Scholastica (c. 480–543)

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Scholastica (c. 480–543)

Catholic saint. Born around 480 in Nursia in Umbria; died in 543 in Monte Cassino; daughter of Eupropious and Abundantia (according to a 12th-century source); twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–c. 547).

St. Scholastica was born in Nursia (now called Norcia) in Umbria, part of central Italy, around 480. Scholastica, whose name means "the Well Taught," is known primarily as the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, founder of the monastic tradition in Western Europe. Scholastica devoted her life to pious worship, participated in religious communal life, and founded a convent at Monte Cassino, near her brother's monastery.

At the end of the 5th century, the Roman Empire had virtually collapsed, due in part to economic crises and repeated invasions by Germanic peoples from the North. In the midst of political and social upheaval, Christianity offered a measure of order and discipline in a turbulent world. Scholastica and her brother Benedict, children of a prominent and wealthy family in Nursia, were raised together in a tradition of Christian piety until they reached age 14, at which time Benedict was sent to Rome to be educated in philosophy and law. He was horrified by the worldliness of Rome and left the city for northern Italy, where, after living in self-imposed solitude and poverty for three years, he eventually founded Monte Cassino, the first monastic order in Western Europe. Like Benedict, Scholastica had devoted her life to prayer, discipline, and charity. In the early Middle Ages, women were not allowed to take vows binding them to a religious order until they were 40 years old. In preparation, younger women, if they chose, could establish religious communities where they lived according to strict religious principles. Scholastica participated in such a community until she left for Monte Cassino to be near the brother from whom she had been separated since they were 14. There, she built a convent for herself and her companions and arranged to meet her brother for one day out of the year in a small hut on the mountainside.

In 543, Scholastica and Benedict met for the last time. She and her companions joined Benedict at a traveler's inn on Monte Cassino. As they sat at a table and the hour for them to part approached, Scholastica begged her brother for more time together. Benedict, in his self-discipline, refused on the grounds that he would never pass a night outside the monastery walls. According to Catholic hagiography, Scholastica wept in silence and then paused for a moment, her head bowed and her hands clasped. When she raised her head again, a startling boom of thunder shook the inn, the sky became black, and a wild storm ripped through the night. Benedict, appalled, asked his sister what she had done. Scholastica replied that since Benedict would not grant her wish, she had prayed to God for more time with her brother. God's answer, the raging storm, prevented Benedict from returning to his monastery until the morning. When the storm abated, brother and sister parted for the last time. Scholastica died three days later, and some claim that her soul ascended to heaven in the form of a dove. Benedict buried her body in a grave at the foot of the altar in his church. Four years later, when Benedict died, he was buried in the same grave beside his sister Scholastica.