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This week, the Church celebrates Saint Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict of Nursia and founder of the Order of Benedictine Nuns.
Scholastica was Italian, born in Umbria to wealthy parents around the year 480.
According to Pope Saint Gregory the Great, she was dedicated to God at an early age and grew up with other young women also dedicated to consecrated life.
After her brother moved to Monte Cassino, where he established his favorite monastery, she took up residence at the base of the mountain about five miles away, and here she founded and governed a monastery of nuns, who, it appears, were directed by Benedict. She visited her brother once a year, but the rule of the monastery did not allow a woman to enter, so they would meet outside the monastery at a house not far outside the gates. These yearly visits were mostly spent in prayer and conference on practical and spiritual matters.
From the writings of Saint Gregory, we have the following story. On one occasion, they had passed the time, as usual, in prayer and pious conversation, and in the evening, they sat down for dinner and an evening of prayer.
As Benedict prepared to leave. Saint Scholastica begged her brother to remain until the next day, but the rule of the monastery did not allow for the monks, including Saint Benedict, to spend the night outside the monastery, so he refused to stay.
At that point, Scholastica closed her hands in prayer, and after a moment a wild storm started outside of the house in which they were staying. Benedict asked, “What have you done?”
To which she replied, “I asked you to stay and you would not listen. So I asked my God, and he did listen. So now go, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery.”
The storm made it impossible for Benedict to return to his monastery, so they spent the night in prayer and conversation. Three days later, Scholastica died.
Tradition holds that Benedict beheld her soul in a vision as it ascended into Heaven. He sent his brethren to bring her body to his monastery and laid it in the tomb he had prepared for himself.
She died around the year 543, and Saint Benedict died soon after his sister.
Scholastica is honored as the saint of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican churches.
She is the patroness of schools, books and reading, which is where we get the word scholastics. Saint Scholastica. Pray for us.