14th Sunday of the Year B

​Feast of St Benedict Thurs 11th of July
Patron Saint of Europe
 
St. Benedict was born c. 480AD in Nursia and was the founder of the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino and father of Western monasticism.  The Monastic he Rule that he established became the norm for monastic living throughout Europe. St. Gregory the Great – who wrote the only ancient biography of St. Benedict that we have – called St. Benedict “a bright light” in an age marked by the most serious crisis.
The Rule which St Benedict composed AD 530 is essentially a manual, a code for monastic life. Written in a familiar style, Benedict throughout the prologue and 73 chapters of the Rule exhorts his monks to listen with “the ear of the heart” to “never despair of the mercy of God”: “Listen carefully, my child, to your master's precepts, and incline the ear of your heart (Prov. 4:20). “Receive willingly and carry out effectively your loving father’s advice”.
In 1964, in view of the work of monks following the Benedictine Rule in the evangelization and civilization of so many European countries in the Middle Ages, Pope Paul VI proclaimed him the patron saint of all Europe.