Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Saint Benedict was born about the year 480 in the district of Norcia, of distinguished parents.
Saint Gregory the Great, who later followed the saint's rule, narrates much about the life of the patriarch of Western monasticism in the second book of his dialogues.
He got this information from four of Saint Benedict's disciples who became abbots.
When the saint was 15 to 20 years old, he was sent to Rome for a liberal education, somewhat like sending your son to university.
Traditionally, he would need such an education to assume his role as a member of a leading family.
But Rome was not what it used to be.
Its classical culture was still transmitted through education, but there were no more emperors in the West.
Italy was ruled by the Ostrogoth king Theodoric, who dressed like an emperor but was still a half-barbarian.
Saint Benedict found a different kind of danger in the schools of Rome.
Saint Gregory says of him that when he saw many of his fellow students falling headlong into vice, he stepped back from the threshold of the world in which he had just set foot.
For he was afraid that if he acquired any of its learning, he too would later plunge body and soul into the dread abyss.
You can think of him as like a university student who goes hoping to learn things, have a good career, get ahead in life, but finds that people are only interested in partying and doesn't want to be drawn himself into those same sins.
So, for this reason, Saint Benedict withdrew from the world of men, knowingly unacquainted with its ways and wisely unlearned in its wisdom.
He gave up home and inheritance and resolved to embrace the religious life.
Instead of ascending to a career in the world by the steps of wisdom that could lead to pride, he descended to union with God by the steps of humility.
He chose that which is despised by the world but valued by God.
Ironically, it would be his disciples who would preserve most of what survives of Latin literature.
So if Saint Benedict had not rejected the learning of antiquity, it would have been lost.
Thus we see verified in a new way, our Lord's promise to Saint Peter that those who abandon things for his sake will receive a hundredfold of what they have given up.
And again he says, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be yours as well.
Where Saint Benedict lived at first, he drew attention to himself by a miracle.
So he fled and lived alone, hiding in a cave above the Anio River near Subiaco.
As he fled, he ran into a monk who helped him to live his monastic life.
For three years, he lived in that cave, and the only one who knew where he was, was that monk who would save some of his food at table and bring it to Benedict so they would have something to eat.
In that cave, he forged his virtue, he overcame vices, he overcame the temptations, and after that, he was ready to teach others.
One day a company, a community of monks, came to ask him to be their abbot because their previous abbot had recently died.
Benedict accepted, but it didn't work out.
The monks were unwilling to live according to strict monastic discipline.
They wanted to have an abbot who would be famous for his holiness, but they didn't want to do the things that would make them holy.
They didn't want to make known their defect by asking him to leave, so they decided to poison his drink.
The plot was revealed to St. Benedict when the pitcher shattered as he blessed it.
He told them to find themselves another abbot more to their liking, and then he went back to the wilderness he loved to live alone with himself in the presence of his heavenly Father.
But he could not remain alone, he still had a fame for holiness because of his life and the miracles that surrounded him.
Disciples came, Christ blessed his work, and before long, he had established twelve monasteries there with an abbot and twelve monks in each of them besides the monks that he kept around himself, so like a thirteenth abbey.
Some noblemen from Rome brought their children to him to be trained as monks, and among these were Maurus and Placid, the latter was just a child when he was brought to Benedict.
One day Placid went down to the lake where the Anio River widens out to draw water with a bucket, but he lost his balance and fell into the lake.
He was all alone, and the current started carrying him away from the shore.
St. Benedict was in his cell in the monastery, but by the spirit of prophecy, he was instantly aware of what had happened as he was aware of so many things in the life of his disciples.
He quickly called Maurus, told him to hurry and save Placid, and gave him a blessing.
Maurus ran as fast as he could, and he didn't stop running when he reached the shore.
He grabbed the boy, carried him back to the shore, and only then realized that he'd been running on water.
When they got back to the monastery, Maurus attributed the miracle to Benedict's blessing, while Benedict said that it was due to the merit of Maurus' obedience.
But Placid said, when I was being drawn out of the water, I saw the abbot's cloak over my head.
He is the one I thought was bringing me to shore, and that settled who was responsible for the miracle.
The success of the saint aroused the envy of a priest who longed to enjoy the praise the saint was receiving yet was unwilling to lead a praiseworthy life himself.
After a couple of schemes to destroy Benedict, the saint decided to let envy have its way and move on.
The priest died shortly thereafter, but St. Benedict did not go back.
Pope Benedict XVI explains that this was because he'd entered a new phase of inner maturity and monastic experience.
His example was to be not something hidden in a remote valley but rather something that all the world could see.
It was the spring of 529 when he arrived in his new location together with a group of disciples who had followed him.
On the top of Monte Cassino, there was a temple to Apollo that was still used by the country folk.
St. Benedict destroyed it and built a chapel to St. Martin there.
From there, his monastery became like a city on a hill that cannot be hid.
Physically the height dominates the surrounding plain and can be seen for miles.
Spiritually, the monastery would have a vast influence that would extend eventually throughout the whole world.
It was here that St. Benedict wrote his rule.
Among the many teachings, one that stands out is prefer nothing to the love of Christ, a teaching that is also put into the opening prayer at Mass.
The first place in every monk's heart and in every Christian's heart must be given to Christ.
This is the principle that destroys idolatry and purifies hearts of it.
So it's fitting that his monastery was built on the ruins of a pagan temple.
And his monks would expand, would Christianize the formerly pagan people, and create the Christian Middle Ages.
Because it's so wisely balanced, St. Benedict's rule ended up becoming the dominant rule in the West.
He died on March 21st, 547.
Since that's during Lent, the liturgical reformers decided to move Benedict's feast to this date.
As it had been revealed to St. Benedict after his death, the Lombard barbarians came and destroyed the monastery.
That was in 570, so 13 years after his death.
Thanks to the prayers of the saint, all the monks were spared.
They escaped and made their way to Rome, where they told St. Gregory about their founder.
It would be over a century before the monastery was rebuilt, and it would be destroyed and again rebuilt on other occasions over the centuries.
But observance of the rule continued elsewhere, even when Monte Cassino was not at the head of that observance.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.

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