The Feast Day of Saint Benedict

Today is the feast day of Saint Benedict.  If I had to pick the saints that have been most important to me, he would make the top 10 list.  Female medieval monastics who are saints would come to mind before Saint Benedict, but of course, their lives would have been very different if Benedict had never lived.

It is Benedict who taught us a way to live in community, and more importantly, Benedict wrote it down, thus preserving his ideas.  The Rule of Saint Benedict continues to be important, but if you were to look at it, having never looked at it before, you might say, "This?  This little book is so important to so many across so many societies?"

Yes indeed--it's only 73 short chapters, but it covers most of the important elements of how to live together.  The Rule divides the lives of the monastic community into work, prayer/worship, and sleep.  The Rule talks about how to be obedient, both to God and to the abbot, and what to do when one is not.  The Rule also talks about how to manage a monastery.

It was written in the year 516, and unlike many ancient texts, it still reads well, and the ideas still hold up.  It seems simple, but when one thinks through the implications, it's really not.  Neither is it hopelessly complex--it's not quantum physics.  Unlike many ancient texts, it still seems both brilliant and useful.

Benedict gets the credit for being the founder of Christian monasticism, and rightly so.  He created an order and a rulebook that kept communities together through some of the most difficult times of human history.

I always wonder if these ancient monastics knew that they were creating something so lasting.  I suspect not.  Wikipedia tells me that Benedict founded twelve communities, and he was probably most focused on their success, not in hoping that his brand of monasticism would last into the 21st century.  In fact, he might shake his head at the fact that we're focused on The Rule that he wrote, not on some other project, now lost to us, that was nearer and dearer to his heart.

Today I take courage from the example of Saint Benedict.  Today I am grateful for Benedict and for the monastic tradition he created.