The Lives of the Saints, Volume III (of 16): March

He bound all – nobles and plebians, young and old, rich and poor – under the same discipline. But he would have excess or violence in nothing, and when he was told of a solitary in the neighbouring mountain, who, not content with shutting himself up in a narrow cave, had attached to his foot a chain, the other end of which was fixed in a rock, so that he could not move beyond the length of this chain, Benedict sent to tell him to break it, in these words, "If thou art truly a servant of God, confine thyself not with a chain of iron, but with the chain of Christ."

And extending his solicitude and authority over the surrounding populations, he did not content himself with preaching eloquently to them the true faith, but also healed the sick, the lepers and the possessed, provided for all the necessities of the soul and body, paid the debts of honest men oppressed by their creditors, and distributed in incessant alms the provisions of corn, wine, and linen which were sent to him by the rich Christians of the neighbourhood.

A great famine having afflicted Campania in 539, he distributed to the poor all the provisions of the monastery, so that one day there remained only five loaves to feed all the community. The monks were dismayed and melancholy: Benedict reproached them with their cowardice. "You have not enough to-day," he said to them, "but you shall have too much to-morrow." And accordingly they found next morning at the gates of the monastery two hundred bushels of flour, bestowed by some unknown hand. Thus were established the foundations of that traditional and unbounded munificence to which his spiritual descendants have remained unalterably faithful, and which was the law and glory of his existence.

So much sympathy for the poor naturally inspired them with a blind confidence in him. One day, when he had gone out with the brethren to labour in the fields, a peasant, distracted with grief, and bearing in his arms the body of his dead son, came to the monastery and demanded to see Father Benedict. When he was told that Benedict was in the fields with the brethren, he threw down his son's body before the door, and, in the transport of his grief, ran at full speed to seek the saint. He met him returning from his work, and from the moment he perceived him, began to cry, "Restore me my son!" Benedict stopped and asked "Have I carried him away?" The peasant answered "He is dead; come and raise him up." Benedict was grieved by these words, and said, "Go home my friend this is not a work for us; this belongs to the holy apostles. Why do you come to impose upon us so tremendous a burden?" But the father persisted, and swore in his passionate distress that he would not go till the saint had raised up his son. The abbot asked him where his son was. "His body" said he "is at the door of the monastery." Benedict, when he arrived there, fell on his knees, and then laid himself down, as Elijah did in the house of the widow of Sarepta, upon the body of the child, and rising up, extended his hands to heaven, praying thus; "Lord look not upon my sins but on the faith of this man, and restore to the body the soul Thou hast taken away from it." Scarcely was his prayer ended, when all present perceived that the whole body of the child trembled. Benedict took him by the hand, and restored him to his father full of life and health.

His virtue, his fame, the supernatural power which was more and more visible in his whole life, made him the natural protector of the poor husbandmen against the violence and rapine of the new masters of Italy. The great Theodoric had organized an energetic and protective government, but he dishonoured the end of his reign by persecution and cruelty; and since his death barbarism had regained all its ancient ascendancy among the Goths. The rural population groaned under the yoke of these rude oppressors, doubly exasperated, as Barbarians and as Arians against the Italian Catholics. To Benedict, the Roman patrician, who had become a serf of God, belonged the noble office of drawing towards each other the Italians and Barbarians, two races cruelly divided by religion, fortune, language, and manners, whose mutual hatred was embittered by so many catastrophes inflicted by the one, and suffered by the other, since the time of Alaric. The founder of Monte Cassino stood between the victors and the vanquished like an all-powerful moderator and inflexible judge. The facts which we are about to relate, according to the narrative of S. Gregory, could be told throughout all Italy, and, spreading from cottage to cottage, would bring unthought of hope and consolation into the hearts of the oppressed, and establish the popularity of Benedict and his order on an immortal foundation in the memory of the people.

It has been seen that there were already Goths among the monks at Subiaco, and how they were employed in reclaiming the soil which their fathers had laid waste. But there were others who, inflamed by heresy, professed a hatred of all that was orthodox and belonged to monastic life. One especially, named Galla, traversed the country panting with rage and cupidity, and made a sport of slaying the priests and monks who fell under his power, and spoiling and torturing the people to extort from them the little that they had remaining. An unfortunate peasant, exhausted by the torments inflicted upon him by the pitiless Goth, conceived the idea of bringing them to an end by declaring that he had confided all that he had to the keeping of Benedict, a servant of God; upon which Galla stopped the torture of the peasant, but, binding his arms with ropes, and thrusting him in front of his own horse, ordered him to go before and show the way to the house of this Benedict who had defrauded him of his expected prey. Both pursued thus the way to Monte Cassino; the peasant on foot, with his hands tied behind his back, urged on by the blows and taunts of the Goth, who followed on horseback, an image only too faithful of the two races which unhappy Italy enclosed within her distracted bosom, and which were to be judged and reconciled by the unarmed majesty of monastic goodness. When they had reached the summit of the mountain they perceived the abbot seated alone, reading at the door of his monastery. "Behold," said the prisoner turning to his tyrant, "there is the Father Benedict of whom I told thee." The Goth, believing that here, or elsewhere, he should be able to make his way by terror, immediately called out with a furious tone to the monk. "Rise up, rise up, and restore quickly what thou hast received from this peasant." At these words the man of God raised his eyes from his book, and, without speaking, slowly turned his gaze first upon the Barbarian on horseback, and then upon the husbandman bound, and bowed down by his cords. Under the light of that powerful gaze the cords which tied his poor arms loosed of themselves, and the innocent victim stood erect and free, while the ferocious Galla, falling on the ground, trembling, and beside himself, remained at the feet of Benedict, begging the saint to pray for him. Without interrupting his reading, Benedict called his brethren, and directed them to carry the fainting Barbarian into the monastery, and give him some blessed bread, and, when he had come to himself, the abbot represented to him the extravagance, injustice, and cruelty of his conduct, and exhorted him to change it for the future. The Goth was completely subdued, and no longer dared to ask anything of the labourer whom the mere glance of the monk had delivered from his bonds.

But this mysterious attraction, which drew the Goths under the influence of Benedict's looks and words, produced another celebrated and significant scene. The two principal elements of reviving society in their most striking impersonation – the victorious Barbarians and the invincible monks – were here confronted. Totila, the greatest of the successors of Theodoric, ascended the throne in 542, and immediately undertook the restoration of the monarchy of the Ostrogoths, which the victories of Belisarius had half overthrown. Having defeated at Faenza, with only five thousand men, the numerous Byzantine army, led by the incapable commanders whom the jealousy of Justinian had substituted for Belisarius, the victorious king made a triumphal progress through Central Italy, and was on his way to Naples when he was seized with a desire to see this Benedict, whose fame was already as great among the Romans as among the Barbarians, and who was everywhere called a prophet. He directed his steps towards Monte Cassino, and caused his visit to be announced. Benedict answered that he would receive him. But Totila desirous of proving the prophetic spirit which was attributed to the saint, dressed the captain of his guard in the royal robes and purple boots, which were the distinctive marks of royalty, gave him a numerous escort, commanded by the three counts who usually guarded his own person, and charged him, thus clothed and accompanied, to present himself to the abbot as the king. The moment that Benedict perceived him, "My son," he cried, "put off the dress you wear; it is not yours." The officer immediately threw himself upon the ground, appalled at the idea of having attempted to deceive such a man. Neither he nor any of the retinue ventured so much as to approach the abbot, but returned at full speed to the king, to tell him how promptly they had been discovered. Then Totila himself ascended the monastic mountain, but when he had reached the height, and saw from a distance the abbot seated, waiting for him, the victor of the Romans, and the master of Italy was afraid. He dared not advance, but threw himself on his face before the servant of Christ. Benedict said to him three times, "Rise." But as he persisted in his prostration, the monk rose from his seat and raised him up. During the course of their interview, Benedict reproved him for all that was blamable in his life, and predicted what should happen to him in the future. "You have done much evil; you do it still every day; it is time that your iniquities should cease. You shall enter Rome; you shall cross the sea; you shall reign nine years, and the tenth you shall die." The king, deeply moved, commended himself to his prayers, and withdrew. But he carried away in his heart this salutary and retributive incident, and from that time his barbarian nature was transformed.

Totila was as victorious as Benedict had predicted that he should be. He possessed himself first of Benevento and Naples, then of Rome, then of Sicily, which he invaded with a fleet of five hundred ships, and ended by conquering Corsica and Sardinia. But he exhibited everywhere a clemency and gentleness which, to the historian of the Goths, seem out of character at once with his origin and his position as a foreign conqueror. He treated the Neapolitans as his children, and the captive soldiers as his own troops, gaining himself immortal honour by the contrast between his conduct and the horrible massacre of the whole population, which the Greeks had perpetrated ten years before, when that town was taken by Belisarius. He punished with death one of his bravest officers, who had insulted the daughter of an obscure Italian, and gave all his goods to the woman whom he had injured, and that despite the representations of the principal nobles of his own nation, whom he convinced of the necessity of so severe a measure, that they might merit the protection of God upon their arms. When Rome surrendered, after a prolonged siege, Totila forbade the Goths to shed the blood of any Roman, and protected the women from insult. At length, after a ten years' reign, he fell, according to the prediction of Benedict, in a great battle which he fought with the Greco-Roman army, commanded by the eunuch Narses.

Placed as if midway between the two invasions of the Goths and Lombards, the dear and holy foundation of Benedict, respected by the one, was to yield for a time to the rage of the other. The holy patriarch had a presentment that his successors would not meet a second Totila to listen to them and spare them. A noble whom he had converted, and who lived on familiar terms with him, found him one day weeping bitterly. He watched Benedict for a long time, and then, perceiving that his tears were not stayed, and that they proceeded not from the ordinary fervour of his prayers, but from profound melancholy, he asked the cause. The saint answered, "This monastery which I have built, and all that I have prepared for my brethren, has been delivered up to the pagans by a sentence of Almighty God. Scarcely have I been able to obtain mercy for their lives." Less than forty years after, this prediction was accomplished by the destruction of Monte Cassino by the Lombards.

Benedict, however, was near the end of his career. His interview with Totila took place in 542, in the year which preceded his death, and from his earliest days of the following year, God prepared him for his last struggle, by requiring from him the sacrifice of the most tender affection he had retained on earth. The beautiful and touching incident of the last meeting of Benedict with his twin sister, Scholastica, has been already recorded (Feb. 10th). At the window of his cell, three days after, Benedict had a vision of his dear sister's soul entering heaven in the form of a snowy dove. He immediately sent for the body, and placed it in the sepulchre which he had already prepared for himself, that death might not separate those whose souls had always been united in God.

The death of his sister was the signal of departure for himself. He survived her only forty days. He announced his death to several of his monks, then far from Monte Cassino. A violent fever having seized him, he caused himself on the sixth day of his sickness to be carried to the chapel of S. John the Baptist; he had before ordered the tomb in which his sister already slept to be opened. There, supported in the arms of his disciples, he received the holy Viaticum, then placing himself at the side of the open grave, but at the foot of the altar, and with his arms extended towards heaven, he died, standing, muttering a last prayer. Died standing! – such a victorious death became well that great soldier of God. He was buried by the side of Scholastica, in a sepulchre made on the spot where stood the altar of Apollo, which he had thrown down.

The body of S. Benedict was carried by S. Aigulf, monk of the abbey of Fleury, from Monte Cassino, which had been ruined by the Lombards, into France, to his own monastery. This translation took place on July 11th, and is commemorated in all the monasteries of France on that day. Another solemnity, called the Illation, has been instituted in honour of the transfer of the same relics from Orleans, whither they had been conveyed, from fear of the Normans, back again to Fleury-sur-Loire. In 1838, the bishop of Orleans resolved on sending the relics to the Benedictine abbey of Solesmes, in the diocese of Le Mans, but the project met with so great opposition that he contented himself with sending only the skull to Solesmes.

The reliquary which was opened in 1805, by Mgr. Bernier, bishop of Orleans, was found to contain, together with the bones, several papal bulls authenticating the relics. It is, however, necessary to add that the abbey of Monte Cassino claims to possess the body of S. Benedict, and adduces a bull of pope Urban II., declaring anathema against all who deny the authenticity of that body. It is possible that if the relics in both places were examined carefully, it would be found that the portions missing in one place would be found in the other. It is certain that S. Odilo of Cluny sent one of the bones of S. Benedict to Monte Cassino out of France, in the 11th cent., and that it was received there with great joy, so that the monks there cannot have possessed the body at that date.

In Art, S. Benedict is represented with his finger on his lip, as enjoining silence, and with his rule in his hand, or with the first words of that rule, "Ausculta, O fili!" issuing from his lips, and with a discipline, i. e. a scourge, or a rose bush at his side, or holding a broken goblet in his hand.

March 22

S. Paul, B. of Narbonne, 3rd or 4th cent.

S. Aphrodisius, B. of Beziers, 3rd or 4th cent.

SS. Callinica and Basilissa, MM. in Galatia, circ. A.D. 252.

SS. Saturninus and IX. Companions, MM. in Africa.

S. Basil, P.M. at Ancyra, A.D. 363.

S. Lea, W. at Rome, circ. A.D. 383.

S. Deogratias, B. of Carthage, circ. A.D. 456.

SS. Herlinda and Reinilda, V.V. Abss. at Maeseyck, in Belgium, 8th cent.

S. Benvenutus, B. of Osimo, in the Marches of Ancona, A.D. 1276.

S. Eelko Liaukman, Ab. of Lidlom, in Holland, A.D.. 1332.

B. Thomas of Lancaster, M. at Pontefract, A.D. 1321.

S. Katharine of Sweden, V. daughter of S. Bridget, A.D. 1381.

B. Nicolas von der Flue, H. at Sachseln, in Switzerland, A.D. 1487.

S. PAUL, B. OF NARBONNE(3RD OR 4TH CENT.)

[Ancient Martyrology of S. Jerome; Gallican & Roman Martyrologies.]

Saint Paul, mentioned by the early martyrologies as bishop of Narbonne, and confessor, has been conjectured to be Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, converted in the island of Cyprus by the apostle Paul, when Elymas, the sorcerer, withstood S. Paul. There is no evidence substantiating this, nor does it appear to rest on any very ancient tradition.

The most ancient martyrologies do not assert it, though some of them say that he was a convert of the Apostle of the Gentiles. The Roman Martyrology mentions the report, but does not authorise it. The Acts of his life are not deserving of credence. S. Paul certainly lived much later than he is represented to have done.

Some relics are preserved in the Church of S. Paul at Narbonne.

S. APHRODISIUS, B. OF BEZIERS(3RD OR 4TH CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology, the Evora Breviary, and others.]

This bishop, an Egyptian by birth, accompanied S. Paul of Narbonne, in his mission into Gaul. A foolish legend82 (fabulosa narratio it is called by Henschenius) is to the effect that he was governor of Egypt at the time when S. Joseph and the B. Virgin went down thither with the Holy Child Jesus, to escape the persecution of Herod who sought the young child's life. On the arrival of the child Jesus in Egypt all the idols fell, and Aphrodisius, recognising in Him his God, bowed before Him in adoration, and defended the Holy Family from the rage of the idolatrous priests. After the Ascension he laid down his prefectship and went to Antioch where he was baptized by S. Peter, and afterwards sent with S. Sergius Paulus into Gaul. S. Aphrodisius, however, certainly lived much later than he is represented to have done.

S. BASIL, P. M. AT ANCYRA(A.D. 363.)

[Roman Martyrology. By the Greeks on the same day. In the Syriac Church, a S. Basil and his Companions are commemorated on March 1st, and another S. Basil and his Companions on March 8th, and S. Basil, P. M., on March 28th in the Coptic Kalendar. The Greek Acts are genuine, and were written by a contemporary. Other versions of the Acts exist, but they are corrupted by the intermixture of the Acts of another S. Basil, a frequent mistake, when there are several saints of the same name.]

S. Basil was a priest of Ancyra, very fervent in spirit, zealous in upholding the Catholic faith, and combating the Arian heresy foot to foot. An Arian synod of bishops ordered his degradation from his office, in 360, and appointed Eudoxius, a bishop, and an Arian, in his place. But Basil encouraged by the Catholic bishops refused to budge, but maintained his ground, and was indefatigable in stimulating the courage of the faithful, and encouraging the half-hearted. He was the means of restoring large numbers of those who had been taught by the Arians to disbelieve in the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father to full Catholic faith, thereby exasperating the heretics against him. He was one of those fiery enthusiasts of resistless energy, uncompromising with himself and others, a type as needful as the soft and gentle saint, winning through love. The burning faith of Basil carried him dauntless into danger, and made him regardless of opposition, and those spirits which looked to a strong nature for support found a rock in Basil.

As soon as Julian assumed the purple, paganism was revived; and if the Christians were not openly persecuted, every means which craft could devise of breaking their resolution were resorted to, and with such success that the mild measures of Julian proved more dangerous to the Church than the fiery persecution of Decius. But the patience of Julian gave way towards the end of his career, and it is certain that in some cases he encouraged, and in others connived at the resort to violence to punish the most zealous upholders of Christianity. The charges against those most obnoxious were not always their religion, but contempt of the edicts or seditious conduct. Basil worked so effectually in Ancyra to counteract the imperial policy that the pagan priests and governor were resolved to destroy him, hoping that, if the prop of the Ancyran Christians were removed, their faith would yield with a crash. Macarius, one of the priests of the idols, laid hold of Basil as he was publicly denouncing heathen worship, and drew him before the magistrate, Saturninus, on the charge of stirring up the people against the established religion. "What meanest thou," cried Macarius, "going to and fro in the city, agitating the people against the religion established by the emperor?" "God break thy jaws, thou bondslave of Satan!" answered Basil. "It is not I who ruin thy religion, but He who is in Heaven who confounds thy counsel and dissipates thy lies."

Then Macarius cried out to the proconsul, "I charge this fellow with making sedition in the city, stirring up the people to overthrow our altars and defy the emperor." "Who art thou," asked Saturninus, "who art so audacious as to do these things?" Basil replied, "I am the best of everything, – a Christian."

"Then why, if thou art a Christian, dost not thou behave as a Christian?" "I do," answered Basil; "it behoves every Christian to make bare all acts."

"Why dost thou make revolt in the city, transgressing good laws, and blaspheming the emperor?"

"I do not blaspheme the emperor or his religion. God is my emperor, and He will bring your petty established religion to naught in no time."

"So the religion of the emperor is not true!"

"How can I regard that religion as true, and that worship as true which consists in men running howling about the streets like rabid dogs with raw flesh in their mouths."83

"Hang him up and scrape him," said the proconsul. So Basil was suspended by his wrists and ankles, and his flesh was torn with rakes. And as he suffered he cried, "Lord God of ages, I thank thee that I am deemed worthy to enter into the way of life through these torments, walking through which I may behold the heirs of thy promises!" Then he was taken down and cast into prison. And after that the proconsul sent to the emperor Julian, to announce what had taken place, and to ask further orders. Then the emperor sent three renegade Christians, and advised the proconsul to endeavour by all means to persuade and flatter Basil into apostasy. But though all efforts were used to shake his resolution they failed, and Basil remained in chains till Julian himself passed through Ancyra on his way east to the Persian war. Then Basil was summoned before the emperor, and Julian endeavoured to persuade him to conform to his religion, but the holy martyr blazed forth in righteous zeal against the apostate. "Thou renegade hast abdicated the throne prepared for thee in heaven," he said; "And verily I believe that Christ whom thou hast abjured will take thee and pluck thee out of thy dwelling, that thou mayest know how great is that God whom thou hast offended. Thou hast not thought of His judgments, nor venerated His altar where thou wast given salvation; thou hast not kept His law which often thou didst declare with thy lips; wherefore the great emperor Christ will not remember thee, but will take from thee speedily thy earthly empire, and thy body shall be deprived of a sepulchre, and thou shalt breathe forth thy soul in greatest anguish."

Then Julian ordered him to be taken away, and seven thongs to be cut daily from his skin. This command was given to Frumentinus, Count of the Squires (Comes Scutariorum.) And when this had been done, the martyr gathered up one of the strips of skin cut off him, in his hand, and besought that he might be conducted before the emperor. And as Frumentinus believed that he was about to make adjuration of his religion, he brought him into the council hall before Julian. Then he cried, "Dumb and deaf and blind are thy idols, Apostate! To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. He is my helper in whom I trust, and for whom I suffer. Here is meat for thee, Julian!" and he flung the strip of skin in his face.