The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-21
BENEDICT THE
 BENEFACTOR

In the calendar of Catholicism to- dayEi lis the festival of St. Benedict, the
 founder of the Benedictfne Order and the father of western monasticism. It was Benedict, who was born in the year 48O and died on. March 21, 543, who brought order out of the chaos of monarcFism. Prior to his appear ance the bad side of nonasticism had been chiefly uppermost. The ma jority of those who had entered upon the rnonastic life came from the poor CT classes of the population, and
 doubtless many of them were anil mated by the>desire to attain a less toilson1e mode of existence than that which they had previously led. With
 little labor to do and with time hang
 ing heavy on their hands, it was small wonder that from this horde of uneducated and undiSciplined men came many who were fanatics, big ots and sensua1ists. These brought the whole institution of monachism into disrepute among the intelligent and industrious classes.
 St. Benedich to his eternal glory, changed all this: He drew up rules for the government of his followers which became subsequently the guid- ing regulah ons of the whole vast Benedictine order. The great prin- ciple of these rules was absolute obe- dience, the other main duties being charity and voluntary poverty. The monks were required to emp1y seven hours of the day in hard manual la Dor, and two hours in pious reading They were to abstain entirely from animal food, and were permitted to consume only b fixed quantity of food daily. They were to possess every thing in common. This communistic rule was at first enforced so strictly that monks were punished for refer ring to "my coat" or ''ny hat,'' as inn plying that the article in question be- longed solely to him. The rigors of this rule were evaded after a time, when the Benedictines became pos-D wealth belonged to the monks not in dividua1ly but collectively.
 The Benedictines were without ev- en the semblance of riba1ry until the appearance of the Jesuits. They were unlike their predecessors. an educational body. Instead of rowing ing about she1terless and almost ma ked, in the mountains. and deserts browsing like cattle on the herbs they found, and abstaining from all toll, they worked hard and introduced new and improved methods in agriculture and the arts. While they lapored zealously for the salvation of souls, they were free from that bigotry en- gendered by wild religious de1usions which mad l6d carrier aScet1cS to treat any divergence from their own views as criminal, and to punish it accord ing1y when they had the power. By hard labor they kept in subjection those passions which the idle monks of a former period had often indulg- ed to the disgrace of their faith.
 The Benedictines fell forests, drain ed swamps, built roads, taught what in that day was scientific agriculture, built stately and durable edifices and conducted schools for the education of the young. Their mode of life was an exhibition of orderly govern ment which served as an example of the superiority of peace and industry to war and id1eness.
 St. Benedict did not accomplish these great results without determined opposition from the defenders of the old order. On one occasion his own monks, enraged by the severity of his rule, attempted to poison him. On another occasion 8 jealous priest sought to disrupt Benedict's monastery by introducing within it's precincts a number of wanton girls. All of these attempts to curtain Benedict's labors were futile, and he succeeded in imposing his laws upon almost the whole of western monasticism.