The Catholic World, Vol. 03, April to September, 1866Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 03, April to September, 1866
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
remains were dug up, brought to France, and placed in the Abbey of
Fleury, from which circumstance it took the name of St. Benoit, on the
Loire. After his death his disciples spread themselves abroad over the
continent and founded monasteries of his name and rule. Placidus
became a martyr, and was canonized; Maurus founded a monastery in
France, was also introduced to England, and from his canonized name,
St. Maurus, springs one of the oldest English names--St. Maur,
Seymaur, or Seymour.
Divesting this narrative of its legendary accompaniments, and judging
of St. Benedict, the man, by the subsequent success of his work, and
the influence of his genius upon the whole mechanism of European
monasticism, and even upon the destinies of a later civilization, we
are compelled to admit that he must have been a man whose intellect
and character were far in advance of his age. By instituting the vow
of labor, that peculiarity in his rule which we shall presently
examine more fully, he struck at the root of the evils attending the
monasticism of his times, an evil which would have ruined it as an
institution in the fifth century had he not interposed, and an evil
which in the sixteenth century alone caused its downfall in England.
Before proceeding to examine the rule upon which all the greatness of
the Benedictine order was based, it will be necessary to mention the
two, earliest mission efforts of the order. The first was conducted
under the immediate direction of St. Benedict himself, who in the year
534 sent Placidus, with two others, Gordian and Donatus, into Sicily,
to erect a monastery upon land which Tertullus, the father of
Placidus, had given to St. Benedict. Shortly after the death of the
saint, Innocent, bishop of Mans, in France, sent Flodegarde, his
archdeacon, and Hardegarde, his steward, to ask for the assistance of
some monks of St. Benedict's monastery, for the purpose of introducing
the order into France. St. Maurus was selected for the mission, and,
accompanied by Simplicius, Constantinian, Antony, and Faustus, he set
out from Monte Cassino, and arrived in France the latter end of the
year 543; but to their great consternation, upon reaching Orleans,
they were told that the Bishop of Mans was dead, and another hostile
to their intentions had succeeded him. They then bent their steps
toward Anjou, where they founded the monastery of Glanfeuil, from
whose cloisters issued the founders of nearly all the Benedictine
institutions in France. From these two centres radiated that mighty
influence which we shall now proceed to examine.
As we have in a former paper sketched the internal structure of the
monastery, we will before going further fill each compartment with its
proper officers, people the whole monastery with its subjects, and
then examine the law which kept them together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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