benefice 103Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia(Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1996).
Benedict of Nursia or Norcia, Saint (ca. 480–
547/560)Italian monk, founder of the Benedictine monastic
order
Knowledge of Benedict’s life is from the second book of
the Dialoguesof Pope GREGORYI the Great, in which Gre-
gory retold accounts he received directly from four of
Benedict’s close followers. Benedict was born about 480
in Nursia, 70 miles from Rome, to a distinguished family.
He was sent to Rome to pursue his studies, but its classi-
cal curriculum, the vices of the city, and libertinism of his
fellow students forced Benedict and his nurse to flee to
the countryside to escape temptation.
In Subiaco, he lived as a hermit in a cave, receiving
food from a neighboring monk, who lowered bread to
him over a cliff. Dressed in wild animal skins, Benedict
fought temptation, even throwing himself into a brier
patch to subdue his emotions when tempted by a vision
of a woman. The monks of a neighboring monastery
whose abbot had died, made Benedict take his place.
The strict discipline and obedience demanded by the
new abbot so angered the monks that they tried to
poison him. Detecting the poison, Benedict left to live
alone.
MONTE CASSINO AND MIRACLESIsolation in a completely hermitic life was not Benedict’s
ideal. Soon other men gathered around him, and he orga-
nized several cenobic monasteries. At regular intervals,
under Benedict’s direction, they all gathered in a chapel to
chant psalms and pray silently. In about 529/530 Benedict
moved his community to MONTECASSINO, a hill 75 miles
southeast of Rome. He and his monks demolished an old
temple of Apollo on the summit, replaced it with a chapel
dedicated to Saint MARTIN, and began construction of
monastery buildings.
It is not possible to reconstruct Benedict’s daily life at
Monte Cassino. His biographer was concerned only with
relating marvels, such as Benedict’s detection of an
impostor whom TOTILA, king of the OSTROGOTHS, had
sent to the monastery in his place and Benedict’s predic-
tion of the destruction of Monte Cassino, an event that
actually took place later in the century. The date gener-
ally given for Benedict’s death is March 21, 547, or per-
haps as late as 560. He was buried at Monte Cassino in a
cave next to his sister, Saint Scholastica. He was made the
patron saint of all of Europe by Pope Paul VI in 1964.
The monastery was later sacked, and there is a dispute
about where his body actually is.
RULEThe rule attributed to him was supposedly written during
his years at Monte Cassino after 530. Based in part on
earlier rules, it was the means by which he was to exert
great influence on the development of MONASTICISM,
enabling the Benedictines to expand across Europe and
dominate much of religious life of the Middle Ages.
Unlike the extremes of the rigorously ascetic and solitary
life of Eastern monasticism, Benedict’s ideals involved
life in a community in which all the monks shared and
participated.
Government of the monastery was the responsibility
of the elected abbot, who ruled the enclosed monks as a
father did his children. They owed him total obedience.
The details of daily life were set forward but were not
intended to be difficult or impossible. After eight hours
of sleep, the monks rose for the night office, which was
followed by six other services during the day. Most
monks were not to be priests. The remainder of the day
was spent in labor and in the study of the BIBLEand other
spiritual works. A novice entered the community only
after a probationary period, which tested him for the
virtues deemed necessary, humility and obedience. He
had to renounce personal property. Moderation, organiza-
tion, practicality, and discretion were to be the bywords
of these communities. LOUISI THEPIOUSin the ninth cen-
tury made his rule the exclusive model for monastic life.
See alsoBENEDICTINE ORDER;CASSIAN,JOHN.
Further reading:Benedict, The Rule of St. Benedict in
English, ed. Timothy Fry (New York: Vintage Books,
1998); Adalbert de Vogüé, The Life of St. Benedict—
Gregory the Great,trans. Hilary Costello and Eoin de
Bhaldraithe (Petersham, Mass.: St. Bede’s Publications,
1993); Ildefonso Schuster, Saint Benedict and His Times,
trans. Gregory J. Roettger (1951; reprint, St. Louis:
Herder, 1953).benefice The literal medieval meaning of beneficewas
“doing good,” and was first used in Christian terminol-
ogy. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, it also meant a
“donation of money or land to the church,” for which
the donor expected a counter gift of divine GRACEfor
himself and family. From the eighth century on, a
benefice could also be the land given by a lord to a vassal
and the permission to use its produce. In return the vas-
sal had to render military or administrative service. The
benefice remained the property of the lord and was to be
returned after the completion of service, or upon the
vassal’s death.
Under the CAROLINGIANS, from the time of CHARLES
MARTEL, vassals were barred by law from transferring the
benefice in whole or in part to anyone, bequeathing it to
heirs, transfer peasants and animals from it to their own
properties. From the rule of CHARLEMAGNE, in the early
ninth century, these laws were not always followed or
enforceable. More and more vassals came to see the
benefice as part of family tenure and attempted to dispose
of it as they wanted. This process accelerated with the