BENEDICT, SAINT, the founder of inonachisin in the west, was born of a rich and respected family at Nursia, in Umbria, Italy, 4g0 A.D. At an early age B. was sent to the schools of literature and jurisprudence at Rome. but soon grew dissatisfied with the sterile character of the instruction dispensed. The world was full of distractions. impurities, and ignorance; and it was difficult to resist, by the ordinary safeguards of virtue, the colossal evils by which men were environed: only, therefore, in the devotions of religion, in the holy silence of solitary meditation. did B. see a safe refuge from the SIDS of the time, and the possibility- of realizing a spiritual strength which would enable Lim to stein the tide of corruption that was setting in. Ile resolved to leave the city, and betake himself to some deep solitude in which the murmur of the world would be inaudible, and alone in the rocky wilderness wrestle with his own nature, until he had conquered it and laid it a sacrifice on the altar of God. In pursuance of this resolu tion. when he had only reached. according to some, the age of 14, he departed from Rome, accompanied for the first 24 m. by the nurse whom his parents had sent with him as an attendant to the city. B. then left her. and retired to a deserted country lying on a lake, hence called Sal,lactem. (now Subiaco). Here, in a cavern (whiCh afterwards received the name of the holy Grotto), he dwelt for three years, until his fame spread over the country, and multitudes came to sec him. Ile was now appointed abbot of a neighboring monastery; but soon left it, as the morals of the half-wild monks were not severe enough for his taste.• This, however, only excited a livelier interest in his char acter, and as he lived in a period when the migration and interfusion of races and nations were being rapidly carried on, he could not fail to draw crowds of wanderers about him. Wealthy Roinans also placed their sons under his care, anxious that they should be trained for a spiritual life. B. was thus enabled to found 12 cloisters, over each of which be placed a superior. The savage Goths even were attracted to him, and
employed in the useful and civ:lizing, practice of agriculture, gardening, etc. He now sought another retreat, and, along with a few followers, founded a monastery on Monte Casino, near Naples, afterwards one of the richest and most famous in Italy. Here he extirpated the lingering relics of paganism, and had his celebrated interview with Totila. king of the Goths, to whom he spoke frankly and sharply on his errors. In 515, he is said to have composed his Regale Nonachoruni, in which he aimed, among other things at repressing the irregular and licentious life of the wandering monks, by introduelm?„: stricter discipline and order. It eventually became the common rule of all western" monachism. The monasteries which B. founded were simplv religiouscolleges, intended to develop a high spiritual character, which might beneficially influence the world. To the abbot was given supreme power, and he was told to acquit himself in all his relations with the wisdom of God, and of his Master. The discipline recommended by St. B. is, nevertheless, milder than that of oriental monachism with regard to food, clothing, etc.; but enjoins continual residence in the monastery, and, in addition to the usual religious exercises, directs that the monks shall enploy themselves in manual labors, imparting instruction to youth, copying manuscripts for the library, etc. By this last injunction. St. B., though this was not directly intended, preserved many of the literary remains of antiquity; the injunction, which lie gave only with regard to religious books, was extended afterwards to many secular productions. It is remarkable that the founder of the most learned of all the monastic orders ways himself so little of a scholar, that St. Gregory the great described him as being "srien:..tr-nesciens. ei sapientcr indoctus"—learnedly ignorant, and wisely unlearned. Se B. died Mae. 21, 343.