FORT SMITH — When Sister Maria Goretti DeAngeli, OSB, formation director at St. Scholastica Monastery in Fort Smith, visited Rome in January for a two-month intensive course in the Rule of St. Benedict, she said she knew she would be working long hours and poring over ancient texts. But, to her delight, the course allowed its 27 participants from all over the English-speaking world to walk in St. Benedict’s footsteps from Nursia and Rome to Subiaco and Monte Cassino.
She studied the rule from primary sources and came to know and appreciate its practicality and universality even more.
“We stayed at Casa San Spirito with the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing in Rome,” Sister Maria said. “Sister Aquinata Bockmann, our teacher, has spent her life studying the Rule of Benedict. I studied with sisters from South Korea, Ghana, Angola, Bulgaria, Nairobi, Kenya, Australia, Bethlehem and the United States.”
St. Benedict of Nursia grew up at a time when the Roman Empire was collapsing under the burden of corruption and war. His parents sent him to Rome to study law, but he soon left to live the life of a hermit for three years in a Subiaco cave called Sacre Speco. His example of personal holiness attracted disciples — shepherds tending nearby fields who eventually brought him out of solitude and became his first monks. Benedict’s first monastery was in the Villa of Nero in Subiaco. As the community grew, he moved to the Temple of Jupiter in Monte Cassino, removing the statues and renovating the buildings. It was in Monte Cassino, in about 530 A.D., that he began writing the rule.
In writing the rule, he drew from the wisdom of other early Church Fathers — St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. John Cassian — and the anonymous “Rule of the Master.”
“These were the sources Benedict had and most of all Scripture,” Sister Maria said. “He quoted Scripture throughout the rule. He used the Psalms extensively by setting about how the monks were to pray.”
Benedict’s Rule was similar to those of the Early Church Fathers, but “gentler and more refined,” she added. “It shows a progression as he grows more mature spiritually. The first part sees man going day by day trying to live communal life according to rules and regulations. As he grew in spirituality, later chapters dealt with how the community should choose an abbot. Most monks weren’t educated and came from diverse backgrounds — serfs, soldiers. Benedict’s Rule said that whether you were rich or poor, learned or unlearned, you were treated equally.”
Although the sisters spent six days a week studying, they spent every Saturday visiting churches, basilicas and cathedrals in Rome. They took pilgrimages to Nursia, Subiaco and Monte Cassino, following St. Benedict’s journey to the monastery as a young man. The monastery at Monte Cassino was destroyed during World War II but was reconstructed to resemble the original building.
“People would gather at monasteries for protection during World War II,” Sister Maria said. “The monks took them to the monastery basement, and all were safe.”
They attended a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 18 at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. In February, the sisters attending the Intensive Study of the Rule of Benedict had a private audience with Pope Benedict.
Sister Maria said she intends to share what she learned with the formation classes and her community.
“I learned so much about the man Benedict and his desire to live communal life and what he meant by ‘ora et labora.’ That means prayer and work. I understand now what holy leisure means — Scripture, lectio divina. I found a kindred spirit in Benedict, who loved Scripture.”
In studying the work of the early Church Fathers and St. Benedict, she said she came to realize that Benedict’s Rule survived because of its practicality. It can be applied to anyone’s life.
Because the rule embodies the idea of a written constitution and incorporated aspects of democracy in a non-democratic period of history, it shaped not only contemporary monasticism but western society as a whole, she said.
“Anyone can live it,” Sister Maria said. “Even lawyers use the rule to help them study and deal with people.”
