Benedict and His Monks

Come andiamo?

That's Italian for "How's it going?" And this is the Friday Rome update...or the place where you can obtain useless knowledge about the Eternal City - whichever you prefer.

Italian CDs have been ordered and more planning has commenced. A bit of progress has been made but I find myself waiting to hear from my boss's friend regarding some technicalities.

I'm also trying to convince my boss to go to Monte Cassino with me (for a day-trip only). He expressed interest in going as his father fought there in World War II. I want to go - of course - because this is where Benedict of Nursia, founder of Western monasticism, established his monastery in the sixth century, the first of its kind. (In case you're curious, St. Antony founded monasticism as a whole, though he's considered Eastern as he lived in Egypt.)

Benedict wrote a rule for monks, appropriately entitled, the Rule of Benedict, and his followers eventually came to be known as Benedictines (when there were other orders being established in the thirteenth century). Clever, eh? I guess you could call the Benedictines, "the originals"; they wear the black habits. The monastery was destroyed during the war but has been rebuilt - not that this matters to me. Just to be in the space where this man lived would be amazing!

The sixth century is one of my favorite times in Rome - as it's very chaotic - and it is also the time of Pope Gregory the Great. I keep coming back to good old Gregory for papers and such because I find him fascinating. He wrote, incidentally, the Life of Benedict.