Feast Day of St Scholastica (480 - 547) She was born in Nursia in about 480, the twin sister of St Benedict. She was dedicated to God from an early age and followed her brother to Cassino, where she died in about 547. When I was little, my mother would call me "Sr. Scholastica", which was not meant as a compliment. I never knew who Scholastica was, but her name had a ring to it. I was to gather that she was a little holier than thou and that I "should come off it." My parents (i.e. mother) were afraid that I'd become a nun. I think they observed the religious sisters in various communities and just saw how hard they worked and how joyless, how unrewarding it appeared. More about Scholatica from Wikipedia: "The most commonly told story about her is that she would, once a year, go and visit her brother at a place near his abbey, and they would spend the day worshiping together and discussing sacred texts and issues.One year at the end of the day, they had supper and continued their conversation. When Benedict indicated it was time for him to leave, she protested, and begged him to stay with her for the evening so they could continue their discussions. He refused, insisting that he needed to return to his cell. At that point, Scholastica closed her hands in prayer, and after a moment, a wild storm started outside of the guest house in which they were housed. Benedict asked, "What have you done?", to which she replied, "I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery." Benedict was unable to return to his monastery, and they spent the night in discussion."
I love this story. In order for this woman to get what she wanted, she implored God's intervention. Hmmm. Is this kosher? I'm going to interpret it to mean, as in many cases with women and men, that Benedict's sister knew the better choice. She had to elicit help to persuade her brother of the rightness of her idea. I think it's funny that she had to summon a storm. She knew that their togetherness would yield good things. (in fact, I believe the story goes that she died three days later. Maybe she knew that their time together was going to end soon.)
I've been trying to follow the Liturgy of the Hours that St. Benedict developed for his monks (and Scholastica's nuns likely followed too). and I've been reading up on monasteries around the country. Maybe my mother was right to worry.
1 comment:
I think our mother called you that with a twinkle in her eye and a little pride in you - that's what I remember. You were (and are) smart, good and determined to be better. She thought you were cute. And I wanted to be like you so I could elicit that twinkle.
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