Getting Back to Benedict

After experiencing a bit of sensory overload in the bustling city of Rome, we packed our bags yesterday and boarded the bus to head for the Italian countryside and the town of Subiaco. It wasn't long after rolling out of Rome until we were greeted by mountains topped with little townships. Although it's winter here, the grass is still so green and the trees so exquisite that it's easy to overlook this fact.

While I suppose I've been a part of the Benedictine community for the past four years, ever since beginning at the College of St. Scholastica, never before have I felt so connected with the Benedictine tradtion as I did yesterday at Subiaco. While studying abroad in Ireland with CSS in 2005, I had the opportunity to visit Kylemore Abbey, run by Benedictine sisters in the Connemara region of Ireland. There, I not only had my eyes opened to the truly global connections St. Scholastica has due to its Catholic faith, but also purchased a copy of Benedict's Rule, ironically enough published in Collegeville, MN!

The stories of St. Benedict and his twin sister, St. Scholastica, are always in the air at our Duluth campus, but for me, it wasn't until we visited Subiaco that I realized how truly amazing and influential these two people were. This town hosts the cave where Benedict spent three years contemplating his faith, eventually emerging to form his order. Looking at the height and treacherous nature of the mountain on which the cave rests, I could only wonder how anyone would be able to find the dedication to remain in such a remote place. To think that a lowly cave could lead to the founding of a religious order that has spread across the world, from Subiaco, to Ireland, to Duluth, is simply astounding, displaying the power of individual faith in a way I had never before considered it.