Benedict of Nursia

 

Have you heard of St. Benedict of Nursia? He was born in 480 AD and belonged to an illustrious Roman family who could trace their descent to the 4th century BC, the gens Anicia. A family which could boast of victorious generals, one was awarded a triumph in 184 BC, Consuls, Praetorian Prefects and, of course, senatorial status.

They were, it's claimed, the first senatorial family to convert to Christianity and went on to produce several short term emperors in the 5th century AD as well as popes, not least Gregory the Great. All this and more, imagine, if you can, their immense wealth, but back to Benedict.

The future saint went to Rome for his education and lived in one of the family's houses, perhaps on the Caelian Hill, where he would've received a classical education which, at that point, was very classical; rhetoric, grammar, philosophy, geometry(?) and all of that, no small thing. But, around the year 500 AD, during the reign of Theodoric, Benedict grew disgusted at the life of a wealthy Roman noble in the eternal city and moved from the metropolis to the country, to Enfide, some 40 miles distant.

Why did he do this? Because life in the big city contrasted, sharply, from his deeply held faith. Bear in mind, Rome at that point numbered around 300-400,000 people, and aristocratic bad behaviour was probably much as it ever has been and perhaps ever will be. Bear in mind, too, that this was the final period of Rome's classical grandeur before the Justinian reconquest of Italy ravaged the city in the following century.

Regardless, Benedict moves to the country to escape the wickedness of big city life. He leaves with his old nurse, whom he retains as a servant but, on performing a minor miracle, with all its subsequent notoriety, leaves Enfide and walks to nearby Subiaco (Sublaquem) where he sets up in a cave and becomes a hermit, practicing extreme asceticism. He goes on to found Western monasticism, but here's the thing.

The site of Benedict's cave was on the grounds of one of Nero's country villas, a vast arrangement of houses, baths and artificial lakes. This, curiously, had fallen into ruin by the 5th century and Benedict was, evidently, free to live there, devoting himself to holiness of life. Consider, all you pundits of late antiquity, the irony. Benedict forsook all worldy goods and ambition, and he was heir to plenty, to devote himself to the life in Christ. And he did so on the grounds of, I say again, one of NERO's villas.

This, to me, is remarkable and evidence of divine logic. From Subiaco, Benedict founds the great monastery of Monte Casino, and his famous Rule becomes the standard of Western monasticism in subsequent ages. 

If you read Benedict's Rule several times over, and you should, the character of the saint begins to be revealed. Benedict is urbane, vastly civilized, and at the same time immensely practical, he's all about the right ordering of communities of Christian men in pursuit of holiness. There is, too, no mistaking a man to whom command is written into his DNA.

Crux sacra sit mihi lux, non draco sit mihi dux.

Vade Retro Satana,

LSP

Woman At The Well

In tomorrow's Gospel we hear the remarkable story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Consider the narrative's apocalyptic aspect.

At the sixth hour Christ meets the Harlot at the well and confronts her infidelity with truth. Likewise, at the sixth hour, Pilate condemns Christ, and the followers of the False Prophet Caiaphas write the mark of the Beast on their foreheads saying, "We have no king but Caesar!" Again, at the sixth hour, darkness fell over the land as Jesus was crucified and Antichrist triumphs, for a time.

The woman at the well, curiously, is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Church and is believed to have witnessed before Nero, a type of the Antichrist, before her eventual martyrdom. 

God bless,

LSP

The Gates of Hell Shall not Prevail. God Bless Bishop Iker.

Bishop Iker in LSPland

You've heard the old saying, "They should round up all the bishops and put them in a cage." There's an exception to that rule in Jack Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth. 

Iker doesn't celebrate Neronian gay marriages and he doesn't ordain women, he doesn't even hold goof-off liturgical dances in his cathedral. But what he does do is drive out to LSPland to confirm a very sick man in his home, out by Slap Out, aka Hubbard.

We RV'd at the Compound and drove out to the countryside and the sacrament of Confirmation, in which the Holy Spirit is bestowed by the laying on of hands and anointing. Now, I've never been present at a "house confirmation," much less asked a bishop to do one and I'll tell you this, it was a powerful and blessed event. I don't say that lightly.

Cage These Goons. And Stacy Sauls? You're fired.

Bishop Iker is known for his unwavering stand for catholic orthodoxy, in the Anglican tradition, in the face of the litigious rage the Episcopal Church. He was the first traditionalist bishop to say enough is enough and leave the Episcopal Church with his diocese. He did so on the floor of the 2006 General Convention in Columbus; I know, I was there. Three years later the Episcopal Church rounded on Iker and his diocese, suing him personally and the diocese, in an attempt to gain its money, property and presumably wreck the life of its bishop.

A Couple of Goof-Off Clowns

That lawsuit is ongoing at huge expense and the Episcopal Church is losing, having suffered a series of defeats in the courts. 

The result has yet to be called, but Bishop Iker remains a pastoral and good man in the Apostolic succession. And what can I say? 

The gates of hell shall not prevail, do not compromise with them.

God bless,

LSP

Nero, The Rainbow Emperor

Christians who support gay marriage might like to consider the marriage equality activism of their forbear Nero.

Nero married three men, Sporus, Doryphorus and Pythagoras. As described by Seutonius and Tacitus:

"[Nero] had a boy named Sporus castrated and tried to transform him into an actual woman; he married him in a regular wedding ceremony, with a dowry and a bridal veil, took him home in front of a great crowd, and treated him as his wife. A witty remark that someone made about this is still circulating: that human kind would have been well off, if his father Domitius had had the same kind of wife” (Suetonius, Nero 28-29).

Here's Doryphorus:

“…he invented a new kind of game (so to speak) in which, dressed in the skin of a wild animal, he was released from a cage and attacked the private parts of men and women who were bound to stakes and, when he had had enough of this savagery, he was finished off (as it were) by his freedman Doryphorus. This Doryphorus he took as his husband, just as Sporus had with him, and in doing so he imitated the cries and wailing of a virgin who is being raped” (Suetonius, Nero 28-29).

And Tacitus gives us Pythagoras:

“A veil was placed over the emperor, the interpreters of the auspices were sent; a dowry, a wedding bed and marriage torches -- in the end, everything that is concealed by night even in the case of a woman was on display” (Tacitus, Ann. 15.37).

A Couple of Rainbow Clowns

The Emperor Nero wasn't just famous for marrying men, he also has a place in history for persecuting the church. According to Tacitus:

"And perishing they were additionally made into sports: they were killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame, and, when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps. Nero gave his own gardens for this spectacle and performed a Circus game, in the habit of a charioteer mixing with the plebs or driving about the race-course." 

Christians might want to think twice before following the example of the Rainbow Emperor, Nero.

LSP