Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Another Saints celebration

Today the Church gives us the feast in honor of St. Scholastica; the twin sister of St. Benedict. Scholastica was extremely close to her twin brother and followed in his footsteps as a religious. She founded and was abbess of a convent not far from Monte Cassino, the location of Benedict's monastery.

She is considered the first of the Benedictine nuns.

One of the beautiful stories about St. Scholastica comes from the writings of St. Gregory. He reports that one evening Scholastica visits Benedict, who had strict rules for the prayer flow of each day. When he encouraged his twin sister to return to the convent and end their visit, she prayed for a way to stay and talk with her brother through the night. And a fierce thunderstorm erupted, preventing her from leaving her brother til the next day.

Only three days later, she died. Gregory reports that at the moment of her death, Benedict was gazing from a window in the general direction of his sister's convent. Benedict is said to have seen a dove, rising from the convent heavenward.

He praised God in prayer for the life of his sister and sent for her body which he placed in a grave he would come to share with her. She died in the year 543 and her feast day was established as February 10th.

Locally, our Archdiocese honors Scholastica with the name of an all girls high school in Covington, right down the road from where I live. Benedictines still serve there and one of the Priests from St. Jospeh Abbey serves as their chaplain.

St. Scholastica pray for us!

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