Born in northern Italy in 480 AD, he was the son of a Roman noble and had a twin sister who would grow up to be St. Scholastica! 

Sent to Rome to study, he was about twenty when he walked away from his education, disillusioned with the lack of morals and the propensity for violence in the culture surrounding him. 

Initially, Benedict became a hermit spending three years in the nearby mountains. 

He began to attract followers and eventually had a small community of monks. 

Then, Benedict began to unite his community with those having the same core beliefs leading to one, large monaster, something that had never been done before. 

This would be the foundation of monastic life, making Benedict the father of Western monasticism. 

He built a legendary home for his monks high in the mountains called Monte Casino, which served his community for nearly 15 hundred years until World War II when it was destroyed by allied bombing and rebuilt after the war. 

Benedict called his followers to a life of prayer, study, work, and peaceful living under the direction of an Abbot. This became the foundation for all Monastic life in the West and included daily direction for his monks which became known as The Rule of St. Benedict. 

Today the two branches of the Benedictine family are The Benedictine Federation and the Cistercians. 

Benedict died at Monte Cassino in 547 AD. 

St. Benedict, please pray for us.