It is unfortunate that no contemporary biography was written of a man who has exercised the greatest influence on monasticism in the West. Benedict is well recognized in the later Dialogues of Saint Gregory, but these are sketches to illustrate miraculous elements of his career.
Benedict was born into a distinguished family in central Italy, studied at Rome, and early in life was drawn to monasticism. At first he became a hermit, where he experienced series of attempts of being killed and betrayal, it was only in Monte Casino where he founded the monastery that became the roots of the Church’s monastic system. After almost 1,500 years of monastic tradition his direction seems obvious to us. However, Benedict was an innovator.
No one had ever set up communities like his before or directed them with a rule. Benedict died on 21 March 543, not long after his sister, St. Scholastica. It is said he died with high fever on the very day God told him he would. He is the patron saint of Europe and students. St. Benedict is often pictured with a bell, a broken tray, a raven, or a crosier.
