BENEDICT of ANIANE, saint. - Benedictine, the second father of Western monasticism, b. ca. 750, d. at Cornelimünster near Aachen on 11 February 821. Son of Aigulf, count of Maguelone (Languedoc), of the ancient Visigothic aristocracy, he was first called Witiza and was educated at the court of Pepin, in whose service, as in that of Charlemagne, he remained until the age of 27. Following a brush with death at Pavia (he wanted to save a brother who was about to drown in the Ticino), he carried out the resolution he had made three years earlier, to withdraw from the world. On the advice of a holy hermit he entered the Benedictine monastery of St-Seine (St-Seine) near Dijon (774), devoting himself to a penitential and extremely austere life. It even seemed to him that the Rule of St. Benedict was not severe enough, and he preferred the Rules of St. Basil and St. Pachomius.
After 5 years he returned to his homeland and founded on the banks of the little river Aniane a monastery according to his own ideal, but since experience had taught him that extreme poverty and austerity were not for everyone, he began to appreciate the moderation of the Rule of St. Benedict, of which he subsequently became the greatest propagator. Little by little he extended his influence over other monasteries of southern France, and Louis the Pious, then king of Aquitaine, made him superior of all the monasteries of his kingdom, while Charlemagne had granted him privileges to ensure the free election of abbots. In 817 the emperor Louis the Pious sent him as abbot to Marmoutier near Saverne (Alsace), but in order to have him as a counselor closer to himself, he recalled him to the court of Aachen, making him abbot of the monastery then founded on the little river Inde, two leagues from Aachen, today
Cornelimünster. In 817 there was at Aachen a great assembly of abbots of the empire to deliberate on the reform of the monasteries. B. was its soul, and the prescriptions deliberated are attributed to him. His work in this regard is judged variously by modern scholars. Certainly he freed many monasteries from secular abbots, often a cause of disciplinary and economic ruin. To him is also due the idea of what was later called a Congregation, fully realized at Cluny. On the other hand, with the introduction of new liturgical rites not contemplated by the Rule of St. Benedict, such as the office for the dead and the hours of the B. V. Mary, the monk spent a great part of the day in choir, and the proper balance between prayer and work was in a certain way disturbed.
The two principal works written by B. also served to consolidate the reform: the Codex regularum monasticarum et canonicarum, in which he gathered all the Western and Eastern rules known to him. The work was published in 3 vols. in-4° by Luca Ostenio (v. HOLSTE), Rome 1661 and Paris 1663. Olstenio added other texts to it, which were further increased in the edition of M. Brockie, 6 vols. in-fol. (Augsburg 1759), and also in PL 103, 303-702, where however many texts are indicated only by references to other volumes of the series. The other, the Concordia regularum, was meant to show the concordance of the Rule of St. Benedict with the doctrine of the other rules already in use in the Church. Each chapter of the Benedictine Rule was clarified and commented on with numerous corresponding passages. It was published by H. Ménard (Paris 1638), and in PL 103, 702-1380. Among the other writings, the theological treatise against the adoptionism of Felix of Urgel is noteworthy: PL 103, 1381-1413. The name of the Saint is missing from the Roman Martyrology. His feast is on 11 or 12 February.
Bibliography11 works
Livario Oliger