Life of St. Benedict

In our Fatima Chapel (used by our retreatants), there is a series of stained glass windows that depict the Life of St. Benedict.  One good way to begin our posts is to share something about his life using these windows and relying on Book II of the Dialogs of St. Gregory. 

We hope you enjoy this first installment!

           

The founder of western monasticism, St. Benedict, was born in 480 at Nursia, Italy.  It is not clear if his family was of nobility, but they had the means to send him to Rome for classical studies.

About age 20 and distraught over the behavior of some of his classmates, Benedict left Rome in the company of his housekeeper abandoning family, home and inheritance.  The two settled in a town of Enfide about 40 miles from Rome and two miles from Subiaco. 

It was at Enfide that Benedict worked his first miracle.  It seems that his housekeeper borrowed a sieve (or wheat-sifter) and that fell and broke in two pieces.  The housekeeper was deeply upset because the borrowed implement was now broken.  Benedict quietly took the two pieces and gave himself over to prayer.  At the end of his prayer the sieve was whole without indication where the break had been.  When news of the miracle spread, Benedict quietly slipped away from his housekeeper and sought a place of solitude.