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On July 2, 1965, the Vatican issued two stamps commemorating St. Benedict, founder of the Benedictines. Both stamps bear the inscription: "In the restored Cassino monastery, Paul VI declared St. Benedict the patron of Europe in the year 1964." The FD special cancel reads: "He, who was the teacher of the peoples of Europe of peace, unity and civil culture by the cross, book, and plow, was made` patron to the same peoples by Pope Paul VI". St. Benedict appears on the 40 Lire and the Abbey of Monte Cassino on the 300 Lire. St. Benedict was born at Nursia (near Spoleto) c.480 and died in 543 at Monte Cassino. He was the son of a well-to-do family and had a sister, St. Scholastica, probably his twin. Schooled at Nursia and Rome, he fled from the evils of the world to Enfide (modern Affile), staying for a while with his housekeeper, Cyrilla, at the hospice of the church of St. Peter there. Performing his first miracle there, the publicity caused him to flee to a cave near Subiaco. The monk Romanus gave him the monk's clothing, and Benedict dwelt in the cave for three years, visited only by Romanus. Reluctantly he became the head of a local monastery, but again withdrew to his cave, to continue his meditations on God and to discipline himself further. His holiness attracted followers, and in the valley below his cave, he established 12 monasteries, each with 12 monks and a superior, with himself as father abbot. Florentius, a priest, caused him to move to Monte Cassino c.529 or earlier where he built the first monastery on the site of a pagan temple and developed the Benedictine rule of prayer and work; goods held in common; each monastery independent with an elected abbot; the abbot elected to carry out the Rule. His authority which was monarchical was held in check by religion, debate with the community on important matters, and with representative elders on small matters. Members were to dwell in one monastery for life. Thus were the Benedictines established, not the first community of monks, but the one that has lasted the longest, proven by time and the model for all monasticism. The Abbey of Monte Cassino was built on the site of a temple to Apollo when he came from Subiaco in 529. It was sacked by the Lombards 539-90 and rebuilt in 720. It was destroyed again by the Saracens in 884 and was rebuilt by 954. It is the original home of the Benedictines who spread throughout Europe, and in the 11th and 12th centuries was the seat of science, particularly of medicine. The School of Medicine at Salerno was established in Monte Cassino. The first of the modern buildings was erected in 1637-1727 (cf. Italy, Scott 0232.38). During the Second World War bombers from the Allied Air Force destroyed it on Feb. 15, 1944, as a supposed German observation post, the key to the defense of the mountains behind it, which held up the Allied advance. Its library of 50,000 books and 30,000 early works had long been removed with other portable art treasures, to avoid the pillaging hands of the Germans. It has been the place of refuge for kings and popes. The Italian Government seized it together with other church property in 1866, when it dissolved the monasteries. Because of its fame, it was made a national monument. After the close of World War II, it was restored again, an event philatelically commemorated by Italy in the stamps of 1951 (Scott Italy # 579-580; overprinted for the Free Territory of Trieste, Scott # 120-21). The stamps mentioned above showing the first modern monastery were issued in 1929, commemorating the 1400th anniversary of the founding of the abbey. Cf. Catholic Encyclopedia,:- BENEDICT OF NURSIA; BENEDICTINE ORDER; BENEDICT, RULE OF ST.; MONTE CASSINO. Cf. St. Benedict and his monks, Theodore Maynard (Kennedy, 1954) |
| (From Vatican Notes Volume XIV, Number 2, September - October 1965, Page 13) |
