St. Benedict Of Nursia
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Benedict was born at Nursia (Norcia) in Umbria, Italy, around 480 A.D. He studied in Rome but became disheartened by life in Rome and withdrew to a solitary life at Subiaco. Monks called upon him to be their abbot, which he agreed to do, founding twelve communities over the next few years. His primary abbey was Monte Cassino, which stands to this day and is the mother house to the now world-wide Benedictine order.
His biographer, St. Gregory the Great, pope from 590-604, does not record the dates of his birth and death. St. Gregory wrote about St. Benedict in his Second Book Of Dialogues. Gregory’s purpose in writing Benedict’s life was to inspire readers, but he did not really write about the particulars of Benedict’s daily life. Gregory attempted to explain that the saints of God, and in particular St. Benedict, were still alive and well in the Christian Church.
Benedict drew up a rule of life for monastics, a rule he calls “a school of the Lord’s service, in which we hope to order nothing harsh or rigorous.” This rule gives instructions how to organize a monastery and what the monks are to be doing with their time. An average day would include four hours in prayer (called the Divinum Officium — the Divine Office), then five hours was spent in spiritual reading and study, with six hours of labor, one hour was given eating, and then eight hours were permitted for sleep. The Book of Psalms was said in its entirety every week as a part of the Office.
In Benedict’s time, the monks were both workers and scholars. Monks, after spending a few hours doing some laborious task by hand often would think to themselves, “There must be a better way of doing this.” The result was a development of windmills and water wheels for eradicating the labor of grinding grain, sawing wood, and pumping water. The monks also introduced the rotation of crops and other agricultural advances. The monks were displaying a dignity for laboring and the importance of planning.