(b Nursia [now Norcia], Umbria, c480; d Monte Cassino, after 546). Italian saint and monk. His Rule became the norm for Western Christian monasticism. The only source of information concerning Benedict’s life is book 2 of Pope Gregory’s Dialogues (c594). Gregory was primarily interested in Benedict’s miracles, and although he outlined the main events of Benedict’s life he did not assign dates to them. The sole date of any certainty is that of the visit of the Ostrogothic King Totila to him near Monte Cassino, probably in 546; all others rest on speculation.
Benedict was born into a ‘good family’ (Gregory’s ‘liberiori genere’). As a youth he was sent to Rome to pursue his studies (‘liberalibus litterarum studiis’), but after a time, distressed by the worldliness of that city, he left it and settled near Sublacum (now Subiaco) for three years, living the austere life of a hermit in a cave on the craggy cliffs of the Anio valley. As his fame spread, he was asked by a group of lax monks to undertake a reform of their monastery at Vicovaro. This venture was unsuccessful, and he then began to organize his growing band of disciples into a cluster of small monastic communities according to the Eastern model.
His activity excited the jealousy of a local priest, Florentius; this prompted Benedict to leave his monasteries in the charge of others and to set out towards the south with a small group of companions. He stopped at Casinum, a ruined town on the Via Latina between Rome and Naples; there, on the summit of the mountain overlooking the town, he founded Monte Cassino, the monastery that was to be the mother house of Benedictinism. It was probably this new, carefully organized and self-sufficient monastery for which he wrote his celebrated Rule.
In its 73 short chapters the Rule represents a remarkable blend of practical and spiritual teaching. The administrative needs of the monastery are dealt with concisely and comprehensively, and spiritual directives are given in a manner that tempers austerity with humanity; in this latter respect, the Rule is unlike much earlier monastic legislation. Musically, the Rule is significant in that it stresses the importance of the Office and clearly sets forth its horarium (chaps.8–19), specifying how the 150 psalms are to be distributed throughout the week.
Benedict's Rule was unquestioningly assumed to have played a central part in the development of Western civilization; but the author's personal achievement was called into question when in 1938 it was claimed that the Rule was in great part derived from the Regula magistri, an anonymous monastic rule previously assumed to have been dependent on that of Benedict. An intense controversy ensued, but most scholars now acknowledge the anteriority of the Regula magistri and Benedict’s dependence upon it. Nevertheless, the significance of Benedict’s own accomplishment has been reaffirmed, for the value of his Rule resides largely in its character as a concise, well-integrated combination of the best material in earlier sources. The long, rambling, and occasionally eccentric Regula magistri cannot seriously compete with Benedict's Rule in historical importance.
J. Chapman: Saint Benedict and the Sixth Century (London, 1929/R)
J. McCann: Saint Benedict (London, 1937, 2/1951/R)
O.J. Zimmermann and B.R.Avery: Life and Miracles of St. Benedict: Book Two of the ‘Dialogues’ (London, 1949/R)
J. McCann, ed.: The Rule of Saint Benedict in Latin and English (London, 1952)
R. Hanslik, ed.: Benedicti regula (Vienna, 1960, 2/1977)
D. Knowles: ‘The Regula Magistri and the Rule of St. Benedict’, Great Historical Enterprises: Problems in Monastic History (London, 1963), 135–95
A. de Vogüé, ed.: La règle du maître (Paris, 1964–5)
A. de Vogüé, ed.: La Règle de Saint Benoît (Paris, 1971–7)
A. de Vogüé and P. Autin, eds: Dialogues: Grégoire le Grand (Paris, 1978–80)
T. Fry, ed.: The Rule of Saint Benedict in Latin and English with Notes (Collegeville, MN, 1981)
A. de Vogüé: Ce que dit Saint Benoît: une lecture de la Règle (Bellefontaine, 1991 Eng. trans., 1994)
JAMES W. McKINNON