean that he should suffer vices to grow up; but that
prudently and with charity he should cut them off, in the way he
shall see best for each, as we have already said; and let him study rather to
be loved than feared.
Let him not be violent nor over anxious, not exacting nor obstinate,
not jealous nor prone to suspicion, or else he will never be at rest.
In all his commands, whether spiritual or temporal, let him
be prudent and considerate. In the works which he imposeth let him be
discreet and moderate, bearing in mind the discretion
of holy Jacob, when he said: 'If I causemy flocks to be
overdriven, they will all perish in one day'. Taking, then, such
testimonies as are borne by these and the like words to discretion, the mother
of virtues, let him so temper all things, that the strong may have
something to strive after, and the weak nothing at which to take alarm.
Ford, Hugh. "St. Benedict of
Nursia." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York:
Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 11 Jul.
2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02467b.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Robert
Gordon. In Memory of Clifford A Gordon.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907.
Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop
of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Lorenzo Monaco (circa 1370 –circa 1425 ), Incoronazione della Vergine, 1414, Uffizi
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Benedict of Norcia
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, I would like to speak about Benedict, the
Founder of Western Monasticism and also the Patron of my Pontificate. I begin
with words that St Gregory the Great wrote about St Benedict: "The man of
God who shone on this earth among so many miracles was just as brilliant in the
eloquent exposition of his teaching" (cf. Dialogues II, 36). The
great Pope wrote these words in 592 A.D. The holy monk, who had died barely 50
years earlier, lived on in people's memories and especially in the flourishing
religious Order he had founded. St Benedict of Norcia, with his life and his
work, had a fundamental influence on the development of European civilization
and culture. The most important source on Benedict's life is the second book of
St Gregory the Great's Dialogues. It is not a biography in the
classical sense. In accordance with the ideas of his time, by giving the
example of a real man - St Benedict, in this case - Gregory wished to
illustrate the ascent to the peak of contemplation which can be achieved by those
who abandon themselves to God. He therefore gives us a model for human life in
the climb towards the summit of perfection. St Gregory the Great also tells in
this book of the Dialogues of many miracles worked by the Saint, and
here too he does not merely wish to recount something curious but rather to
show how God, by admonishing, helping and even punishing, intervenes in the
practical situations of man's life. Gregory's aim was to demonstrate that God
is not a distant hypothesis placed at the origin of the world but is present in
the life of man, of every man.
This perspective of the "biographer" is also
explained in light of the general context of his time: straddling the fifth and
sixth centuries, "the world was overturned by a tremendous crisis of values
and institutions caused by the collapse of the Roman Empire, the invasion of
new peoples and the decay of morals". But in this terrible situation,
here, in this very city of Rome, Gregory presented St Benedict as a
"luminous star" in order to point the way out of the "black
night of history" (cf. John Paul II, 18 May 1979). In fact, the Saint's
work and particularly his Rule were to prove heralds of an authentic
spiritual leaven which, in the course of the centuries, far beyond the
boundaries of his country and time, changed the face of Europe following the
fall of the political unity created by the Roman Empire, inspiring a new
spiritual and cultural unity, that of the Christian faith shared by the peoples
of the Continent. This is how the reality we call "Europe" came into
being.
St Benedict was born around the year 480. As St
Gregory said, he came "ex provincia Nursiae" - from the province
of Norcia. His well-to-do parents sent him to study in Rome. However, he did
not stay long in the Eternal City. As a fully plausible explanation, Gregory
mentions that the young Benedict was put off by the dissolute lifestyle of many
of his fellow students and did not wish to make the same mistakes. He wanted
only to please God: "soli Deo placere desiderans" (II Dialogues, Prol.
1). Thus, even before he finished his studies, Benedict left Rome and withdrew
to the solitude of the mountains east of Rome. After a short stay in the
village of Enfide (today, Affile), where for a time he lived with a
"religious community" of monks, he became a hermit in the
neighbouring locality of Subiaco. He lived there completely alone for three
years in a cave which has been the heart of a Benedictine Monastery called the
"Sacro Speco" (Holy Grotto) since the early Middle Ages. The period
in Subiaco, a time of solitude with God, was a time of maturation for Benedict.
It was here that he bore and overcame the three fundamental temptations of
every human being: the temptation of self-affirmation and the desire to put
oneself at the centre, the temptation of sensuality and, lastly, the temptation
of anger and revenge. In fact, Benedict was convinced that only after
overcoming these temptations would he be able to say a useful word to others
about their own situations of neediness. Thus, having tranquilized his soul, he
could be in full control of the drive of his ego and thus create peace around
him. Only then did he decide to found his first monasteries in the Valley of
the Anio, near Subiaco.
In the year 529, Benedict left Subiaco and settled in
Monte Cassino. Some have explained this move as an escape from the intrigues of
an envious local cleric. However, this attempt at an explanation hardly proved
convincing since the latter's sudden death did not induce Benedict to return (II
Dialogues, 8). In fact, this decision was called for because he had
entered a new phase of inner maturity and monastic experience. According to
Gregory the Great, Benedict's exodus from the remote Valley of the Anio to
Monte Cassio - a plateau dominating the vast surrounding plain which can be
seen from afar - has a symbolic character: a hidden monastic life has its
own raison d'être but a monastery also has its public purpose in the
life of the Church and of society, and it must give visibility to the faith as
a force of life. Indeed, when Benedict's earthly life ended on 21 March 547, he
bequeathed with his Rule and the Benedictine family he founded a
heritage that bore fruit in the passing centuries and is still bearing fruit
throughout the world.
Throughout the second book of his Dialogues, Gregory
shows us how St Benedict's life was steeped in an atmosphere of prayer, the
foundation of his existence. Without prayer there is no experience of God. Yet
Benedict's spirituality was not an interiority removed from reality. In the
anxiety and confusion of his day, he lived under God's gaze and in this very
way never lost sight of the duties of daily life and of man with his practical
needs. Seeing God, he understood the reality of man and his mission. In
his Rule he describes monastic life as "a school for the service
of the Lord" (Prol. 45) and advises his monks, "let nothing be
preferred to the Work of God" [that is, the Divine Office or the Liturgy
of the Hours] (43, 3). However, Benedict states that in the first place prayer
is an act of listening (Prol. 9-11), which must then be expressed in action.
"The Lord is waiting every day for us to respond to his holy admonitions
by our deeds" (Prol. 35). Thus, the monk's life becomes a fruitful
symbiosis between action and contemplation, "so that God may be glorified
in all things" (57, 9). In contrast with a facile and egocentric
self-fulfilment, today often exalted, the first and indispensable commitment of
a disciple of St Benedict is the sincere search for God (58, 7) on the path
mapped out by the humble and obedient Christ (5, 13), whose love he must put
before all else (4, 21; 72, 11), and in this way, in the service of the other,
he becomes a man of service and peace. In the exercise of obedience practised
by faith inspired by love (5, 2), the monk achieves humility (5, 1), to which
the Rule dedicates an entire chapter (7). In this way, man conforms
ever more to Christ and attains true self-fulfilment as a creature in the image
and likeness of God.
The obedience of the disciple must correspond with the
wisdom of the Abbot who, in the monastery, "is believed to hold the place
of Christ" (2, 2; 63, 13). The figure of the Abbot, which is described
above all in Chapter II of the Rule with a profile of spiritual
beauty and demanding commitment, can be considered a self-portrait of Benedict,
since, as St Gregory the Great wrote, "the holy man could not teach
otherwise than as he himself lived" (cf. Dialogues II, 36). The
Abbot must be at the same time a tender father and a strict teacher (cf. 2,
24), a true educator. Inflexible against vices, he is nevertheless called above
all to imitate the tenderness of the Good Shepherd (27, 8), to "serve
rather than to rule" (64, 8) in order "to show them all what is good
and holy by his deeds more than by his words" and "illustrate the
divine precepts by his example" (2, 12). To be able to decide responsibly,
the Abbot must also be a person who listens to "the brethren's views"
(3, 2), because "the Lord often reveals to the youngest what is best"
(3, 3). This provision makes a Rule written almost 15 centuries ago
surprisingly modern! A man with public responsibility even in small circles
must always be a man who can listen and learn from what he hears.
Benedict describes the Rule he wrote as "minimal, just an initial outline" (cf. 73, 8); in fact, however, he offers useful guidelines not only for monks but for all who seek guidance on their journey toward God. For its moderation, humanity and sober discernment between the essential and the secondary in spiritual life, his Rule has retained its illuminating power even to today. By proclaiming St Benedict Patron of Europe on 24 October 1964, Paul VI intended to recognize the marvellous work the Saint achieved with his Rule for the formation of the civilization and culture of Europe. Having recently emerged from a century that was deeply wounded by two World Wars and the collapse of the great ideologies, now revealed as tragic utopias, Europe today is in search of its own identity. Of course, in order to create new and lasting unity, political, economic and juridical instruments are important, but it is also necessary to awaken an ethical and spiritual renewal which draws on the Christian roots of the Continent, otherwise a new Europe cannot be built. Without this vital sap, man is exposed to the danger of succumbing to the ancient temptation of seeking to redeem himself by himself - a utopia which in different ways, in 20th-century Europe, as Pope John Paul II pointed out, has caused "a regression without precedent in the tormented history of humanity" (Address to the Pontifical Council for Culture, 12 January 1990). Today, in seeking true progress, let us also listen to the Rule of St Benedict as a guiding light on our journey. The great monk is still a true master at whose school we can learn to become proficient in true humanism.
To special groups
I am happy to greet the English-speaking visitors
present at today's Audience, including the pilgrims from the Archdiocese of
Manila, and the many groups from England and the United States. May your lives,
after the example of St Benedict, be lived in humility, prayer, obedience to
God and faithful service to your neighbour. May the Lord bless you and your
families!
Lastly, I greet the young people, the sick and the newly-weds, exhorting each one to live this Easter Season intensely, witnessing to the joy that the dead and Risen Christ gives to those who entrust themselves to him.
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080409.html
Lorenzo Monaco (circa
1370 –circa 1425 ), The Death of Saint Benedict, 1409, 28.5 x
51.8, National Gallery
ST. BENEDICT, ABBOT.
BENEDICT, blessed by grace and in name, was born of a noble Italian family
about 480. When a boy he was sent to Rome, and there placed in the public
schools. Scared by the licentiousness of the Roman youth, he fled to the desert
mountains of Subiaco, and was directed by the Holy Spirit into a cave, deep,
craggy, and almost inaccessible. He lived there for three years, unknown to any
one save the holy monk Romanus, who clothed him with the monastic habit and
brought him food. But the fame of his sanctity soon gathered disciples round
him. The rigor of his rule, however, drew on him the hatred of some of the
monks, and one of them mixed poison with the abbot's drink. But when the Saint
made the sign of the cross on the poisoned bowl, it broke and fell in pieces to
the ground. After he had built twelve monasteries at Subiaco, he removed to
Monte Cassino, where he founded an abbey in which he wrote his rule, and lived
until death. By prayer he did all things: wrought miracles, saw visions, and
prophesied. A peasant, whose boy had just died, ran in anguish to St. Benedict,
crying out, "Give me back my son." The monks joined the poor man in
his entreaties; but the Saint replied, "Such miracles are not for us to
work, but for the blessed Apostles. Why will you lay upon me a burden which my
weakness cannot bear ?" Moved at length by compassion he knelt down, and
prostrating himself upon the body of the child prayed earnestly. Then rising,
he cried out, "Behold not, 0 Lord, my sins, but the faith of this man, who
desireth the life of his son, and restore to the body that soul which Thou halt
taken away." Hardly had he spoken when the child's body began to tremble,
and taking it by the hand he restored it alive to its father. Six days before
his death he ordered his grave to be opened, and fell ill of a fever. On the
sixth day he requested to be borne into the chapel, and, having received the
Body and Blood of Christ, with hands uplifted, and leaning on one of his
disciples, he calmly expired in prayer on the 21st of March, 543.
REFLECTION.—The Saints never feared to undertake any work, however arduous, for
God, because distrusting self they relied for assistance and support wholly
upon prayer.
SOURCE : http://jesus-passion.com/saint_benedict2.htm
Sano
di Pietro, San Benedetto, 1460 ca, Pinacoteca Vaticana
FULGENS RADIATUR
ENCYCLICAL OF
POPE PIUS XII
ON ST. BENEDICT
TO OUR
VENERABLE BRETHREN, THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES,
ARCHBISHOPS,
BISHIOPS, AND OTHER ORDINARIES
IN PEACE AND
COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE
Venerable Brethren,
Health and Apostolic Benediction.
Like a star in the darkness of night, Benedict of
Nursia brilliantly shines, a glory not only to Italy but of the whole Church.
Whoever considers his celebrated life and studies in the light of the truth of
history, the gloomy and stormy times in which he lived, will without doubt
realize the truth of the divine promise which Christ made to the Apostles and
to the society He founded "I am with you all days even to the consummation
of the world."[1] At no time in history does this promise lose its force;
it is verified in the course of all ages flowing, as they do, under the
guidance of divine Providence. But when enemies assail the Christian name more
fiercely, when the fateful barque of Peter is tossed about more violently and
when everything seems to be tottering with no hope of human support, it is then
that Christ is present, bondsman, comforter, source of supernatural power, and
raises up fresh champions to protect Catholicism, to restore it to its former
vigor, and give it even greater increase under the inspiration and help of
heavenly grace.
2. Among these champions shines out in resplendent
light Our Benedict - blessed "by name and grace".[2] In the
providential designs of God he emerged from a dark century when the position
and fate of civilization as well as of the Church and of civil society was in
danger of collapse. The Roman Empire which had attained such a summit of glory
and had joined with wise and equally tempered laws so many peoples, nations and
tribes, so that it could be called more correctly the world's protector rather
than its imperial master,[3] this Empire like all earthly institutions had
crumbled. Weakened and corrupt from within, it lay in mighty ruins in the West,
shattered by the invasions of the northern tribes.
3. In such a mighty storm and universal upheaval, from
where did hope shine? Where did help and protection arise in order to save
humanity and what was left of its treasures from shipwreck? It came from the
Catholic Church. All earthly institutions begun and built solely on human
wisdom and human power, in the course of time succeed one another, flourish and
then quite naturally fail, weaken and crumble away; but the organization which
Our Redeemer established has received from its divine Founder unfailing life
and abiding strength from on high. Thus sustained and fortified the Church
comes out victorious through the hostile fortunes of time and circumstances;
amid their ruins and failures it is capable of molding a new and happier age
and with Christian doctrine and spirit she can build and erect a new society of
citizens, peoples and nations.
4. We are happy, Venerable Brethren, to treat briefly
in this Encyclical Letter the part played by Benedict in this renewal and
restoration; for this year, it would seem fourteen centuries have elapsed since
he happily exchanged this earthly exile for his heavenly country after
innumerable labors for God's glory and man's salvation.
5. "Born in the province of Nursia of honorable
parentage"[4] "he was filled with the spirit of all justice"[5]
and in a remarkable way he supported Christianity by his holiness, prudence and
wisdom. While the century had grown old in vice, while Italy and all Europe
seemed to be a wretched theater for the life and death struggle of nations, and
even the monastic discipline was weakened with worldliness and was not up to
the task of resisting and overcoming the allurements of corruption, Benedict
proved the perennial youth of the Church by his outstanding sanctity and work;
he restored morality by his teaching and example; he protected the sanctuary of
religious life with safer and holier laws. Nor was that all; he and his
followers reclaimed the uncultured tribes from their wild life to civic and
Christian culture; directing them to the practice of virtue, industry and the
peaceful arts and literature, he united them in the bonds of fraternal
affection and charity.
6. In the first flower of youth he was sent to Rome to
study the liberal sciences;[6] there with great grief he noticed heresies and
all manner of errors prevalent and many minds deceived and corrupted; private
and public morality were crumbling and very many, especially the fine elegant
youth, were sadly sunk in the mire of pleasure. The result was that it could be
said of Roman society "it is dying and it laughs. In nearly every part of
the world tears follow on our laughter"[7]. However, under God's influence,
"he gave himself to no disport or pleasure . . . but when he saw many
through the uneven paths of vice run headlong to their own ruin, he drew back
his foot but new-set in the world. . . Contemning therefore learning and
studies, and abandoning his father's house and goods, he desired only to please
God in a virtuous life".[8] He willingly bid farewell to the comforts of
life and the charms of a corrupt age, as well as to the enticing and honorable
offices of a promising future to which he could have aspired; leaving Rome
behind, he sought out wild and solitary places where he could devote himself to
the contemplation of the divine. Thus he came to Subiaco and there retiring
into a narrow cave he began to live a life that was more heavenly than human.
7. Hidden with Christ in God,[9] he there strove for
three years with great fruit to acquire the perfection and holiness of the
Gospels to which he seemed to be called by divine instinct. He made the
practice of shunning all earthly things to seek alone and ardently heavenly
things; of holding converse with God day and night; of praying incessantly for
his own salvation and for the salvation of men; in curbing and mastering the
body by voluntary punishment, and checking and controlling the evil motions of the
senses. In this way of life he found such sweetness of soul that all the former
delights he had experienced from his wealth and ease now appeared distasteful
to him and in a way forgotten. One day the enemy of human nature aroused in him
very strong allurements of the flesh; at once he strenuously resisted - noble
and strong soul that he was, and casting himself into a thicket of briars and
sharp nettles by voluntary wounds he conquered and quenched the interior fire.
Victorious over himself he seemed to have been strengthened from on high as a
reward. "After which time, as he himself related to his disciples, he was
so free from the like temptation that he never felt any such motion. . . Being
now altogether free from vicious temptation he worthily deserved to be a master
of virtue".[10]
8. Our saint, then, living for a long time this
secluded and solitary life in the cave of Subiaco, shaped and set himself in
sanctity, and laid those solid foundations of Christian perfection on which he
was given later to raise a mighty building of lofty heights. As you well know,
Venerable Brethren, zealous and apostolic works become useless and vain unless
they proceed from a soul enriched with those Christian qualities which alone
with God's grace can make human undertakings contribute to the glory of God and
the salvation of souls. This Benedict knew well and had found to be true.
Before undertaking and executing those great designs and plans to which he was
called by God, he first devoted his most earnest efforts and fervent prayers to
make himself fully master of that integral, evangelical holiness which he
desired the others to acquire.
9. When the reputation of his sanctity spread and
daily increased everywhere, not only the monks who lived close by desired to
come under his rule, but a multitude of townsfolk began to flock to him in
groups desiring to hear his soothing voice, to admire his extraordinary virtue
and to see the wondrous signs that God often worked through him. Indeed that
bright light that shone from the dark cave of Subiaco spread so far and wide
that it even reached remote regions. Thus "nobles and devout persons of
the city of Rome began to resort to him and commended their children to be
brought up by him in the service of Almighty God".[11]
10. Then it was that this holy man saw that the time,
ordained by God's providence, had come for him to found a family of religious
men and to mold them to the perfection of the Gospels. He began under most
favorable auspices. "For in those parts he had gathered together a great
many in the service of God, so that by the assistance of Our Lord Jesus Christ
he built there 12 monasteries, in each of which he put 12 monks with their
Superiors, and retained a few with himself whom he thought to instruct further".[12]
11. But while things started very favorably, as We
said, and yielded rich and salutary results, promising still greater in the
future, Our saint with the greatest grief of soul, saw a storm breaking over
the growing harvest, which an envious spirit had provoked and desires of
earthly gain had stirred up. Since Benedict was prompted by divine and not
human counsel, and feared lest the envy which had been aroused mainly against
himself should wrongfully recoil on his followers, "he let envy take its course,
and after he had disposed of the oratories and other buildings - leaving in
them a competent number of brethren with superiors - he took with him a few
monks and went to another place".[13] Trusting in God and relying on His
ever present help, he went south and arrived at a fort "called Cassino
situated on the side of a high mountain . . .; on this stood an old temple
where Apollo was worshipped by the foolish country people, according to the
custom of the ancient heathens. Around it likewise grew groves, in which even
till that time the mad multitude of infidels used to offer their idolatrous
sacrifices. The man of God coming to that place broke the idol, overthrew the
altar, burned the groves, and of the temple of Apollo made a chapel of St.
Martin. Where the profane altar had stood he built a chapel of St. John; and by
continual preaching he converted many of the people thereabout".[14]
12. Cassino, as all know, was the chief dwelling place
and the main theater of the Holy Patriarch's virtue and sanctity. From the
summit of this mountain, while practically on all sides ignorance and the
darkness of vice kept trying to overshadow and envelop everything, a new light
shone, kindled by the teaching and civilization of old and further enriched by
the precepts of Christianity; it illumined the wandering peoples and nations,
recalled them to truth and directed them along the right path. Thus indeed it
may be rightly asserted that the holy monastery built there was a haven and
shelter of highest learning and of all the virtues, and in those very troubled
times was, "as it were, a pillar of the Church and a bulwark of the
faith".[15]
13. It was here that Benedict brought the monastic
life to that degree of perfection to which he had long aspired by prayer,
meditation and practice. The special and chief task that seemed to have been
given to him in the designs of God's providence was not so much to impose on
the West the manner of life of the monks of the East, as to adapt that life and
accommodate it to the genius, needs and conditions of Italy and the rest of
Europe. Thus to the placid asceticism which flowered so well in the monasteries
of the East, he added laborious and tireless activity which allows the monks
"to give to others the fruit of contemplation",[16] and not only to
produce crops from uncultivated land, but also to cultivate spiritual fruit
through their exhausting apostolate. The community life of a Benedictine house
tempered and softened the severities of the solitary life, not suitable for all
and even dangerous at times for some; through prayer, work and application to
sacred and profane sciences, a blessed peace knows not idleness nor sloth;
activity and work, far from wearying the mind, distracting it and applying it
to useless things, rather tranquilize it, strengthen it and lift it up to
higher things. Indeed, an excessive rigor of discipline or severity of penance
is not imposed, but before all else love of God and a fraternal charity that is
universal and sincere. "He so tempered the rule that the strong would
desire to do more and the weak not be frightened by its severity; he tried to
govern his disciples by love rather than dominate them by fear".[17] When
one day he saw an anchorite, who had bound himself with chains and confined
himself in a narrow cave, so that he could not return to his sins and to his
worldly life, with gentle words Benedict admonished him: "If you are a
servant of God, let not the chains of iron bind you but the chains of
Christ".[18]
14. Thus the special norms of eremitic life and their
particular precepts, which were generally not very certain or fixed and often
depended on the wish of the superior, gave way to Benedictine monastic law,
outstanding monument of Roman and Christian prudence. In it the rights, duties
and works of the monks are tempered by the benevolence and charity of the
Gospel. It has proved and still proves a powerful means to encourage many to
virtue and lead them to sanctity. For in the Benedictine law the highest
prudence and simplicity are united; Christian humility is joined to virile
virtue; mildness tempers severity; and a healthy freedom ennobles due
submission. In it correction is given with firmness, but clemency and benignity
hold sway; the ordinances are observed but obedience brings rest to mind and
peace to soul; gravity is honored by silence but easy grace adds ornament to
conversation; the power of authority is wielded but weakness is not without its
support.[19]
15. It is no wonder then that "the rule which
Benedict, the man of God, wrote for the monks was outstanding for wisdom and
elegant in language";[20] and today receives the highest praise from all.
It is a pleasure to dwell here briefly on some of its main lines and place them
in their true light; since We hope that this will be gratifying and useful not
only to the numerous followers of the Holy Patriarch but also the Christian
clergy and faithful.
16. The monastic community is so constituted and
arranged that it resembles the Christian home over which the Abbot or Superior
presides like the father of a family; and all should depend completely on his
paternal authority. "We see that it is expedient" says St. Benedict,
"for the preservation of peace and charity, that the entire government of
the Monastery depend on the will of the Abbot"[21]. Therefore each and
everyone as a matter of duty should obey him most religiously[22] and in him
see God Himself and reverence His authority. As a duty committed to him, he
undertakes to govern the souls of the monks and to lead them to evangelical perfection;
and so let him most diligently weigh and ponder within himself that some day he
must answer for them to the Supreme Judge,[23] and let him so act in this grave
matter that he may be justly rewarded when he renders his account before the
"dreadful judgment of God".[24] Besides, whenever important matters
are to be discussed in any monastery, let him call all the monks and listen
carefully to their freely given counsels before he gives the decision that
appears to him best.[25]
17. From the beginning the question of accepting or
refusing candidates for the monastic life was intricate and difficult. To the
holy monasteries flocked aspirants from every race and people and from all
classes of citizens: Romans and non-Romans, freemen and slaves, conquered and
the conquerors, from the patrician nobility not a few, and also from the lowly
plebians. Such a situation Benedict mastered with breadth of vision and
fraternal charity, "because" as he says "whether bondman or
freeman, we are all one in Christ, and bear an equal burden of servitude under
one Lord. . . Therefore let there be a love for all; let all be subject to the
same discipline according to their desert".[26] For those who have
embraced his Institute he ordains "that all things are common to
all"[27] not under force or violence but spontaneously and unselfishly.
Besides all within the precincts of the monastery are bound by the stability of
religious life in such a way that they ought to devote themselves not only to
prayer on heavenly things and reading,[28] but also to labor in the fields,[29]
to the arts and crafts[30] as well as to the sacred works of the apostolate. As
"idleness is an enemy of the soul, therefore the brethren ought to be
employed at fixed times in toiling with their hands".[31] But it is of
first importance for all, and must be aimed at with the utmost diligence and
the greatest care, that "nothing be preferred to the work of
God."[32] Although "we believe that the divine presence is everywhere
. . . we believe this especially and without any doubt, when we assist at the
work of God. . . Therefore let us consider in what manner it behooveth us to be
in the sight of God and of His angels, and so let us chant in choir that mind
and voice may accord together".[33]
18. From these norms and axioms which it has pleased
Us to cull from the Benedictine law, there can be easily discerned and
appreciated the prudence of the monastic rule, its opportuneness, its wonderful
harmony and suitability to human nature, as also its significance and supreme
importance. During a dark and turbulent age, when agriculture, honorable
crafts, the study of the fine arts profane and divine were little esteemed and
shamefully neglected by nearly all, there arose in Benedictine monasteries an
almost countless multitude of farmers, craftsmen and learned people who did
their utmost to conserve the memorials of ancient learning and brought back
nations both old and new - often at war with each other - to peace, harmony and
earnest work. From renascent barbarism, from destruction and ruin they happily
led them back to benign influence human and Christian, to patient labor, to the
light of truth, to a civilization renewed in wisdom and charity.
19. Nor was that all. It is essential in the
Benedictine way of life that while engaged in manual or intellectual pursuits,
all should strive continually to lift their hearts to Christ having that as
their chief concern, and to burn with perfect love of Him. For the things of
the earth or of the whole world cannot satisfy the mind of man which God
created for Himself; rather their function given them by their Creator is to
move and lift us by gradual steps to the possession of God. Therefore, it is
most necessary "to prefer nothing to the love of Christ";[34]
"to count nothing more dear to them than Christ";[35] "let them
prefer nothing whatever to Christ and may He bring us to life
everlasting".[36]
20. To this most ardent love of the Divine Redeemer
there should correspond love of the neighbor. We ought to cherish all as our
brethren and help them in every way. Hence while people plan and foment hate
and treachery against each other, while robbery, slaughter and innumerable
hardships and miseries are increasing in this violent upheaval of nations and
institutions, Benedict proclaims these most holy precepts to his followers:
"Let special care be taken in receiving the poor and travelers, because in
them Christ is more surely received".[37] "Let all guests who come to
the monastery be entertained like Christ Himself, because He will say 'I was a
stranger and you took me in'."[38] "Before all things and above all
things, special care must be taken of the sick, so that they be served in very
deed as Christ Himself for He saith 'I was sick and you visited Me'."[39]
Thus animated and burning with a perfect love of God and the neighbor he
fulfilled and perfected his task; and when rejoicing and full of merits he felt
in advance the breath of heaven, promise of eternal bliss; and foretasted its
sweetness, "six days before his death he caused his grave to be opened.
Soon seized by a fever, he began to be consumed by burning fire; day by day his
strength began to wax faint, and the infirmity daily increasing the sixth day,
he caused his disciples to carry him into the Oratory, where he armed himself
for his going forth by receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord: then
supporting his weak limbs by the hands of his disciples he stood up, his hands
lifted toward heaven, and with words of prayer at last breathed forth his
soul."[40]
21. After his pious death, when the holy Patriarch
went to heaven, the Order of monks he founded was far from failing or
collapsing; rather, it seemed not only to be over nourished and strengthened by
his living example, but also to be supported and vivified by his heavenly
patronage, so that it went on increasing year by year.
22. All who are not blinded by prejudice but examine
events in the light of history and judge fairly, must recognize what a
beneficial influence the power and strength of the Benedictine Order had in
that early period, and how many great benefits it conferred on succeeding
generations. For besides the fact, as We said already, that the sons of
Benedict were almost alone in that dark age of profound ignorance and turmoil,
in preserving the codices of literature and learning, in translating them most
faithfully and commenting on them, they were also among the pioneers in
practicing and promoting the arts, science and teaching. The Catholic Church in
the first three centuries of her life was in a wonderful way confirmed and
increased by the sacred blood of martyrs; then in subsequent ages the integrity
of her doctrines was kept intact against heretics and error by the wise and
active work of the Fathers. In like manner it can be asserted that the Benedictine
Institute and its flourishing monasteries were raised up not without divine
guidance and assistance, in order that, while the Roman Empire was tottering,
and barbarous tribes goaded by warlike fury were attacking on all sides,
Christian civilization might make good its losses and after civilizing nations
by the truth and charity of the Gospels would lead them skillfully and
tirelessly to fraternal harmony, fruitful labor and to a virtuous life ruled by
the precepts of Our Redeemer and guided by His grace. Just as in past ages the
Roman legions, which tried to subdue all nations to the imperial mother city,
marched along the roads built by the consuls, so now countless bands of monks
whose arms "are not carnal but mighty to God"[41] are sent by the
Supreme Pontiff to extend to the ends of the earth the peaceful kingdom of
Jesus Christ, not with sword or violence or slaughter but with the cross and
the plough, with truth and charity. Wherever these unarmed bands composed of
heralds of the Christian religion, of workmen, of farmers and teachers of
sciences human and divine passed by, there forests and untilled lands yielded
to the plough; centers of craftsmen and fine arts sprung up; from an uncouth
and wild life men conformed to civil society and culture. For them the teaching
and the power of the Gospel was the light that ever led them on. Numerous
Apostles, burning with divine charity, traversed unknown and restless regions
of Europe which they generously watered with sweat and blood; appeasing the
populations they lighted for them the torch of Catholic truth and holiness. It
may then be asserted that although Rome by many victories extended the might of
her empire on land and sea, still "her warlike conquest subjugated fewer
than the Christian peace conquered".[42] For besides Britain, Gaul,
Batavia, Frisia, Denmark, Germany, and Scandinavia, not a few Slav nations also
rejoice in these monks as their Apostles and consider them as their glory and
the illustrious authors of their civilization. How many Prelates came from
their Order, who wisely governed dioceses previously created, founded new ones
and by their labors contributed to their progress. How many illustrious
teachers and professors established famous seats of learning and of fine arts,
illumined the minds of many sunk in error and increased the store of profane
and religious learning in every department. Finally how many saintly men shone
forth as members of the Benedictine Order, who spared no effort in attaining
Evangelical perfection and by the example of their virtue, by preaching, by
really wondrous signs wrought under God, devoted all their energies to the
spreading of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Very many of them as you well know,
Venerable Brethren, were adorned with the Episcopal dignity or the majesty of
the Supreme Pontificate. The names of these Apostles, Prelates, saintly men and
Supreme Pontiffs are inscribed with letters of gold in the annals of the
Church; it would be tedious to name each one here; besides they glitter in such
a resplendent light and hold so prominent a place in history that they are
easily known to everyone.
23. We therefore think it most opportune that what We
touched on briefly be pondered over seriously during these centenary
celebrations and be put again in the clearest light before the eyes of all, so
that all may more readily extol and praise these outstanding events of the
Church and may more eagerly and willingly follow the teaching and counsels of a
holier life contained in them.
24. It is not only the bygone ages that had reason to
profit from the benefits of this Patriarch; our own age has many important
lessons to learn from him. Let those first of all who belong to his numerous
family learn - We do not doubt that they do - to follow daily ever more closely
in his illustrious footsteps and let each reduce to the practice of ordinary
life the principles and example of his virtue and sanctity. Thus they who in
obedience to a supernatural call followed a heavenly sent vocation to embrace
the monastic life, not only will correspond with it wholeheartedly and
efficiently, seeking the peace and the calm not of their own conscience and
their own eternal salvation alone, but they will also be able to labor with
better effect for the common good of Christianity and for the promotion of
God's glory.
25. Furthermore, all the classes of society, if they
studiously and seriously examine the life, teaching and glorious achievements
of St. Benedict, cannot but fall under the influence of his gentle but powerful
inspiration; indeed they will spontaneously recognize that even our age
troubled and anxious for the vast material and moral ruins, perils and losses
that have been heaped up, can borrow from him the needed remedies. But before
all, let them remember and consider that the sacred principles of religion and
its norms of conduct are the safest and soundest foundations of human society;
if they are disregarded and compromised, everything that promotes order, peace
and prosperity among men and nations, as an almost necessary consequence,
gradually collapses. The history of the Benedictine Order bears clear testimony
to this, as we have seen; and it was already clearly grasped by that cultured
mind of ancient pagan times when he expressed the judgment: "You,
Pontiffs, give greater security to the city by religion than by the encircling
walls".[43] Also, "when holiness and religion are removed, there
follows a life of turmoil and great confusion; and I would venture to say that
when devotion to the gods fails, then fail trustworthiness, human society, and
justice - that most excellent of all virtues".[44]
26. It is of first and primary importance that the
supreme Deity be reverenced and His holy laws obeyed in private and in public
life; otherwise, there is no human power capable of checking and keeping under
due control the unleashed passions of peoples. Religion alone provides the
support for what is right and honorable.
27. There is another lesson and admonition given us by
the holy Patriarch of which our age stands so much in need - namely, that God
is not only to be honored and adored but must be loved as a Father with great
charity. Charity has indeed grown cold and lies dormant so that very many seek
things of the earth rather than things of heaven; whence conflicting strifes
give rise to frequent quarrels and foment distrust and bitter enmities. Since
the eternal Deity is the author of our life and from Him we have received
numerous gifts it is our strict duty to love Him ardently and to direct and
give ourselves and all we have to Him. From this divine love fraternal charity
towards our neighbor should arise, which will lead us to consider all as
brothers in Christ of whatever stock or nation or culture. Thus from all
nations and from all the classes of a country there will arise a single
Christian family whose members will not be divided by exaggerated personal
interests but will cooperate with each other harmoniously and in friendly wise.
28. If these norms, in virtue of which Benedict once
illumined saved and built up the society of those turbulent times which was
crumbling and even lead it back to better ways, be accepted and honored
universally today, then no doubt our age will be able to come safe from its
terrifying shipwreck, make up its losses material and spiritual and adequately
remedy its deep wounds.
29. Besides, Venerable Brethren, the author and
lawgiver of the Benedictine Order has another lesson for us, which is, indeed,
freely and widely proclaimed today but far too often not properly reduced to
practice as it should be. It is that human labor is not without dignity; is not
a distasteful and burdensome thing, but rather something to be esteemed, an
honor and a joy. A busy life, whether employed in the fields, in the profitable
trades or in the liberal arts does not demean the mind but elevates it; does
not reduce it to slavery but more truly gives it a certain mastery and power of
direction over even the most difficult circumstances. Even Jesus, as a youth,
still sheltered within the domestic walls, did not disdain to ply the
carpenter's trade in his fosterfather's workshop; He wished to consecrate human
toil with divine sweat. Let those therefore who labor in trades as well as
those who are busy in the pursuit of literature and learning remember that they
are performing a most noble task in winning their daily bread; they are not
only providing for themselves and their best interests but can be of service to
the entire community. Let them toil, as the Patriarch Benedict admonishes, with
mind and soul elevated towards heaven, working not by force but through love;
and a last word, even when they are defending their own legitimate rights, let
them not be envious of the lot of others, labor not in disorder and tumult, but
in tranquil and harmonious unity. Let them be mindful of those divine words
"in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread";[45] this law of
obedience and expiation holds good for all men.
30. Above all let this not be forgotten that looking
beyond the fleeting things of earth we must daily and increasingly strive after
heavenly and lasting goods, whether we be engaged in intellectual work or study
or in a laborious trade; when we shall have gained that goal, then and then
only will it be given to us to enjoy true peace, undisturbed repose, and everlasting
happiness .
31. When the recent war was raging and spread in a
lamentable way to the shores of Campania and Latium, it reached, as you know,
Venerable Brethren, the holy summit of Monte Cassino and although We left
nothing undone in persuading, exhorting, protesting lest an immense loss be
inflicted on religion, on culture and civilization, nevertheless ruin and
destruction came to that illustrious home of learning and piety which had
survived the turmoil of centuries like a torch conquering darkness. Then when
cities, towns, villages and hamlets around were overwhelmed in ruin, it seemed
that even the Arch-Abbey of Cassino, the head house of the Benedictine Order,
was sharing the grief and partaking the sufferings of its sons. Practically
nothing else survived from the destruction except the sacred crypt in which the
relics of the holy Patriarch are preciously kept.
32. At the present time crumbling walls and rubble,
which brambles pitifully overrun, stand where lofty monuments once met one's
gaze; close by a small home for the monks has been erected recently. But why
may the hope not be expressed while the 14th century is being celebrated from
the time that that saintly man gained heaven, after starting and perfecting his
great work, why may it not be hoped that with the help of all and especially
the rich and generous, this very ancient Arch-Abbey be restored as soon as
possible to its pristine glory? This indeed humanity owes to Benedict; for if
today it glories in great learning, if it rejoices in ancient literary
documents, it must mainly thank him and his hard working sons. We confidently
trust, therefore, that the future will happily realize Our hope and Our wishes.
May this work be not only a task of restoration and reparation but also an omen
of better times in which the spirit of the Benedictine Institute and its ever
opportune teaching may flourish more and more.
33. Relying on this hope, to each of you Venerable
Brethren, to the entire flock entrusted to your care, and to the whole family
of monks which glories in this law-giver as master and parent, We impart, with
great affection as a token of heavenly grace and a testimony of Our goodwill,
the Apostolic Benediction.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the feast of St. Benedict, the twenty-first day of March, in the year 1947, the ninth of Our Pontificate.
PIUS XII
1. Matth. XXVII, 20.
2. S. Greg. M., Lib. Dial., II Prol.; P.L. LXVI, 126.
3. Cf. Cic., De Off. II, 8.
4. S. Greg. M., Lib. Dial, II, Prol., loc. cit. 126.
5. Mabillon, Annales Ord. S. Bened.; Lucae 1739, t. I,
p. 106.
6. Cf. S. Greg. M., Lib. Dial. II Prol.; loc. cit.
126.
7. Salvian, De gub. mundi, VII P.L. LIII, 130.
8. S. Greg. M., Lib. Dial. II, Prol.; loc. cit. 126.
9. Cf. Col. III; 3.
10. S. Greg. M., Lib. Dial., II, 3; loc. cit. 132.
11. Ibidem, II, 3; loc. cit. 140.
12. Ibidem, loc. cit. 140.
13. Ibidem, II, 8; loc. cit. 148.
14. Ibidem, loc. cit. 152.
15. Pius X., Litt. Apost. Archicoenobium Casinense,
d.d.x. Febr., a. MDCCCCXIII.
16. S. Thom., II-IIae. q. 188, a. 6.
17. Mabillon, Annales Ord. S. Bened., Lucae 1739, t.
I, p.107.
18. S. Greg. M., Lib. Dial., III, 16; P. L. LXXXVII,
261.
19. Cf. Bossuet Panegyrique de S. Benoit, Oeuvres
compl. Vol. XII, Paris 1863, p. 105.
20. S. Greg. M., Lib. Dial. II, P. L. LXVI, 200.
21. Reg. S. Benedicti, c. 65.
22. Cf. Ibidem, c. 3.
23. Cf. Ibidem, c. 2.
24. Ibidem, c. 2.
25. Cf. Ibidem, c. 3.
26. Ibidem, c. 2.
27. Ibidem, c. 33.
28. Cf. Ibidem, c. 48.
29. Cf. Ibidem, c. 48.
30. Cf. Ibidem, c. 57.
31. Ibidem, c. 48.
32. Ibidem, c. 43.
33. Ib., c. 19.
34. Ibidem. c. 4.
35. Ibidem, c. 5.
36. Ibidem, c. 72.
37. Ib., c. 53.
38. Ibidem, c. 53.
39. Ibidem, c. 36.
40. S. Greg. M., Lib. Dial., II. 37; P. L., LXXVII,
202.
41. II Cor., X, 4.
42. Cf. S. Leo M., Serm. I in natali. Ap. Petri et
Pauli; P. L., LIV. 423.
43. Cic. DE nat. Deor., II, c. 40.
44. Ibidem, I, c. 2.
45. Gen., III, 19.
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Article
Of Saint Benet the Abbot,
and first the interpretation of his name.
Benet is said because he blessed much people, or else
because he had many benedictions in this life. Or forasmuch as he deserved for
to have blessings or benedictions perpetual. And the holy doctor, Saint
Gregory, wrote his life.
Of Saint Benet the Abbot
Saint Benet was born of the province of Nursia, and
was sent to Rome for to study, but in his infancy he left the schools and went
into a desert, and his nourice, which tenderly loved him, went alway with him
till they came to a place named Æside, and there she borrowed a vessel for to
purge or winnow wheat; but the vessel fell to the earth for negligence, and was
broken in two pieces. And when Saint Benet saw his nurse weep he had great
pity, and made his prayers to Almighty God, and after made it also whole as it
had been tofore, then they of the country took it and hung it on the front of
the church in witness of one so fair a miracle. Then left Saint Benet his nurse
and fled secretly, and came into a hermitage where he was never known of no man
but of a monk named Romain, which ministered to him meat for to eat. And
because that there was no way from the monastery of Romain unto the pit where
Saint Benet was, he knit the loaf in a cord and so let it down to him, and
because he should hear when Romain should let down the bread he bound a bell on
the cord, and by the sound thereof he received his bread, but the devil having,
envy of the charity of that one, and of the refection of that other, cast a
stone and brake the bell, but nevertheless Romain left not to minister to him.
It happed that there was a priest on
an Easter day that had arrayed his dinner for himself, and our Lord appeared to
him and said: Thou ordainest for thyself delicious meats, and my servant dieth
for hunger in such a pit, and named him the place. Then the priest arose
and bare his meat with him and sought so long that he found Saint Benet in
great pain. When he had found him he said to him: Arise and take thy meat and
refection for it is Easter Day. He answered, I know well that it is the feast
of Paske, because that I see thee. The priest said
to him: Certainly this day is the day of Easter, and Saint Benet wist it not
because he had dwelled there so long and so far from people. Then said they
graces, and made the benediction, and took their refection. It happed after
this that a black bird, that is called a merle, came on a time to Saint Benet
and pecked with his bill at his visage, and grieved and noyed him so much that
he could have no rest for it, and could not put it from him, but as soon as he
had made the sign of the cross, anon the bird vanished away. And after that
came to him a great temptation of the flesh, by the which the devil tempted him
in showing him a woman, and he burnt sore, and was inflamed in his courage, but
anon he came again to himself; and after, he despoiled himself all naked and
went among thorns and wallowed among the nettles, so that his body was torn and
pained, by which he healed the wounds of his heart. Then after that time he
felt no more temptation of his flesh.
It happed that the abbot of
a monastery was dead, and for the good renomee of this holy man Saint Benet,
all the monks of the abbey gave their voices and elected Saint Benet for their
abbot, but he accorded not thereto, ne agreed to them, for he said that his
conditions and manners were not according to theirs. Notwithstanding he was
vanquished, and so instantly required, that at the last he consented. But when
he saw they lived not ne were not ruled according to their religion and rule,
he reproved and corrected them vigorously. And when they saw that they might
not do their wills under him, they gave him venom meddled with wine for to
drink, but Saint Benet made the sign of the cross over it and blessed it, and
anon the vessel brake in pieces, which was of glass. When Saint Benet then knew
so that in that vessel was mortal drink, which might not abide ne suffer the
sign of the cross, he rose up and said: God have mercy on you fair brethren; I
said to you well, at the beginning, that my conditions and manners appertain
not to yours, from henceforth get to you another father, for I may no longer
dwell here. Then went he again to desert, where God showed for him many signs and
miracles, and founded there two abbeys. Now it happed that in one of these two
abbeys, was a monk that might not endure long in prayers, and when the other of
his fellows were in prayer he would go out of the church. Then the abbot of
that abbey showed this to Saint Benet, and anon he went for to see if it were
true. And when he came he saw that the devil, in likeness of a little black
child, drew him out of the church by his cowl. Then said Saint Benet to the
abbot and to Saint Maur: See ye not him that draweth him out ? They said: Nay.
Then said he: Let us pray to God that we may see him. When they had made their
prayers Saint Maur saw him, but the abbot might not see him. The next day Saint
Benet took a rod and beat the monk, and then he abode in prayer, like as the
devil had been beaten, and durst no more come and draw him away, and from then
forthon he abode in prayer and continued therein.
In the abbey of
Saint Benet was a child named Placidus, which went to the river for to draw
water, and his foot slode so that he fell into the river which was much deep,
and anon the river bare him forth more than a bow-shot. And when Saint Benet,
which was in his study, knew it, he called to Saint Maur, and said that there
was a child which was a monk that was about to be drowned, and bade him go to
help him. And anon Saint Maur ran upon the water like as it had been on dry
ground and his feet dry and took up the child by the hair, and drew him to
land, and after, when he came to Saint Benet, he said that it was not by his
merit but by virtue of his obedience.
There was a priest named
Florentin which had envy on Saint Benet, and he sent to him a loaf of bread
envenomed. After, when Saint Benet had this loaf he knew, by the inspiration,
that it was envenomed. He gave it to a raven that was wont to take his feeding
of Saint Benet’s hand, and commanded him to bear it unto such a place that no
man should find it. Then the raven made semblant for to obey to the commandment
of Saint Benet, but he durst not touch it for the venom, and fled about it
howling and crying. Saint Benet said to him: Take this bread hardily and bear
it away. At the last the raven bare it away into such a place that there was
never heard tidings thereof after, and came again the third day after and took
his refection of Saint Benet’s hand as he was wont to do tofore. When
this priest Florentin
saw that he could not slay Saint Benet, he enforced him to slay spiritually the
souls of his disciples. He took seven maidens, all naked, and sent them into the
garden to dance and carol for to move the monks to temptation. When Saint Benet
saw the malice of Florentin he had fear of his disciples, and sent them out of
that place. When Florentin saw that Saint Benet and his monks went out, he
demened great joy and made great feast, and anon the solar fell upon him and
slew him suddenly. When Saint Maur saw that Florentin was dead, he ran after
Saint Benet and called him, saying: Come again, for Florentin that hath done so
much harm to you is dead. When Saint Benet heard this he was sorry for the
perilous death of Florentin, and because Saint Maur was glad for the death of
his enemy, as him seemed, he enjoined him penance therefor. After this he went
to Mount Cassin, where he had another great adversary, for in the place where
that Apollo was adored, he made an oratory of Saint John Baptist, and converted
all the country about to the christian faith, whereof the devil was so
tormented that he appeared to Saint Benet all black, and ran upon him with open
mouth and throat, and had his eyes all enflamed and said to him, Benet! Benet!
and Saint Benet answered not. The devil said: Cursed and not blessed, why have
I so much persecution?
It happed on a time that as the monks should lift a
stone for a work of an edifice, they might not move it, then there assembled a
great multitude of people, and yet they all might not lift it, but anon as
Saint Benet had blessed it, they lifted it anon. Then apperceived they that the
devil was upon it and caused it to be so heavy. And when they had a little made
the wall high, the devil appeared to Saint Benet and bade him go see them that
edified, then Saint Benet sent to his monks and commanded that they should keep
them well, for the devil went to destroy them. But ere the messenger came to
them the devil had thrown down a part of the wall, and had therewith slain a
young monk. Then they brought the monk, all tobruised, in a sack to Saint
Benet, and anon Saint Benet made upon him the sign of the cross and blessed
him, and raised him to life and sent him to the work again.
A lay man, of honest life, had a custom once in the
year to come to Saint Benet all fasting, and on a time as he came, there was
one that bare meat accompanied with him, and desired that he would eat with
him, but he refused it. After, he prayed him the second time, and yet he
refused it, and said he would eat no meat till he came to Saint Benet. At the
third time he found a fair fountain and a much delitable place, and began sore
to desire him to eat with him, and at the last he consented and ate. And when
he came to Saint Benet he said to him: Where hast thou eaten? which answered, I
have eaten a little. O fair brother, the devil hath deceived thee, but he could
not deceive thee the first ne the second time, but the third time he hath
surmounted thee. Then the good man knelt down to the feet of Saint Benet and
confessed him of his trespass.
Attila, the king of Goths, would once prove if Saint
Benet had the spirit of prophecy, and sent to him his servant, and did do array
him with precious robes, and delivered to him a great company as he had been
the king himself. When Saint Benet saw him come, he said to him: Fair son, do
off that thou wearest, it is not thine, and the man fell down anon to the
ground because he mocked the holy man, and died anon.
A clerk that was vexed with the devil was brought to
Saint Benet for to be healed, and Saint Benet put him out, and after, said to
the clerk: Go, and from henceforth eat no more flesh, and go no more to none
order, for what day thou goest and takest orders, the devil shall re-enter into
thee. This clerk held him long time without taking any, till at last he saw
younger than he that went to take orders, and had forgotten the words of Saint
Benet, and took orders, and anon the devil entered in to his body and tormented
him till he died.
There was a man that sent to Saint Benet two flagons
of wine, but he that bare them hid that one, and presented that other without
more. When Saint Benet had received the present he thanked him much and said to
him: Fair brother, take good heed how thou shalt do with that which thou hast
hid, and drink not thereof for thou knowest not what is therein. Then he was
ashamed, and so confused went from him, and when he came to the place where he
had hid it, he would wit what was therein like as Saint Benet had told to him,
and bowed it a little, and anon a serpent issued out.
It happed on a time that Saint Benet ate, and a young
man which was son to a great lord held to him a candle, and began to think in
his heart who is this that I serve? I am son unto a great man; it appertaineth
not that one so gentle a man as I am be servant to him. When Saint Benet saw by
experience the pride that arose in this monk, he called another monk and made
him to hold the candle, and after said to him: What is that thou hast? bless
thy heart brother, bless it, God forgive it thee, now thou shalt serve me no
more; go into thy cloister and rest thee there.
There was a man of the king of Goths which was named
Gallas, which tormented over cruelly the christian men, because he was of the
sect of the Arians, in such wise that where he found clerks or monks he slew
them. Then it happed on a day that he tormented a villain or a carle for the
covetise of his good; when the carle saw that he would take all, he gave all
that ever he had to Saint Benet. Then left Gallas to torment him a little, but
he bound him with the reins of his bridle, and drove him tofore, and he rode
after till that he came to the abbey of Saint Benet, and bade him that he
should show to him this Benet. When he came thither he saw Saint Benet stand
tofore the gate alone and studied in a book; then said the villain to the
tyrant: Lo! there is Benet that thou demandest after. When Gallas had looked on
him cruelly, like he had been accustomed, he had supposed to have dealt with
him like as he had done with other christian men, and said to Saint Benet:
Arise up anon and deliver to me the goods of this carle which thou hast by
thee. When Saint Benet heard, he lift up a little his eyes and beheld the carle
that was tofore him, and anon by great marvel his arms were unbounden, he stood
tofore the tyrant appertly, without dread. And anon Gallas fell down to the
feet of Saint Benet and recommended him to his prayers. And never for all this
left Saint Benet to read on his book, but called his monks and commanded that
his meat should be brought to him, and the monks did so, and sith bare it away. Then admonested Saint
Benet the tyrant, and said to him that he should leave his cruelty and his
woodness, and he departed and never after that day he demanded of villain any
good, ne of the man that Saint Benet had unbounden only by his sight.
It happed over all Champagne, whereas he dwelt that so
great a famine was in the country that much people died for hunger. Then all
the bread of the abbey failed, and there was within but five loaves for all the
convent; when Saint Benet saw that they were abashed he began debonairly to
chastise and warn them that they should have their hearts on high to God, and
said to them: Wherefore are ye in so great misease for bread? If ye have none
this day ye shall have it tomorn. Now it happed that on the morn they found at
their gate two hundred muddes of meal, which were properly sent from God, for
never man wist from whence they came. When the monks saw that they thanked God,
and learned that they ought not doubt ne of abundance ne of poverty.
It happed on a time that Saint Benet sent his monks
for to edify an abbey, and said that at a certain day he would come see them
and show them what they should do. Then the night tofore that he had said to
come he appeared to the master and to his monks, and showed to them all the
places that they should build, but they believed not this vision and supposed
it had been but a dream. Then when they saw that he came not, they returned and
said to him: Fair father, we have abided that thou shouldst have come to us
like as thou promisedst us. Then answered he: What is that ye say? Remember ye
not that I appeared to you that night that I promised you and enseigned and
told how ye should do? Go your way and do in such wise as I have devised to you
in the vision.
There were two nuns nigh unto his monastery which were
of much noble lineage, which were much talkative, and restrained not well their
tongues, but tormented overmuch him that governed them. And when he had showed
this to Saint Bentt, he sent them word that they should better keep silence and
rule their tongues, or he would curse them. But they for all that would not
leave it, and so anon after, they died and were buried in the church. And when
the deacon cried in the end of the mass that they that were accursed should go
out of the church, the nurse that had nourished them and that every day had
offered for them, beheld and saw that, when the deacon sang so, they issued out
of their sepulchres and went out of the church, and when Saint Benet knew
hereof he offered for them himself and assoiled them. Then after that when the
deacon said so as afore, they never issued out after as their nurse had seen
them.
There was a monk gone out for to see his father and
mother, without licence and blessing of his abbot, and the day after he came
thither he died; and when he was buried in the earth the earth cast him out
again, and so it did twice. Then came the father and mother to Saint Benet and
told him how the earth threw him and would not receive him, and prayed that he
would bless him. Then took he the blessed sacrament and made it to be laid on
the breast of the corpse, and when they had done so they buried him, and the
earth threw him no more out, but received the body and held it.
There was a monk that could not abide in the
monastery, and prayed so much to Saint Benet that he let him go, and was all
angry, and anon as he was out of the abbey he found a dragon with open mouth;
and when he saw him he had fear that he would have denounced him, and cried
loud: Come hither and help me! come hither, for this dragon will devour me!
Then the monks ran, but they saw no dragon, and brought again the monk
trembling and sighing. Then the monk promised that he never would depart from
the abbey.
In a time there was in that country a great famine,
and all that ever Saint Benet might get and have, he gave it to the poor
people, in so much that he had no more in the abbey but a little oil, and he
commanded yet to the cellarer to give it to a poor man. The cellarer understood
him well, but he gave it not because there was no more in the convent. And when
Saint Benet knew it he took the vessel and cast it out of the window, and it
was of glass, and it fell on a stone and brake not; then he reproved the
cellarer of inobedience and of the little hope that he had in God; and after he
went unto his prayers, and anon a great empty tun that was there was full of
oil, insomuch that it ran over.
It happed another day that Saint Benet went to visit
his sister, named Scholastica, and as they sat at table she prayed her brother
that he would abide there all that night, but he in no wise would grant her,
and said he might not live out of his cloister. And when she saw that he would
not grant to her to abide, she inclined her head and made her prayers to our
Lord, and anon it began to thunder and to lighten, and the air to wax dark
which tofore was fair and clear, and a great rain fell down so that for nothing
he might depart. And like as she wept with her eyes, right so forthwith the
rain and storm came, and then she lifted up her head. Then Saint Benet said to
his sister: Almighty God forgive you that ye have done, for ye have letted me
that I may not depart hence. And she said: Fair brother, God is more courteous
than ye be, for ye would not accept my prayer, but God hath heard me, now go if
ye may. And then Saint Benet abode there all the night, speaking of God between
him and his sister without sleeping, till they were both eased. On the morn
Saint Benet went to his abbey, and on the third day he lift up his eyes to heaven,
and saw the soul of his sister mount up into heaven in the likeness of a dove,
and anon he did the body of her to be brought to his abbey, and did it to be
buried in his tomb which he had do made for himself.
On a night as Saint Benet was in his prayer at a
window, he saw the soul of Saint Germain, bishop of Capua, mount into heaven,
and like as a light sudden that enlumineth all the darknesses of the world, so
the light of that soul gave a great light; and after he knew that the soul of
Saint Germain passed that same hour. After this, when time came that Saint
Benet himself should depart out of this world, he showed it to his monks six
days tofore, and did do make his pit. And after that a fever took him strongly,
which held him every day, and at the sixth day he did himself to be borne to
the church, and there received the body of our Lord Jesu Christ, and after,
among the hands of his disciples, his own hands lifting up to heaven in making
his orison, he rendered his soul unto his creator. The same hour was a
revelation showed to two monks, for they saw a way to heaven all covered with
palls and mantles of gold, and full of torches burning which illumined all the
heaven, which came from the cell of Saint Benet unto heaven. And there was a
man in a fair habit to whom these monks demanded what way that was, and he
answered that it was the way by which Saint Benet mounted up to heaven. Then
the body of Saint Benet was buried in the oratory that he had made of Saint
John, where as was wont to be the altar of Apollo, the year of our Lord five
hundred and eighteen. To whom let us pray devoutly that he pray to our Lord for
us, that we may have grace after this life to come to everlasting bliss in
heaven. Amen.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/golden-legend-saint-benet/
Domenico di Pace Beccafumi (–1551),
Die Hl. Katharina empfängt die Wundmale, mit Hl. Benedikt und Hl.
Hieronymus, Altarretabel, circa 1515, 208 x 156, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
St. Benedict, Abbot
From St. Gregory, (Dial. l. 2. c. 1.)
who assures us that he received his account of this saint from four abbots, the
saint’s disciples; namely, Constantine, his successor at Monte Cassino,
Simplicius, third abbot of that house, Valentinian, the first abbot of the
monastery of Lateran, and Honoratus, who succeeded St. Benedict at Subiaco. See
the remarks of Mabillon, Annal. Ben. l. 1. p. 3. and l. 2. p. 38. and Act. Sanct.
Bened. t. 1. p. 80. Also Dom. Mege, Vie de Saint Benoît, avec une Histoire
Abregée de son Ordre, in 4to. An. 1690. Hæften’s Disquisitions, and abbot
Steingelt’s abridgment of the same, and Ziegelbauer and Legipont, Historia
Literaria Ord. S. Benedicti, An. 1754. t. 1. p. 3. and principally t. 3. p. 2.
A.D. 543.
[Patriarch of the Western
Monks.] SAINT BENEDICT, or BENNET, was a native of
Norcia, formerly an episcopal see in Umbria, and was descended from a family of
note, and born about the year 480. The name of his father was Eutropius, and
that of his grandfather, Justinian. When he was fit for the higher studies, he
was sent by his parents to Rome, and there placed in the public schools. He,
who till that time knew not what vice was, and trembled at the shadow of sin,
was not a little shocked at the licentiousness which he observed in the conduct
of some of the Roman youth, with whom he was obliged to converse; and he had no
sooner come into the world, but he resolved to bid an eternal farewell to it,
and not to be entangled in its snares. He therefore left the city privately,
and made the best of his way towards the deserts. His nurse, Cyrilla, who loved
him tenderly, followed him as far as Afilum, thirty miles from Rome, where he
found means to get rid of her, and pursued his journey alone to the desert
mountain of Sublacum, 1 near
forty miles from Rome. It is a barren, hideous, chain of rocks, with a river
and lake in the valley. Near this place the saint met a monk of a neighbouring
monastery, called Romanus, who gave him the monastic habit, with suitable instructions,
and conducted him to a deep narrow cave in the midst of these mountains, almost
inaccessible to men. In this cavern, now called the Holy Grotto, the young
hermit chose his abode: and Romanus, who kept his secret, brought him hither,
from time to time, bread and the like slender provisions, which he retrenched
from his own meals, and let them down to the holy recluse with a line, hanging
a bell to the cord to give him notice. Bennet seems to have been about fourteen
or fifteen years old when he came to Sublacum; St. Gregory says, he was yet a
child. He lived three years in this manner known only to Romanus. But God was
pleased to manifest his servant to men, that he might shine forth as a light to
many. In 497, a certain pious priest in that country, whilst he was preparing a
dinner for himself on Easter-Sunday, heard a voice which said: “You are
preparing for yourself a banquet, whilst my servant Bennet, at Sublacum, is
distressed with hunger.” The priest immediately set out in quest of the hermit,
and with much difficulty found him out. Bennet was surprised to see a man come
to him; but before he would enter into conversation with him, he desired they
might pray together. They then discoursed for some time on God and heavenly
things. At length the priest invited the saint to eat, saying, it was
Easter-day, on which it is not reasonable to fast; though St. Bennet answered
him, that he knew not that it was the day of so great a solemnity, nor is it to
be wondered at, that one so young should not be acquainted with the day of a
festival, which was not then observed by all on the same day, or that he should
not understand the Lunar Cicle, which at that time was known by very few. After
their repast the priest returned home. Soon after certain shepherds discovered
the saint near his cave, but at first took him for a wild beast; for he was
clad with the skins of beasts, and they imagined no human creature could live
among those rocks. When they found him to be a servant of God, they respected
him exceedingly, and many of them were moved by his heavenly discourses to
embrace with fervour a course of perfection. From that time he began to be
known, and many visited him, and brought him such sustenance as he would
accept: in requital for which he nourished their souls with spiritual
instructions. Though he lived sequestered from the world, he was not yet secure
from the assaults of the tempter. Wherever we fly the devil still pursues us,
and we carry a domestic enemy within our own breasts. St. Gregory relates that
whilst St. Bennet was employed in divine contemplation, the fiend endeavoured
to withdraw his mind from heavenly objects, by appearing in the shape of a
little black bird; but that, upon his making the sign of the cross, the phantom
vanished. After this, by the artifices of this restless enemy, the remembrance
of a woman whom the saint had formerly seen at Rome, occurred to his mind, and
so strongly affected his imagination, that he was tempted to leave his desert.
But blushing at so base a suggestion of the enemy, he threw himself upon some
briers and nettles which grew in the place where he was, and rolled himself a
long time in them till his body was covered with blood. The wounds of his body
stifled all inordinate inclinations, and their smart extinguished the flame of
concupiscence. This complete victory seemed to have perfectly subdued that
enemy; for he found himself no more molested with its stings.
The fame of his sanctity being spread
abroad, it occasioned several to forsake the world, and imitate his penitential
manner of life. Some time after the monks of Vicovara, 2 on
the death of their abbot, pitched upon him to succeed him. He was very
unwilling to take upon himself that charge, which he declined in the spirit of
sincere humility, the beloved virtue which he had practised from his infancy,
and which was the pleasure of his heart, and is the delight of a God humbled
even to the cross, for the love of us. The saint soon found by experience that
their manners did not square with his just idea of a monastic state. Certain
sons of Belial among them carried their aversion so far as to mingle poison
with his wine: but when, according to his custom, before he drank of it he made
the sign of the cross over the glass, it broke as if a stone had fallen upon
it. “God forgive you, brethren,” said the saint, with his usual meekness and
tranquillity of soul, “you now see I was not mistaken when I told you that your
manners and mine would not agree.” He therefore returned to Sublacum; which
desert he soon peopled with monks, for whom he built twelve monasteries,
placing in each twelve monks with a superior. 3 In
one of these twelve monasteries there lived a monk, who, out of sloth,
neglected and loathed the holy exercise of mental prayer, insomuch that after
the psalmody or divine office was finished, he every day left the church to go
to work, whilst his brethren were employed in that holy exercise; for by this
private prayer in the church, after the divine office, St. Gregory means pious
meditation, as Dom. Mege demonstrates. This slothful monk began to correct his
fault upon the charitable admonition of Pompeian, his superior; but, after
three days, relapsed into his former sloth. Pompeian acquainted Saint Benedict,
who said, “I will go and correct him myself.” Such indeed was the danger and
enormity of this fault, as to require the most effectual and speedy remedy. For
it is only by assiduous prayer, that the soul is enriched with the abundance of
the heavenly water of divine graces, which produces in her the plentiful fruit
of all virtues. If we consider the example of all the saints, we shall see that
prayer was the principal means by which the Holy Ghost sanctified their souls,
and that they advanced in perfection in proportion to their progress in the
holy spirit of prayer. If this be neglected, the soul becomes spiritually
barren, as a garden loses all its fruitfulness, and all its beauty, if the pump
raise not up a continual supply of water, the principle of both. St. Benedict,
deploring the misfortune and blindness of this monk, hastened to his monastery,
and coming to him at the end of the divine office, saw a little black boy
leading him by the sleeve out of the church. After two days’ prayer, St. Maurus
saw the same; but Pompeian could not see this vision, by which was represented
that the devil studies to withdraw men from prayer, in order that, being disarmed
and defenceless, they may easily be made a prey. On the third day, St. Benedict
finding the monk still absent from church in the time of prayer, struck him
with a wand, and by that correction the sinner was freed from the temptation.
Dom. German Millet, 4 tells
us, from the tradition and archives of the monastery of St. Scholastica, that
this happened in St. Jerom’s. In the monastery of St. John, a fountain sprung
up at the prayers of the saint; this, and two other monasteries, which were
built on the summit of the mountain, being before much distressed for want of
water. In that of St. Clement, situate on the bank of a lake, a Goth, who was a
monk, let fall the head of a sickle into the water as he was cutting down
thistles and weeds in order to make a garden; but St. Maur, who with St.
Placidus lived in that house, holding the wooden handle in the water, the iron
of its own accord swam, and joined it again, as St. Gregory relates. St.
Benedict’s reputation drew the most illustrious personages from Rome and other
remote parts to see him. Many, who came clad in purple, sparkling with gold and
precious stones, charmed with the admirable sanctity of the servant of God,
prostrated themselves at his feet to beg his blessing and prayers, and some,
imitating the sacrifice of Abraham, placed their sons under his conduct in
their most tender age, that they might be formed to perfect virtue from their
childhood. Among others, two rich and most illustrious senators, Eutychius, or
rather Equitius, and Tertullus, committed to his care their two sons, Maurus,
then twelve years old, and Placidus, also a child, in 522. 5 The
devil, envying so much good, stirred up his wicked instruments to disturb the
tranquillity of the servant of God. Florentius, a priest in the neighbouring
country, though unworthy to bear that sacred character, moved by a secret
jealousy, persecuted the saint, and aspersed his reputation with grievous
slanders. Bennet, being a true disciple of Christ, knew no revenge but that of
meekness and silence: and not to inflame the envy of his adversary, left
Sublacum, and repaired to Mount Cassino. He was not got far on his journey,
when he heard that Florentius was killed by the fall of a gallery in which he
was. The saint was much afflicted at his sudden and unhappy death, and enjoined
Maurus a penance for calling it a deliverance from persecution.
Cassino is a small town, now in the
kingdom of Naples, built on the brow of a very high mountain, on the top of
which stood an old temple of Apollo, surrounded with a grove in which certain
idolators still continued to offer their abominable sacrifices. The man of God
having, by his preaching and miracles, converted many of them to the faith,
broke the idol to pieces, overthrew the altar, demolished the temple and cut
down the grove. Upon the ruins of which temple and altar he erected two
oratories or chapels; one bore the name of St. John the Baptist, the other of
St. Martin. This was the origin of the celebrated abbey of Mount Cassino, the
foundation of which the saint laid in 529, the forty-eighth year of his age, the
third of the emperor Justinian: Felix IV., being pope, Athalaric king of the
Goths in Italy. The patrician, Tertullus, came about that time to pay a visit
to the saint, and to see his son Placidus; and made over to this monastery
several lands which he possessed in that neighbourhood and also a considerable
estate in Sicily. St. Bennet met on Mount Cassino, one Martin, a venerable old
hermit, who, to confine himself to a more austere solitude, had chained himself
to the ground in his cell, with a long iron chain. The holy abbot, fearing this
singularity might be a mark of affectation, said to him: “if you are a servant
of Jesus Christ, let the chain of his love, not one of iron, hold you fixed in
your resolution.” Martin gave proof of his humility by his obedience, and
immediately laid aside his chain. Saint Bennet governed also a monastery of
nuns, situate near Mount Cassino, as is mentioned by St. Gregory: he founded an
abbey of men at Terracina, and sent St. Placidus into Sicily to establish
another in that island. Though ignorant of secular learning, he was eminently
replenished with the spirit of God, and an experimental science of spiritual
things: on which account he is said by St. Gregory the Great to have been
“learnedly ignorant and wisely unlettered.” 6 For
the alphabet of this great man is infinitely more desirable than all the empty
science of the world, as St. Arsenius said of St. Antony. From certain very
ancient pictures of St. Benedict and old inscriptions, Mabillon proves this
saint to have been in holy orders, and a deacon. 7 Several
moderns say he was a priest; but, as Muratori observes without grounds. By the
account which St. Gregory has given us of his life, it appears that he preached
sometimes in neighbouring places, and that a boundless charity opening his
hand, he distributed amongst the needy all that he had on earth, to lay up his
whole treasure in heaven, St. Bennet, possessing perfectly the science of the
saints, and being enabled by the Holy Ghost to be the guide of innumerable
souls in the most sublime paths of Christian perfection, compiled a monastic
rule, which, for wisdom and discretion, St. Gregory the Great preferred to all
other rules; and which was afterwards adopted, for some time, by all the monks
of the West. It is principally founded on silence, solitude, prayer, humility,
and obedience. 8
St. Bennet calls his Order a school
in which men learn how to serve God: and his life was to his disciples a
perfect model for their imitation, and a transcript of his rule. Being chosen
by God, like another Moses, to conduct faithful souls into the true promised
land, the kingdom of heaven, he was enriched with eminent supernatural gifts,
even those of miracles and prophecy. He seemed, like another Eliseus, endued by
God with an extraordinary power, commanding all nature; and like the ancient
prophets, foreseeing future events. He often raised the sinking courage of his
monks, and baffled the various artifices of the devil with the sign of the
cross, rendered the heaviest stone light, in building his monastery by a short
prayer, and, in presence of a multitude of people, raised to life a novice who
had been crushed by the fall of a wall at Mount Cassino. He foretold, with many
tears, that this monastery should be profaned and destroyed; which happened
forty years after, when the Lombards demolished it about the year 580. He
added, that he had scarcely been able to obtain of God that the inhabitants
should be saved. 9 It
was strictly forbidden by the rule of St. Benedict, for any monk to eat out of
his monastery, unless he was at such a distance that he could not return home
that day, and this rule, says St. Gregory, was inviolably observed. Indeed
nothing more dangerously engages monks in the commerce of the world; nothing
more enervates in them the discipline of abstinence and mortification, than for
them to eat and drink with seculars abroad. St. Gregory tells us, that St.
Bennet knew by revelation the fault of one of his monks who had accepted of an
invitation to take some refreshment when he was abroad on business. 10 A
messenger who brought the saint a present of two bottles of wine, and had hid
one of them, was put in mind by him to beware drinking of the other, in which
he afterwards found a serpent. One of the monks, after preaching to the nuns,
had accepted of some handkerchiefs from them, which he hid in his bosom; but
the saint, upon his return, reproved him, for his secret sin against the rule
of holy poverty. A novice, standing before him, was tempted with thoughts of
pride on account of his birth: the saint discovered what passed in his soul and
bid him make the sign of the cross on his breast.
When Belisarius, the emperor’s general,
was recalled to Constantinople, Totila, the Arian king of the Goths, invaded
and plundered Italy. Having heard wonders of the sanctity of St. Bennet, and of
his predictions and miracles, he resolved to try whether he was really that
wonderful man which he was reported to be. Therefore, as he marched through
Campania, in 542, he sent the man of God word, that he would pay him a visit.
But instead of going in person he dressed one of his courtiers, named Riggo, in
his royal purple robes, and sent him to the monastery, attended by the three
principal lords of his court, and a numerous train of pages. St. Bennet, who
was then sitting, saw him coming to his cell, and cried out to him at some
distance: “Put off, my son, those robes which you wear, and which belong not to
you.” The mock king, being struck with a panic for having attempted to impose
upon the man of God, fell prostrate at his feet, together with all his
attendants. The saint, coming up, raised him with his hand; and the officer
returning to his master, related trembling what had befallen him. The king then
went himself, but had no sooner come into the presence of the holy abbot, but
he threw himself on the ground and continued prostrate till the saint, going to
him, obliged him to rise. The holy man severely reproved him for the outrages
he had committed, and said: “You do a great deal of mischief, and I foresee you
will do more. You will take Rome: you will cross the sea, and will reign nine
years longer: but death will overtake you in the tenth, when you shall be
arraigned before a just God to give an account of your conduct.” All which came
to pass as St. Benedict had foretold him. Totila was seized with fear, and
recommended himself to his prayers. From that day the tyrant became more
humane; and when he took Naples, shortly after, treated the captives with
greater lenity than could be expected from an enemy and a barbarian. 11 When
the bishop of Canusa afterwards said to the saint, that Totila would leave Rome
a heap of stones, and that it would be no longer inhabited, he answered: “No:
but it shall be beaten with storms and earthquakes, and shall be like a tree
which withers by the decay of its root.” Which prediction St. Gregory observes
to have been accomplished.
The death of this great saint seems
to have happened soon after that of his sister St. Scholastica, and in the year
after his interview with Totila. He foretold it to his disciples, and caused
his grave to be opened six days before. When this was done he fell ill of a
fever, and on the sixth day would be carried into the chapel, where he received
the body and blood of our Lord, 12 and
having given his last instructions to his sorrowful disciples, standing, and
leaning on one of them, with his hands lifted up, he calmly expired, in prayer,
on Saturday, the 21st of March, probably in the year 543, and of his age the
sixty-third; having spent fourteen years at Mount Cassino. The greater part of
his relics remains still in that abbey; though some of his bones were brought
into France, about the close of the seventh century, and deposited in the
famous abbey of Fleury, which, on that account, has long born the name of St.
Bennet’s on the Loire. 13 It
was founded in the reign of Clovis II. about the year 640, and belongs at
present to the congregation of St. Maur.
St. Gregory, in two words, expresses
the characteristical virtue of this glorious patriarch of the monastic Order,
when he says, that, returning from Vicovara to Sublaco, he dwelt alone with
himself; 14 which
words comprise a great and rare perfection, in which consists the essence of
holy retirement. A soul dwells not in true solitude, unless this be interior as
well as exterior, and unless she cultivate no acquaintance but with God and
herself, admitting no other company. Many dwell in monasteries, or alone,
without possessing the secret of living with themselves. Though they are
removed from the conversation of the world, their minds still rove abroad
wandering from the consideration of God and themselves, and dissipated amidst a
thousand exterior objects which their imagination presents to them, and which
they suffer to captivate their hearts, and miserably entangle their will with
vain attachments and foolish desires. Interior solitude requires the silence of
the interior faculties of the soul, no less than of the tongue and exterior
senses: without this, the inclosure of walls is a very weak fence. In this
interior solitude, the soul collects all her faculties within herself, employs
all her thoughts on herself and on God, and all her strength and affections in
aspiring after him. Thus, St. Benedict dwelt with himself, being always busied
in the presence of his Creator, in bewailing the spiritual miseries of his soul
and past sins, in examining into the disorders of his affections, in watching
over his senses, and the motions of his heart, and in a constant attention to
the perfection of his state, and the contemplation of divine things. This last
occupied his soul in the sweet exercises of divine love and praise; but the
first mentioned exercises, or the consideration of himself and of his own
nothingness and miseries, laid the foundation by improving in him continually
the most profound spirit of humility and compunction. The twelve degrees of
humility, which he lays down in his Rule, 15 are
commended by St. Thomas Aquinas. 16 The
first is a deep compunction of heart, and holy fear of God and his judgments,
with a constant attention to walk in the divine presence, sunk under the weight
of this confusion and fear. 2. The perfect renunciation of our own will. 3.
Ready obedience. 4. Patience under all sufferings and injuries. 5. The
manifestation of our thoughts and designs to our superior or director. 6. To be
content, and to rejoice, in all humiliations; to be pleased with mean
employments, poor clothes, &c. to love simplicity and poverty, (which he
will have among monks, to be extended even to the ornaments of the altar,) and
to judge ourselves unworthy, and bad servants in every thing that is enjoined
us. 7. Sincerely to esteem ourselves baser and more unworthy than every one,
even the greatest sinners. 17 8.
To avoid all love of singularity in words or actions. 9. To love and practice
silence. 10. To avoid dissolute mirth and loud laughter. 11. Never to speak
with a loud voice, and to be modest in our words. 12. To be humble in all our
exterior actions, by keeping our eyes humbly cast down with the publican, 18 and
the penitent Manasses. 19 St.
Benedict adds, that divine love is the sublime recompense of sincere humility,
and promises, upon the warrant of the divine word, that God will raise that
soul to perfect charity, which, faithfully walking in these twelve degrees,
shall have happily learned true humility. Elsewhere he calls obedience with
delay the first degree of humility, 20 but
means the first among the exterior degrees; for he places before it interior
compunction of soul, and the renunciation of our own will.
Note 1. Called by the Italians, who
frequently soften l into i, Subiaco. [back]
Note
2. Vicovara,
anciently Varronis Vicus, a village between Subiaco and Tivoli. [back]
Note 3. These twelve monasteries were
situated in the same neighbourhood, in the province Valeria. Moderns disagree
in their names and description, according to the account of Dom. Mege, which
appears most accurate, the first was called Columbaria, now St. Clement’s, and
stood within sixty paces from the saint’s cave, called the Holy Grotto; the
second was named of SS. Cosmas and Damian, now St. Scholastica’s; the third,
St. Michael’s; the fourth, of St. Donatus, bishop and martyr; the fifth, St.
Mary’s, now St. Laurence’s; the sixth, St. John Baptist’s, situated on the
highest part of the rock, but from a fountain which St. Bennet produced there
by his prayers, and which still subsists; it is at present called St. John
dell’ Acqua; the seventh, St. Jerom’s; the eighth, Vita Æterna; the ninth, St.
Victorian or Victorin’s called from a martyr of that name, who is patron of the
province of Valeria; the tenth, at the neighbouring village Trebare; the
eleventh, at St. Angelus’s; the twelfth, at a fountain near the ancient castle,
called Roca de Bore. These monasteries have been all united in that of St.
Scholastica, which remains in a very flourishing condition, and is regarded as
the mother-house of the whole Order, being certainly more ancient than that of
Mount Cassino. It is a member of the Congregation of St. Justina, and though it
is usually given in commendam, by a peculiar distinction, it is governed by a
regular abbot chosen by the General Chapter. Of the rest of these twelve
monasteries, only some cells or ruins remain. Besides the hundred and
forty-four monks which were distributed in these twelve monasteries, St.
Gregory tells us, that the holy patriarch retained a small number with himself,
by which it appears that he continued to live ordinarily in a distinct little
monastery or hermitage about his grotto, though he always superintended and
governed all these houses. [back]
Note
4. See
Dom. Mege, p. 84. [back]
Note 5. It has been related in the life of
St. Maurus, how he walked on the water to save the life of Placidus, then a
child, who, going to the lake to fetch water, had fallen in; for in monasteries
no distinction was shown to noblemen or their children, nor were they exempted
from their share in manual labour, or other severities of the Rule. Such
exemptions and privileges granted to many on pretence of health, first opened
the door to a relaxation of monastic discipline. Placidus said, that when he
was drawn by Maurus out of the water, he saw over his head the melotes of the
abbot, and seemed to be saved by it, whence the miracle was by the disciples
ascribed to St. Benedict. Dom. Hæften thinks by the melotes is meant a cowl, to
which that name is given by Paul the deacon, and the Roman Order or Ceremonial.
But most understand a habit made of skins of goats, such as the Eastern monks
wore, in imitation of the ancient prophets, as Cassian describes. (Instit. l.
1. c. 8.) [back]
Note
6. Scienter
nesciens, et sapienter indoctus. [back]
Note 7. Annal. Bened. t. 5. p. 122. ad. an.
543. See also Muratori. Script. Ital. t. 4. p. 217. [back]
Note
8. By
it the abbot is charged with the entire government of the monastery. Seven
hours a day are allotted the monks for manual labour, and two for pious
reading, besides meditation from matins till break of day. But manual labour
has been exchanged in most places for sacred studies and spiritual functions.
The role commands perpetual abstinence from flesh-meat, not only of four-footed
animals, but also of fowls, which at that time were only served at the tables
of princes as most exquisite dainties, as Mabillon shows from the testimony of
St. Gregory of Tours. This law of abstinence is restored in the reformed
congregation of St. Maur, and others. The hemina of wine allowed by St. Bennet
per day, in countries where wine and water are only drank, has been the subject
of many dissertations, this measure having not been the same at all times, nor
in all countries. The Roman hemina, which was half a sextarius, contained ten
ounces, as Moutfaucon demonstrates, (Antiqu. expl. t. 3. l. 4. c. 7. p. 149.
152.) and as Mabillon allows. (Præf. in Sæc. 4.) Lancelot endeavours to show,
in a dissertation on this subject, that St. Bennet is to be understood of this
Roman hemina. Menard takes it to have been only seven ounces and a half.
Mabillon (Pr. in Sæc. 4. p. cxv.) and Martenne (in c. 40. Reg.) think the holy
founder speaks not of the ordinary or Roman hemina, and understand him of the
Grecian, which contained a pound and a half, or eighteen ounces. Calmet looks
upon Lancelot’s opinion as most probable. He shows from the clear tradition of
Benedictin writers and monuments, that St. Benedict’s hemina contained three
glasses or draughts. See Calmet (in c. 40. Reg. t. 2. p. 62.) But St. Benedict
allows and commends a total abstinence from wine. The portion of bread allowed
by this holy patriarch to each monk, was a pound and a half, or eighteen ounces
a day, as it is explained by the famous council held at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the
reign of Charlemagne.
The holy rule of St. Benedict, which
the great Cosmus of Medicis, and other wise legislators read frequently, in
order to learn the maxims of perfect government, has been explained by a great
number of learned and pious commentators, of whom Calmet gives a list. (t. 1.
p. 1.) The principal amongst the moderns are Hæften, prior of Affligem, in
twelve books of monastic disquisitions, &c. Steingelt, abbot of Anhusen,
gave a judicious abridgment of this work. Dom. Menard has written upon this
rule in his Comments on the Concord of Rules of St. Benedict of Anian. Dom.
Mege’s Commentaires sur la Règle de St. Benoît, in 4to. printed at Paris, in
1687, have been much blamed by his brethren for laxity. Dom. Martenne published
with more applause his Commentarius in Regulam S. Benedicti, in 4to., in 1690. Son
édition de la Règle est la plus exacte qu’on nous a donné; et son Commentaire
également judiçieux et scavant. Il ne parle pas de celui de Dom. Mege qui avoit
parut trois ans avant le sien; parceque ses sentiments relâchés sur la méthode
de pratiquer on imposer des humiliations et sur plusieurs autres points out
scandalizes ses confrères, de sorte qu’en plusieurs monastères reformés de cet
ordre on ne le met pas entre les mains des jeunes religieux. Voyez le Cerf,
Bibl. des Ecr. de la Congr. de St. Maur, p. 348. Hist. Literaria Ord. St.
Bened. t. 3. p. 21. Dom. Calmet printed in 1734, in two volumes, in 4to.
Commentaire Litéral Historique et Moral sur la Règle de St. Benoît, a work
which, both for edification and erudition, is far superior to all the former,
and is the master-piece of this laborious writer, though not entirely exempt
from little slips of memory, as when St. Cuthbert is called in it the founder
of the monastery of Lindisfarne. (p. 18. t. 1.) The chief modern ascetical
treatise on this subject is, La Règle de St. Benoît, traduite et expliquée par
M. de Rancé abbé de la Trappe, 2 vols. 4to. 1690, an excellent work for those
who are bound to study, and imbibe the spirit of this holy rule. It is reduced
into meditations; which, as Calmet was informed by Mabillon, was done by a
Benedictin nun. We have also Meditations on the Rule of St. Benedict, compiled
by Dom. Morelle, author of many other works of piety and devotion. We have also
very devout reflections on the prayers used in the religious profession of this
order, under the following title: Sentiments de Piéte sur la Profession
religieuse, par un religieux Bénédictin de la Congrégation de St. Maur. Dom.
Berthelet of the congregation of St. Vannes. proves abstinence from flesh to
have been anciently an essential duty of the monastic state, by an express
book, entitled, Traité Historique et Moral de l’Abstinence de la Viande,
1731. [back]
Note 9. When the Lombards destroyed this
famous abbey, in 580, St. Bennet, the abbot, escaped with all his monks to
Rome, carrying with him only a copy of the Rule, written by St. Benedict
himself, some of the habits which he and his sister St. Scholastica had wore,
and the weight of the bread and measure of the wine which were the daily allowance
for every monk. Pope Pelagius II. lodged these fathers near the Lateran church,
where they built a monastery. In the pontificate of Gregory II. about the year
720, they were conducted back by abbot Petronax to Mount Cassino. This abbey
was again ruined by the Saracens in 884: also by the Normans in 1046, and by
the Emperor Frederic II. in 1239. But was as often rebuilt. It is at this day
very stately, and the abbot exercises an episcopal jurisdiction over the town
of San Gennano, three little miles distant, and over twenty-one other parishes.
The regular abbot of St. Scholastica at Subiaco, is temporal and spiritual lord
of twenty-five villages. The Benedictins reckon in their Order, comprising all
its branches and filiations, thirty-seven thousand houses. As to the number of
emperors, kings, queens, princes, and princesses, who embraced this Order, and
that of saints, popes, and writers of note, which it has given the church, see
F. Helyot, Dom. Mege, Calmet, and especially F. Ziegelbaver, Hist. Liter. Ord.
S. Bened. 4. vol. folio. Aug. Vindel. An. 1754.
The
monastic Order settled by St. Athanasius at Milan and Triers, during his
banishment into the West; by St. Eusebius of Vercelli, in his diocess, and by
St. Hilary and St. Martin in Gaul, was founded upon the plan of the Oriental
monasteries; being brought by those holy prelates from Egypt and Syria. The
same is to be said of the first monasteries founded in Great Britain and
Ireland. After the coming of St. Columban from Ireland into France, his Rule continued
long most in use, and was adopted by the greater part of the monasteries that
flourished in that kingdom. But it was customary in those ages, for founders of
great monasteries, frequently to choose out of different Rules such religious
practices and regulations, and to add such others as they judged most
expedient: and the Benedictin Rule was sometimes blended with that of St.
Columban or others. In the reigns of Charlemagne and Lewis the Debonnaire, for
the sake of uniformity, it was enacted by the council of Aix-la-Chapelle it
802, and several other decrees, that the Rule of St. Benedict should alone be
followed in all the monasteries in the dominions of those princes. F. Reyner, a
most learned English Benedictin, in his Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia,
has, with profound erudition, produced all the monuments and authorities by
which it can be made to appear that St. Gregory the Great established the Rule
of St. Benedict in his monastery of St. Andrew, at Rome, and was settled by St.
Austin and the other monks who were sent by St. Gregory to convert the English
in all the monasteries which they founded in this island. These proofs were
abridged by Mabillon, Natalis Alexander, and others, who have judged that they
amount to demonstration. Some, however, still maintain that the monastic Rule,
brought hither by St. Austin, was a compilation from several different Rules:
that St. Bennet Biscop, and soon after, St. Wilfred introduced several new
regulations borrowed from the Rule of St. Benedict; that St. Dunstan
established it in England more perfectly, still retaining several of the
ancient constitutions of the English monasteries, and that it was not entirely
adopted in England before Lanfranc’s time. This opinion is warmly abetted by
Dr. Lay, in his additions to Dugdale’s Antiquities of Warwickshire, and
Tanner’s Pref. to Notitia Monastica, in folio.
The
Order of St. Benedict has branched out since the year 900, into several
independent congregations, and the Orders of Camaldoli, Vallis Umbrosa, Fontevrault,
the Gilbertins, Silvestrins, Cistercians, and some others, are no more than
reformations of the same, with certain particular additional constitutions.
Among
the Reformations or distinct Congregations of Benedictins, the first is that of
Cluni, so called from the great monastery of that name, in the diocess of
Macon, founded by William the Pious, duke of Aquitain, about the year 910. St.
Berno, the first abbot, his successor St. Odo, afterwards St. Hugh, St. Odilo,
St. Mayeul, Peter the Venerable, and other excellent abbots, exceedingly raised
the reputation of this reform, and propagated the same. A second Reformation
was established in this Congregation in 1621, by the Grand Prior de Veni,
resembling those of St. Vanne and St. Maur. Those monks who would not adopt it
in their houses, are called Ancient monks of Cluni. The Congregation of Cava
was so called, from the great monastery of that name, in the province of
Salerno, founded in 980, under the observance of Cluni: it was the head of a
Congregation of twenty-nine other abbeys, and ninety-one conventual priories;
but a bishopric being erected in the town of Cava, by Boniface IX. in 1394, and
the abbot’s revenue and temporal jurisdiction being united to it by Leo X. in
1514, the monastery of the Blessed Trinity of Cava was much diminished, but is
still governed by a regular abbot. In 1485, it was united with all its
dependencies to the Congregation of St. Justina and Mount Cassino. The church
of St. Justina at Padua, was founded by the Consul Opilius, in the fifth
century, and the great monastery of Benedictin monks was built there in the
ninth. The Reformation which was established in this house by Lewis Barbus, a
patrician of Venice, in 1409, was soon adopted by a great number of monasteries
in Italy; but when in 1504 the abbey of Mount Cassino joined this Congregation,
it took the name of this mother-house. The Congregation of Savigni, founded by
St. Vitalis, a disciple of B. Robert of Arbrissel, in the forest of Savigni, in
Normandy, in 1112, was united to the Cistercians in 1153. The Congregation of
Tiron, founded by B. Bernard of Abbeville, another disciple of B. Robert of
Arbrissel, in 1109, in the forest of Tiron, in Le Perche. It passed into the
Congregation of St. Maur, 1629. These of Savigni and Tiron had formerly several
houses in England. The Congregation of Bursfield in Germany, was established by
a Reformation in 1461: that of Molck, vulgarly Melck, in Austria, in the
diocess of Passaw, in 1418: that of Hirsauge, in the diocess of Spire, was
instituted by St. William, abbot of S. Aurel, in 1080. The history of this
abbey was written by Trithemius. After the change of religion it was
secularized, and, by the treaty of Westphalia, ceded to the duke of Wirtemberg.
The independent great Benedictin abbeys in Flanders, form a Congregation
subject only to the Pope, but the abbots hold assemblies to judge appeals, in
which the abbot of St. Vaast of Arras is president. The Congregation of
Monte-Virgine, in Italy, was instituted by St. William, in 1119. That of St.
Benedict’s of Valladolid, in Spain, dates its establishment in 1390. In
England, archbishop Lanfranc united the Benedictin monasteries in one
Congregation, which began from that time to hold regular general chapters, and
for some time bore his name. This union was made stricter by many new
regulations in 1335, under the name of the Black Monks. It is one of the most
illustrious of all the Orders, or bodies of religious men, that have ever
adorned the Church, and in spite of the most grievous persecutions still
subsists. The Congregation of Benedictin nuns of Mount Calvary, owes its
original to a Reformation, according to the primitive austerity of this Order,
introduced first in the nunnery at Poitiers, in 1614, by the abbess Antoinette
of Orleans, with the assistance of the famous F. Joseph, the Capuchin. It has
two houses at Paris, and eighteen others in several parts of France. See
Helyot. t. 5 and 6. Calmet, Comment. sur la Règle de St. Benoît, t. 2. p. 525.
Hermant, Schoonbeck, &c. [back]
Note
10. St.
Greg. Dial. l. 2. c. 2. Dom. Mege, p. 180. [back]
Note 11. Procop. l. 3. de Bello Gothico.
Baronius, &c. [back]
Note
12. Exitum
suum Dominici corporis et sanguinis perceptione communivit. St. Greg. Dial. b.
2. c. 37. [back]
Note 13. Some have related that Aigulph, a monk of Fleury, and certain citizens from Mans, going to Mount Cassino in 653, when that monastery lay in ruins, brought thence the remains of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, and placed those of the former at Fleury, and those of the latter at Mans. The author of this relation is either Adrevald or rather Adalbert, a monk of Fleury, whom some imagined contemporary with Aigulph; but he certainly lived at lest two hundred years later, as he himself declares, and his account is in many capital circumstances inconsistent with those of the life of Aigulph, and with the authentic and certain history of that age, as is demonstrated by F. Stilting the Bollandist, in the life of St. Aigulph, (t. 1. Sept. p. 744.) and by others. It is printed in the Bibliotheca Floriacensis, (or of Fleury,) t. 1. p. 1. and more correctly in Mabillon’s Acta Ben. t. 2. p. 337. and the Bollandists, 21 Martij, p. 300. Soon after this relation was compiled by Adalbert, we find it quoted by Adrevald, a monk of the same house, in his history of several miracles wrought by the relics of this holy patriarch. (See Dom. Clemencez, Hist. Liter. t. 5. p. 516.) This Adrevald wrote also the life of St. Aigulph, who, passing from Fleury to Lerins, and being made abbot of that house, established there an austere Reformation of the Order: but by the contrivance of certain rebellious monks joined in a conspiracy with the count of Usez, and some other powerful men, was seized by violence, and carried to the isle Caprasia, (now called Capraia,) situated between Corsica and the coast of Tuscany, where he was murdered with three companions, about the year 676, on the 3rd day of September, on which he is honoured as a martyr at Lerins. The relics of these martyrs were honourably conveyed thither soon after their death. F. Vincent Barrali, in his History of Lerins, affirms that they still remain there; but this can be only true of part, for the body of St. Aigulph was translated to the Benedictin priory at Provins, in the diocess of Sens, and is to this day honoured there, as Mabillon (Sæc. 2. Ben. p. 666 and 742.) and Stilting (t. 1. Sept.) demonstrate, from the constant tradition of that monastery, and the authority of Peter Cellensis and several other irrefragable vouchers.
That the greater part at least of the relics of St. Benedict and
St. Scholastica still remain at Mount Cassino, is demonstrated by Angelus de
Nuce, in his dissertation on this subject, by F. Stilting, in his comments on
the life of St. Aigulph, t. 1. Sept. by Pope Benedict XIV. De Servor. Dei.
Beatif. and Canoniz. l. 4. part 2. c. 24. n. 53. t. 5. p. 245. and
Macchiarelli, the monk of Camaldoli. Soon after Mount Cassino was restored,
Pope Zachary visited that monastery, and devoutly venerated the relics of St.
Benedict and St. Scholastica in 746, as he testifies in his Bull. When Pope
Alexander II. consecrated the new church of that abbey in 1071, these sacred
bones were inspected, and found all to remain there, as we learn from his Bull,
and by Leo of Ostia, and Peter the deacon. The same is affirmed in the acts of
two visitations made of them in 1545 and 1659. Nevertheless, Angelus de Nuce
(who relates in his Chronicle of Mount Cassino, that, in 1659, he saw these
relics, with all the monks of that house, in the visitation then made) and
Stilting allow that some of the bones of this saint were conveyed into France,
not by St. Aigulph, but soon after his time; and this is expressly affirmed by
Paul the deacon, in his History of the Lombards, l. 6. c. 2. [back]
Note
14. Habitavit
secum. [back]
Note 15. S. Bened. Reg. c. 7. [back]
Note
16. S. Thos. 2. 2. qu.
161. a. 6. [back]
Note 17. No one can, without presumption,
pride, and sin, prefer himself before the worst of sinners, first, because the
judgments of God are always secret and unknown to us. (See St. Aug. de
Virginit. St. Thos. 2. 2. qu. 161. ad. 1. Cassian, St. Bern. &c.) Secondly,
the greatest sinners, had they received the graces with which we have been
favoured, would not have been so ungrateful; and if we had been in their
circumstances, into what precipices should not we have fallen? Thirdly, instead
of looking upon notorious sinners, we ought to turn our eyes towards those who
serve God with fervour, full of confusion to see how far so many thousands are
superior to us in every virtue. Thus we must practise the lesson laid down by
St. Paul, never to measure ourselves with any one so as to prefer ourselves to
another; but to look upon all others as superior to us, and less ungrateful and
base than ourselves. Our own wretchedness and sinfulness we are acquainted
with, but charity inclines us to judge the best of others. [back]
Note
18. Luke xviii. 18. [back]
Note 19. Orat. ejus inter Apocryph. [back]
Note
20. St. Bened. Règ. c. 5. p. 210. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
III: March. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : https://www.bartleby.com/210/3/211.html
(21 marzo: A Montecassino, anniversario della morte di san Benedetto, abate, la cui memoria si celebra l’11 luglio).
Questa prospettiva del “biografo” si spiega anche alla luce del contesto generale del suo tempo: a cavallo tra il V e il VI secolo il mondo era sconvolto da una tremenda crisi di valori e di istituzioni, causata dal crollo dell’Impero Romano, dall’invasione dei nuovi popoli e dalla decadenza dei costumi. Con la presentazione di san Benedetto come “astro luminoso”, Gregorio voleva indicare in questa situazione tremenda, proprio qui in questa città di Roma, la via d’uscita dalla “notte oscura della storia” (cfr Giovanni Paolo II, Insegnamenti, II/1, 1979, p. 1158). Di fatto, l’opera del Santo e, in modo particolare, la sua Regola si rivelarono apportatrici di un autentico fermento spirituale, che mutò nel corso dei secoli, ben al di là dei confini della sua Patria e del suo tempo, il volto dell’Europa, suscitando dopo la caduta dell’unità politica creata dall’impero romano una nuova unità spirituale e culturale, quella della fede cristiana condivisa dai popoli del continente. E’ nata proprio così la realtà che noi chiamiamo “Europa”.
La nascita di san Benedetto viene datata intorno all’anno 480. Proveniva, così dice san Gregorio, “ex provincia Nursiae” – dalla regione della Nursia. I suoi genitori benestanti lo mandarono per la sua formazione negli studi a Roma. Egli però non si fermò a lungo nella Città eterna. Come spiegazione pienamente credibile, Gregorio accenna al fatto che il giovane Benedetto era disgustato dallo stile di vita di molti suoi compagni di studi, che vivevano in modo dissoluto, e non voleva cadere negli stessi loro sbagli. Voleva piacere a Dio solo; “soli Deo placere desiderans” (II Dial., Prol 1). Così, ancora prima della conclusione dei suoi studi, Benedetto lasciò Roma e si ritirò nella solitudine dei monti ad est di Roma. Dopo un primo soggiorno nel villaggio di Effide (oggi: Affile), dove per un certo periodo si associò ad una “comunità religiosa” di monaci, si fece eremita nella non lontana Subiaco. Lì visse per tre anni completamente solo in una grotta che, a partire dall’Alto Medioevo, costituisce il “cuore” di un monastero benedettino chiamato “Sacro Speco”. Il periodo in Subiaco, un periodo di solitudine con Dio, fu per Benedetto un tempo di maturazione. Qui doveva sopportare e superare le tre tentazioni fondamentali di ogni essere umano: la tentazione dell’autoaffermazione e del desiderio di porre se stesso al centro, la tentazione della sensualità e, infine, la tentazione dell’ira e della vendetta. Era infatti convinzione di Benedetto che, solo dopo aver vinto queste tentazioni, egli avrebbe potuto dire agli altri una parola utile per le loro situazioni di bisogno. E così, riappacificata la sua anima, era in grado di controllare pienamente le pulsioni dell’io, per essere così un creatore di pace intorno a sé. Solo allora decise di fondare i primi suoi monasteri nella valle dell’Anio, vicino a Subiaco.
Nell’anno 529 Benedetto lasciò Subiaco per stabilirsi a Montecassino. Alcuni hanno spiegato questo trasferimento come una fuga davanti agli intrighi di un invidioso ecclesiastico locale. Ma questo tentativo di spiegazione si è rivelato poco convincente, giacché la morte improvvisa di lui non indusse Benedetto a ritornare (II Dial. 8). In realtà, questa decisione gli si impose perché era entrato in una nuova fase della sua maturazione interiore e della sua esperienza monastica. Secondo Gregorio Magno, l’esodo dalla remota valle dell’Anio verso il Monte Cassio – un’altura che, dominando la vasta pianura circostante, è visibile da lontano – riveste un carattere simbolico: la vita monastica nel nascondimento ha una sua ragion d’essere, ma un monastero ha anche una sua finalità pubblica nella vita della Chiesa e della società, deve dare visibilità alla fede come forza di vita. Di fatto, quando, il 21 marzo 547, Benedetto concluse la sua vita terrena, lasciò con la sua Regola e con la famiglia benedettina da lui fondata un patrimonio che ha portato nei secoli trascorsi e porta tuttora frutto in tutto il mondo.
Nell’intero secondo libro dei Dialoghi Gregorio ci illustra come la vita di san Benedetto fosse immersa in un’atmosfera di preghiera, fondamento portante della sua esistenza. Senza preghiera non c’è esperienza di Dio. Ma la spiritualità di Benedetto non era un’interiorità fuori dalla realtà. Nell’inquietudine e nella confusione del suo tempo, egli viveva sotto lo sguardo di Dio e proprio così non perse mai di vista i doveri della vita quotidiana e l’uomo con i suoi bisogni concreti. Vedendo Dio capì la realtà dell’uomo e la sua missione. Nella sua Regola egli qualifica la vita monastica “una scuola del servizio del Signore” (Prol. 45) e chiede ai suoi monaci che “all’Opera di Dio [cioè all’Ufficio Divino o alla Liturgia delle Ore] non si anteponga nulla” (43,3). Sottolinea, però, che la preghiera è in primo luogo un atto di ascolto (Prol. 9-11), che deve poi tradursi nell’azione concreta. “Il Signore attende che noi rispondiamo ogni giorno coi fatti ai suoi santi insegnamenti”, egli afferma (Prol. 35). Così la vita del monaco diventa una simbiosi feconda tra azione e contemplazione “affinché in tutto venga glorificato Dio” (57,9). In contrasto con una autorealizzazione facile ed egocentrica, oggi spesso esaltata, l’impegno primo ed irrinunciabile del discepolo di san Benedetto è la sincera ricerca di Dio (58,7) sulla via tracciata dal Cristo umile ed obbediente (5,13), all’amore del quale egli non deve anteporre alcunché (4,21; 72,11) e proprio così, nel servizio dell’altro, diventa uomo del servizio e della pace. Nell’esercizio dell’obbedienza posta in atto con una fede animata dall’amore (5,2), il monaco conquista l’umiltà (5,1), alla quale la Regola dedica un intero capitolo (7). In questo modo l’uomo diventa sempre più conforme a Cristo e raggiunge la vera autorealizzazione come creatura ad immagine e somiglianza di Dio.
All’obbedienza del discepolo deve corrispondere la saggezza dell’Abate, che nel monastero tiene “le veci di Cristo” (2,2; 63,13). La sua figura, delineata soprattutto nel secondo capitolo della Regola, con un profilo di spirituale bellezza e di esigente impegno, può essere considerata come un autoritratto di Benedetto, poiché – come scrive Gregorio Magno – “il Santo non poté in alcun modo insegnare diversamente da come visse” (Dial. II, 36). L’Abate deve essere insieme un tenero padre e anche un severo maestro (2,24), un vero educatore. Inflessibile contro i vizi, è però chiamato soprattutto ad imitare la tenerezza del Buon Pastore (27,8), ad “aiutare piuttosto che a dominare” (64,8), ad “accentuare più con i fatti che con le parole tutto ciò che è buono e santo” e ad “illustrare i divini comandamenti col suo esempio” (2,12). Per essere in grado di decidere responsabilmente, anche l’Abate deve essere uno che ascolta “il consiglio dei fratelli” (3,2), perché “spesso Dio rivela al più giovane la soluzione migliore” (3,3). Questa disposizione rende sorprendentemente moderna una Regola scritta quasi quindici secoli fa! Un uomo di responsabilità pubblica, e anche in piccoli ambiti, deve sempre essere anche un uomo che sa ascoltare e sa imparare da quanto ascolta.
Benedetto qualifica la Regola come “minima, tracciata solo per l’inizio” (73,8); in realtà però essa offre indicazioni utili non solo ai monaci, ma anche a tutti coloro che cercano una guida nel loro cammino verso Dio. Per la sua misura, la sua umanità e il suo sobrio discernimento tra l’essenziale e il secondario nella vita spirituale, essa ha potuto mantenere la sua forza illuminante fino ad oggi. Paolo VI, proclamando nel 24 ottobre 1964 san Benedetto Patrono d’Europa, intese riconoscere l’opera meravigliosa svolta dal Santo mediante la Regola per la formazione della civiltà e della cultura europea. Oggi l’Europa – uscita appena da un secolo profondamente ferito da due guerre mondiali e dopo il crollo delle grandi ideologie rivelatesi come tragiche utopie – è alla ricerca della propria identità. Per creare un’unità nuova e duratura, sono certo importanti gli strumenti politici, economici e giuridici, ma occorre anche suscitare un rinnovamento etico e spirituale che attinga alle radici cristiane del Continente, altrimenti non si può ricostruire l’Europa. Senza questa linfa vitale, l’uomo resta esposto al pericolo di soccombere all’antica tentazione di volersi redimere da sé – utopia che, in modi diversi, nell’Europa del Novecento ha causato, come ha rilevato il Papa Giovanni Paolo II, “un regresso senza precedenti nella tormentata storia dell’umanità” (Insegnamenti, XIII/1, 1990, p. 58). Cercando il vero progresso, ascoltiamo anche oggi la Regola di san Benedetto come una luce per il nostro cammino. Il grande monaco rimane un vero maestro alla cui scuola possiamo imparare l’arte di vivere l’umanesimo vero.
Autore: Papa Benedetto XVI (Udienza Generale 9.04.2008)
Juan Rizi (1600–1681), San Benito bendiciendo el pan, circa 1655, 168
x 148, Museo del Prado. Depositado en la Church of Saint Jerome the Royal
La sua nobile famiglia lo manda a Roma per gli studi, che lui non completerà mai. Lo attrae la vita monastica, ma i suoi progetti iniziali falliscono. Per certuni è un santo, ma c’è chi non lo capisce e lo combatte. Alcune canaglie in tonaca lo vogliono per abate e poi tentano di avvelenarlo. In Italia i Bizantini strappano ai Goti, con anni di guerra, una terra devastata da fame, malattie e terrore. Del resto, in Gallia le successioni al trono si risolvono in famiglia con l’omicidio.
"Dovremmo domandarci a quali eccessi si sarebbe spinta la gente del Medioevo, se non si fosse levata questa voce grande e dolce". Lo dice nel XX secolo lo storico Jaques Le Goff. E la voce di Benedetto comincia a farsi sentire da Montecassino verso il 529. Ha creato un monastero con uomini in sintonia con lui, che rifanno vivibili quelle terre. Di anno in anno, ecco campi, frutteti, orti, il laboratorio... Qui si comincia a rinnovare il mondo: qui diventano uguali e fratelli “latini” e “barbari”, ex pagani ed ex ariani, antichi schiavi e antichi padroni di schiavi. Ora tutti sono una cosa sola, stessa legge, stessi diritti, stesso rispetto. Qui finisce l’antichità, per mano di Benedetto. Il suo monachesimo non fugge il mondo. Serve Dio e il mondo nella preghiera e nel lavoro.
Irradia esempi tutt’intorno con il suo ordinamento interno fondato sui tre punti: la stabilità, per cui nei suoi cenobi si entra per restarci; il rispetto dell’orario (preghiera, lavoro, riposo), col quale Benedetto rivaluta il tempo come un bene da non sperperare mai. Lo spirito di fraternità, infine, incoraggia e rasserena l’ubbidienza: c’è l’autorità dell’abate, ma Benedetto, con la sua profonda conoscenza dell’uomo, insegna a esercitarla "con voce grande e dolce".
Il fondatore ha dato ai tempi nuovi ciò che essi confusamente aspettavano. C’erano già tanti monasteri in Europa prima di lui. Ma con lui il monachesimo-rifugio diventerà monachesimo-azione. La sua Regola non rimane italiana: è subito europea, perché si adatta a tutti.
Due secoli dopo la sua morte, saranno più di mille i monasteri guidati dalla sua Regola (ma non sappiamo con certezza se ne sia lui il primo autore. Così come continuiamo ad essere incerti sull’anno della sua morte a Montecassino). Papa Gregorio Magno gli ha dedicato un libro dei suoi Dialoghi, ma soltanto a scopo di edificazione, trascurando molti particolari importanti.
Nel libro c’è però un’espressione ricorrente: i visitatori di Benedetto – re, monaci, contadini – lo trovano spesso "intento a leggere". Anche i suoi monaci studiano e imparano. Il cenobio non è un semplice sodalizio di eruditi per il recupero dei classici: lo studio è in funzione dell’evangelizzare. Ma quest’opera fa pure di esso un rifugio della cultura nel tempo del grande buio.
Autore: Domenico Agasso
.jpg)
Juan Rizi (1600–1681). San Benito destruyendo los ídolo, Siglo XVII (antes de 1662), 194 x 220, Museo del Prado
PIO XII
LETTERA ENCICLICA
San Benedetto da Norcia fulgido risplende, come astro
nelle tenebre della notte, gloria non solo d'Italia, ma anche di tutta la
chiesa. Chi osserva la sua illustre vita e studia sui documenti della storia
l'epoca tenebrosa in cui visse, sentirà senza dubbio la verità della divina
parola con cui Cristo promise agli apostoli e alla società da lui fondata: «Io
sarò con voi tutti i giorni, fino alla fine dei secoli» (Mt 27, 20).
Questa parola e questa promessa non perdono certamente la loro efficacia in
nessuna epoca, ma riguardano il corso di tutti i secoli che sono guidati dalla
divina Provvidenza. Anzi, quando più furiosamente i nemici si scagliano contro
il nome cristiano, quando la fatidica navicella di Pietro è agitata da più
violente burrasche, quando infine sembra che tutto vada in rovina e non brilli
più alcuna speranza di soccorso umano, allora ecco comparire Cristo, garante,
consolatore, apportatore di forza soprannaturale, il quale suscita perciò i
suoi nuovi atleti a difendere il mondo cattolico, a reintegrarlo, a risvegliare
in esso, con l'ispirazione e il soccorso della grazia divina, sviluppi sempre
più vasti.
Nel numero di questi risplende di vivida luce il
nostro santo «Benedetto e di grazia e di nome»,(2)
il quale, per una speciale disposizione della divina Provvidenza, emerse dalle
tenebre del secolo, quando le condizioni e il benessere non solo della chiesa,
ma della stessa umana civiltà, correvano un grandissimo rischio. L'impero romano,
che aveva toccato un vertice di altissima gloria e che con la sapiente
moderazione ed equità del suo diritto si era così strettamente legati tanti
popoli, razze e nazioni, «da potersi chiamare con maggiore verità un patronato
sul mondo intero piuttosto che una sovranità»,(3)
ormai, come tutte le cose di questa terra, era declinato al suo tramonto
poiché, indebolito e guasto all'interno, infranto ai confini esterni dalle
invasioni dei barbari che piombavano da settentrione, era stato schiacciato in
occidente sotto la sua immane rovina. In una così fiera burrasca e in mezzo a
disgrazie così gravi, donde rifulse all'umana società qualche speranza, donde
le venne un aiuto e una difesa, con cui potesse salvare se stessa e qualche
reliquia almeno della sua civiltà? Proprio dalla chiesa cattolica: poiché,
mentre le imprese di questo mondo e tutte le istituzioni terrene, siccome sono
solo sostenute dalla prudenza e dalla forza umana, l'una dopo l'altra col
passare degli anni crescono, salgono al culmine della prosperità e poi per il
loro stesso peso declinano, cadono e svaniscono; al contrario la società che il
nostro divin Redentore ha stabilita ha il dono dal suo Fondatore di una vita
soprannaturale e di una forza indefettibile col cui appoggio e nutrimento essa
se ne esce vincitrice dagli assalti del tempo, degli eventi e degli uomini in
modo tale, da potere far sorgere una età nuova e più felice dalle loro stesse
perdite e rovine, da poter formare ed educare nella dottrina e nello spirito
cristiano una nuova società di cittadini, di popoli e di nazioni.
Orbene Ci piace, venerabili fratelli, accennare brevemente e per sommi capi quale parte abbia avuta san Benedetto in questa restaurazione e rinnovazione della società, dato che quest'anno sembra ricorrere il XIV secolo da che egli tramutò questo terreno esilio nella patria celeste, dopo aver compiute innumerabili imprese alla gloria di Dio e per la salvezza degli uomini.
Benedetto «nato di nobile stirpe dalla provincia di
Norcia»,(4)
«fu ripieno nel suo spirito di tutte le virtù»,(5)
e sostenne in modo straordinario il mondo cristiano con il suo coraggio, con la
sua prudenza e sapienza; infatti, mentre il mondo era invecchiato nei vizi,
mentre l'Italia e l'Europa sembravano divenute un miserevolissimo teatro di
popoli guerreggianti, e perfino le istituzioni monastiche, macchiate della
polvere di questo mondo; erano meno forti di quanto sarebbe stato necessario
per resistere e respingere le allettative della corruzione, Benedetto dimostrò
con la sua eccellente attività e santità la perenne giovinezza della chiesa,
rinnovò la severità dei costumi con la sua dottrina e col suo esempio, e cinse
di leggi più sicure e più sante il raccoglimento della vita religiosa. Ma non
basta: egli infatti di per sé e con i suoi seguaci ridusse quelle barbare genti
dai loro costumi feroci ad abitudini civili e cristiane e, piegandole alla
virtù, al lavoro e alle tranquille occupazioni delle arti e delle scienze, li
strinse con vincoli di fraterno amore e carità.
Sul fiore degli anni viene inviato a Roma per lo
studio delle scienze;(6)
ma si avvede con sommo dispiacere che ivi serpeggiano eresie ed errori di ogni
genere che ingannano e guastano le menti di molti: vede i costumi privati e
pubblici rovinare nel fango, vede moltissimi specialmente tra i giovani, tutti
eleganti e agghindati, voltolarsi miseramente nel lezzo dei piaceri; sicché a
ragione si poteva affermare della società romana: «Sta morendo e ride. E per
questo in quasi tutte le parti del mondo le lacrime tengono dietro alle nostre
risate».(7)
Egli tuttavia, prevenuto dalla grazia di Dio, «non lasciò andare il suo cuore a
nessun piacere... ma vedendo molti correre per la rovinosa via dei vizi,
ritrasse indietro il suo piede, che già quasi aveva messo sulla soglia del
mondo... Messi quindi da parte gli studi letterari, abbandonata la casa e i
beni paterni, desiderando di piacere unicamente a Dio, cercò un genere santo di
vita».(8)
Diede quindi con tutto lo slancio l'addio alle
agiatezze della vita e non solo alle lusinghe di un mondo corrotto, ma anche
all'attrattiva della fortuna e delle cariche onorifiche a cui poteva aspirare;
e, abbandonata Roma, si ritirò in regioni boscose e solitarie, dove gli fosse
possibile attendere alla contemplazione delle cose celesti.. Giunse pertanto a
Subiaco, dove, chiudendosi in una piccola grotta, cominciò a menar una vita più
celeste che umana.
Nascosto in Dio con Cristo (cf. Col 3, 3),
si sforzò ivi per tre anni di raggiungere quella perfezione evangelica e
santità, alla quale si sentiva chiamato da una quasi divina attrattiva. Fu sua
regola costante fuggire tutte le cose terrene, tendere con slancio unicamente a
quelle celesti; conversare giorno e notte con Dio e innalzare a lui preghiere
ferventissime per la salvezza sua e dei suoi prossimi; contenere e regolare il
suo corpo con volontarie asprezze; frenare e rintuzzare i movimenti disordinati
dei sensi. Da questo genere di vita e di condotta, egli assaporava nel suo
animo tale dolcezza da avere in somma nausea e quasi perfino dimenticare quelle
delizie che negli anni passati aveva gustate dalle ricchezze e comodità
terrene. E poiché un giorno il nemico del genere umano lo eccitava con violenti
stimoli della passione, egli, di spirito nobile e risoluto, resistette con
tutta l'energia della sua volontà; e, buttandosi in mezzo a rovi spinosi e a
ortiche pungenti, calmò e spense con queste asprezze abbracciate spontaneamente
il fuoco interiore e così, uscito vincitore di se stesso, venne quasi, in
premio, confermato nella grazia divina. «Da quel tempo poi, come egli stesso
soleva raccontare ai suoi discepoli, fu così domata in lui la tentazione
impura, da non provare in sé più nulla di tali cose... Libero così dal male
della tentazione, a buon diritto ormai divenne maestro di virtù».(9)
Il nostro santo adunque, nascosto nella grotta di
Subiaco, durante questi anni di vita tranquilla e solitaria si andò santamente
formando, fortificando e gettò quelle solide basi di cristiana perfezione,
sulle quali avrebbe in seguito potuto innalzare una costruzione di
straordinaria altezza. Come infatti ben sapete, venerabili fratelli, tutte le
opere di intensa operosità e di santo apostolato riescono vane e infruttuose,
se non provengono da un'anima arricchita di quelle doti cristiane, mediante le
quali unicamente le umane intraprese possono, con l'aiuto della divina grazia,
dirigersi per un retto sentiero alla gloria di Dio e alla salvezza delle anime.
Di questa verità Benedetto aveva una intima e profonda convinzione; perciò,
prima di tentare l'attuazione e il compimento di quei disegni e propositi
grandiosi a cui era chiamato dall'afflato dello Spirito Santo, si sforzò quanto
più poteva, e impetrò da Dio con continue preghiere, di riprodurre in modo
eccellente in sé quel tipo di santità, modellato sulla dottrina evangelica in
tutta la sua integrità, che egli desiderava insegnare agli altri.
Siccome poi la fama della sua straordinaria santità si
spargeva tutto intorno e di giorno in giorno andava sempre più crescendo, non
solo i monaci che dimoravano nelle vicinanze manifestarono il desiderio di
affidarsi alla sua direzione, ma anche una grande folla di cittadini cominciò
ad accorrere a lui, desiderosa di udire la sua voce soave, di ammirare la sua eccezionale
virtù e di vedere quei prodigi che egli per dono di Dio non di rado operava.
Anzi quella luce splendente che s'irradiava dalla oscura grotta di Subiaco si
diffuse così largamente che raggiunse perfino lontane regioni. Perciò «fin
d'allora cominciarono ad accorrere a lui nobili e religiosi della città di Roma
e a darglisi come figli da nutrire per Dio».(10)
Comprese allora quel santissimo uomo che era venuto il
tempo fissato dalla divina Provvidenza per fondare una famiglia religiosa e
condurla con ogni sforzo alla perfezione evangelica. Nei primi inizi la sua
opera diede magnifiche speranze. Molti infatti «furono da lui in quel medesimo
luogo radunati al servizio dell'onnipotente Dio...: così da potervi costruire
con l'aiuto del sommo nostro Signore Gesù Cristo dodici monasteri, a ciascuno
dei quali sotto determinati superiori assegnò dodici monaci tenendone con sé alcuni
pochi che giudicò meglio venissero formati alla sua presenza».(11)
Tuttavia mentre, come dicevamo, l'iniziativa procedeva
felicemente e già cominciava a produrre abbondanti frutti di salute e più
ancora ne prometteva per l'avvenire, il nostro santo vide con immensa tristezza
del suo cuore innalzarsi sulle messi che andavano crescendo una nera tempesta,
eccitata dalla sinistra invidia e alimentata da brame di terrene ambizioni. Ma
poiché Benedetto era guidato dalla prudenza non umana, bensì divina, affinché
quell'odio che era sorto specialmente contro di lui non venisse a ricadere
miseramente in danno dei suoi figli, «cedette all'invidia e pose ordine in
tutti gli oratori da lui fondati, sostituendo i primi superiori e aggiungendo
nuovi confratelli; poi, presi con sé pochi monaci, mutò la sede della sua
abitazione».(12)
Fidente in Dio e appoggiato al suo validissimo aiuto, si spostò verso il
mezzogiorno, e si fissò nella località «che si chiama Cassino, posto sul fianco
di alta montagna..., dove era stato un antichissimo tempio, nel quale da uno
stolto popolo di contadini era venerato Apollo con i riti degli antichi pagani.
Tutt'intorno erano cresciuti boschetti sacri al culto del demonio, nei quali,
ancora ai tempi di Benedetto, folle d'insensati idolatri si affaticavano in
sacrileghi sacrifici. Appena arrivatovi, il servo di Dio, spezzò l'idolo,
rovesciò l'altare, incendiò i boschetti sacri e sullo stesso tempio di Apollo
innalzò la cappella di san Martino e dove sorgeva l'ara del medesimo Apollo
costruì l'oratorio di san Giovanni; infine con la continua predicazione
conduceva alla vera fede le popolazioni che dimoravano attorno».(13)
Cassino, come tutti sanno, fu la principale sede del
santo patriarca e la principale palestra delle sue virtù e santità. Dalla
sommità di quel monte, mentre quasi tutt'intorno le tenebre dell'ignoranza e
dei vizi si diffondevano nel tentativo di avvolgere e di rovinare ogni cosa,
risplendette una luce nuova, la quale non solo alimentata dalla dottrina e
civiltà degli antichi popoli, ma anche fomentata dalla dottrina cristiana,
illuminò popoli e nazioni erranti fuori strada e li richiamò e guidò sulla via
della verità e della rettitudine. A buon diritto si può dunque affermare che il
sacro monastero ivi costruito divenne il rifugio e la difesa di tutte le più
elette scienze e virtù, e in quei burrascosi secoli fu «quasi sostegno della
chiesa e propugnacolo della fede».(14)
In questo luogo Benedetto portò il regolamento della
vita monastica a quel grado di perfezione cui già da molto tempo egli aveva
mirato con le preghiere, con la meditazione e con l'esercizio della virtù.
Questo veramente sembra sia stato lo speciale e principale compito affidatogli
dalla divina Provvidenza: non tanto, cioè, di portare in occidente dall'oriente
le regole della vita monastica, quanto di adattarle e proporzionarle
genialmente alle inclinazioni, alle necessità, alle condizioni delle popolazioni
dell'Italia e di tutta l'Europa. Ecco quindi per mezzo suo alla serenità della
dottrina ascetica, che tanto rifioriva nei cenobi dell'oriente, accoppiarsi una
instancabile attività, con cui diventa possibile, «comunicare agli altri le
cose contemplate»(15)
e non solo produrre messi abbondanti di spighe da terreni incolti, ma anche
maturare con apostolico sudore frutti spirituali. Le asprezze proprie della
vita solitaria, non adatte per tutti, e per non pochi anche nocive, vengono
addolcite e temperate dalla fraterna coabitazione della dimora benedettina,
dove, alternando preghiera, lavoro, studi sacri e profani, la vita beatamente
tranquilla non conosce ozio né pigrizia; dove il lavoro esterno, nonché
stancare l'anima e la mente, dissiparla o assorbirla in cose vane, piuttosto la
rasserena, la fortifica, la solleva al cielo. Non vi è imposto un eccessivo
rigore nella disciplina, non l'asprezza delle penitenze ma prima di tutto
l'amore di Dio e una carità fraterna e operosa verso tutti. «Egli mitigò la sua
Regola in modo tale che i coraggiosi desideravano fare di più e i deboli non
rifuggivano dalla sua severità... Si studiava piuttosto di guidare i suoi con
l'amore, più che governarli col timore».(16)
Avendo quindi un giorno osservato un monaco che, per togliersi la possibilità
di peccare e di ritornare alla vita mondana, si era chiuso in una spelonca
legandosi strettamente, lo rimproverò dolcemente con queste parole: «Se sei
servo di Dio non ti trattenga una catena di ferro, ma la catena di Cristo».(17)
In questo modo, a quelle regole particolari della vita
eremitica e a quelle speciali imposizioni, che prima per lo più non erano ben
fissate e determinate, ma spesso dipendevano dal cenno dello stesso superiore
del cenobio, successe la Regola monastica benedettina, celebre monumento di
sapienza romana e cristiana, nella quale i diritti, i doveri e le occupazioni dei
monaci sono temperati con benignità e carità evangelica, la quale fu ed è
sempre così efficace per stimolare molti alla virtù e per farli crescere in
santità. Nella Regola benedettina infatti una somma prudenza si unisce alla
semplicità, l'umiltà cristiana si associa alla virtù piena di coraggio; la
dolcezza mitiga la severità, un'equilibrata libertà nobilita la necessaria
obbedienza. In essa la riprensione non manca di energia: la condiscendenza e la
benignità è gradita per la sua soavità: i comandi conservano tutta la loro
forza, ma l'obbedienza dà tranquillità al cuore, dà pace all'anima: il silenzio
con la sua gravità è piacevole; ma la conversazione si orna di dolce finezza;
infine viene esercitato il potere dell'autorità, ma la debolezza non è priva di
aiuto.(18)
Non c'è quindi da meravigliarsi se tutte le migliori
intelligenze oggi ricolmano di lodi quella «Regola monastica che san Benedetto
scrisse, eminente per discrezione e chiarissima per espressione»:(19)
e che Ci piace qui commemorare brevemente in questo scritto, mettendo nella
loro luce i suoi tratti essenziali, fiduciosi che ciò riuscirà gradito e utile
non solamente alla numerosa famiglia del santo patriarca, ma anche a tutto il
clero e al popolo cristiano.
La comunità monastica è costituita e regolata in modo
tale da rassomigliarsi a una famiglia cristiana, sulla quale l'abate, o
cenobiarca; come padre di famiglia, governa e dalla cui paterna autorità tutti
devono dipendere. «Abbiamo visto - così dice san Benedetto - che conviene per
la conservazione della pace e della carità che il governo del monastero dipenda
dalla volontà del suo abate».(20)
Perciò a lui tutti e singoli per obbligo di coscienza devono religiosamente
obbedire,(21)
e riguardare e riverire nel medesimo la stessa divina autorità. Tuttavia colui
che per incarico ricevuto prese a dirigere le anime dei monaci e a stimolarle
verso la perfezione evangelica della vita, pensi e mediti con ogni diligenza
che egli dovrà un giorno rendere conto delle medesime al Giudice supremo;(22)
perciò in questo importantissimo obbligo si comporti in modo tale da meritarsi
un giusto premio, «quando si farà la resa dei conti nel tremendo giudizio di
Dio».(23)
Inoltre tutte le volte che nel suo monastero dovranno decidersi affari di
maggior importanza, raduni tutti i monaci e senta i loro pareri esposti
liberamente e li prenda in serio esame prima di venire a quelle decisioni che
sembreranno migliori.(24)
Ma fin dal principio sorse una grave difficoltà e una
scabrosa questione, quando si trattò dell'accettazione o del rimando dei
candidati alla vita monastica. Confluivano infatti, per essere accettati nelle
sacre mura, cittadini di ogni stirpe, nazione e ordine sociale: romani e
barbari, liberi e schiavi, vinti e vincitori, e non pochi della nobiltà
patrizia e dell'infima plebe. Benedetto sciolse e decise la delicata questione
con animo generoso e fraterna carità: «Sia lo schiavo sia il libero - diceva -
siamo in Cristo una cosa sola e sotto il medesimo Signore esercitiamo un eguale
servizio militare... Quindi sia eguale... per tutti la carità; un medesimo
ordine esteriore secondo i meriti si dimostri verso tutti».(25)
A coloro che hanno abbracciato il suo istituto, comanda che «tutti i beni siano
in comune per tutti»,(26)
non per forza o per una certa costrizione, ma con spontanea e generosa volontà.
Tutti inoltre siano trattenuti nella stabilità della vita religiosa tra le mura
del monastero, in modo tale però da dover non solamente attendere alla divina
salmodia e allo studio,(27)
ma anche alla coltivazione dei campi,(28)
ai mestieri manuali(29)
e infine ai sacri lavori dell'apostolato. Infatti «l'ozio è il nemico
dell'anima; e perciò in tempi determinati i fratelli devono essere occupati in
lavori manuali...».(30)
Tuttavia questa sia la prima legge per tutti, a questo si deve tendere con ogni
cura e diligenza, che cioè «nulla sia anteposto alla lode divina».(31)
Benché infatti «noi sappiamo che Dio è presente in ogni luogo.... tuttavia
dobbiamo soprattutto credere questa verità senza il minimo dubbio quando stiamo
compiendo il nostro lavoro della lode divina... Riflettiamo quindi in qual modo
convenga stare al cospetto della Divinità e degli angeli, e rimaniamo a
salmodiare in modo tale che la nostra mente accompagni la nostra voce».(32)
In queste più importanti norme e sentenze, che Ci è
parso bene in certo modo degustare dalla Regola benedettina, non solo Ci è dato
di facilmente scorgere e apprezzare la prudenza della medesima regola
monastica, la sua opportunità e quella mirabile corrispondenza e consonanza con
la natura umana, ma anche la sua importanza e la sua somma elevatezza. Mentre
in quel secolo barbaro e turbolento, la coltivazione dei campi, le arti
meccaniche e nobili, gli studi delle scienze sacre e profane non godevano
alcuna stima, ma erano da tutti deplorevolmente trascurati, nei monasteri
benedettini andò crescendo una schiera quasi innumerevole di agricoltori, di
artigiani e di uomini dotti che si sforzò secondo le sue possibilità non solo
di conservare incolumi i prodotti della antica sapienza, ma richiamò anche alla
pace, all'unione, a un'operosa attività popoli vecchi e giovani, spesso tra di
sé belligeranti; e li ricondusse felicemente dalla barbarie, che stava
rinascendo, dalle devastazioni e dalle rapine a costumi di umana e cristiana
mitezza, alla tolleranza della fatica, alla luce della verità e al rinnovamento
della civiltà tra le nazioni, civiltà ispirata alla sapienza e all'amore.
Ma ciò non è tutto: nell'Istituzione della vita
benedettina è ordinato in primo luogo che ognuno, mentre con le mani o con la
mente lavora, miri e tenda soprattutto a sollevarsi continuamente verso Cristo
e ad infiammarsi del suo perfettissimo amore. Non possono infatti i beni di
questo mondo, anche tutti insieme, saziare l'anima dell'uomo, che Dio ha creato
per il suo conseguimento; ma essi hanno piuttosto dal loro Creatore la missione
di muoverci e portarci, come gradini di una scala, al raggiungimento del
medesimo Dio. Per questo è anzitutto indispensabile che «nulla venga preposto
all'amore di Cristo»;(33)
«che nulla si tenga più caro che Cristo»;(34)
«che nulla assolutamente sia anteposto a Cristo, che ci conduce alla vita
eterna».(35)
A questa ardente carità verso il divin Redentore deve rispondere l'amore verso i prossimi, che dobbiamo abbracciare tutti come fratelli e con ogni mezzo aiutare. Mentre gli odi e le rivalità sollevano e spingono gli uomini gli uni contro gli altri; mentre rapine, stragi, infinite disgrazie e miserie profluiscono da quel torbido sconvolgimento di popoli e di eventi, Benedetto raccomanda ai suoi seguaci queste santissime leggi: «Si dimostri ogni cura e sollecitudine specialmente nell'ospitalità dei poveri e dei pellegrini, perché in essi maggiormente Cristo viene accolto».(36) «Tutti gli ospiti che arrivano siano accolti come Cristo, poiché egli un giorno dirà: Sono stato ospite e mi avete ricevuto».(37) «Prima di tutto e sopra tutto si deve avere cura dei malati, affinché così si serva ad essi, come si servirebbe allo stesso Cristo, poiché egli ha detto: sono stato infermo e mi avete visitato».(38) Così animato e sospinto da questa ardentissima carità verso Dio e il prossimo, condusse a termine e perfezionò la sua impresa; e quando già, pieno di gioia e di meriti, pregustava le aure celesti dell'eterna felicità, «il sesto giorno... prima del suo transito, si fece aprire la tomba. E assalito tosto dalla febbre, cominciò ad essere consumato da una ardente fiamma; aggravandosi di giorno in giorno questo languore, al sesto giorno si fece portare dai suoi discepoli nella chiesa, dove provvedutosi per il suo supremo viaggio col ricevere il corpo e il sangue del Signore, e sostenendo le affrante membra sulle braccia dei suoi figli, alzate le mani verso il cielo, stette immobile e mormorando ancora voci di preghiera emise l'ultimo respiro».(39)
Dopo che il santo patriarca con pio transito fu volato
al cielo, l'ordine monastico che egli aveva fondato non solo non decadde né si
sciolse, ma parve che, come era stato dal suo continuo esempio in ogni tempo
nutrito, alimentato e formato, così anche ora fosse sorretto e fortificato dal
suo celeste patrocinio, sì da prendere di anno in anno sempre maggiori
sviluppi.
Tutti coloro che studiano e giudicano gli avvenimenti
umani con retto giudizio e non guidati da preconcetti, ma sui documenti della
storia., devono riconoscere quanto grande sia stata l'efficacia e la forza
esercitata dall'ordine benedettino in quella antica età, quanti e quanto grandi
benefici siano derivati ai secoli che seguirono. Infatti i monaci benedettini
oltre ad essere stati, come dicemmo, quasi gli unici in quell'oscuro periodo di
storia, nell'ignoranza estrema degli uomini e nella rovina generale della
società, a custodire intatti i codici delle scienze e delle lettere, a
trascriverli con ogni diligenza e a commentarli, essi furono ancora dei primi
ad esercitare e con ogni mezzo promuovere le arti, le scienze e l'insegnamento.
Come la chiesa cattolica specialmente nei primi tre secoli della sua vita fu
mirabilmente rafforzata e accresciuta col sangue sacro dei suoi martiri, e come
nella medesima e susseguente epoca l'integrità della sua divina dottrina fu
conservata pura e intatta contro le lotte e le perfidie degli eretici per la
strenua e sapiente opera dei santi padri, così si può sicuramente affermare che
l'ordine benedettino e i suoi fiorentissimi monasteri furono suscitati dalla
sapienza e ispirazione divina precisamente perché, al crollo dell'impero romano
e alle invasioni generali di popoli feroci spinti da furore guerresco, la
cristianità potesse non solo riparare le sue perdite, ma anche, con
un'operosità continua e instancabile, ricondurre nuovi popoli, mansuefatti
dalla verità e dalla carità dell'evangelo, alla concordia fraterna, ad un
lavoro redditizio, in una parola, alla virtù, che è regolata dagli insegnamenti
del nostro Redentore e alimentata dalla sua grazia. Come invero nei secoli
passati le legioni romane marciavano per le vie consolari per assoggettare
all'impero di Roma tutte le nazioni, così ora numerose schiere di monaci, le
cui armi «non sono carnali, ma potenti in Dio solo» (2 Cor 10, 4), sono
inviate dal sommo pontefice, affinché dilatino felicemente il pacifico regno di
Gesù Cristo fino agli estremi confini della terra, non con la spada, non con la
forza, non con le stragi, ma con la croce e con l'aratro, con la verità e con
l'amore.
E dovunque ponevano il loro piede queste inermi
schiere, formate di predicatori della dottrina cristiana, di artigiani, di agricoltori
e di maestri di scienze umane e divine, ivi stesso le terre boscose e incolte
erano solcate dall'aratro; sorgevano le sedi delle arti e delle scienze; gli
abitanti dalla loro vita rozza e selvaggia erano educati alla convivenza e alla
civiltà sociale, e si faceva brillare davanti a loro l'esempio della dottrina
evangelica e la luce della virtù. Innumerevoli apostoli, accesi di
soprannaturale carità, percorsero incognite e turbolente regioni d'Europa, le
innaffiarono generosamente del loro sudore e del loro sangue, e ai popoli
pacificati portarono la luce della cattolica verità e santità. Giustamente si
può affermare che, per quanto Roma, adorna già di molte vittorie, avesse esteso
la forza del suo dominio per terra e per mare, pure per mezzo di questi
apostoli «fu meno quello che conquistò a Roma lo sforzo guerresco, di quello
che le abbia assoggettato la pace cristiana».(40)
Difatti non solo l'Inghilterra, la Francia, l'Olanda, la Frisia, la Danimarca,
la Germania, la Scandinavia e l'Ungheria, ma anche non poche nazioni slaviche
si vantano dell'apostolato di questi monaci e li annoverano tra le loro glorie
e come gli illustri fondatori della loro civiltà. E dal loro ordine quanti
vescovi sono usciti, i quali o ressero con sapiente governo diocesi già
stabilite o non poche ne fondarono e fecondarono con le loro fatiche! Quanti
maestri ed eccellenti dottori innalzarono famosissime cattedre di studi e di
arti liberali, e non solo illuminarono le intelligenze di moltissimi, offuscate
da errori, ma diedero ovunque forti impulsi alle scienze sacre e profane.
Infine quanti santissimi uomini si segnalarono, i quali, aggregati alla
famiglia, conquistarono con ogni sforzo la perfezione evangelica e con ogni
industria propagarono il regno di Gesù Cristo, con l'esempio delle loro virtù,
con la sacra predicazione e con mirabili prodigi che Dio concedeva loro di
operare.
Molti di questi monaci, come ben sapete, venerabili fratelli, o furono insigniti della dignità episcopale o anche rifulsero della maestà del sommo pontificato. I nomi di questi apostoli, vescovi, santi, sommi pontefici sono scritti a caratteri d'oro negli annali della chiesa e sarebbe lungo qui ricordarli ad uno ad uno; del resto, risplendono di sì vivida luce e hanno sì grande importanza nella storia da essere con ogni facilità conosciuti da tutti.
Stimiamo pertanto utili che questi pensieri, accennati
appena alla sfuggita, siano durante queste commemorazioni secolari, meditati
attentamente, e che tornino a brillare nella loro chiarissima luce davanti agli
occhi del mondo, affinché tutti più facilmente imparino da essi non solo ad
esaltare e lodare questi fasti gloriosi della chiesa, ma anche perché con
volontà pronta e generosa si diano a seguire gli esempi e gli ammaestramenti di
santità che da essi promanano.
Non solamente le antiche età ebbero opportunità di
ricevere infiniti vantaggi da questo grande patriarca e dal suo ordine, ma
anche il nostro tempo deve imparare da lui molte e importanti lezioni. E primi
di tutti - del che tuttavia non abbiamo il minimo dubbio - imparino i membri
della sua numerosissima famiglia a seguirne le orme con impegno ogni giorno più
intenso e a mettere in pratica nella propria vita la sua dottrina e gli esempi
in virtù e in santità. Così sicuramente avverrà che, non solo corrispondano con
animo generoso e con fertile operosità a quella voce celeste che, guidati da
suprema vocazione, hanno seguìto quando abbracciarono la vita monastica e non
solo si assicurino la serena pace della loro coscienza e soprattutto la loro
eterna salvezza, ma seguirà pure che potranno impiegare con frutto abbondante
le loro fatiche per il vantaggio generale del popolo cristiano e per la
propagazione della gloria divina.
Inoltre anche tutte le classi della società, se
mireranno con sollecita e diligente attenzione alla vita di san Benedetto, ai
suoi insegnamenti e ai suoi illustri esempi, si sentiranno certamente mosse dal
suo spirito e dal suo impulso soavissimo e potentissimo; e riconosceranno
facilmente che anche la nostra epoca, agitata e ansiosa per tante sì gravi
rovine materiali e morali, per tanti pericoli e disastri, può da lui attendersi
i necessari rimedi. Innanzi tutto, però, ricordino e considerino attentamente
che le auguste basi della nostra religione e le norme di vita da essa dettate
sono i più saldi e stabili fondamenti dell'umana società: se queste vengono
sovvertite o indebolite, ne seguirà quasi necessariamente che tutto ciò che è
ordine, pace, tranquillità di popoli e di nazioni vada gradatamente in rovina.
Questa verità che la storia dell'ordine benedettino, come vedemmo, dimostra con
tanta eloquenza, l'aveva compresa già nell'antichità pagana un sommo ingegno,
quando preferiva questo giudizio: «Voi, pontefici ... con maggiore accortezza
... difendete la città con la religione, che non lo sia con le stesse mura».(41)
E altrove il medesimo autore: «Tolta via (questa santità e religione), ne
consegue disordine nella vita ed enorme confusione; e dubito fortemente che,
dopo soppresso il rispetto verso gli dèi, non venga pure a scomparire la
fedeltà e la convivenza dell'umana società e la più eccelsa di tutte le virtù,
la giustizia».(42)
Quindi il primo e principale dovere sia questo:
rispettare il sommo Dio; osservare in pubblico e in privato le sue sante leggi:
se queste saranno calpestate, non vi sarà più nessun potere al mondo che
possegga tali freni con cui sufficientemente trattenere e moderare, secondo il
diritto, le travolgenti bramosie dei popoli. La religione infatti è l'unica che
abbia in sé le basi sicure della rettitudine e dell'onestà.
Il nostro santo patriarca ci fornisce lezioni e
stimoli anche in un'altra virtù di cui i nostri tempi sentono tanta necessità:
che Dio, cioè, non solo deve essere onorato e adorato, ma anche con ardente
carità amato come Padre. E poiché questa carità oggi si è miseramente
intiepidita e illanguidita, ne consegue che moltissimi uomini cercano piuttosto
i beni della terra che quelli del cielo; e questo con brama così violenta, che
non di rado genera tumulti, semina rivalità e odi ferocissimi. Orbene, poiché
Dio eterno è l'autore della nostra vita e da lui ci sono elargiti infiniti
benefici, è stretto dovere per tutti l'amarlo con ardente carità e soprattutto
dirigere e indirizzare a lui noi stessi e le nostre opere. Da questo divino
amore deve nascere la fraterna carità verso i prossimi, i quali, di qualsiasi
stirpe, nazione o classe siano, dobbiamo stimare tutti come fratelli in Gesù
Cristo: cosicché di tutti i popoli e di tutte le classi della società si formi
una sola famiglia cristiana, non divisa da un'esagerata ricerca della privata
utilità, ma congiunta insieme amichevolmente dal vicendevole scambio di aiuti.
Se questi insegnamenti, con i quali un tempo Benedetto illuminò, ristorò,
rianimò e ridusse a migliori costumi la decadente e turbolenta società di
quelle epoche, oggi pure fossero universalmente applicati e fiorissero, allora
anche il nostro secolo potrebbe riparare le sue rovine materiali e morali, e
portare le sue profonde piaghe a una pronta e perfetta guarigione.
Oltre a questo ancora, venerabili fratelli, il
legislatore dell'ordine benedettino ci insegna una verità che oggi molto volentieri
si proclama altamente, ma troppo spesso non si pratica rettamente, come sarebbe
conveniente e doveroso: che cioè il lavoro umano non è qualche cosa di
ignobile, di odioso e molesto, ma che deve essere amato, come cosa dignitosa e
gradita. Infatti la vita di lavoro, vissuta sia nel coltivare i campi, sia
negli impieghi delle officine, sia anche nelle occupazioni intellettuali, non
avvilisce gli animi, ma li nobilita; non li rende schiavi, ma giustamente li
rende padroni e plasmatori di quelle sostanze che ci circondano e che
faticosamente si maneggiano. Gesù stesso nella sua gioventù, quando ancora
stava nascosto tra le mura domestiche, non disdegnò di esercitare il mestiere
di falegname nell'officina del suo padre putativo e volle col suo sudore divino
consacrare il lavoro umano. Quindi non solo coloro che attendono agli studi
delle lettere e delle scienze, ma anche coloro che stanno sudando nei mestieri
manuali per potersi guadagnare il loro pane quotidiano, riflettano che
esercitano una cosa nobilissima, con cui sono in grado di provvedere al
benessere di tutta la società civile. Questo lavoro tuttavia lo esercitino,
come ci insegna il santo patriarca Benedetto, con la mente e con il cuore
elevati verso il cielo; lo compiano non per forza, ma per amore; e infine anche
quando difendono i loro legittimi diritti, lo facciano con maniere giuste e
pacifiche, non con l'invidia alla fortuna altrui, non in modo scomposto e
turbolento. Ricordino quella divina sentenza: «Mangerai il pane nel sudore
della tua fronte» (Gn 3, 19); questo comando dev'essere osservato da tutti
gli uomini in spirito di obbedienza e di espiazione.
Ma soprattutto non si dimentichino di questo: che noi dobbiamo, con uno sforzo sempre più intenso, dalle cose terrene e caduche, siano esse elaborate o scoperte con l'acume dell'ingegno, siano esse plasmate con arte faticosa, sollevarci a quei beni celesti e immortali; conquistati i quali potremo allora solamente godere vera pace, sereno riposo ed eterna felicità.
La guerra, quando nella recente conflagrazione
raggiunse le spiagge della Campania e del Lazio, colpì in modo compassionevole,
come ben sapete, venerabili fratelli, anche la sacra sommità del Monte Cassino;
e per quanto Noi con ogni Nostro potere, pregando, esortando e supplicando,
nulla avessimo tralasciato affinché non si arrecasse una così enorme ingiuria
alla nostra santa religione, alle arti e alla stessa umana civiltà, pur
tuttavia essa ha distrutto e annientato quella preclara sede di studi e di
pietà che, quasi luce vincitrice delle tenebre, era emersa dalle onde dei
secoli. Mentre città, borghi e villaggi tutt'intorno venivano ridotti a cumuli
di rovine, parve che anche l'Archicenobio Cassinese, casa madre dell'ordine
benedettino, volesse in certo modo partecipare al lutto dei suoi figli e
condividerne le disgrazie. Di esso quasi null'altro rimane incolume se non il
venerabile ipogeo, dove con ogni devozione sono conservati i resti mortali del santo
patriarca.
Al presente, ove prima risplendevano artistici
monumenti, vi sono mura pericolanti, macerie e rovine, che gli sterpi
miseramente ricoprono e soltanto una piccola dimora per i monaci è stata
recentemente costruita nelle vicinanze. Ma perché non sarà lecito sperare che,
mentre si commemora il XIV centenario da che il nostro santo conquistò la
felicità celeste, dopo aver cominciato e condotto a termine impresa così
grandiosa, perché - diciamo - non possiamo sperare che con il concorso di tutti
i buoni, e specialmente dei più facoltosi e più generosi, venga al più presto
restituito al suo primitivo splendore questo antichissimo archicenobio? Un tale
atto di generosità è certamente dovuto verso san Benedetto da parte del mondo
civile, che deve attribuire in gran parte al santo e alla sua operosa famiglia,
se oggi risplende tanta luce di dottrina e possiede antichi documenti
letterari. Confidiamo perciò che l'esito risponda felicemente alla Nostra
speranza e ai Nostri voti; e questa impresa sia non solamente un dovere di
ricostruzione e di riparazione, ma un auspicio pure di tempi migliori nei quali
lo spirito dell'ordine benedettino e i suoi quanto mai opportuni insegnamenti
vengano di giorno in giorno sempre più a rifiorire.
Con questa soavissima speranza, ad ognuno di voi,
venerabili fratelli, e al gregge alle cure di ciascuno affidato, come pure a
tutt'intera la famiglia dei monaci che si gloria di questo grande legislatore,
maestro e padre, con tutta l'effusione dell'animo impartiamo la benedizione
apostolica, auspicio delle celesti grazie e testimonio della Nostra
benevolenza.
Roma, presso la Basilica di San Pietro, il 21 marzo, nella festa di san Benedetto, anno 1947, IX del Nostro pontificato.
PIUS XII
(1)
PIUS PP. XII, Litt. enc. Fulgens radiatur decimoquarto exacto saeculo
a pientissimo S. Benedicti obitu, [Ad venerabiles Fratres Patriarchas,
Primates, Archiepiscopos, Episcopos, aliosque locorum Ordinarios pacem et
communionem cum Apostolica Sede habentes], 21 martii 1947: AAS 39(1947),
pp.137-155.
I. L'incomparabile figura storica del patriarca:
origine e primi orientamenti di s. Benedetto; a Subiaco; a Montecassino;
preghiera e lavoro; vita di famiglia;
fratelli in Cristo; il monastero benedettino piccolo
«regno di Dio»; il suo pio transito. - II. Eccelse benemerenze di s. Benedetto
e del suo ordine per la chiesa e la civiltà. - III. Insegnamenti della «Regola
benedettina» al mondo contemporaneo. IV. La ricostruzione del monastero di
Montecassino doveroso e generale tributo di riconoscenza.
(2)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, Prol.: PL 66, 126.
(4)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, Prol.: PL 66, 126.
(5)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, 8: PL 66, 150.
(6)
Cf. S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, Prol.: PL 66, 126.
(7)
SALVIANUS, De gub. mundi, VII, 1: PL 53, 130.
(8)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, Prol.: PL 66, 126.
(9)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, 3: PL 66, 132.
(10)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II; 3: PL 66, 140.
(11)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, 3: PL 66, 140.
(12)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, 8: PL 66, 148.
(13)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, 8: PL 66, 152.
(14)
PIUS X, Litt. apost. Archicoenobium Casinense, 10 febr. 1913: AAS 5(1913),
p. 113.
(15)
S. THOMAS, Summa theol., II-II, q. 188, a. 6.
(16)
MABILLON, Annales Ord. S. Bened., Lucae 1739, t. I, p. 107.
(17)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., III, 16: PL 77, 261.
(18)
Cf. BOSSUET, Panégirique de S. Benoît: Oeuvres compl., vol. XII,
Paris 1863, p. 165.
(19)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, 36: PL 66, 200.
(20) Reg.
S. Benedicti, c. 65.
(21)
Cf. Reg. S. Benedicti, c. 3.
(22)
Cf. Reg. S. Benedicti, c. 2.
(24)
Cf. Reg. S. Benedicti, c. 3.
(26) Reg.
S. Benedicti, c. 33.
(27)
Cf. Reg. S. Benedicti, c. 48.
(28)
Cf. Reg. S. Benedicti, c. 48.
(29)
Cf. Reg. S. Benedicti, c. 57.
(31) Reg.
S. Benedicti, c. 43.
(35) Reg.
S. Benedicti, c. 72.
(36) Reg.
S. Benedicti, c. 53.
(37) Reg.
S. Benedicti, c. 53.
(38) Reg.
S. Benedicti, c. 36.
(39)
S. GREGORIUS M., Lib. Dial., II, 37: PL 67, 202.
(40)
Cf. S. LEO M., Sermo I in natali Ap. Petri et Pauli: PL 54, 423.
(41)
CIC., De nat. Deor., II, c. 40.
(42)
CIC., De nat. Deor., I, c. 2.
© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
.jpg)
Alonso Cano (1601–1667), Visión de San Benito del globo y los tres ángeles, circa 1660, 166 x 123, Museo del Prado
BENEDETTO di Norcia, san
di Placido Lugano - Enciclopedia Italiana (1930)
BENEDETTO di Norcia, san. - La vita. - I
dati sicuri della vita di S. Benedetto sono piuttosto scarsi, e derivano tutti
dal libro II dei Dialoghi di S. Gregorio Magno; né si può accogliere
come accertato quanto è stato scritto intorno a lui nei secoli posteriori. Così
non è attestata con solido fondamento la provenienza del santo dalla gente
Anicia, benché Gregorio Magno lo dica di nobile stirpe (liberiori genere
exortus).
S. Benedetto nacque, in un medesimo parto con la
sorella Scolastica, nell'antica città di Norcia, l'anno 480; ivi passò gli anni
della sua puerizia. Adolescente, verso il 497, venne a Roma per attendere agli
studî proprî della sua condizione (liberalibus litterarum studiis). Mosso però
da un grande amore alla solitudine, abbandonò la città di Roma, e ventenne si
diresse ai monti Simbruini, fermandosi tra le insenature rocciose e selvagge di
Subiaco. Qui menò vita solitaria, noto per alcun tempo soltanto ad un monaco di
nome Romano, che viveva in un vicino monastero sotto la direzione dell'abate
Teodato; da Romano ricevette il primo segno di abito monastico (la melote).
Dopo un triennio il giovane B. viene richiesto come superiore da alcuni monaci
che vivevano a Vicovaro, borgo tiburtino bagnato dall'Aniene, tra Subiaco e
Tivoli. Vinte le prime riluttanze, B. accettò di succedere al loro abate
defunto, ma presto fu costretto ad abbandonarli come indisciplinati e
avvelenatori della sua vita. Tuttavia la fama di lui era cresciuta, e dai
dintorni andarono a lui discepoli numerosi anelanti alla disciplina monastica.
Perfino da Roma gli arrivarono due giovani patrizî, Mauro e Placido. La pratica
della vita monastica a Subiaco fu bruscameute interrotta a causa della nequizia
di un prete di nome Fiorenzo, che, non potendo perdere i corpi, tentò di
perdere le anime dei discepoli di Benedetto. Egli quindi, verso il 529, sotto
il regno di Giustiniano e il pontificato di Felice IV, partì da Subiaco e con i
suoi per la via Latina raggiunse Cassino, e di là si spinse sulla vetta del
monte, dove sorgeva un grande tempio pagano. Qui trovò più propizio il campo
all'opera sua. Distrusse il tempio e l'idolo; costruì il monastero, di cui fu
muratore e architetto; predicò il Vangelo ai pochi montanari del luogo, e
attese a disciplinare le anime che venivano a lui per il servizio divino.
All'età di 67 anni - il 21 marzo 547 secondo la cronologia più generalmente
ammessa - rese l'anima a Dio. Il suo corpo fu chiuso nel medesimo avello in cui
quaranta giorni prima egli aveva fatto deporre quello della sorella Scolastica:
avello preparato sotto l'altare di S. Giovanni Battista, nello stesso luogo in
cui prima sorgeva l'ara di Apollo da lui rovesciata.
La regola. - S. Gregorio (Dialoghi, II, c. 36) giudicò
la Regula monachorum di S. Benedetto discretissima nella sostanza e
chiarissima nella forma (discretione praecipuam, sermone luculentam).
Sembra certo che esistessero due esemplari autografi di questa regola: l'uno,
consegnato dal santo al discepolo Mauro perché lo propagasse nella Francia, col
peso del pane e la misura del vino; l'altro, recato a Roma dai Cassinesi nel
586, e riportato a Montecassino, quando fu rilevato quel monastero per opera
dell'abate Petronace. Tra i doni fatti a S. Benedetto da papa Zaccaria vi è
quello del libro della regola, quam piissimus pater manu propria
scripserat. Da questo autografo l'abate Teodemaro nel sec. VIII fece scrivere
un esemplare che trasmise a Carlo Magno.
La regola di S. Benedetto, della cui autenticità non
v'ha ragione di dubitare, è un documento monastico di prim'ordine, composto di
un prologo e 73 capitoli, che esercitò nel Medioevo un grandissimo influsso. Si
può dire che sia il codice più autorevole a cui abbiano attinto tutti i
fondatori di ordini o di istituti religiosi che si sono susseguiti da quel
tempo fino ai giorni nostri.
S. Benedetto divide i monaci in eremiti o anacoreti, e
in cenobiti o monaci propriamente detti, che vivono in comunità. La sua regola
è diretta ai cenobiti, cioè ai monaci riuniti in un monastero, viventi sotto un
abate, e seguenti la medesima norma di vita.
Il monastero è eretto in una solitudine, attorniato da
terre e circondato da mura; ma deve contenere tutto ciò che è necessario alla
vita di una comunità: chiesa e oratorio; dormitorî e celle per gli ospiti, i
pellegrini, i poveri; il refettorio, la cucina, il cellario, l'orto, il molino,
il vestiario o luogo dove si conservano le vesti ed altre masserizie ad uso dei
monaci; le officine per le arti e i mestieri, la biblioteca per i codici da
leggere e da studiare; lo scriptorium per la trascrizione dei testi
antichi (cap. 66). Il monaco attendeva d'ordinario al lavoro manuale e alla
coltura delle terre, nonché a leggere, scrivere e studiare (capp. 48, 55, 73).
Nei secoli seguenti il lavoro intellettuale giunse ad occupare interamente la
giornata del monaco; ma una parte cospicua di tempo fu dedicata alla preghiera
obbligatoria sotto forma di salmodia in comune, da recitare a voce alta e
cantare in coro. Per questa preghiera, chiamata opus Dei, S. Benedetto è
disceso a determinare le più minute particolarità e a concordare le singole parti
dell'ufficiatura quotidiana con il ciclo liturgico di tutto l'anno (capp. 8,
19, 42, 47).
Nel concetto di questo legislatore, il cenobio o
monastero deve essere sufficiente a sé stesso, sia per la vita materiale e
spirituale dell'individuo, sia per la vita e lo sviluppo della comunità, senza
che nasca il bisogno ad alcuno di uscire fuori per qualsiasi ragione. È come un
piccolo stato, e l'immagine della città antica. Isolato dal mondo, il monastero
benedettino deve contenere tutto il necessario per la vita, cioè gli attrezzi e
le officine per ricavare dal suolo gli alimenti. Appositi ufficiali presiedono,
dirigono e hanno cura della vita di ognuno e della comunità.
A capo della comunità è l'abate, che tiene le veci di
Cristo; egli viene eletto dal suffragio della comunità stessa. I suoi poteri
durano a vita e la sua autorità sui monaci e sul monastero è grande: egli
governa, amministra, regge, istruisce; è responsabile tanto delle finanze del
monastero quanto degl'interessi spirituali. Nomina alcuni ufficiali, che hanno
attribuzioni particolari, sempre sotto la sua alta giurisdizione e direzione.
Membro della comunità, è sottomesso come i monaci alla regola, di cui è custode
ed interprete; e vive la stessa vita dei suoi sudditi o figli.
Accanto all'abate sono il praepositus o
priore, che lo rappresenta e ne fa le veci; il cellerario che amministra i beni
e provvede al necessario; il decano che è incaricato particolarmente di un
gruppo di dieci monaci; un portinaio che veglia alla porta del monastero e riceve
gli ospiti, i visitatori e i poveri. Un monaco è incaricato particolarmente
degli ospiti, un altro dell'educazione e formazione spirituale dei novizî.
All'infuori di questi uffizî, regna nel monastero una
perfetta eguaglianza fra tutti i monaci, benché ciascuno tenga ordinatamente il
suo posto a seconda della sua entrata in monastero. Vi sono così i seniores e
i iuniores. Per le nomine o preferenze unica ragione è il merito della
vita e l'osservanza della regola.
Il monastero può ricevere sacerdoti secolari, sia come
ospiti, sia come postulanti alla vita monastica, ma con le debite cautele e con
le commendatizie; come ammette giovanetti nobili o poveri, offerti dai loro
genitori, come oblati, cioè dedicati al servizio divino.
La regola contempla anche il vitto, che è frugale, e
il vestito, che deve essere non ricercato, ma quale facilmente si trova nel
luogo di residenza, senza preconcetto di finezza e di colore.
Questa regola penetrò facilmente ovunque ed ebbe tosto
il predominio sulle altre per la sua discrezione e moderazione, poiché essa
ordina che l'abate tutto disponga ed equilibri in maniera che i forti vi
trovino gusto e i deboli non si avviliscano (cap. 64). In Italia, Francia,
Spagna, Germania e Inghilterra essa fu presto conosciuta e seguita; e nei
secoli IX-XI regnò pressoché unica in tutti i monasteri d'Europa. Nel sec. XIX
ha ripreso la sua via ascensionale, e gli spiriti affaticati vi si adagiano
ancora con serenità e profitto.
Bibl.: Il libro II dei Dialoghi di S.
Gregorio, contenente la biografia di S. Benedetto, oltre che nelle edizioni
delle opere del pontefice e in Patr. Lat., LXVI, coll. 126-204, fu
pubblicato più volte a parte. L'ab. G. Cozza-Luzzi, Historia Sancti Patris
nostri Benedicti, a SS. Pontificibus Romanis Gregorio I descripta et a Zacharia
graece reddita, Grottaferrata 1880, la pubblicò in greco da un codice
ambrosiano e da un altro già di Grottaferrata, ora Vaticano greco 1666, del
sec. VIII. G. De Luca ha pubblicato la Vita e regola di S. Benedetto
secondo antichi volgarizzamenti, Firenze 1923. Una nuova traduzione ne ha data
V. Bartoccetti, nei suoi Fioretti degli antichi Padri, di S. Gregorio
Magno (Milano 1925), pp. 39-89. L'ultima versione della Vita e Regola fu
curata da P. Lugano (Roma 1929).
Le migliori biografie sono: L. Tosti, Della vita
di S. Benedetto, Montecassino 1892; D. A. L'Huillier, Le Patriarche Saint
Benoît, Parigi 1905; B. Maréchaux, Saint B., sa vie, sa règle, sa doctrine
spirituelle, Parigi 1911; L. Hebrard, Saint Benoît, Parigi 1922; D.
Ryellandt, Essai sur la physionomie morale de Saint B., Parigi 1924; S. De
Fresnel, Saint B.: l'oeuvre et l'âme du Patriarche, Parigi 1926; L.
Salvatorelli, S. Benedetto, Bari 1928; F. Ermini, Benedetto da Norcia,
Roma 1929. Sull'ordine di S. Benedetto reca un notevole contributo, L'Italia
Benedettina compilata da P. Lugano (Roma 1929).
Per l'arte si ha una buona raccolta in Saint B.
dans la peinture, Cinquante reproductions d'oeuvres en phototypie, publié per
l'abbaye St. Maurice, Clairvaux 1916.
Innumerevoli sono le edizioni della regola di san
Benedetto. Negli ultimi anni il testo fu oggetto di varî studî fra cui notevoli
i seguenti: E. Schmidt, Regula S. Patris Benedicti iuxta antiquissimos
codices recognita, Ratisbona 1880; E. Wölfflin, Benedicti Regula
Monachorum, Lipsia 1895; L. Traube, Textgeschichte der Regula S. Benedicti,
Monaco 1898 (2ª ed. riveduta da H. Plenkers, Monaco 1910); G. Morin, Regulae
Sancti Benedicti traditio codicum manuscriptorum cassinensium, Montecassino
1900; H. Plenkers, Untersuchungen zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der
ältesten lateinischen Mönchsregeln, Monaco 1906; Neuere Arbeiten und
Streitfragen über die Benedictinerregel, in Zeitschrift für die österr. Gymnasien,
1902, n. 2; C. Butler, S. Benedicti Regula monachorum: editio
critico-practica, Friburgo in B. 1912; F. Stabile, Sul testo e la lingu
della Regola di S. Benedetto, in Rivista di filologia e di istruzione
classica, XLII (1914), pp. 259-274; B. Linderbauer, S. Benedicti Regula
Monachorum, Deggendorf 1922. Maggiori informazioni fino al 1926 si hanno
in Rivista storica benedettina (dal 1906). La più recente edizione
della Vita et Regula S. Benedicti è quella manuale curata da P.
Lugano (Roma 1929).
SOURCE : https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/benedetto-di-norcia-san_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/
BENEDETTO da Norcia, Santo
di M. D'Onofrio - Enciclopedia dell' Arte Medievale
(1992)
BENEDETTO da Norcia, Santo
Padre del monachesimo occidentale, B., nato a Norcia nel 480 ca. e morto a Montecassino nel 547, fu il fondatore dell'Ordine benedettino. Dopo aver concluso i suoi studi a Roma si ritirò a vita eremitica presso Subiaco. Nel 529 ca. si spostò a Montecassino dove, insieme ai suoi seguaci, eresse il monastero omonimo, di cui fu anche abate. Le poche notizie storiche relative alla vita del santo sono riassunte nei Dialoghi, scritti da Gregorio Magno intorno al 593 (II, 8-10; SC, CCLX, 1979, pp. 166-168).Iconografia. - Le raffigurazioni di B. compaiono nel Medioevo sia isolate sia in contesti narrativi più complessi. Immagini singole del santo sono documentate già nell'Alto Medioevo: tra le più antiche è quella nel cimitero di S. Ermete a Roma (sec. 8°-9°); a partire dalla fine del sec. 10°, esse si diffondono in Germania, Francia e Inghilterra in parallelo con l'estendersi del culto del santo, favorito dal movimento di crescita della vita monastica.Tra le più antiche pitture murali con l'immagine di B. note in Italia è da ricordare quella della grotta del Salvatore presso Vallerano (sec. 10°): B., affiancato da Mauro e Placido, due dei suoi primi compagni, è rappresentato a figura intera e in atteggiamento orante con le mani giunte dinanzi al busto; il santo, con la tunica e lo scapolare, appare in giovane età e senza barba. Gli affreschi della grotta del Salvatore appartengono a un contesto benedettino, essendo stati commissionati da un Andreas Humilis abbas, come ricorda l'iscrizione ancora leggibile nell'eremo. La più antica rappresentazione di B. databile con assoluta certezza è però quella nel frontespizio del manoscritto della Regola benedettina (Montecassino, Bibl., 175), redatto a Capua, su commissione dell'abate Giovanni I di Montecassino, nel 919-920: B., ritratto con la barba corta, indossa lo scapolare sopra la tunica decorata con due clavi; sul ginocchio sono appoggiate le due bande di una stola che lo connotano come sacerdote.Non è conservata, ma se ne deduce l'esistenza da un'iscrizione, una raffigurazione di B. nello strombo di una finestra nella basilica dei Ss. Martiri a Cimitile; il santo era posto di fronte alla figura di s. Gennaro. Il ciclo è databile alla seconda metà del sec. 10°, quando a Roma B. è rappresentato nell'abside di S. Maria in Pallara; il monastero fu fondato da Petrus Medicus sul Palatino prima del 977, ma l'affresco in questione è databile agli ultimi anni del secolo, intorno al 998. Il santo, raffigurato insieme a s. Sebastiano e s. Zosimo, è presentato a mezzobusto, con cocolla e con un libro chiuso, probabilmente la Regola, nella mano sinistra; è un ritratto giovanile, senza barba. Risulta perciò evidente che nel sec. 10° non si era ancora definita una precisa iconografia di B.; le immagini menzionate si differenziano infatti l'una dall'altra per la foggia dei capelli e degli abiti e per gli attributi.Nelle raffigurazioni italiane più tarde B. viene rappresentato con capelli e barba bianchi, come nel caso dell'affresco in una nicchia del Sacro Speco a Subiaco del sec. 13°: B. indossa lo scapolare sopra una lunga tunica, nella mano destra porta il pastorale e nella sinistra il libro aperto, sul quale sono leggibili le prime parole della Regola benedettina: "Ausculta, o fili, praecepta magistri". Negli affreschi della chiesa di S. Crisogono a Roma (1057-1058 ca.) e nel Lezionario di Desiderio di Montecassino, del 1071 (Roma, BAV, lat. 1202), B. è rappresentato con la barba bianca e talora il cappuccio in testa. È degna di rilievo, infine, la rappresentazione del santo nell'atrio di S. Maria Antiqua a Roma, insieme con s. Basilio e scene della Vita di s. Antonio, i padri del monachesimo orientale, il cui culto era peraltro diffuso anche nei monasteri benedettini. A Montecassino le immagini di B. erano naturalmente numerose e venerate: nella chiesa abbaziale, al tempo dell'abate Desiderio (1058-1087), si ricorda una "lampadem ante imaginem eiusdem Patris Benedicti" (AASS, Martii III, 1865, p. 290). Ma anche a Subiaco, culla dell'Ordine benedettino, il culto del santo era molto sentito; come testimonia il Chronicon Sublacense (RIS2, XXIV, 6, 1927, pp. 3-46), il giorno della festa di B. si svolgeva una processione durante la quale veniva portata un'icona raffigurante il santo. In ambito germanico la prima rappresentazione di B. compare in un contesto particolarmente solenne: l'imperatore Enrico II, che era stato a Montecassino nel 1022, fece rappresentare B. insieme a Cristo e tre arcangeli sull'antependium d'oro dell'altare da lui commissionato per la cattedrale di Basilea; il santo, giovane e senza barba, è ritratto con il pastorale e con un libro. L'iscrizione lo definisce medicus soter Benedictus, ricordando come l'imperatore fosse stato miracolato e guarito da B. (Annales Casinenses, II, 43). Un'altra rappresentazione si trova nel c.d. Regelbuch di Niedermünster del 990 ca. (Bamberga, Staatsbibl., Ed.II. 11), un manoscritto commissionato dal duca Enrico il Litigioso per il convento femminile di Niedermünster a Ratisbona, contenente sia la Regola benedettina sia quella di s. Cesario di Arles. B. è raffigurato seduto su un trono con cuscino e suppedaneo, con un libro e il pastorale; la foggia della capigliatura corrisponde a quella di s. Pietro. È interessante anche l'immagine del frontespizio di un manoscritto contenente la Regola, datato al 1025 ca. e proveniente dall'abbazia di Ringelheim (Berlino, Staatsbibl., Theol. lat. fol. 199). B., che troneggia sul faldistorio, consegna la Regola dell'Ordine alla badessa Aeilika, inginocchiata accanto a lui. Mentre la rappresentazione di B. sull'altare d'oro di Basilea scaturisce da un rapporto personale dell'imperatore Enrico II con Montecassino e il suo santo fondatore, il Regelbuch di Niedermünster e il manoscritto di Ringelheim sono legati alla diffusione del monachesimo benedettino nel 10° secolo. L'immagine di B. è diffusa anche in ambito cluniacense: da Saint-Martial di Limoges proviene un manoscritto, risalente al 1100 ca., con il Martirologio di Usuardo e la Regola di s. Benedetto (Parigi, BN, lat. 5243). Nella rappresentazione del santo che orna quest'ultima, Marziale e B. condividono la visione di Cristo in trono nella mandorla; B. è raffigurato con il cappuccio, il pastorale e il libro della Regola. Anche in Inghilterra le prime rappresentazioni di B. compaiono nel sec. 10°: nel Benedizionale del vescovo Etelvoldo di Winchester (936-984), conservato a Londra (BL, Add. Ms 49598, c. 99), B. è raffigurato in trono sotto un'arcata, con libro e corona, in veste sacerdotale; il capo tonsurato e senza barba è adornato di un diadema d'oro. A un momento successivo appartiene un salterio della Christ Church di Canterbury del 1012-1023 (Londra, BL, Arund. 155); alla c. 133, B., in vesti sacerdotali e in posizione frontale e troneggiante, consegna a un gruppo di monaci il libro della Regola benedettina. Il santo è senza barba, con il pastorale e il diadema, su cui è scritto Timor Dei; il monaco inginocchiato ai piedi di B. indossa una cintola che reca l'iscrizione zona humilitatis.Il primo ciclo noto della vita di B. è conservato a Roma in S. Crisogono (dopo il 1057-1058); ne restano solo due scene (Placido salvato da Mauro mentre sta per annegare e la Guarigione del lebbroso a opera di B.), che presentano stretti legami con il ciclo del Lezionario di Desiderio di Montecassino del 1071 (Roma, BAV, lat. 1202). Il testo è basato su quello dei Dialoghi di Gregorio Magno, che in ambito cassinese venne adattato, diviso in dodici lezioni, a rappresentare la vita del santo. Nel manoscritto di Montecassino ogni lezione è preceduta da una serie di immagini relative ai capitoli in essa riassunti. Storie della vita del santo e scene neotestamentarie decoravano anche un altare d'oro con smalti commissionato a Costantinopoli da Desiderio.Indipendenti dal Lezionario, ma sempre derivate dai Dialoghi di Gregorio Magno, sono le scene della Vita di B. illustrate in alcuni capitelli del coro della chiesa di Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, degli inizi del 12° secolo. Raffigurazioni molto originali di B., che non hanno corrispondenti altrove, sono conservate nel Liber capituli (1137 ca.) dell'abbazia di Zwiefalten (Stoccarda, Württembergische Landesbibl., Hist. 2° 415); le fonti del testo sono costituite dalla Regola di B. e da un Martirologio di Usuardo. Là dove il testo del Martirologio riporta la nascita e la vita del santo, l'illustratore ha scelto quale prima immagine la visione di un monaco che vede B. ascendere al cielo su veli. La raffigurazione di B. come autore della Regola propone invece due scale sulle quali salgono e scendono angeli, alludendo così ai dodici gradi dell'umiltà imposti dalla Regola. Sulla scala a destra, accanto a B., uomini sono in attesa davanti alle fauci del mostro infernale, catturato con un amo da Cristo: l'illustratore si ispira qui all'immagine letteraria del Leviatano preso all'amo (Gb. 40, 25).
Bibl.: A. Bertini Calosso, Gli affreschi
della Grotta del Salvatore presso Vallerano, Archivio della R. Società Romana
di Storia Patria 30, 1907, pp. 189-241; K. Löffler, Schwäbische Buchmalerei in
romanischer Zeit, Augsburg 1928; G. Ladner, Die italienische Malerei im 11.
Jahrhundert, JKhSWien, n.s., 5, 1931, pp. 33-160; O. Lehmann-Brockhaus,
Schriftquellen zur Kunstgeschichte des 11. und 12. Jahrhunderts für
Deutschland, Lothringen und Italien, 2 voll., Berlin 1938; E. Dubler, Das Bild
des heiligen Benedikt bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters (Benediktinisches
Geistesleben, 4), München 1953; H. Belting, Die Basilica dei SS. Martiri in
Cimitile und ihr frühmittelalterlicher Freskenzyklus (Forschungen zur
Kunstgeschichte und christlichen Archäologie, 5), Wiesbaden 1962; P. E. Schramm,
F. Mütherich, Denkmale der deutschen Könige und Kaiser, I, München 1962
(19812); H. Buchthal, Notes on a Sicilian Manuscript of the Early Fourteenth
Century, in Essays in the History of Art Presented to Rudolf Wittkower, London
1967, pp. 36-40; D. Gaborit-Chopin, La décoration des manuscrits à
Saint-Martial de Limoges et en Limousin du IXau XIIe siècle, Paris-Genève 1969;
V. Mayr, s.v. Benedikt von Nursia, in LCI, V, 1973, coll. 351-364; E. Temple,
Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066 (A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the
British Isles, 2), London 1976; Benedictus. Eine Kulturgeschichte des
Abendlandes, a cura di P. Batselier, Genf 1980; G. Orofino, Considerazioni
sulla produzione miniaturistica altomedievale a Montecassino attraverso alcuni
manoscritti conservati nell'archivio della Badia, in Monastica, III, Scritti
raccolti in memoria del XV centenario della nascita di S. Benedetto (480-1980)
(Miscellanea Cassinese, 47), Montecassino 1983, pp. 131-185; B. Brenk, Die
Benediktszenen in S. Crisogono und Montecassino, AM 2, 1984, pp. 57-66; id.,
Das Lektionar des Desiderius von Montecassino, Zürich 1987; J. Osborn, The
Atrium of S. Maria Antiqua, Rome: A History in Art, PBSR, n.s, 42, 1987, pp.
186-223. B. Brenk Architettura. - B., profugo da Subiaco, come riferisce Gregorio
Magno nei Dialoghi (II, 8-10; SC, CCLX, 1979, pp.166-168), si ritirò con pochi
discepoli sulla montagna sovrastante Cassino. Qui, dopo aver abbattuto il
tempio pagano dedicato a Giove, iniziò subito la costruzione di un piccolo
nucleo conventuale intorno al quale si sviluppò in seguito l'attuale abbazia. Con
l'ausilio delle fonti letterarie e delle risultanze archeologiche non solo si è
potuto definire l'assetto generale dato all'antico cenobio dal santo fondatore,
ma sono state anche individuate le strutture di alcuni suoi edifici.Il primo
monastero gravitava intorno a un oratorio principale e comprendeva un
refettorio, un dormitorio, una foresteria per gli ospiti e altri ambienti
necessari alla comunità (cisterna per l'acqua, forno, ecc.); questa embrionale
tipologia monastica risulta peraltro codificata nelle disposizioni che B.
impartì di lì a qualche anno ai monaci invitati a costruire un nuovo monastero
nei pressi di Terracina. A Montecassino esistevano due oratorî: quello
maggiore, eretto sulla cima del monte, in onore di s. Giovanni Battista;
l'altro, poco più in basso, in onore di s. Martino. Gli scavi seguiti al
bombardamento subìto dall'abbazia nell'ultimo conflitto bellico hanno rilevato
che la chiesa del Battista (m. 7,60 ´ 15,25) presentava
uno spazio mononavato con abside, coincidente con l'area del presbiterio dell'attuale
basilica; la muratura compatta, realizzata a opera incerta, mostrava sul lato
nord alcune lesene nelle quali erano inclusi filari di laterizi. Un altro
edificio particolarmente significativo era la torre posta all'ingresso del
complesso monastico, di cui costituiva una sorta di baluardo difensivo; la
costruzione, ricavata probabilmente da una precedente struttura romana, era
articolata su due piani, nel secondo dei quali era sistemata la cella di B.,
come è illustrato fra l'altro in una miniatura (Roma, BAV, lat. 1202, c. 72),
da cui il santo poteva avere il controllo delle persone che entravano o
uscivano dal monastero. Tale sistemazione si costituì come modello per la
successiva edilizia monastica, dove le abitazioni degli abati occupavano in genere
una posizione analoga.È difficile proporre ulteriori considerazioni
sull'architettura cassinese del periodo di B. non solo a causa delle continue
trasformazioni della prestigiosa abbazia, ma anche delle non poche distruzioni
a cui essa fu soggetta. È anche impossibile per ora analizzare le altre imprese
edilizie svolte altrove dal santo, in particolare quelle di Subiaco. Non si può
però ignorare che quanto B. realizzò a Montecassino è stato in realtà il seme
fruttuoso del fervore artistico-culturale attuatosi progressivamente nelle
numerose abbazie benedettine del Medioevo europeo.
Bibl.: Fonti. - Gregorio Magno, Vita e miracoli di San
Benedetto, a cura di A. Fiorini, Roma 1954; Leone Ostiense, Chronica Monasterii
Casinensis, a cura di H. Hoffmann, in MGH. SS, XXXIV, 1980.Letteratura critica.
- D. Bartolini, L'antico Cassino e il primitivo monastero di S.Benedetto
restituito alla luce dai suoi ruderi, Montecassino 1880; A. Alinari, Il
primitivo monastero di Montecassino (contributo alla storia della sua topografia),
BISI 47, 1932, pp. 51-81; M. Germain, La plus ancienne basilique encore
existente au Mont-Cassin, Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des
Benedictinerordens und seiner Zweige 55, 1937, pp. 154-156; E. Scaccia
Scarafoni, La ''torre di S. Benedetto'' e le fabbriche medioevali di
Montecassino (Ricerche di topografia), BISI 59, 1944, pp. 137-183; A. Ferrua,
E. Kirschbaum, A. Pantoni, C. Venanzi, L'esplorazione archeologica, in Il
sepolcro di S. Benedetto (Miscellanea Cassinese, 27), Montecassino 1951, pp.
71-94, tavv. I-XIX; A. Pantoni, Le vicende della Basilica di Montecassino
attraverso la documentazione archeologica (Miscellanea Cassinese, 36),
Montecassino 1973; id., L'acropoli di Montecassino e il primitivo monastero di
San Benedetto (Miscellanea Cassinese, 43), Montecassino 1980.
Artista italiano, Busto-reliquiario di San Benedetto da Norcia, 1490 ca, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Den hellige Benedikt av Nursia (~480-547)
Minnedag: 11.
juli
Patriark for vestens munkevesen. Skytshelgen for
Europa (1964), for benediktinere, lærere, gårdsarbeidere, gruvearbeidere,
kobbersmeder, huleforskere (1957), skolebarn og døende, for tjenere som har
ødelagt sine herrers eiendeler, mot feber og betennelse, nyre- og gallestein,
elveblest, forgiftning og trolldom
Den hellige Benedikt (lat: Benedictus; it: Benedetto;
fr: Benoît) ble født rundt år 480 i Nórcia (i dag Nursia), en liten by nær Spoleto
i provinsen Perugia i regionen Umbria i Midt-Italia. Han kom fra en rik
adelsfamilie. Faren tilhørte den romerske slekten Anicii og var prefekt, og
moren tilhørte den lokale landadelen. Barndommen tilbrakte han i Nursia sammen
med sin tvillingsøster, den hellige Scholastica, og
de ble oppdratt til trofaste kristne. På stedet der huset deres sto, finner vi
i dag kirken San Benedetto. I den kjølige underetasjen, i det som i dag er et kapell,
men som den gang var et boligrom, skal Benedikt og Scholastica ha blitt født.
Det meste av det vi vet om Benedikts liv, stammer fra
Bok II av den hellige pave Gregor I den Stores
(590-604) «Dialoger», som bruker mye plass på Benedikt som undergjører og er
mer en karakterskisse enn en egentlig biografi. Allerede som barn skal Benedikt
ha utført undere, for eksempel ble en knust kopp hel gjennom bønn. Pave Gregors
kilder var Benedikts egne disipler, Konstantin, som etterfulgte ham som abbed
av Montecassino, og Honoratus, som var abbed av Subiaco da Gregor skrev sine
Dialoger.
Benedikts foreldre sendte ham til Roma sammen med en
husholderske for å fullføre sine studier, men byens hektiske og lastefulle liv
gjorde at han rømte fra byen i frykt for at han skulle bukke under for dens
fristelser. Det har vært mye diskusjon om hans alder på dette tidspunkt –
Gregor skriver at han var 14 år, men en omhyggelig granskning av Gregors
opplysninger viser at han må ha vært 19 eller 20 år. Det må altså ha skjedd
rundt år 500. Han tok med seg husholdersken og bodde først i landsbyen Enfide
(i dag Affile) i Sabinerfjellene, rundt fem mil fra Roma, i en krets av prester
og legfolk som ønsket å føre et gudfryktig liv. Tross sin ungdom fikk han raskt
stor anseelse, ikke minst da han ifølge legenden mirakuløst fikk reparert en
melsikt (capisterium) som hadde blitt lånt og ødelagt av hans
husholderske.
Men Benedikt
skjønte fort at det ikke var nok å komme seg unna Romas fristelser, han måtte
bli eneboer. I jakt på ensomheten dro han ut i ødemarken i fjellene
i Anio-dalen til han kom til et sted som nå heter Subiaco. Her kom han over en
munk ved navn Romanus, og til ham åpnet han sitt hjerte og fortalte om sin
intensjon om å leve som eremitt. Romanus hjalp den unge mannen, kledde ham i en
drakt av saueskinn og førte ham til en utilgjengelig hule (nå Sacro Speca). Der
tilbrakte han de neste tre årene av sitt liv, «med det eneste ønsket å være Gud
til velbehag» (soli Deo placere cupiens) (Gregor den Store), ukjent
for alle andre enn Romanus, som bevarte hemmeligheten og kom hver dag med brød,
som han senket ned i hulen i en kurv. Kjødets fristelser plaget Benedikt som de
fleste unge menn, men den slags anfektelser drepte han ved å rulle seg i
tistler og torner.
Etter tre år i
fullkommen ensomhet hadde han overvunnet alle fristelser, og ble rådgiver og
åndelig lærer. Munkene i et kloster, som mange mener må ha
vært Vicovaro ved Tivoli, oppfordret Benedikt til å bli deres abbed etter at
den gamle var død. Han aksepterte motvillig og brøt opp fra sin hule i Subiaco.
I klosteret innførte han et strengt levesett, og munkene angret snart at de
hadde valgt ham til abbed. Derfor forsøkte noen av klosterbrødrene å forgifte
ham, først gjennom vin, men det sies at kruset gikk i stykker da han slo
korsets tegn over det. Deretter prøvde de med et forgiftet brød, men da kom det
en ravn og fløy bort med brødet og slapp det på søppeldyngen. Deretter vendte
Benedikt tilbake til Subiaco.
Benedikts ry spredte seg raskt, og det samlet seg
disipler rundt ham, tiltrukket av hans hellighet og hans undergjørende evner.
Disse disiplene var både legfolk som flyktet fra verden og eneboere som levde
spredt i fjellene. Snart var han omgitt av så mange tilhengere at han kunne
opprette en laura bestående av tolv små klostre bygd av tre med tolv
munker i hver. Hvert kloster ble ledet av en prior, men Benedikt var abbed for
dem alle. Klostrene hadde ennå ingen regel, men baserte sin levemåte på
Benedikts eksempel. I dag finnes to av klostrene; Monastero di Santa
Scholastica og Monastero di San Benedetto. Samtidig med opprettelsen
av disse klostrene begynte en skole for barn, og blant de første elevene var de
hellige Maurus og Placidius.
Subiaco ble berømt som et senter for åndelig disiplin,
men rundt 525 forlot Benedikt plutselig stedet sammen med en håndfull trofaste
munker, kanskje på grunn av de vanærende ryktene som ble spredt av den
misunnelige presten Florentius. Hans forsøk på å kompromittere munkene ved å
utsette dem for fristelser satte deres sjelers renhet i fare.
Rundt år 529 bygde
Benedikt et nytt kloster for sine munker over ruinene av et Apollotempel på
Montecassino mellom Roma og Napoli med seg selv som leder. I
begynnelsen var det to kapeller, men rundt dem oppsto klosteret som skulle bli
arnested for vestens klostervesen. Benedikt ble dermed også
benediktinerordenens grunnlegger, selv om han selv aldri planla å stifte noen
orden – han ville bare skrive en regel for munker. Det er trolig at Benedikt
igjen tilbrakte en tid som eremitt, men snart samlet det seg igjen mange
disipler rundt ham. Han bygde uten tvil på erfaringene fra Subiaco, for nå
plasserte han dem ikke lenger i separate hus, men samlet dem sammen i et
anlegg. I motsetning til avsidesliggende Subiaco trakk Montecassino til seg
mange besøkende, inkludert kirkeledere, verdslige herskere og legmenn på leting
etter hellighet, derfor ble det helt fra starten nødvendig med gjesterom.
Vi vet ikke om
Benedikt noensinne ble prest, noe bare få munker var på den tid, men det antas
vanligvis at han kan ha vært diakon. På Montecassino fullførte
han sin berømte munkeregel, Regula Benedicti. Han gjorde bruk av tidligere
regler, særlig de til de hellige Johannes Kassian og Basilios den Store,
og høyst sannsynlig den såkalte Regula Magistri, «Mesterens regel».
Sistnevntes bestemmelser ble imidlertid ofte svært modifisert av Benedikt. Hans
regel var preget av forsiktighet, klokskap og moderasjon innenfor en ramme av
autoritet, lydighet, stabilitet (stedbundethet) og et liv i fellesskap.
Benediktinermunkenes hovedvirksomhet var liturgisk bønn, oppbyggelig lesning og
manuelt arbeid av ulikt slag. Det manuelle arbeidet ble ikke bare anerkjent som
en nødvendighet, men som en måte å tjene Gud. Benedikts valgspråk var: «Ora et
labora», be og arbeid. Han ble patriark for vestens munkevesen på samme måte
som Basilios den Store var det for østens.
Benedikts regel motsetter seg vidtgående individuell
askese. Det er sagt at da Benedikt hørte om en velmenende eremitt nær
Montecassino som hadde lenket foten til en klippe nær sin hule, sendte ham en
irettesettelse og ba ham heller binde seg med Kristi lenker enn med de mer
bokstavelige av jern.
Benedikts regel gir oss et klart bilde av hva slags
mann han var: målbevisst, rolig og fattet, rettsindig, en mann av fred og
moderasjon, en kjærlig far som kombinerer insistering på en god disiplin med
respekt for menneskenaturen og individuelle evner, tvers igjennom praktisk. Han
omtalte sin regel som en regel for begynnere, en «opplæring i Guds tjeneste,
hvor vi håper ikke å befale noe som er hardt eller strengt». Dette enkle og dyptgående
dokument kom til å spille en stor rolle i Europas historie, som det gjør det
den dag i dag i tallrike munke- og nonneklostre. Benedikts regel betraktes med
rette som en av de sterkeste faktorene i oppbyggingen av det kristne Europa. De
som fulgte den, lærte barbarene å arbeide med hender og hode og å be.
Regelens indre kvaliteter og den støtte den fikk av
keisere og andre herskere og grunnleggere gjorde at den ble anerkjent som den
grunnleggende og så å si den eneste klosterregel i Vest-Europa i tidlig
middelalder og ble ganske enkelt kalt «Den hellige regelen». Regelens
fleksibilitet gjorde den i stand til å møte samfunnets behov, slik at klostrene
ble sentra for lærdom, jordbruk, sykepleie og medisin i en utstrekning som
trolig var uforutsett for Benedikt selv. Det er klart at personer som den
hellige Bonifatius bidro
i spredningen av regelen, og selv om den var kjent i Gallia på 500- og
600-tallet, fikk den sin dominerende rolle i keiserriket da keiserlige dekreter
(inspirert av Bonifatius) gjorde den obligatorisk i 743, 754 og 757. I Italia
synes den å ha vært lite kjent utenfor Montecassino før på 900-tallet, da Cluny
reformerte klostre i Roma og andre steder. Frem til 1200-tallet var den nesten
enerådende i Vest-Europa.
Benedikts ry nådde vidt omkring, og da han var en
gammel mann, fikk han i 543 til og med besøk av kongen for ostrogoterne
(«østgoterne»), den arianske Totila (541-52). Han skal da ha forutsagt at Totila kom til å leve i
enda ti år, og han falt da også i 552 ved Tagina.
Vi vet ikke mye om
Benedikts søster Scholastica, bortsett fra at hun viet seg til Gud i ung alder.
De
to søsknene møttes en gang i året. Tradisjonen forteller at en gang Benedikt
hadde avslått å bli lenger og snakke med henne, fikk hun ved sine bønner i gang
et så voldsomt uvær at han ble tvunget til å bli hos henne. Tre dager senere
døde hun, og han gravla henne i den graven i Montecassino som var gjort klar
for ham selv.
Da Benedikt var døende, ble han båret ned i kapellet,
hvor han mottok kommunionen og døde stående og i bønn, støttet av sine
disipler. Det skjedde på skjærtorsdag, den 21. mars 547. Han ble gravlagt i
samme grav som sin tvillingsøster Scholastica. Da han døde, var det fjorten benediktinske
kommuniteter, mens det på 1300-tallet var blitt over 30.000.
Montecassino ble
herjet av langobardene i 577 og ikke gjenreist før i 717. Klosteret
er også kjent fra siste verdenskrig da tyskerne satte seg fast der, og de
allierte bombet stedet sønder og sammen. Bare Benedikts gravsted sto igjen
uskadd i ruinene. I forbindelse med vigslingen av det gjenoppbygde klosteret på
Montecassino utropte pave Paul VI (1963-78) den 24. oktober 1964 Benedikt til
Europas vernehelgen. Han har senere fått følge av de hellige Kyrillos og
Methodios, som ble utnevnt i 1980 av pave Johannes Paul II (1978-2005), og
de hellige Katarina
av Siena, Birgitta
av Sverige og Edith Stein, som
samme pave utnevnte i 1999.
Først synes Benedikts kult å ha vært begrenset i utstrekning, men den ble mye mer spredt under cluniacensisk innflytelse. Den franske tradisjonen hevder at noen av Benedikts relikvier ble overført den 11. juli 673 eller 703 til klosteret Fleury i det som ble hetende Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire ved Orléans. En del av relikviene skal ha blitt ført tilbake på 700-tallet av pave Zacharias (741-52). Dette kravet ble og blir imidlertid møtt med sterk og indignert motstand fra Montecassino, som hevder at Benedikts relikvier aldri har forlatt Montecassino, og nyere arkeologiske utgravninger som ble mulige på grunn av ødeleggelsen av klosteret under Andre verdenskrig, synes å støtte moderklosteret, idet de jordiske rester av det man regner med er Benedikt og Scholastica ble gjenfunnet da.
I den gamle
kalenderen var Benedikts minnedag dødsdagen 21. mars, mens 11. juli er dagen
for overføringen av helgenens relikvier til Frankrike, Benedicti
translatio. Ved kalenderrevisjonen i 1969 ble hans minnedag i
Universalkirken også flyttet til 11. juli for at den ikke skal falle i
fastetiden. Dagen er fest i Europa, som Benedikt er skytshelgen for. I
Frankrike feires han også 4. desember, og i Østkirken feires han den 14. mars.
Hans minnedag 21. mars er avmerket på den norske primstaven.
Hans attributt er et skåret beger (som inneholdt gift,
gjerne symbolisert av en slange) og en ravn (som fløy bort med det forgiftede
brødet). På avbildninger holder han ofte en bok med en brukket kalk eller en
sikt. Noen ganger bærer han en åpen kopi av sin egen regel, åpnet på det første
ordet «Ausculta».
Desiderius Lenz,
munk i klosteret Beuron laget en medalje til 1400-årsjubileet for Benedikts
fødsel i 1880, i dag den mest utbredte Benediktmedaljen. Medaljene
inneholder bokstavene CSPB (Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti), «Den hellige
Far Benedikts kors». To forkortelser uttrykker Benedikts tro: CSSML (Crux
Sacra Sit Mihi Lux), «Det hellige Kors er lys for meg», og NDSMD (Non
Draco Sit Mihi Dux), «Dragen er ikke min fører». I omramningen står
VRSNSMV (Vade Retro Satana, Numquam Suade Mihi Vana), «Vik fra meg, Satan,
foreslå meg aldri forfengelighet», og SMQLIVB (Sunt Mala Quae Libas, Ipse
Venena Bibas), «Det du byr er ondt, drikk selv giften».
Den 12. mai 2007 ble klosterkirken i Tautra
Mariakloster, et kloster for nonner fra trappistordenen eller de reformerte
(strenge) cistercienserne (Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae -
OCSO) på Tautra i Nord-Trøndelag, vigslet. Da ble det lagt inn relikvier av
følgende helgener i alteret: den hellige martyren Maria Goretti (1890-1902),
den salige bulgarske pasjonisten, biskopen og martyren Eugenius Vincent
Bossilkov CP (1900-1952), den hellige Benedikt av Nursia (ca
480-547), den hellige karmelittsøsteren og kirkelæreren Teresa av
Jesusbarnet OCD (1873-1897), den salige spanske trappistoblaten Rafael Arnáiz Barón OCSO
(1911-1938) (helligkåret den 11. oktober 2009) og den salige sardinske
trappistsøsteren Maria Gabriela
Sagheddu OCSO (1914-1939).
Se en side med mange bilder av Benedikt.
Se en side med informasjon om
Montecassino (italiensk, engelsk, tysk, fransk, spansk, latin).
Se en engelsk oversettelse av Gregor
den Stores «Dialoger».*
*Siden dette ble skrevet er boken kommet ut på norsk
med tittelen «Samtaler» (Aschehoug,
2016), oversatt av Dom Filip Dahl OCart (1935-2018).
SOURCE : http://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/benedikt
%2C_Sanctus_Benecictus%2C_Stahlstich_nach_von_Deschwanden%2C_D2347-28.jpg)
Joseph Leudner (1813-1853), Sanctus Benecictus, Stahlstich nach von Deschwanden, D2347-28
Translatio Benedicti (703?)
Minnedag: 11.
juli
Den hellige Benedikt (lat:
Benedictus; it: Benedetto; fr: Benoît) ble født rundt år 480 i Nórcia (i dag
Nursia), en liten by nær Spoleto i provinsen Perugia i regionen Umbria i
Midt-Italia. Han døde stående og i bønn, støttet av sine disipler, på
skjærtorsdag, den 21. mars 547. Han ble gravlagt i samme grav som sin
tvillingsøster Scholastica. Da
han døde, var det fjorten benediktinske kommuniteter, mens det på 1300-tallet
var blitt over 30.000.
Først synes Benedikts kult å ha vært begrenset i
utstrekning, men den ble mye mer spredt under cluniacensisk innflytelse. Den
franske tradisjonen hevder at noen av Benedikts relikvier ble overført den 11.
juli 673 eller 703 til klosteret Fleury i det som ble hetende
Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire ved Orléans. En del av relikviene skal ha blitt ført
tilbake på 700-tallet av pave Zacharias (741-52).
Dette kravet ble og blir imidlertid møtt med sterk og
indignert motstand fra Montecassino, som hevder at Benedikts relikvier aldri
har forlatt Montecassino, og nyere arkeologiske utgravninger som ble mulige på
grunn av ødeleggelsen av klosteret under Andre verdenskrig, synes å støtte
moderklosteret, idet de jordiske rester av det man regner med er Benedikt og
Scholastica ble gjenfunnet da.
I den gamle kalenderen var Benedikts minnedag
dødsdagen 21. mars, mens 11. juli er dagen for overføringen av helgenens
relikvier til Frankrike, Benedicti translatio. Ved kalenderrevisjonen i
1969 ble hans minnedag i Universalkirken også flyttet til 11. juli for at den
ikke skal falle i fastetiden. Dagen er fest i Europa, som Benedikt er
skytshelgen for. I Frankrike feires han også 4. desember, og i Østkirken feires
han den 14. mars. Hans minnedag 21. mars er avmerket på den norske primstaven.
Begge minnedagene sto i Missale Nidrosiense fra 1519.
http://abbayejouarre.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25:viebenoit&catid=15:racines&Itemid=66
THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT - http://jesus-passion.com/saint_benedict2.htm
The Medal of Saint Benedict - http://www.osb.org/gen/medal.html
