Saint Benedict.
Artist: René de Cramer.
"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".
Used with Permission.
Illustration: TUMBLR
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.Saint Benedict.
Abbot.
Founder Of The Benedictine Order.
Feast Day 21 March.
Greater-Double.
White Vestments.
Saint Benedict is represented holding a broken vase out of which comes a dragon: For he was once given a vase filled with poisoned wine, which broke to pieces when he Blessed it. He is shown holding his Holy Rule, where he gives to his sons the Motto U.I.O.G.D., which means: “Ut In Ómnibus Glorificétur Deus” (“That God May Be Glorified In All Things”).
At his feet, a raven clutches a poisoned loaf, also given to Saint Benedict to encompass his death. He called the bird and ordered it to carry the loaf to a place where it should harm no-one. The bird obeyed, carried away the loaf and returned three hours after, as if to show The Man of God that he had been obeyed.
Saint Benedict and the cup of poison.
Photo: 23 June 2006.
Source: Own work.
Current location: Museum of Melk Abbey, Austria.
Author: Georges Jansoone.
(Wikimedia Commons)
English: The Saint Benedict Medal.
Polski: Medal Krzyż św. Benedykta, stosowany też jako medalik,
medalion, katolickie sacramentalium - wygląd klasyczny, tradycyjny, oryginalnye.
Photo: 23 June 2015.
Source: Own work.
Author: Milki~plwiki
(Wikimedia Commons)
[Editor: On the front of the Saint Benedict Medal is Saint Benedict holding a Cross, in his Right Hand, The Christian symbol of Salvation, and, in the Left Hand, his Rule for Monasteries. To Benedict's right, below The Cross, is a poisoned cup, a reference to the legend that hostile Monks attempted to poison him, and the cup, containing poisoned wine, shattered when the Saint made The Sign of The Cross over it. To his left, below The Rule, the raven that carried off a loaf of poisoned bread. From this, is derived the Tradition that the Medal protects against poisoning.]
Monks' Night Office.
Illustration: CANTICUM SALOMONIS
At every turning of history, God raises up great Saints in order to strengthen the supernatural hold over Souls exercised by The Church in virtue of her Divine Mission.
The Roman Empire had crumbled down and the Barbarians had invaded the whole of Europe, Then, appeared, Benedict, as Chief of The Monks of The West. He was born at Nursia, in Umbria, Italy, in 480 A.D. Sent to Rome for his studies, but already endowed with the wisdom of age, says Saint Gregory, he fled from the World to the solitude of Subiaco, Italy.
After spending three years in a cave, he attracted crowds by his virtue.
The great Roman families sent their children to him and he soon Founded, in the mountains, twelve Monasteries, “Schools for The Lord's Service”, where, under the direction of an Abbot, the Monks learned, by the exercise of public Prayer, of private Prayer, and, of work, to forget self and live in God.
Where It All Began.
Saint Benedict’s Impact From Subiaco, Italy.
EWTN “Vaticano Special”.
Available on YouTube at
Saint Benedict, in The Holy Rule, orders the examination of Novices to ascertain if “they are full of solicitude for The Work of God, for obedience, and for humiliation” (Holy Rule, Chapter 48).
As “idleness is the enemy of the Soul” (Holy Rule, Chapter 48), the Holy Law-Giver, adding example to his words, showed his disciples how they were to clear lands and hearts. Uniting manual labour “with constant Preaching to the pagan population of Monte Cassino” [Dialogues of Saint Gregory], he left to his sons the Monastic Motto “Ora et Labora” (“Pray and Work”).
Forty days after the death of his sister, Saint Scholastica, Saint Benedict, standing at the foot of the Altar where he had just, by Holy Communion, taken part in the Sacrifice of The Mass and of Calvary, and supported by his disciples, who surrounded him, gave up to God his Soul transfigured by sixty-three years of austere Penance and of Fidelity to The Divine Law, which he kept in his heart (Introit).
He died in 547 A.D.
“The Holy Rule”, as The Councils called it, “inspired by the same Spirit Who has dictated The Sacred Canons” (Council of Douai), has Sanctified thousands of Souls (a recent Commentator mentions 57,000 known Benedictine Saints, of which 5,555 for Monte Cassino, alone), which, especially during the six Centuries when no other important Order existed in Europe (Saint Benedict lived in the 6th-Century A.D., Saint Dominic and Saint Francis in the 13th-Century, Saint Ignatius in the 16th-Century, Saint Vincent de Paul in the 17th-Century) left everything, following the example of the glorious Patriarch of The West (Gospel), “to enrol themselves in The Militia of Christ” (Prologue of The Rule of Saint Benedict) under The Benedictine Observance.
[Italy and France, in the 7th-Century A.D. and 8th-Century A.D., were covered with Monasteries, which counted up to a thousand Monks or Nuns. Even then, numerous Laymen, Forming Confraternities, entered the Institution of Secular Oblates, which allowed them, as The Third Orders later did, to participate in all the merits of The Benedictine family.
[In 1780, says Godescard, The Order counted 30,000 Houses. Reduced to 2,000 Houses after The French Revolution, today it counts, with its Branches, over 14,000 subjects.]
[Editor: Jean-François Godescard: Ordained Priest for The Diocese of Rouen, France, in 1756, he subsequently exercised the functions of Prior of Notre-Dame de Bon-Repos de Versailles and Canon of Saint-Honoré de Paris. He was a Member of The Rouen Academy of Sciences, Fine Letters and Arts.]
The first of Saint Benedict's precepts recommends not to prefer anything to The Liturgical Worship in which Adoration finds its most perfect expression.
Saint Benedict is called “The Doctor of Humility”. [Saint Benedict, in the 7th Chapter of his Holy Rule, presents a ladder which leads Souls to Heaven by Twelve Degrees of Humility and Love of God.]
He was a Prophet and wrought Miracles [His Empire over devils is still exercised nowadays by The Medal of Saint Benedict, which works wonders, especially in Missionary Countries, where Satan is most powerful] and “was filled with The Spirit of all The Just” says Saint Gregory.
The first of Saint Benedict's precepts recommends not to prefer anything to The Liturgical Worship in which Adoration finds its most perfect expression.
Saint Benedict is called “The Doctor of Humility”. [Saint Benedict, in the 7th Chapter of his Holy Rule, presents a ladder which leads Souls to Heaven by Twelve Degrees of Humility and Love of God.]
He was a Prophet and wrought Miracles [His Empire over devils is still exercised nowadays by The Medal of Saint Benedict, which works wonders, especially in Missionary Countries, where Satan is most powerful] and “was filled with The Spirit of all The Just” says Saint Gregory.
Among his sons, are counted more than twenty Popes, and an immense number of Bishops, Doctors of The Church [five sons of Saint Benedict are numbered among The Doctors of The Church], Apostles [Saint Augustine of Canterbury converted England, Saint Boniface converted Germany, Saint Amandus, Saint Willibrord, Saint Anscharius, and others, brought to The Faith more than twenty pagan Nations], Learned Men and Educators, who have deserved well of humanity and of The Church.
By his life, he powerfully co-operated in the work of redemption and his glorious death has made him the Patron of Holy Dying.
“Let us keep our lives in all purity, so as to atone for, and correct, during the Holy Season of Lent, all the negligences of other times”. [Saint Benedict's Holy Rule, Chapter 49.]
Mass: Os justi.
[The Benedictine Order have a Proper Mass for today.]
Commemoration: Of The Feria.
Last Gospel: Of The Feria.
By his life, he powerfully co-operated in the work of redemption and his glorious death has made him the Patron of Holy Dying.
“Let us keep our lives in all purity, so as to atone for, and correct, during the Holy Season of Lent, all the negligences of other times”. [Saint Benedict's Holy Rule, Chapter 49.]
Mass: Os justi.
[The Benedictine Order have a Proper Mass for today.]
Commemoration: Of The Feria.
Last Gospel: Of The Feria.
unless stated otherwise.
The Saint Benedict Medal is a Christian Sacramental Medal containing Symbols and Text related to The Life of Saint Benedict of Nursia, used by Roman Catholics, as well as Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and The Western Orthodox, in The Benedictine Christian Tradition, especially Votarists and Oblates.
The Reverse of the Medal carries the Vade retro satana (“Begone, Satan !”). Sometimes carried as part of a Rosary, it is also worn separately.
The exact time and date of the making of the first Saint Benedict Medal are not clear. The Medal was originally a Cross, dedicated to the devotion in honour of Saint Benedict. At some point, Medals were struck that bore the image of Saint Benedict holding a Cross aloft in his Right Hand and his Rule for Monasteries in the other hand.
Then, a sequence of Capital Letters was placed around the large figure of The Cross on the Reverse of the Medal. The meaning of what the Letters signified was lost over time until, around 1647, an old Manuscript was discovered at The Benedictine Saint Michael's Abbey, Metten, Bavaria, Germany.
The Reverse of the Medal carries the Vade retro satana (“Begone, Satan !”). Sometimes carried as part of a Rosary, it is also worn separately.
The exact time and date of the making of the first Saint Benedict Medal are not clear. The Medal was originally a Cross, dedicated to the devotion in honour of Saint Benedict. At some point, Medals were struck that bore the image of Saint Benedict holding a Cross aloft in his Right Hand and his Rule for Monasteries in the other hand.
Then, a sequence of Capital Letters was placed around the large figure of The Cross on the Reverse of the Medal. The meaning of what the Letters signified was lost over time until, around 1647, an old Manuscript was discovered at The Benedictine Saint Michael's Abbey, Metten, Bavaria, Germany.
Who is Saint Benedict ?
Available on YouTube at
In the Manuscript, written in 1415, was a picture depicting Saint Benedict holding, in one hand, a Staff, which ends in a Cross, and a Scroll, in the other hand. On the Staff and Scroll were written in, full, the words of which the mysterious Letters were the initials, a Latin Prayer of Exorcism against Satan.
The Manuscript contains the Exorcism formula Vade retro satana (“Step back, Satan !”), and the Letters were found to correspond to this phrase.
The Exorcism Prayer is found in an Early-13th-Century legend of The Devil's Bridge, at Sens, France, wherein an Architect sold his Soul to the devil, and then, subsequently, repented. M. le Curé, of Sens, wearing his Stole, Exorcised the devil, driving him away with Holy Water and the words Vade retro satana (“Step back, Satan !”), which he made the Penitent repeat.
Medals bearing the image of Saint Benedict, a Cross, and these Letters, began to be struck in Germany, and soon spread over Europe. Saint Vincent de Paul (☩ 1660) seems to have known of it, for his Daughters of Charity have always worn it attached to their Rosary Beads, and for many years it was only made, at least in France, for them.
The Manuscript contains the Exorcism formula Vade retro satana (“Step back, Satan !”), and the Letters were found to correspond to this phrase.
The Exorcism Prayer is found in an Early-13th-Century legend of The Devil's Bridge, at Sens, France, wherein an Architect sold his Soul to the devil, and then, subsequently, repented. M. le Curé, of Sens, wearing his Stole, Exorcised the devil, driving him away with Holy Water and the words Vade retro satana (“Step back, Satan !”), which he made the Penitent repeat.
Medals bearing the image of Saint Benedict, a Cross, and these Letters, began to be struck in Germany, and soon spread over Europe. Saint Vincent de Paul (☩ 1660) seems to have known of it, for his Daughters of Charity have always worn it attached to their Rosary Beads, and for many years it was only made, at least in France, for them.
The Saint Benedict Medal.
Available on YouTube at
In Gabriel Bucelin's 1679 “Benedictus redivivus”, he recounts several incidents in which Saint Benedict's Medal was viewed as efficacious in addressing illness or some local calamity. In the 1743 “Disquisitio sacra numismata, de origine quidditate, virtute, pioque usu Numismatum seu Crucularum S. Benedicti, Abbatis, Viennae Austriae, apud Leopoldum Kaliwoda”, Abbot Löbl, of Saint Margaret's Monastery, Prague, recommended recourse to the Medal as a remedy against bleeding.
Abbot Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B., relates several incidents of Religious Conversions, which he attributes to the Intercession of Saint Benedict through the pious use of the Medal.
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