St. Benedict was the son of a rich Italian family. His life was full of adventure and wonderful deeds. As a young boy, he was sent to Rome to study in the public schools. When he was a young man, because he was disgusted with the vices of the world, he left the city and went looking for a place where he could devote all his time to praying and loving God. In a cave in the mountain of Subiaco, he spent three years alone. The devil often tempted him to go back to his rich home, but Benedict overcame these temptations by prayer and penance. One day, the devil kept making him think of a beautiful lady he had once seen in Rome. He tried to make him go back to look for that lady. Benedict almost gave in to the temptation, but then he felt so sorry that he threw himself into a bush of long, sharp thorns. He rolled around in these terrible thorns until he was covered with blood. From then on, he had no more temptations to impurity.
After three years, God let a priest know where Benedict was living, and soon many people came to him to learn how to become holy. He became the leader of some men who had asked his help. But when he tried to make them do penance, they grew angry. They were so wicked that they even tried to poison Benedict. He made the Sign of the Cross over the poisoned wine and by a miracle, the glass shattered to pieces! God had saved him!
Later, Benedict became the leader of many good monks.
He founded twelve monasteries in Subiaco, and then went to Cassino, where he built a famous monastery. It was here that St. Benedict wrote the wonderful rules for the Benedictine order. He taught his monks to pray and work hard, and, especially, to be humble always. Both Benedict and his monks greatly helped the people of their times by teaching them how to read and write, how to farm, and how to work at different trades.
St. Benedict was able to do so much good, because he prayed very much.
Whenever we are tempted, especially to impurity, let us say a prayer at once. And let us make whatever sacrifice must be made to avoid sinning.
