Chapter II. Of the effigy of St. Benedict represented on the medal

The honour of appearing on the same medal with the figure of the holy cross has been given to St. Benedict, with the intention of expressing the efficacy which this holy sign had, when made by his venerable hand. St. Gregory the Great, who has written the Life of the holy Patriarch, tells us how, by the sign of the cross, he overcame his temptations, and by the same sign broke the cup of poisoned drink which was proffered to him, thus unmasking the wicked designs of those who had plotted to take away his life. When the evil spirit, in order to terrify his Religious, made the monastery of Monte Cassino appear to be on fire, St. Benedict immediately dispels the artifice by making over the fiery phantom this same sign of our Redeemer’s Passion . 1 When his Religious are troubled interiorly with the suggestions of the tempter, the holy Father bids them take the remedy, and it is to make on their breasts the sign of the cross . 2

In his Rule, he prescribes that the brother, who has been reading the solemn engagement of his profession

1 See his Life, chap. x. * Ibid., chap. xx.

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at the foot of the altar, should immediately affix to it the sign of the cross, as an irrevocable seal of the deed on which his vows are written.

The disciples of St. Benedict have had a like confidence in this sacred sign, and have worked innumerable miracles by it. Let it here suffice to mention St. Maurus giving sight to a blind man; St. Placid curing many who were sick; St. Richmir liberating captives, St. Wulstan preserving a workman in the very act of falling from the top of the church-tower; St. Odilo drawing out from a man’s eye a splinter of wood which had run through it ; St. Anselm of Canterbury driving away from an old man the horrid spectres which were tormenting him in his dying moments; St. Hugh of Cluny quelling a storm ; St. Gregory the Seventh arresting the conflagration at Rome, &c. : these, and a thousand other such miracles, which are related in the “Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict,” were all worked by the sign of the cross.

The glory and efficacy of the august instrument of our salvation have been celebrated with enthusiasm by the children of the great Patriarch ; they loved to extol it, for their hearts were full of gratitude towards it. Not to speak of the little Office of the Holy Cross which St. Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg, used to recite, and which was also said in choir in the abbeys of St. Gall, of Reichenau, of Bursfeld, &c. ; the blessed Rhabanus Maurus and St. Peter Damian consecrated their talent for poetry in singing the praises of the holy cross ; St. Anselm of Canterbury has written its praises in the form of most exquisite prayers; Venerable Bede, St. Odilo of Cluny, Rupert of Deutz, Ecbert of Schonaugen, and a long list of others of the Order, have left us sermons on the holy cross ; Eginhard wrote a book in defence of the worship paid to it against the Iconoclasts, and Peter the venerable defended, in a set treatise, the use of the sign of the cross, which had been attacked by the Petrobrusians. A great number of the most famous monasteries of the Order of St. Benedict were founded under the title of “ Holy Cross.” Of these, let it suffice to mention the celebrated monastery built at Paris by the Bishop, St. Germanus; the monastery built by St. Faronin the diocese of Meaux ; the abbey of “ Holy Cross ” founded at Poitiers by St. Radegonde ; the monastery of “ Holy Cross ” at Bordeaux built by Clovis the Second ; those of Metten in Bavaria, Reichenau in Switzerland, Quimperl£ in Brittany, and the five famous monasteries in the Vosgian country which were founded by St. Hydulph, and which he so situated that they formed a cross.

The Saviour of the world seems to have entrusted, by a special favour, to the children of St. Benedict a large portion of the cross on which He died for the redemption of man. Large fragments of this sacred wood have been confided to their keeping, and a Christian might almost glory in having seen the instrument of his salvation, were all the pieces to be put before him, which have been possessed by different monasteries of this Order. We may mention the following amongst the houses thus privileged : — In France, St. Germain-des-Pr^s, in Paris, St. Denis’ ; Holy Cross at Poitiers ; Connery,

THE EFFIGY OF ST. BENEDICT.

in Touraine, Gellone, &c. ; St. Michael's de Murano, in Venice; Sahagun, in Spain ; Reichenau, in Switzerland; St. Ulric's and St. Afra's at Augsburg, in Germany ; St. Michael's, at Hildesheim ; St. Trutpert’s, in the Black Forest; Mcelk, in Austria; the celebrated monastery of Gandersheim, &c.

But the most glorious mission given to the Benedictines in what relates to the glory of the holy cross is that of having carried this instrument of salvation into so many countries by preaching the gospel to their Pagan inhabitants. The greater part of the West was converted by their zeal from the darkness of infidelity ; and the reader need scarce be told that England was converted by St. Augustine of Canterbury; Germany by St. Boniface; Belgium by St. Amandus ; Holland and Zealand by St. Willibrord ; Westphalia by St. Swithbert ; Sweden and Denmark by St. Anscharius; Austria by St. Wolfgang; Saxony by St. Ludgerius; Bavaria by St. Corbinian; Poland and Bohemia by St. Adalbert of Prague ; Prussia by St. Otho of Bamberg ; Russia by St. Boniface the Second.

Such are, in brief, the facts which give to the person and name of St. Benedict a special connection with the holy cross ; it is, therefore, with a most evident appropriateness that the effigy of this holy Patriarch has been put on the same medal with the figure of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We see still more clearly why this should have been done when we refer to what is related in the Acts of the two great disciples of this servant of God, St. Placid and St. Maurus. Both of them, when working the miracles, which we meet with in almost every page of their lives, were wont to join together with the invocation of the holy cross the name of their holy Father, Benedict, thus establishing, at the very beginning of the Order, the pious practice, of which the medal was to be, in after times, the symbol and the expression.

St. Placid had scarcely bidden farewell to the holy Patriarch on leaving Monte Cassino to repair to Sicily, when arriving at Capua he was besought to heal the dean of the church of that town. His humility made him for a long time resist such a demand ; at length he consents, and placing his hand upon the head of the priest, who was sick of a mortal disease, he immediately cures him, whilst pronouncing these words : “ In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, ly the prayers and virtue of Benedict our Master , drew me safe and sound from the midst of the water, may God reward thy faith, and restore thee to thy former health.”

Immediately there comes a’ blind man, begging in his turn to be cured. Placid makes the sign of the cross upon his eyes, at the same time adding this prayer: “ Lord Jesus Christ, Mediator of God and men, who didst come down from heaven to earth that thou mightest enlighten those who were sitting in the darkness and shades of death ; thou who hast given to our blessed Master Benedict the gift of healing all maladies and all wounds, deign, by his merits, to give sight to this blind man, to the end that, seeing the magnificence of thy works, he may fear and adore thee as the Sove-

Google reign Lord.” Then addressing himself to the blind man. Placid thus continued : “ By the merits of our most holy Father Benedict, I command thee, in the name of him who created the sun and moon to be the ornament of the heavens, and gave to him who was born blind the eyes which nature had denied him, arise, and be thou healed ! go now and tell all men the wonderful works of our God.” The blind man immediately recovered his sight. We might quote several other miracles from the life of St. Placid, such as healing the sick or driving out devils from those possessed, in which the invocation or the mention of St. Benedict, still living, was united with the making of the sign of the cross. In some of these miracles, we find the sick themselves acknowledging and proclaiming this mysterious connection.

St. Maurus, having been sent by the great Patriarch into Gaul, there to establish his Rule, soon began to work numerous miracles. As we noticed before, these miracles were wrought by means of the holy cross, but the saintly abbot was also accustomed to join to the divine virtue of the instrument of our redemption, a prayer invoking the intervention of St. Benedict. He bore testimony to this himself when, on occasion of his having saved one of his fellow-travellers from death, he made this declaration : 66 If,” said the saint to those who had witnessed the miracle, u the Divine Majesty hath deigned to work this miracle by the wood which redeemed us, it is plainly not to man, but to the Redeemer himself that we must give the glory of it, although none of you can doubt, but that the merits of our most holy

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Father Benedict have obtained this grace of him for us.”

From these facts it is evident that, even from the very commencement of the Benedictine Order, this method of having recourse to the divine goodness was practised with wonderful success. St. Benedict was still on earth, and his disciples invoked his name when they were asking favours of Heaven ; if such confidence in his merits was, even then, thus blessed by God, how great must the power of his intercession be now that he has been raised to his throne of glory in heaven !

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