Benedict was born in 480 in Nursia, a small town near the Apennines.

When he was seventeen years old, his parents sent him to finish his education in Rome. The rather dry study of rhetoric, however, did not satisfy his thirst for the ultimate truth… “As the deer longs for living water, so my soul is thirsting for Thee, O my God. My soul is thirsting for the living God.” These verses of Psalm 41 resonated so strongly within him ! So Benedict set out. He journeyed far to the austere solitude of Subiaco, to live as a hermit, heart to heart with God. He spent his time in continual prayer, penance and fasting.

The holiness and austerity of his life soon made him known. People came to him to seek counsel or just to listen to him speak of God. Others followed his example and apprenticed themselves to his school of spirituality. Benedict soon organised the life of his followers in the way of a family : seeking God, in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus, in an army of brothers. Thus, the first Benedictine monastery was born. Soon enough they found themselves living in cramped conditions — they needed to swarm, like bees ! Benedict saw during his lifetime the birth of several monasteries, to which he left his Rule : a few very precious pages on which he recorded the essence of his monastic experience.

Benedict gave his soul up to God on March 21st 547, shortly after having received Holy Communion, standing in the oratory, supported by two of his disciples. Thousands of monks and nuns still live according to his Rule and spirit. It will be so until the end of time !