Benoit de Nursie

Biography

Sources

Only authenticates Biographie of Benoît saint is contained in the second book of holy Gregoire: Dialogs . It is rather a sketch of character which a biography. It consists, for the greatest part, in many miracles, which illustrate the life of the saint and give a chronological approach of its career. The authority of Saint Gregoire for all that is referred to it is that of its own disciples namely Constantin, who succeeded to him as Abbé of Monte Casino; and Honore, who was Abbé of Subiaco when holy Gregoire wrote these Dialogs .

Jacques de Voragine devotes to him a chapter in its gilded Légende .

Childhood and studies

Born towards 480 - 490 in Nursie (Norcia), in Ombrie, Benoît was the son of a Noble Romain, and the tradition, which holy Bède accepts, made of Scolastique her twin sister. Its childhood proceeded with Rome, where he lived with his parents and went to school until he approaches of the higher studies. Then “delivering its books, and giving up the house of his parents and the richness, with the spirit only serving God, he sought some places where he could reach his saint desire; and this fact it left Rome, informs with the ignorance educated and furnished with wisdom. ” (Dial. St Greg., II, Introd. in Migne, P.L. LXVI).

There are many opinions different on the age from Benoit at this time. It was generally allowed that it was 14 years old, but an attentive study shows that he must have less than 19 or 20 years. It was enough old to be in the middle of its literary, to include/understand the true direction and value of lives dissolues and licentious studies of his companions, and to have even been deeply affected for him by the love of a woman ( ibid . , II, 2). It was able to think all these things in comparison with the life taught in the Évangile, and chose this last. It was at the beginning of its life, and it had at its disposal the means of a career as a noble Romain. It is clear that he was not a child. Like Gregoire saint says it:

“As of the time of its youth, it carried in him a heart worthy of that of an old man: exceeding its age by its manners, it did not deliver its heart to any pleasure, but whereas it still lived on this ground and that it had the possibility of using about it freely for a time, it scorned from the start the world with its flower like an arid ground. Resulting from a very good free family of the province of Nursie, one sent it to Rome to devote to the liberal study letters to it. But he realized that it was the occasion for many to fall into the abyss defects: also - so to speak - hardly it had put the feet in the world that it withdrew them, for fear, to have taken some contact with the aforementioned science, it is not n the other hand precipitated entire in the abyss. Thus scorning the study of the letters, it was put in search of a holy way of life. Also were withdrawn it, learnedly ignoramus and wisely uncultivated. ” ( ibid . , Introd.).

If we accept the date of 480 for its birth, we can fix the date of 500 for the abandonment of its house and the end of its studies.

Religious life

Saint Benoît thus withdrew itself with Effide. The gilded Légende tells that arrived there, its nourishes, which had accompanied it, broke a screen which was used to him to filter wheat for the preparation of the meal. Grained, it started to cry. Benoit then gathered the broken parts and made a prayer, the screen reconstituted himself miraculeusement. It would be the first miracle of the saint.

He was then initiated with the monastic life in the area of Subacio. Its fame grows quickly, and of noble Roman families send to him their children as a oblats. But following a conflict with a local priest, it left towards 530 on the Mont Cassin, where it bases a abbey on the site of an old temple dedicated to Apollon. It is there that it wrote the Règle of saint Benoît, that it completed in 540.

He dies into 547.

Influence

Its influence is considerable on the Monachisme in Occident and in the world, like on all the intellectual life of the Christianisme, especially thanks to the Règle of saint Benoît. This rule is an ideal of life in community. It is even taken as example for the organization in the Entreprise s^{your sources|'' citation asked ''] ]}.

The rule was taken again by Benoît d' Aniane at the 9th century, before the invasions Normans: he comments on it, codifies it and is at the origin of his expansion in all the Carolingian Europe , through the orders of Cluny and Cîteaux, which however undervalued (more Cluny that Citeaux) ^{your sources|'' citation asked ''] ]} importance of the manual work compared to the Liturgy and to the Prayer.

This rule was printed with Paris, 1734, 2 volumes in-4, with a comment of Dom Calmet.

Dom Guéranger made reappear the Ordre Benedictine with Solesmes after the Revolution. The abbey of Benoît saint again could accommodate a community coming from the Abbaye of Pierre-Which-Transfers, founded at the 19th century in the Morvan.

Benoît XVI chose his name of reign while taking as a starting point saint Benoît de Nursie and by Benoît XV.

Patronages

It is called upon :

Against the punctures of nettles; the poison; the érésipèle; the fever; temptations.

He is the owner :

Europe (Co-owner), farm laborers; Engineer S civilians; ironmongers (copper); dying; farmers; town of Heerdt close to Düsseldorf, the Germany; inflammatory diseases; Italian architects; diseases of the kidneys; Monk S; town of Nursie in which it is originating; the Italy; people of the orders religious; servants who broke the businesses of their Master; speleologists.

The Relique S of Benoît saint are preserved in the crypt of the Abbaye of the Saint-Benoit-on-Loire (in the past Abbaye of Fleury), close to Orleans and Germigny-of-Meadows where is a Carolingian church ), in the center of the France.

See too

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