St. Benedict
Born 480 in a tiny village near Spoleto, Nursia, a son of a wealthy nobelman of Rome and had a twin sister named Scholastica,(St.Scholastica). When he died in 543 it is written he was aware it was his time and was standing with arms reaching upward in prayer; and was buried along with his sister in St. John the Baptists’ oratory that he had built on the spot that he had overthrown the Alter of Apollo at Monte Cassino. While it seems that the life of his sister had been dedicated as a small child to our Lord, his own calling and doctrines were formulated later in his life. His boyhood was spent in Rome, in a life of studies at the great libraries and in preperation of a career as a Roman nobelman, but took an abrupt turn in his late teens or early twenties. Leaving and taking his nurse as a servant along he settled in some mountains near a church dedicated to St. Peter some 70 or so miles from Rome where he is said to have worked his first miracle, the first of many.It is said he was gifted with prophesy,as well as having the ability to stop the attacks of satan. It is written than monks once tried to poison him, yet he blessed the cup rendering the poison harmless. His influence is still strong today, as well as his sisters’ with schools and monastories named for them. Different from the Franciscans’, the Benedictines’ do not take a vow of poverty, yet vow obediance according to the words of our lord. He is know for the writing of St. Benedict’s Rule which were written for the people, the laymen and not so much for the clerics. His memorial day is celebrated on July 11th. Said to be the Patron Saint for Monks, schoolchildren, farmers and farmworkers, and against temptations, witchcraft, poison, and fever, The Medal of St. Benedict, a sacrament, is the only medal that has an exorcism prayer on it. Wearers of the medal have made claims of a calming feeling and tranquility.