De sancta Scholastica sorore sancti
The Power of Love and Prayer
Scholastica's fervent prayer compels Benedict to stay, demonstrating that the one who loves more is more powerful before God.
Scholastica, the sister of the blessed Benedict, had been dedicated to the Almighty Lord since childhood, and she was accustomed to visiting him once a year. The man of God would come down to meet her at a place just outside the monastery gate, on land belonging to the monastery. One day, she arrived as usual, and the venerable man came down to her with his disciples. They spent the entire day in the praises of God and in holy conversation, and as night began to fall, they shared a meal. While they were still sitting at the table, discussing holy things, and the hour grew late, his sister, a consecrated woman, begged him, "I ask you, don't leave me tonight; let us talk until morning about the joys of the heavenly life." He replied, "What are you saying, sister?" "I cannot stay outside my cell." Yet the sky was so clear that not a single cloud appeared in the air. But when the consecrated woman heard her brother’s refusal, she clasped her hands together on the table, bowed her head, and prayed to the Almighty Lord. When she lifted her head from the table, such a violent storm of lightning, thunder, and rain broke out that neither the venerable father Benedict nor the brothers with him could move their feet beyond the threshold of the place where they were sitting. The consecrated woman had indeed bowed her head into her hands and shed floods of tears onto the table, through which she turned the clear sky into rain; the downpour began shortly after her prayer. She followed it. The harmony between her prayer and the downpour was so great that she lifted her head from the table just as the thunder rolled; it was as if the rain began to fall the moment she lifted her head. Then the man of God, seeing the lightning, the thunder, and the torrential rain, realized he could not return to the monastery. No. Unable to return, he began to complain, saddened, and said, "May the Almighty Lord forgive you, sister; what have you done?" She replied, "Look, I asked you, and you wouldn't listen to me; I asked my Lord, and He heard me. Now, if you can, leave and go back to the monastery, leaving me behind." But he could not go out into the storm. Unable to stay, though he hadn't wanted to remain there of his own free will, he stayed against his wishes, and it happened that he kept watch for the entire night. They spent the time in praise of God and sacred conversation, satisfying themselves with a mutual exchange of words. Regarding this, I said that she had wanted something but could not manage it, because if we look at the mind of that venerable man, there is no doubt that he wanted to remain in the same serenity in which he had come down; yet, contrary to what he wanted, he found a miracle through the power of almighty God in response to the woman's request. It is no wonder that the woman, who had long desired to see her brother, was more powerful at that moment. For it is said according to the voice of John: God is love; and by a very just judgment, she was more powerful who loved more. And when the venerable woman had returned to her own cell the next day, the man of God returned to the monastery.
A Shared Ascent to Heaven
Following Scholastica's death, Benedict experiences a vision of her soul's ascent, and later, his own holy death is revealed to his disciples through a miraculous path.
Three days later, while he was standing in his cell and had lifted his eyes to the altar, he saw the soul of his sister departing from her body and penetrating the secrets of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he gave thanks to almighty God in hymns and praises, and announced her death to the brothers, whom he also sent immediately to bring her body to the monastery and place it in the tomb he had prepared for himself. Once this was done, it happened that those whose minds had always been one in God were not separated even in their bodies. On that same day. In the year that the blessed Benedict was to depart from this life, he announced the day of his most holy death to some who were with him and to others who were staying far away, instructing those present to keep what they had heard in silence, and indicating to those absent what sign would be given to them when his soul departed from his body. Six days before his death, he ordered his tomb to be opened for him; soon after, he was seized by a fever and began to be worn down by intense heat. As his weakness grew, on the sixth day he had his disciples carry him into the oratory. There, he fortified his departure with the reception of the Lord's Body and Blood, and while supporting his weak limbs in the hands of his disciples, he stood with his hands raised to heaven and breathed his last breath amidst the words of his prayer. On that very day, a revelation of one and the same vision appeared to two of his brothers, one staying in his cell and the other positioned further away. For they saw a path covered with tapestries and shining with countless lamps, stretching in a straight line from his cell toward the east and up into heaven. A man shining with light stood above it and asked whose path it was that they were seeing. Others confessed that they did not know, to whom he said: 'This is the path by which the beloved of the Lord, Benedict, ascends to heaven.' Thus, they were present for the holy man's death. The disciples saw it, and in this way, those who were absent knew of it through the sign that had been foretold to them.
The Legacy of the Saint
Benedict's final resting place is established in the oratory he built upon the site of a former pagan shrine.
He was buried, however, in the oratory of blessed John the Baptist, which he had built after destroying the shrine of Apollo. He built it himself. ... ... ... ...
Read the original Latin
Soror beati Benedicti Scholastica nomine omnipotenti domino ab ipso pueritiae snae tempore dedicata ad emn semel per annum venire consueverat, Ad quam vir Dei non longe extra Januam in possessione monaslerii descendebat, Quadam vero die venit ex more atque ad eam cum discipulis venerabilis ejus descendit frater, Qui totum diem in Dei laudibus sacrisque colloquiis ducentes incumbentibus jun noctis tenebris suniliter acceperunt cibos, cumque adhuc ad mensam sederent et inter se sacra eloquia narrassent lardiorque se hora protraheret, eadem sanctimonialis femina soror ejus rogavit eum dicens : quaeso te, ne ista nocte me deseras et usque mane aliquid de coelestis vitae gaudiis loquamur, Cui ille respondit: quid est, quod loqueris, soror! manere extra cellam nullatenus possum, Tanta vero serenitas coeli erat, ut nulla in aere nubes appareret. Sanctimonialis autem femina, cwn verba fratris negantis audiisset, insertas digitis manus supra mensam posui et caput in manibus omnipotentem dominum rogatura declinavit, cumque leveret de mensa capnt, tanta coruscationis et tonitrui virtus tantaque inundatio pluviae erupit, ut neque venerabilis pater Benedictus neque fratres, qui cum eo aderant, extra loci limen, quo consederant, pedes inovere potuissent. Sanctimonialis quippe femina capnt in manibus declinans lacrymarum fluvios in mensam fuderat, per quos serenitatem a ris ad pluviam traxit, nec paulo tardius post orationem inundatio. illa secnta est. Sed tanta fuit convenientia orationis et inundationis, ut de mensa caput jam cum tonitruo levaret, quatenus unum idemque esset momentmn, et levare caput et pluvinm ‘deponere, Tunc vir Dei inter coruscationem et tonitmos atque ingentis pluviae inundationes videns, se ad monasterium. non. posse remeare, coepit conqueri contristatus dicens: parcat tibi Deus omnipotens, soror; quid est, quod fecistit Cai illa respondit: ecoe te rogavi et audire me noluisti, rogavi dominum meum et exaudivit me, modo ergo, si potes, egredere et me dimissa ad monasterium recede, Ipse autem exire extra tectum.
non valens, qui manere sponte noluerat, in loco mansit invitus sieque factum est, nt totam noctem pervigilem. ducerent atque per sacra spiritualis vitae colloquia sese vicaria relatione satiarent, Qua de re dixi eam voluisse aliquid, sed minime potuisse, quia, si venerabilis viri mentem adspicimns, dubiwm non-est, quod eandem serenitatem voluit, in qua descenderat, permanere, sed contra hoc, quod voluit, in virtute omnipotentis Dei ex feminae petitione miraculum invenit: nee mirmm, quod plus illa femina, quae diu fratrem videre enpiebat, in eodem tempore valuit. Dicitur enim juxta Johannis vocem: Deus caritas est, Justo valde judicio illa plus potuit, quae amplius amavit, Cumque die altero eadem venerabilis femina ad cellam propriam recessisset, vir Dei ad monaste rinm rediit. Cum ecce post triduum in cella consistens elevatis in ara oculis vidit ejusdem sororis suse animam de corpore egressam in - T coeli secreta penetrare, Qui tantae ejus gloriae congaudens omnipotenti Deo in hymnis et landibus gratias reddidit ejusque obitum fratribus denuntiavit, quos etiam protinus misit, ut ejus corpus ad monasterium deferrent atque in sepulchro, quod sibi ipse praeparaverat, ponerent, Quo facto contigit, ut, quorum mens una semper in Deo fuerat, eorum quoque corpora nec separaret. Eodem vero. anno, quo de hac vita beatus Benedictus erat exiturus, quibusdam secum conversantibus, quibusdam longe manentibus sanctissimi sui obitus de nuntiavit diem praesentibus indicens, ut audita per silentium tegerent, absentibus indicans, quod vel qnale iis signum fieret, quando ejus anima de-corpore exiret, Ante vero sextum exitus sni diem aperiri sibi sepulchrum jubet, qui mox correptus febribus acri coepit ardore fatigari, singulos languor ingravesceret, sexto die portari se in oratorium a discipulis fecit, Ibidem exitum suum dominici corporis et sanguinis perceptione munivit atque inter discipulorum manus imbecillia membra sustentans erectis in coelum manibus stetit et ultimum spiritum inter verba orationis efflavit, Qua scilicet die duobus de eo fratribus, uni in cella commoranti, alteri autem longius posito revelatio unius atque indissinilis visionis apparuit. Viderunt namque, quia strata palliis atque innumeris coruscans lampadibus vin recto orientis tramite ab ejus cella in coelum usque tendebatar, Cui venerando habita vir desuperclarus assistens, cujus esset via, quam cernerent, inquisivit, Alii autem se nescire profesi sunt, Quibus ipse ait: haec est via, qua dilectus domini Benedictus coelum adscendit, Tunc itaque sancti viri obitum sient praesentes. discipuli viderunt, ita absentes ex signo, quod iis praedietum fuerat, cognoverunt.
Sepultus vero est in oratorio beati Johannis baptistae, quod- destrueta sara:
Apollinis ipse construxit, c C E . ; "uel feq cmd. . t . 9 e
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