Reflection on The Feast of St Benedict

July. The month of The Feast. Well, one of the months. We’re blessed that we have two months we can celebrate the life and legacy of St Benedict. Three months counting Saint Scholastica in February. (Possibly four, though I’ve not experienced the December 11th ‘Deposition of the Sacred Relics of our Holy Patriarch Benedict’, which I gather is celebrated in some monasteries.) Typically Feasts of saints are based on their day of death, or birthday of their new heavenly life, so historically we commemorate the dies natalis on 21st March, though post-conciliar reforms moved the celebration out of the Lenten season, to July, when we honour the translation of the Relics of the Saint.

July gives us several opportunities to celebrate. The Feast on the 11th and the Octave on the 18th. And then there’s the opportunity for a novena starting on 2nd July. A rich month!

It’s been a novelty to come up with dishes to celebrate the feast day. Starting the day with eggs Benedict, lunch with a Benedict salad (though neither, despite the name, have anything to do with The Saint), washed down with a suitable Benedictine beer (plenty of that available, especially with the Monastic Order website). You can see a leaning toward the celebration of feast days with the secular idea of feasting – a celebration with a group involving prayer, food and wine. And this year will probably be no different, there is joy in praying and eating together in honour of The Saint. A wonderful opportunity to reconnect with our home monasteries, if that is possible, and share in community celebration.

The word ‘feast’ has its origins in ‘of the divine, holy’ (from the Indo-European, into the Latin ‘festum’, ‘holiday, festival, feast’). Celebrating solemnities and anniversaries of saints was well established by the sixth century. The solemn celebration, for Benedict, was a greater opportunity for prayer, not time off. We see in chapter 35 for example, that the kitchen servers, an hour before mealtime, “take each a draught of drink and a piece of bread over and above the appointed allowance, that at the hour of refection they may serve their Brethren without murmuring or great labour. Nevertheless, on solemn days let all forbear till after Mass” (from an 1875 edition of The Rule by a monk of Belmont Abbey). This allowance of an extra portion of food is likely based on Benedict’s personal experience in leading the community, as the Rule of the Master is very strict in this regard, where the abbot instructs servers ‘See to it…that you do not…take any food or drink ahead of time, before the prayer at the common table’ (RM Ch 21). For Benedict, one presumes, that the celebration of the Solemnity itself was sufficient to prevent grumbling, without that extra portion of food and drink.

It is clear from The Rule that Benedict places emphasis on the celebration of solemnities with appropriate liturgical honours (Ch 12 The celebration of the Solemnity of Lauds, Ch 14 In what manner the office of Matins is to be celebrated on the Feast Days of Saints, etc). While not so evident in The Rule, there are historical hints that the level of manual work was reduced, if not suspended entirely, on Feast Days so that the monks can fully savour prayer, especially of the minor hours. Benedict ascribes manual labour according to season (RB Ch 48), though that is more calendar season rather than liturgical season. The labour injunction has been expanded to ‘no-labour feast days’ in various subsequent recensions such as the 11th Century ‘Cluniac Customs’, or the 12th Century Cistercian ‘Charter of Charity’. A real holiday to create space for a holy day.

So how will I celebrate The Feast this year? The act of final oblation says something like ‘to be guided by the teachings of our holy Father Benedict, in so far as state in life permits’. My state in life this year allows for the holiday, a no-labour day, all the hours, the psalms and texts pertinent to our Holy Father Benedict. An immersion in the Saint’s life.

However you’re able to celebrate The Feast, here’s wishing all a blessed day!

‘Stir up in your Church, O Lord, that spirit to which Our Holy Father Benedict was ever faithful, so that, filled with the same spirit, we may strive to love what he loved and to practise what he taught.’

Brendan Grimley
Oblate of Douai Abbey