Saint of the Day: St. Benedict of Aniane

Abbot (747-821)

His life

+ Benedict was born to a noble family and served as a page to King Pepin and his son, Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor.

+ After experienced a profound conversion when he was twenty years-old, Benedict entered the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Seine near Dijon, France.

+ Seeking to live a more austere life, he became a hermit but his way of life soon attracted other men and a new community of monks grew up around him.

+ Attracting the attention of Charlemagne and his successor, King Louis “the Pious,” Benedict’s vision of monastic reform and renewal received royal approval. From his monastery at Kornelimünster, Benedict directed an empire-wide movement of monastic reform.

+ Plagued by weakness and illness during his final years, Benedict of Aniane died in 821.

For reflection

“The labor of obedience will bring you back to him from whom you had drifted through the sloth of disobedience.”—Saint Benedict of Nursia (from the Prologue of the Rule of St. Benedict)

Prayer

Lord our God, through the teaching and example of the blessed abbot Benedict, you instilled the monastic Order with new life. Through his intercession, may we hold fast to the perfect following of Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from Benedictine Supplement: Proper Masses for the Use of the Benedictine Confederation)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.