**BENEDICT Biscop (Baducing), Saint.** – Abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow, born in Northumbria from an Anglo-Saxon noble family around 628, died on 12 January 690.
Benedict served in the court of King Oswiu (Oswy) until the age of 25. After returning from a trip to Rome in 653 with the king’s son, instead of going back home, he stopped in Provence and became a Benedictine in the monastery of Lérins. Some years later (665–67), he returned to Rome again, and from Pope Vitalian he received the task of accompanying the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus, along with the abbot Hadrian. Upon their arrival in England, Theodore kept him by his side, appointing him abbot of the monastery of St Peter (668). After two years, Benedict resigned the abbacy in favor of Hadrian and undertook a third pilgrimage to Rome (670). He returned laden with codices, which, together with those already collected in Vienne, he brought to England along with a great quantity of martyrs’ relics. But since the king of the West Saxons, Cœnred, his friend and benefactor, had died, he headed toward his native land and presented himself to the king of Northumbria, Ecgfrith (son and successor of Oswiu), whom he quickly won over to his cause.
Having been granted land near the mouth of the Wear by the king, in 674 Benedict began the monastery of Wearmouth (the mouth of the Wear), dedicating it to St Peter the Apostle. Once the foundation was underway, he went to Francia in search of masons and other artisans; he also went to Rome (678), returning with “an innumerable abundance of books of every kind,” relics, and works of art. On this same occasion, he sought to establish a model monastery and obtained from Pope Agatho the abbot John, archicantor of the basilica of St Peter, to promote Roman chant and liturgy (cf. Bede, *Hist. Eccl.*, IV, 18). From the Pope he also received a diploma or letter of privilege to guarantee the monastery’s freedom; this privilege was later confirmed in a public assembly by the king and bishops (cf. Jaffé-Wattenbach, I, 2106).
Having received additional land as a gift from the sovereign, a little further north at the mouth of the Tyne, Benedict founded, in 681–82, the monastery of Jarrow, dedicated to St Paul (in imitation of Rome), whose name is linked to that of St Bede. Since the two monasteries were close, they were considered a single community in two houses. With Ceolfrid in charge at Jarrow and Easterwine at Wearmouth, Benedict, wishing to provide fitting adornment for the new monastery, undertook a sixth journey to Rome (684), returning with a great quantity of books and paintings “on the harmony of the Old and New Testaments,” of the Blessed Virgin and the Apocalypse, which, as a true *Biblia pauperum*, adorned the church of Jarrow for the instruction of the faithful.
But upon his return he was greatly grieved to find the king dead and the two monasteries devastated by an epidemic. Undeterred, he recruited new subjects and continued the decoration of the churches. In the end, a progressive paralysis confined him to bed for three years: at about 72 years of age, after having especially commended to his monks the library “which he had brought from Rome, most noble and copious,” he died a saintly death. Benedict, whose work was of great importance in the history of culture, was soon venerated. Bede composed a homily “on the birthday of St Benedict the bishop” (*PL* 94, 224–28). The Roman *Martyrology* commemorates him on 12 January. The English Benedictines honor him as their patron.
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**BENEDICT, JOHN, ISAAC, MATTHEW, and CHRISTINUS**, also known as the **FIVE POLISH BROTHERS**, Saints. – Benedict, from Benevento, first a priest, canon, and monk, then led an eremitical life on the Sostrate and near Monte Cassino, until he joined St Romuald and went with him to Ravenna. When, in 1001, Otto III wished to organize the ecclesiastical structure of Poland and extend evangelization to the still pagan Slavic lands, Bruno of Querfurt recommended to the young emperor the holy Italian ascetic, and Otto persuaded Benedict to found in Poland a community of missionary hermits.
With Benedict went one of his devout companions from Ravenna, John, and in the places where he was to carry out his ministry two Poles, Isaac and Matthew, joined him. Encouraged by the zeal of Duke Bolesław, Benedict and his companions carried out their mission for several months, while Bruno of Querfurt evangelized eastern Hungary. Suspected of carrying large sums, which instead they had returned to the duke, Benedict and his companions, along with their cook Christinus (or Christian), who had rushed to their defense in vain, were slaughtered during the night of 10–11 November 1003 by some malefactors. Through the intervention of the bishop of Poznań, Unger, they were buried in their church. Soon miracles and visions occurred around their tombs, as a result of which the duke, having spared the lives of the murderers, bound them
France, Spain. He reappeared in Provence, then ascended the Rhône as far as Nancy; he descended again and crossed Switzerland, visiting the shrine of Einsiedeln. Upon returning to Italy, he arrived in Rome for Easter 1774. There he lived almost uninterruptedly for the rest of his life; after 1777 he only left for his annual pilgrimages to Loreto at Eastertime. He was especially devoted to the Forty Hours; among the churches he visited in Rome, his favorite was that of the Madonna dei Monti. Reduced to absolute indigence, he died on 16 April 1783. After three days of triumphal honors and extraordinary miracles, on Easter Sunday he was buried in his favorite church, where his relics are still venerated today.
Pius IX beatified him on 7 May 1860, and Leo XIII canonized him on 8 December 1881. His feast is celebrated on 16 April.
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