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Mar. 21st, 2010 06:19 amBenedict of Nursia (d. c. 547) "The father of western monasticism," Benedict and his twin sister St. Scholastica were born in Nursia in c. 480 to a prosperous family. He studied in Rome, but soon left the city and joined a community of hermits in the Sabine hills. Then he lived for three years in a cave near Subiaco. A nearby community of hermits made him their leader, but then refused his efforts to reform the community and tried to poison him - Benedict went back to Subiaco. There he developed his own monastic community, moving in ca. 529 to Monte Cassino. His Rule for Monks (The Benedictine Rule) of course eventually swept Europe, thanks especially to the support given it by the Carolingians.
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Enda (d. c542) Enda (in Latin, Endeus, gaillic Einne) is considered the founder of the first true monastery in Ireland. According to his largely legendary Vita, he was a hereditary chieftain who was converted to religion by his sister, the abbess St. Fanchea (she who crossed the Irish Sea with three of her nuns by foot on her shawl) and spent time at St. Ninian’s monastery Candida Casa in Scotland. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he is said to have been ordained priest and to have become head of a major monastery, Enda returned to Ireland, received from king Aengus of Munster the island of Aran (Árainn; also Inis Mór), the largest of the Aran Islands. There he founded ten monasteries, operated miracles, and had as a disciple St. Ciarán [of Clonmacnoise]. Enda's rule for monks was very strict and even included manual labor (unusual for Irish monks); according to later tradition, he insisted on weeding with his own hands and digging ditches without tools, and forced his monks to do the same.
His principal monastery came to be named for him: Kill-Enda and gave its name to the island's present village of Killeany. The 8th-century Martyrology of St. Oengus records his feast on this day.
Enda might have been an only son, but were it not for his sister Fainche, he might never have been a saint. He came to her seeking one of her vowed virgins as a bride (much like Béoán did to Íte, but he got his wish and hence his son became a saint, not him), but just after he made his request his chosen virgin went to her true Spouse, dying on the spot. Fainche then preached to her brother about the pains of hell and the joys of heaven until she made him cry. He joined the religious life at once and the rest is history.
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Lupicinus of the Jura (d. c480) We know about the monastic founder Lupicinus chiefly from his early sixth-century Vita by a monk of Condat. By the time of Gregory of Tours' Vita patrum some seventy years later he, like his brother St. Romanus of Condat, was already fading into legend.
Lupicinus was the younger brother; initially he lived in the world but after the death of his wife he joined Romanus at the latter's hermitage at Condat, founded in about 435 and now developing into a community whose life imitated that of Eastern desert fathers. In ca. 445 they founded a second house at a place called Lauconne. The brothers ruled both houses jointly until Romanus’ death in about 465, after which the very austere Lupicinus exercised single rule over both from his residence at Lauconne, living on wild fruits and plants.
As he lay dying he asked for a drink of water. One of the brethren sweetened it, by pouring in a spoonful of honey. But the dying man, when he had tasted the sweetness, turned his head away, and refused to drink.
He was buried at Lauconne, which in time came to be named for him.
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Enda (d. c542) Enda (in Latin, Endeus, gaillic Einne) is considered the founder of the first true monastery in Ireland. According to his largely legendary Vita, he was a hereditary chieftain who was converted to religion by his sister, the abbess St. Fanchea (she who crossed the Irish Sea with three of her nuns by foot on her shawl) and spent time at St. Ninian’s monastery Candida Casa in Scotland. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he is said to have been ordained priest and to have become head of a major monastery, Enda returned to Ireland, received from king Aengus of Munster the island of Aran (Árainn; also Inis Mór), the largest of the Aran Islands. There he founded ten monasteries, operated miracles, and had as a disciple St. Ciarán [of Clonmacnoise]. Enda's rule for monks was very strict and even included manual labor (unusual for Irish monks); according to later tradition, he insisted on weeding with his own hands and digging ditches without tools, and forced his monks to do the same.
His principal monastery came to be named for him: Kill-Enda and gave its name to the island's present village of Killeany. The 8th-century Martyrology of St. Oengus records his feast on this day.
Enda might have been an only son, but were it not for his sister Fainche, he might never have been a saint. He came to her seeking one of her vowed virgins as a bride (much like Béoán did to Íte, but he got his wish and hence his son became a saint, not him), but just after he made his request his chosen virgin went to her true Spouse, dying on the spot. Fainche then preached to her brother about the pains of hell and the joys of heaven until she made him cry. He joined the religious life at once and the rest is history.
---***---
Lupicinus of the Jura (d. c480) We know about the monastic founder Lupicinus chiefly from his early sixth-century Vita by a monk of Condat. By the time of Gregory of Tours' Vita patrum some seventy years later he, like his brother St. Romanus of Condat, was already fading into legend.
Lupicinus was the younger brother; initially he lived in the world but after the death of his wife he joined Romanus at the latter's hermitage at Condat, founded in about 435 and now developing into a community whose life imitated that of Eastern desert fathers. In ca. 445 they founded a second house at a place called Lauconne. The brothers ruled both houses jointly until Romanus’ death in about 465, after which the very austere Lupicinus exercised single rule over both from his residence at Lauconne, living on wild fruits and plants.
As he lay dying he asked for a drink of water. One of the brethren sweetened it, by pouring in a spoonful of honey. But the dying man, when he had tasted the sweetness, turned his head away, and refused to drink.
He was buried at Lauconne, which in time came to be named for him.
