Feast 11 July
Father of Western monks. Ora et labora. His medal is still worn.
Sacred art
The portrait kept with St. Benedict of Nursia is the image this library has of Benedict. The honour goes to the person, and through the person to God. It is not a machine, and it is not a substitute for the life written below.
The Rule. Monte Cassino. Twin of Scholastica. Died about 547. Europe’s schools and fields were built on his hours.
If it belongs to Benedict, it is here, with a door back into the story.
EichstättDied 779; oil still collected
An English abbess in Germany. From the rock around her relics a liquid has been collected for centuries — Walburgisöl — used as a sacramental of healing. The body itself was found intact in the ninth century.
Sant’Ambrogio, Florencec. 1230
An old priest at the Benedictine convent is said to have left the chalice undried. In the morning a residue like blood was there. Florence has kept a chapel of the miracle, and a later Good Friday fire is a second story, not the same hour.
LoretoTradition: arrived 1294
A small stone house, now inside a basilica, claimed to be the house of the Holy Family, carried from Nazareth by angels — or, as later historians prefer, by the princely family of Angeli. Popes have piled privileges on it. Archaeologists argue.
Basilica of St. Margaret, CortonaDied 1297
A penitent: a noble’s mistress who lost him to murder, then took the Franciscan habit of the Third Order. Her body remains in Cortona, above the high altar, a woman who changed her life and was not allowed to disappear.
St. Georgenberg-Fiecht, Tyrol1310
A priest doubted during Mass at the mountain monastery. The wine became blood and overflowed the chalice onto the corporal. The cloth is still the treasure of the abbey.
Turin (earlier Lirey, Chambéry)First documented 1354; claimed as 1st century
The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing the faint image of a crucified man. Many Catholics believe it may be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. The Church has not formally declared it authentic.
6 studied signs on this image
Corpus Domini, BolognaDied 1463; enthroned 1500s
Poor Clare, painter, mystic, writer of the Seven Spiritual Weapons. Her body, found flexible and intact, has sat upright in a golden chair for five centuries. You meet her face to face.
Manoppello, AbruzzoDocumented in Manoppello from 1506; claimed older
A translucent cloth in a Capuchin church, visible from both sides, bearing a living face that some identify with the Veil of Veronica or the burial face-cloth (sudarium). Benedict XVI visited it in 2006. No decree of authenticity.
Faverney, Franche-Comté1608
A fire destroys the Benedictine church. The monstrance is found suspended in the air, Host intact, above the ashes. For 33 hours it is said not to fall.
El Cobre, Santiago de Cubac. 1612–1613
Three men in a boat — two Indians, one African child — find a small statue on the water after a storm: “I am the Virgin of Charity.” She is Cuba’s patroness, the lady of a copper-mining town, of exiles, of a people who have had to carry her.
Our Lady Victorious, PragueIn Prague from 1628
A small Spanish wax-and-wood Child, given to the Discalced Carmelites, dressed in royal robes, famous for favors to the poor and to families. Not a walking statue — a school of spiritual childhood.
Paraíba River, then Aparecida1717
Three fishermen, catching nothing, net a small, mud-dark broken statue of the Immaculate Conception — first the body, then the head — and then a haul of fish. She is the patroness of Brazil.
San Crisogono, Trastevere, RomeDied 1837; body in San Crisogono
A housewife, mother of seven, tertiary, whose mystical sun — a luminous globe in which she saw the world — was examined by popes. The body, found intact, lies in a glass coffin in Trastevere.
Isola del Gran SassoDied 1862; body at Isola del Gran Sasso
A Passionist student, dead at twenty-four of tuberculosis, whose body was found preserved and is kept in the sanctuary at Isola. Patron of youth, of students, of Abruzzo.
Rosano, Tuscany1948
In the Benedictine monastery of Rosano a Host was seen to change during adoration. The nuns and the diocese kept a file. It is a modern case, and it is not Lanciano.
Ngome, KwaZulu-Natal1955–1971
Sr. Reinolda May, a Benedictine missionary, sees Mary as Tabernacle of the Most High — a Eucharistic title — and is told a shrine will rise at a deserted spring. The bishop of Eshowe has permitted the sanctuary.
Casa San Pablo, Santo Domingo30 October 2011
During Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at Casa San Pablo in Santo Domingo, a photograph is said to show the Host in the monstrance pouring light — red and blue and gold. The Church has not issued a decree that this photograph is a miracle.
