He was born in a small town

but grew up in the big city.

The city was not for him, however, and while he was still in school he decided to leave city life behind.

He lived a quiet country life for a short while, but even that did not satisfy him. He felt the need to be totally alone with God. So, he went off by himself into the mountains, living and praying for three years in a cave on a cliff.

A group of monks in the area asked him to guide their monastery, but they proved to be unready for the seriousness of his devout life.

Leaving them behind, he went off to establish a new monastery with a clear purpose and rule of life. That new monastery would truly become a shining city on a hill and during the next fifteen centuries it would spin off other new monasteries, numbering in the tens of thousands.

The memory of St. Benedict, founder of Western Monasticism, was celebrated last Monday. His Rule remains one of the great classics of spiritual literature.