c. 480 (birth) – 525/529 (Monte Cassino)

Benedict of Nursia, Monte Cassino, and his "Rule"

Benedict was born c. 480 in Nursia. Around 500 he withdrew as a hermit to a cave, and he then founded several monasteries. In 525 (by other accounts 529) he founded the monastery at Monte Cassino on the site of a former pagan shrine. He lived there until his death. His sister Scholastica founded a corresponding community for women.

His "Rule" drew on Basil the Great, John Cassian, and the anonymous "Rule of the Master." It set out a reasonable, moderate way of life without extreme asceticism. Its elements were manual labor, worship ("the work of God"), common prayer at fixed hours, obedience to the abbot as "father," and twelve degrees of humility.

In 589 Monte Cassino was destroyed by the Lombards, and the monks brought the Rule to Rome. From there, with papal support, it spread across the West. That support included Gregory the Great, himself a Benedictine. From the 7th to 11th centuries the Rule became virtually the sole form of Western monasticism.