BENEDICTINES. Orders of monks and nuns founded by St. Benedict (A.D. 430-543). Starting at Sublaco, near Rome, in A.D. 529, he removed his order to Monte Cassino, near Naples. While Benedict was still living, his disciple St. Maur founded a Benedictine monastery at Glanfeuil, near Angers, in France. In Spain others were founded about A.D. 633; and St. Placid, another disciple of St. Benedict, introduced them into Sicily. St. Augustine, when he came on his mission to England, having been abbot of a Benedictine monastery at Rome, brought the rule of St. Benedict with him. The English Benedictines became great missionaries. St. Willibrord (658-739), born in Northumberland, worked among the Frisians and the Dutch. St. Boniface or Winfried (A.D. 680-755), born at Crediton in Devonshire, laboured amongst the Germans and earned the title of " the Apostle of Germany." The rule of St. Benedict binds a monk to remain permanently in a monastery; to endeavour to live the perfect life; to observe chastity; to celebrate daily the divine office at the canonical hours; to live simply and labour devotedly. As copyists, students, and educationalists, the Benedictines have done a great work. Their clothing has long been black, whence they have been called " black monks." They were required to abstain from meat. Persons who were quite young
could be admitted to the order. They were then educated in a monastery. This gave rise to monastic schools. The Venerable Bede or Breda (b. about A.D. 673) is said to have entered the Benedictine abbey at Monkwear mouth when he was only seven years old. The order degenerated in course of time, but from time to time reformers arose such as Benedict of Aniane (A.D. 750 821), Peter the Venerable (b. A.D.1094), Abbot of Cluny (1122), and St. Dunstan (A.D. 924-9SS). At a later date certain abuses led to the formation in France of the reformed congregation of St. Vanne (A.D. 1550) and of St. Maur (A.D. 1618). At the Revolution (A.D. 1792) the order was suppressed in France. but in the nineteenth century new foundations arose. In Germany, after being suppressed, the order has reappeared. At the Dissolu tion, the abbeys, priories, and nunneries were suppressed. The Benedictines, however, have reappeared in England also, and now have a number of houses. There is an English Benedictine monastery at Douai, and the Bene dictines have done good work in Western Australia and New Zealand. There are also a number of abbeys in the United States. See Abbot Gasquet, Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries; Cath. Diet.