St. Scholastica
Feast day: Feb. 10
St. Scholastica, the first Benedictine nun, was the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, considered by many the father of Western monasticism. She and her brother were born around A.D. 480 in Nursia, Italy, to a man who descended from an old Roman senatorial family; their mother died immediately after giving birth to the twins.
St. Scholastica consecrated herself to the Lord at an early age. Both she and Benedict visited Rome when they were 12 and were troubled by the dissolute lifestyle there. Benedict was the first to withdraw into contemplative religious life, while Scholastica later received permission from her father to join a monastery near Nursia. In time, she moved closer to her brother’s abbey at Monte Cassino to lead a community of women at Plombariola. The women followed the Rule of St. Benedict, making St. Scholastica the founder of the women’s branch of Benedictine monasticism.
Once a year, she and her brother would visit at a little house near his abbey and spend the day praying together and discussing sacred Scripture and the current issues of their time. Pope St. Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) described the last of these meetings, shortly before Scholastica’s death in about 543, in his “Dialogues.”
As night fell, St. Scholastica asked her brother to continue talking with her until the following morning about the joys of the spiritual life. When he resisted, not wanting to break his own Rule, she prayed to God not to let her brother depart, pouring out her heart to Our Lord in copious tears. Immediately, a violent storm broke out and forced St. Benedict to stay with her and talk all night. Both realized that it was St. Scholastica’s intervention with the Almighty that made this last conversation possible. As St. Gregory relates, “she who had the greater love had the greater power.”
Three days after this meeting, in his cell 5 miles away, St. Benedict learned of his sister’s death when he saw her soul ascend to heaven in the form of a white dove. He chose to bury his sister Scholastica in the tomb where he was also to be buried. Brother and sister were united in both life and death.
In the seventh century, the bodies of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica were moved from Monte Cassino to Le Mans, France, where St. Scholastica remains a patron of that city. In the time of St. Louis, she was honored in some places with an office of three lessons. Benedictine monasticism continues to thrive all over the world today.
Reflection
Dear Lord, thank you for the example of spiritual friendship enjoyed by these two great saints. May I have good friends who bring me closer to you and encourage me to live in love, peace, and joy.
Prayer
As we celebrate anew the Memorial of the Virgin Saint Scholastica,
we pray, O Lord,
that, following her example,
we may serve you with pure love
and happily receive what comes from loving you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
