St Benedict of Nursia

Nearly everything we know of Benedict comes from the second book of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, written within fifty years of his death — a portrait in stories rather than a modern biography. Born at Nursia in Umbria, he abandoned his studies in a decadent Rome and lived three years as a hermit in a cave at Subiaco. Disciples gathered, communities formed, and around 529 he founded the monastery of Monte Cassino, where he wrote his Rule for monks — a document of luminous moderation, 'a little rule for beginners,' ordering the day around common prayer and honest work, and receiving every guest as Christ Himself. He asked of monks stability, obedience, and a heart that runs the way of God's commandments 'with unspeakable sweetness of love.' The Rule quietly organized the monastic life of the entire Latin West for a millennium. Orthodoxy has always honoured him among the great fathers of monasticism, East and West alike.