Saint Benedict (480–547)

I'm not sure if this is an academic book or one I just purchased to read because I was interested at the time. When I pulled it off the shelf to dust, I noticed it was shorter and looked fairly easy to read, so here it is! St. Benedict founded his monastery in Monte Cassino in southern Italy. He drew on Egyptian and Syrian traditions for his guidelines for his religious community. In theory, the monastery was a self-sustaining entity where all members prayed and worked. They valued: obedience, silence, and humility. I found the piece and defense of silence to be very interesting. It was taken from Psalm 39:1-2: "I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good..." I believe that is taken out of context, but what do I know?! Other advice: "..idle words, or such as move to laughter, we utterly condemn and ban them in all places. We do not allow any disciple to give mouth to them." How somber and sad--no laughter! 112 pages… (mehr)