BENEDICT (St), the founder of the order of the Benedictin monks, was born in Italy, about the year 480. He was sent to Rome when he was very young, and there received the first part of his education. At 14 years of age he was removed from thence to Sublaco, about 40 miles distant. Here he lived a most ascetic life, and shut himself up in a cavern, where nobody knew any thing of him except St Romanus, who, we are told, used to descend to him by a rope, and to supply him with provisions. But being afterwards discovered by the monks of a neighbouring monastery,
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Benedict, they chose him for their abbot. Their manners, how-
ever, not agreeing with those of Benedict, he returned
to his solitude; whither many persons followed him,
and put themselves under his direction, so that in a short
time he built 12 monasteries. In the year 528, or the
following, he retired to mount Cassino, where idolatry
was still prevalent, there being a temple of Apollo erec-
ted here. He instructed the people in the adjacent
country, and having converted them, he broke the im-
age of Apollo, and built two chapels on the mount-
ain. Here he founded also a monastery, and instituted
the order of his name, which in time became so fa-
mous and extended over all Europe. It was here too
that he composed his Regula Monachorum, which Gre-
gory the Great speaks of as the most sensible and best
written piece of that kind ever published. The time of
his death is uncertain, but is placed between 540 and
550. He was looked upon as the Eliphaz of his times;
and is reported to have wrought a great number of mi-
racles, which are recorded in the second book of the
dialogues of St Gregory the Great.