Saint Scholastica. Virgin. Sister Of Saint Benedict. Feast Day, Today, 10 February.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.

Saint Scholastica.
   Virgin.
   Feast Day 10 February.

Double.

White Vestments.

Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY

Artist: René de Cramer.

"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".

Used with Permission.

Saint Scholastica, the twin sister of Saint Benedict, was born at Nursia, Italy, in 480 A.D. It was a unique event in the annals of The Church, that brother and sister should have Founded the two Branches of an Order still full of vitality after an existence of fourteen Centuries.

A scholar, as her name implies, of The Patriarch of The Monks of The West, from her earliest childhood, she attended the School of his virtues, for she saw in him Christ, whose Spouse she was (Epistle). ["The Abbot occupies the place of Christ, Whose name he bears: "Abbot, Father".]

Following the teaching of The Master ["Hear, O son, the precepts of The Master" (Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue).] a repetition of that of Jesus in His Public Life, all her life is summed up in two sayings: "Love what is good, hate iniquity" (Introit).

The Divine Spouse, Who was about to call her unto Him (Gospel), miraculously granted the Prayer of His well-beloved. Benedict, a faithful observer of Monastic discipline, had refused to continue the Spiritual conversation which each year he granted his sister in a dependency of the Abbey. Scholastica, leaning with her elbows on the table, and holding her forehead in her hands, began to shed tears. Immediately, a a violent storm burst forth and rain fell in torrents. Benedict understood that God sanctioned the brotherly love which had united them all their lives, and passed the whole night conversing with his sister about the joys of Heaven.

Three days later (543 A.D.), while at Prayer, before The Night Office, he saw the innocent Soul of Saint Scholastica ascend to Heaven in the shape of a Dove (Collect). Her body was placed at Monte-Cassino in the tomb her brother had prepared for himself, in which he was also placed a few weeks later.

"Thus, it happened", writes Saint Gregory, "that one tomb united the bodies of those whose Souls had always been intimately united in God."

Let us ask "God, Who received into Heaven the Soul of the blessed Virgin Scholastica in the shape of a Dove, to show us the way of innocence, to grant us by her merits and Prayers to live so innocently that we may deserve to attain Eternal Joys" (Collect).

Mass: Dilexisti.

In Lent: Commemoration and Last Gospel of The Feria..