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The Maronite
Orthodox Church
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the order
of
saint benedict
Saint Benedict
Saint Benedict, considered the 'founder of Western monasticism,' was born at Nursia (Norcia), Italy, around 480. As a youth Saint Benedict pursued the normal education for a late Roman member of the upper classes when, until about the age of 20, he left Rome to live in the country with some others in a Christian retreat. Though his early biographers relate miracles even at this stage, the most notable condition of his life was that, though a member of a leisured elite, he adopted a life of physical labor. From this habit of work, Saint Benedict adopted the motto of the Benedictine Order that he was eventually to found: ora et labora, or "pray and work."
Benedictine life stressed both. The model for the monastic life underSaint Benedict was the family, with the abbot as father and all the monks as brothers. Saint Benedict, as leader of the group of men that grew up around him, developed a plan of life that stressed balance and moderation: a vegetarian diet, regular hours for sleep, regular hours for prayer, and regular hours for manual labor.
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