EncounteringBenedict

Anew

Norcia

• High in the mountains • Surrounded by woods• Walled town (only or

one of few remaining in Italy)

• Wild boar products are a specialty (sausages, cured meat, skins)

• Home of grandparents of Benedict and Scholastica found under the Church

Fertile valley

Main Piazza in Center of Norcia

Praying in Crypt Chapel

• Ancient Roman family going back centuries

• Senatorial rank • Only the senatorial rank

could hold local and regional roles in governance

• The “career path” led to higher levels in Rome

Sent to study but still of Norcia

Rome

Rome in 494

• Imperial government in Ravenna, not Rome

• Senatorial power muchreduced

• Population in decline• Pope remained in Rome• Rituals and ancient

practices remained

San Benedetto in Piscinula

• Near the river• “Piscinula” was

an area where fish were sold

• Family’s Rome house, now a church.

Young Saint Benedict: His Cell

Saint Benedict Leaving School(fresco from Santa Scolastica in Norcia)

Subiaco Sub Laco – below lakeNero had dammed a river to create a lake for a pleasure villa, from which the town was named. The ruins of the villa remain.

Benedict’s cave

Scenes from Benedict’s lifealways centered on Christ

Benedict’s first cenobitic experience was not a success.On a second effort, he founded 12 monasteries of which one remains today.

Benedict’s love of learning• Benedict often shown

teaching, and in the company of scholars and learned saints.

• Gregory termed him “wisely ignorant” – he knew what to learn, and what not to learn.

• He learned from the problems of his first monasteries.

Monte Cassino

Benedict’s cell is now a chapel.

It was here, in his many years at Monte Cassino, that his spirituality matured.

He wrote the final edition of his Rule in the years before his death.

Writing the Rule(image from ballot box in Norcia)

Benedict’s years at Monte Cassino• A time of war, with the

Emperor re-imposing direct government

• Great poverty and crop failures – Rule describes surviving by hard labor

• Goths and Ostrogoths were Arians and Church disputes were common

• Old Roman culture was largely passing away

Benedict’s wisdom and vision

• He did not invent the monastic way of life

• He integrated the wisdom of the past

• He kept his eyes fixed on following Christ so that the world did not draw him astray

Following Benedict’s path from his mountain home through Rome in decline and the turbulence of his early monastic life reveals the depth of his holiness.

His Rule is not simply a document. In its precepts, he has summarized his life and all he learned.

The call to be Benedictine is a call to be a blessing.