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St. Benedict of Nursia
St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–March 21, 547) was an Italian monk, preacher, and founder of Western monasticism, best known for establishing the Rule of St. Benedict, which shaped Christian monastic life for centuries. Born in Nursia (modern Norcia, Umbria) to a noble Roman family—traditionally named Eupropius and Abundantia—he was sent to Rome for education around 495 but abandoned worldly pursuits after witnessing the city’s moral decay. Fleeing to Subiaco, he lived as a hermit in a cave for three years, guided by a monk named Romanus, where his reputation for holiness grew, drawing disciples. Though not ordained as a priest, his preaching through example and instruction profoundly influenced early Christian communities. Around 529, Benedict founded the monastery at Monte Cassino, south of Rome, after leaving Subiaco due to conflicts with a jealous priest. There, he composed his Rule, a practical guide blending work, prayer, and study—famously summarized as “ora et labora” (pray and work)—preached to his monks to foster a balanced spiritual life. His miracles, like restoring a shattered sieve or raising a boy from the dead, underscored his sanctity, as recorded by Pope Gregory the Great in Dialogues. Tradition holds he had a twin sister, St. Scholastica, also a monastic founder. Benedict died at Monte Cassino in 547, possibly from fever, and was buried alongside Scholastica. Canonized in 1220, he’s venerated as the patron saint of Europe, leaving a legacy as a preacher of discipline and devotion that endures in the Benedictine Order.
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St. Benedict of Nursia distinguishes between four kinds of monks: Cenobites who live in monasteries under a rule and an Abbot, Anchorites or Hermits who go out to combat the devil after learning in a monastery, Sarabaites who live without discipline or experience, and Gyrovagues who wander from place to place indulging in their own desires. St. Benedict focuses on providing a rule for the Cenobites, the strongest kind of monks, with God's help.
It Is Well Known That There Are Four Kinds of Monks
It is well known that there are four kinds of monks. The first kind are the Cenobites: those who live in monasteries and serve under a rule and an Abbot. The second kind are the Anchorites or Hermits: those who, no longer in the first fervor of their reformation, but after long probation in a monastery, having learned by the help of many brethren how to fight against the devil, go out well armed from the ranks of the community to the solitary combat of the desert. They are able now, with no help save from God, to fight single-handed against the vices of the flesh and their own evil thoughts. The third kind of monks, a detestable kind, are the Sarabaites. These, not having been tested, as gold in the furnace (Wis. 3:6), by any rule or by the lessons of experience, are as soft as lead. In their works they still keep faith with the world, so that their tonsure marks them as liars before God. They live in twos or threes, or even singly, without a shepherd, in their own sheepfolds and not in the Lord's. Their law is the desire for self-gratification: whatever enters their mind or appeals to them, that they call holy; what they dislike, they regard as unlawful. The fourth kind of monks are those called Gyrovagues. These spend their whole lives tramping from province to province, staying as guests in different monasteries for three or four days at a time. Always on the move, with no stability, they indulge their own wills and succumb to the allurements of gluttony, and are in every way worse than the Sarabaites. Of the miserable conduct of all such it is better to be silent than to speak. Passing these over, therefore, let us proceed, with God's help, to lay down a rule for the strongest kind of monks, the Cenobites.
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St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–March 21, 547) was an Italian monk, preacher, and founder of Western monasticism, best known for establishing the Rule of St. Benedict, which shaped Christian monastic life for centuries. Born in Nursia (modern Norcia, Umbria) to a noble Roman family—traditionally named Eupropius and Abundantia—he was sent to Rome for education around 495 but abandoned worldly pursuits after witnessing the city’s moral decay. Fleeing to Subiaco, he lived as a hermit in a cave for three years, guided by a monk named Romanus, where his reputation for holiness grew, drawing disciples. Though not ordained as a priest, his preaching through example and instruction profoundly influenced early Christian communities. Around 529, Benedict founded the monastery at Monte Cassino, south of Rome, after leaving Subiaco due to conflicts with a jealous priest. There, he composed his Rule, a practical guide blending work, prayer, and study—famously summarized as “ora et labora” (pray and work)—preached to his monks to foster a balanced spiritual life. His miracles, like restoring a shattered sieve or raising a boy from the dead, underscored his sanctity, as recorded by Pope Gregory the Great in Dialogues. Tradition holds he had a twin sister, St. Scholastica, also a monastic founder. Benedict died at Monte Cassino in 547, possibly from fever, and was buried alongside Scholastica. Canonized in 1220, he’s venerated as the patron saint of Europe, leaving a legacy as a preacher of discipline and devotion that endures in the Benedictine Order.