Abbey of Regina Laudis: Feast of St. Scholastica

February 10th is the Feast of St. Scholastica, the sister of St. Benedict. What we know about the life of St. Benedict, we owe to Pope St. Gregory the Great who wrote his biography roughly fifty years after St. Benedict's death (c. 594 AD). In the Second Book of the Dialogues Containing the Life and Miracles of St. Benedict of Nursia the Pope tells his disciple Peter of the wondrous miracles wrought by St. Benedict. There was one time, however, when the saint did not get his way. Pope Gregory recounts: I must needs tell you, how there was one thing which the venerable Father Benedict would have done, and yet he could not.

As St. Scholastica made her yearly visit to her brother, she prevailed upon him to stay instead of returning to his Abbey with his monks, so they could talk and pray through the night. Wishing to abide by the justice of his Rule, St. Benedict refused her. St. Scholastica put her head in her hands and wept tears of supplication to God, and a sudden violent storm prevented St. Benedict from leaving. St Gregory continues: And so by that means they watched all night, and with spiritual and heavenly talk did mutually comfort one another.

The Divine Office for the Feast of St. Scholastica is beloved to Benedictines, particularly women's communities, as we sing the texts from the Dialogues recounting the wondrous, sometimes playful, exchange between brother and sister.

ANTIPHONS FROM THE OFFICE OF ST. SCHOLASTICA
FROM THE DIALOGUES OF POPE ST. GREGORY THE GREAT

St. Benedict after the thunderstorm:
"May Almighty God forgive you, sister!
What have you done?"

St. Scholastica: "I asked you and you refused to hear me.
So I asked my Lord and He has heard me."

St. Scholastica: "Go now—if you can.
Leave me and return to the monastery."

"After three days Saint Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister’s soul leave her body in the form of a dove penetrating the secret places of heaven."

Miracles of St. Benedict
*Last Conversation between St. Scholastica and St. Benedict*
Lorenzo Monaco (circa 1370 –circa 1425)

When St. Gregory's disciple Peter, who knew the power of St. Benedict through his miracles, wondered why in this instance St. Benedict did not get his way, Pope St. Gregory explains that St. Scholastica was "...able to do more because she loved more/Plus potuit quia plus amavit." Though she did not tell him why, she intuited that her death was near.

Abbey Tabernacle Designed
by Giacomo Manzù

Three days after his encounter with his sister, St. Benedict, while standing in his cell, and looking up to heaven, "...beheld the soul of his sister (which had departed from her body), in the likeness of a dove to ascend into heaven." For this reason St. Scholastica is usually represented holding a dove. The stunning tabernacle in the Regina Laudis Church Jesu Fili Mariae, free standing and carved from rough cut granite, has two doves on top representing St. Benedict and St. Scholastica. While in Rome, Mother Praxedes Baxter worked with the renowned sculptor, Giacomo Manzù, beloved friend of Pope St. John XXIII. Manzù gave the Abbey his priceless designs of wheat, grapes, and the cross, which were then etched into the bronze doors and a panel behind the tabernacle.

The Feast of St. Scholastica holds special meaning for our community, for on this day in 1976, our Foundress, Lady Abbess Benedict Duss, received her Abbatial Blessing and the Monastery of Regina Laudis was elevated to the status of an Abbey. Almost 40 years later at the time of her Abbatial Blessing, Mother Abbess Lucia Kuppens took as her abbatial motto: "Plus potuit quia plus amavit."

Sts. Benedict and Scholastica,
unknown , 15th century, Nursia

On this feast we pray that St. Scholastica may be a model for women of persistence in prayer, witnessing to the transformative power of feminine love, expressed so beautifully by Adrienne von Speyr in her meditation on St. Scholastic and her relationship to her Brother Benedict:

She has an exalted image of Benedict’s calling, and in prayer she receives such certainty in this regard that she never doubts his mission. If it ever happens that all seems hopeless and he is at a loss about everything, then she is there to give him great consolation. She knows that things will work out. If she brings him the encouragement he needs, then it is not simply as one human being to another, but she brings it with the entire weight of the Church and the monastery. She brings him this consolation as the fruit of her prayer and in her complete femininity.

From the Book of All Saints by Adrienne von Speyr