Venerable Benedict of Nursia in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The focus of Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, as he seeks to glorify and highlight Venerable Benedict, is the Venerable one’s withdrawal from the world due to his fervent love for the Lord, but also his return to the world with pure love, through his prayers and healing miracles. In other words, the Hymnographer emphasizes Benedict’s ascetic life from childhood: his ascetic struggles, his tears, his chastity, which were fruits of his love for the Lord, and his healing presence in the world, both for his monastic disciples and for ordinary people who approached him.

Already in the first sticheron of Vespers, we hear:

“Out of true faith and love for God, Father, from infancy you renounced the world, Venerable one, and joyfully followed Christ crucified. And having mortified your flesh with many ascetic struggles, you received abundantly the grace of healings, so that you could cure various diseases and expel the spirits of wickedness.”

Prologue in Sermons: February 1

Simplicity of Faith, Combined with Almsgiving, Works Miracles

February 1

(A Homily on Saint Benedict, How He Redeemed a Poor Man by Asking God for Gold.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Simplicity of faith, both in itself and especially when joined with almsgiving, works miracles. Of this we are convinced both by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Fathers. The Lord teaches about simplicity of faith: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, and say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you" (Matt. 17:20). And Saint John Chrysostom says of almsgiving that it possesses “a greater grace than raising the dead.” Is this true, my brothers? Yes, it is truly so, and there should be no doubt about it.

There was, says the Church tradition, in the land of Rome a monk and glorious wonderworker named Benedict, who even raised the dead. He was exceedingly merciful and generous to everyone who asked of him. By his kindness, he was a father to many monasteries and a perfect non-possessor. Because of the alms he distributed so generously, the brethren of his monastery often endured extreme need, and there were days when neither in his own monastery nor in all the other monasteries to which he gave charity could even a single gold coin be found.

March: Day 14: Venerable Benedict of Nursia

March: Day 14:
Venerable Benedict of Nursia
 
(On the Careful Handling of Human Words)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Venerable Father Benedict, whose memory is celebrated today, lived in the 5th century. He knew two maidens of noble birth, distinguished by their modesty and innocence. They had one fault: those maidens loved to gossip and reproach others, i.e., they greatly abused the gift of speech. The Venerable Father warned them, saying: "Give up this bad habit, otherwise I will excommunicate you from Holy Communion." But the maidens did not improve, and so they died; they were still buried with honor, in the church. Later, some of the nuns who were present in that church saw the following: at the cry of "All catechumens, depart," the maidens came out of their coffins and went out of the church. And only through the prayers of the Venerable Benedict, who offered a prosphora for their repose, did the maidens stop appearing.