Catholic · † 547
Saint Benedict, Abbot
Commemorated: July 11
Life
Benedict is known from the second book of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great, written about fifty years after his death. Born about 480 at Nursia in Umbria, he was sent to study in Rome, but left it, disgusted by its vices, and lived as a hermit in a cave at Subiaco. Disciples came, and he organized them in small monasteries. The Dialogues tell that monks who found him too strict once tried to poison him, and the cup broke when he blessed it.
About 529 he went to Monte Cassino, where he built a monastery on the site of a temple of Apollo. There he wrote his Rule, a short guide to community life of prayer and work that became the basis of Western monasticism. He died about 547. In 1964 Paul VI named him patron of Europe.
Places
- Place of birth: Norcia
- Place of death: Abbey of Monte Cassino
Retold briefly in our own words from: Butler’s Lives of the Saints.
Places and years: Wikidata (CC0), each saint matched by hand.