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Waterlooville's Parish Magazine

BENEDICT OF NURSIA

A monastic rule that lasted

Benedict was the man who wrote the Rule which became the accepted guide to leading a monastic life. The little we know about his life comes from a book, Dialogues, otherwise known as The Lives of the Saints, written by Gregory the Great, who said that he had obtained his information from four of Benedict's disciples. He was born about 480AD into a well-to-do Christian family living in Nursia, a town about 70 miles north east of Rome. Benedict was educated at home before being sent to Rome to complete his education, but he found the city so licentious and full of temptations that he abandoned his studies and moved on to Enfide (modern Affile). But once again he found life not to his liking. He wanted to be alone, so he fled to Subiaco, 40 miles east of Rome in the foothills of the Abruzzi region, and became a hermit. For three years he lived by himself in a cave in the rocks beside the lake near the ruins of Nero's palace above Subiaco. During this period he was helped by Romanus, a monk from one of the numerous monasteries nearby, who kept him supplied with food and clothes.

His reputation grew, and eventually he was talked into becoming the abbot of a nearby monastery, but his regime so exasperated its easy-going members that they tried to kill him. So Benedict went back to living in his cave. Before long he agreed to become the superior of a group of 12 monasteries in the area. More trouble ensued. He was sent a poisoned loaf by a jealous priest, but the bread was obligingly carried away by a raven. In a second attempt to cause trouble this priest sent some dancing girls to seduce the monks.

All this proved too much for Benedict and, accompanied by a few companions, he moved to Monte Cassino, 1,700 ft above the road from Rome to Naples, where they built a monastery. This monastery attracted many noble recruits, and, in 543, he was visited by none other than the Ostrogoth King Totila, who was busy doing a bit of invading. Benedict, being the man he was, gave the king a severe dressing down, telling him to mend his ways. He then predicted that Totila would enter Rome but die in 10 years time. The king did enter Rome, and he died within the prescribed time.

It was during this time at Monte Cassino that Benedict wrote his 'little rule for beginners' which 'was aimed at ordinary men'. This Rule divides each day into eight liturgical offices at which Psalms were to be sung, manual work carried out and spiritual readings read. He details such things as what qualities should be sought in a person to be appointed cellarer, and also discusses the question of what a brother should do if commanded to do the impossible.

According to Benedict, one of the most challenging tasks for a monk is to be the abbot, for whom he had some good advice. Under the Rule, an abbot, who is elected by the whole community, has absolute control. But the abbot is reminded that he represents God, and should consult both old and young. He "must be chaste, sober and merciful, ever preferring mercy to justice. Even in his corrections let him act with prudence and not go too far, lest while he seeketh eagerly to scrape the rust, the vessel be not broken". Wise words.

The Rule also gave details about how the monks should be treated. They should be supplied with warm clothes, and allowed sufficient sleep and adequate nourishment. He would have liked to have prohibited the drinking of wine but, realising that wine drinking was so ingrained in the Italian way of life, he limited himself to demanding that there should be no drunkenness. He would not commit himself as to how much wine should be allocated to each brother, though he did suggest that 'keeping in view the needs of weaker brethren we believe that a hemina (possibly half a pint) of wine a day is sufficient for each. But those upon whom God bestows the gift of abstinence should know that they shall have a special reward.' And he did allow for special circumstances. 'If their work, or the heat of the summer require more, let the superior be free to grant it. Yet let him always take care that neither surfeit nor drunkenness supervene. We do, indeed, read that wine is no drink for monks; but since nowadays monks cannot be persuaded of this, let us at least agree upon this, to drink temperately and not to satiety, for wine maketh even the wise to fall away.' Benedict realised that monks were only human.

Benedict died in 547, and the members of the order stayed at Monte Cassino for another thirty years, when they were driven out by the Lombard invasion, and moved to Rome. The church in Rome realised that their training would make them an asset to the church, and insisted that they be ordained priests, when they were immediately sent out to preach the Gospel in Europe. Whether the 40 or so monks that landed with St Augustine in Kent 160 years later used the Rule exclusively is unclear, but their monastic descendants certainly did. The Benedictines were in the forefront of scholarship (not least by producing and preserving manuscripts) and teaching, and they also became a key element in the functioning of the medieval state.

Although most of the great monasteries were destroyed by the Reformation in England and the Revolution in France, there are yet some 8,500 Benedictine monks around the world today. Maybe they find it difficult, if not impossible, to live strictly by the Rule in this modern day and age, but they do demonstrate its continuing practicality after a millennium and a half.

Bill Hutchings

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