Patriarch of many peoples” “” “

“St. Benedict – Patron of many peoples”: that’s the title of a new book on the Patron Saint of Europe recently presented to the Italian public. The book describes, with favour and fascination, not only the life of the Saint born in Norcia, but the whole mentality and spirituality of this man who had no other desire than to seek God and who planted the roots of what we now call Europe. It was the Gospel that formed our culture. In this way St. Benedict may justly be called the “father of many peoples”. St. Benedict, however, is about to become the father of many nations in a far wider sense. His male and female disciples can now be found throughout the world. In Tanzania there are four abbeys and many convents of nuns. St. Benedict has over 1,500 followers in this country. There are over 600 Cistercians in Vietnam, in spite of their situation, i.e. that of living under a Communist regime. The idea of St. Benedict is attracting followers all over the world, and his monasteries are once again becoming the centres of prayer and of culture for entire regions. The Gospel enters cultures and transforms them into true humanism. In the USA the Benedictine continue to contribute, as they have done for 150 years, to the life of the Church through schools and universities. They invest in the future of the young, the best investment we can make. And that future is not only economic. It is a human future of freedom, mutual respect and solidarity. The Gospel is at the root of the formation of the young. In Asia we have Benedictine schools with thousands of pupils. In Europe too, in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, England and Italy, there are abbeys with schools of inestimable tradition. Throughout the world men and women Benedictines serve some 150,000 students. It’s an education that is born from prayer, from the sequela Christi, from Christ’s love for children and the young. The formation of man in his years of adolescence, the years most crucial for his future, is not any old task entrusted to monks, but comes from God himself: from the search for God and from the experience of the charity of this God. Already in Subiaco, where he founded his first monasteries, the nobles of the city of Rome wanted to bring their children to St. Benedict to ensure they got a good education. The most famous of them were Mauro and Placido. It was the beginning of a long history of the transformation of the West by the Gospel through the monks. Never having great aspirations before them, but simply living a Christian life within a community and in the midst of the culture around them, they developed their daily life, prayer, chant, education, agriculture, manual and artistic work. St. Benedict, father of many European peoples, is now increasingly becoming the father of many peoples throughout the world.