On this day we celebrate the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, c. 480 - c. 547.
For a virtual tour of his monastery, click here for the Monte Cassino page on the St. John's Abbey web site. Click the link for Monte Cassino , then click on "The Abbey" at the top, and then "Virtual Tour". On the schematic, move your cursor around to find highlighted areas. Click on the little camera to see pictures of the Basilica, etc.
Also on the St. John's Abbey Monte Cassino page is a link to a Meditation by Pope John Paul II on the 50th anniversary of the victory of Monte Cassino. "On 18 May 1944, after a difficult winter campaign and the loss of many Polish soldiers, the Allies occupied the bombed ruins atop Monte Cassino. On this date Karol Wojtia celebrated his 24th birthday as a clandestine seminarian in Krakow".
From the Meditation:
"Those of you who fought here treasure in your hearts the memory of all your fellow soldiers. You have come here to visit the Polish military cemetery at Monte Cassino, where General Wladyslaw Anders and Archbishop Józef Gawlina, the faithful chaplain to the Polish army on the battlefield, also repose. Many of your companions rest here: soldiers and officers with names that are not only Polish but also Ukrainian, Belarusian and Jewish. They all fought in the battle for the same great cause, as the cemeteries attest: those of Monte Cassino, Loreto, Bologna and Casamassima. Our thoughts and prayers are addressed to those who fell, who, departing life, were thinking of their loved ones in Poland. Their death was a witness to the readiness that marked all society at the time: to give one's life for the holy cause of one's homeland."
Those are just two of the hundreds of links provided on the Saint John's Abbey web site. Looking for information about Oblates? The Rule of Benedict in various languages? Feminized Versions of the Rule? The Life of Saint Benedict, by Saint Gregory? The Benedictine Habit? (Notice on that page the abbess holding her staff and wearing her pectoral cross and chirothecœ.) Benedictine Colleges? (Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, has a new statue of St. Benedict.)
Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus!
