Scholastica
Our Venerable Mother Scholastica of Nursia
Venerable · Virgin · b. c. 480, at Nursia — d. c. 543, near Monte Cassino
Commemorated 10 February — Repose near Monte Cassino
Scholastica (c. 480 – c. 543) was the sister — by an early tradition the twin — of Benedict of Nursia, the father of Western monasticism, and is honoured as the first nun of the Benedictine way and a saint of the undivided Church. Consecrated to God from her youth, she settled in a community of women a few miles from her brother's monastery at Monte Cassino, and the brother and sister met once a year to speak of the things of God. Of that holy friendship the one story the tradition preserves — told by Pope Gregory the Great — is the most famous of her life: at their last meeting she begged Benedict to stay through the night in spiritual conversation, and when he refused for his Rule's sake, she bowed her head in prayer and a sudden storm broke that made his return impossible, so that "she was able to do more because she loved more." Three days later Benedict saw her soul rise to heaven as a dove, and had her buried in the tomb he had prepared for himself. She is kept on February 10.
Scholastica was born about the year 480 at Nursia (Norcia) in the Umbrian uplands of central Italy, of the same well-born parents as her brother Benedict; a tradition already old by the ninth century makes the two twins. Like him she gave herself to God from her earliest years, consecrating her virginity to Christ. When Benedict established his monastery on the height of Monte Cassino, Scholastica placed herself, with one or two companions, in a house of consecrated women a short distance below — at the place later called Plombariola — living the same life of prayer and discipline under his spiritual direction, and is therefore honoured as the first mother of Benedictine nuns.
The whole of what is securely told of her comes from the second book of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, and it is the account of her last meeting with her brother. Once a year Benedict came down to meet her at a house near the monastery gate, and they spent the day in the praise of God and holy talk. At what proved their final meeting, as evening drew on and Benedict rose to return to his monastery, Scholastica entreated him to stay the night that they might speak on of the joys of heaven. He refused — his Rule forbade him to lodge outside the monastery walls. Then she folded her hands upon the table, bowed her head, and prayed; and though the sky had been clear, there broke at once so violent a storm of rain, thunder, and lightning that Benedict could not set foot outside. "God forgive you, sister," he said; "what have you done?" — and she answered, "I asked you and you would not listen; I asked my God and he heard me." So he stayed, and the two passed the whole night in the conversation of holy things. Gregory draws the lesson that has made the story a treasure of the Church: that she prevailed because she loved more, for "God is love," and the greater love won the longer hour.
Three days later, as Benedict sat in his cell, he lifted his eyes and saw the soul of his sister leave her body and rise into heaven in the likeness of a dove. Rejoicing at her glory, he gave thanks, announced her death to the brethren, and sent to bring her body to the monastery, laying it in the tomb he had made ready for himself — so that, as Gregory says, "those whose minds had always been one in God were not divided in the burial of their bodies." Her death is placed about the year 543, shortly before Benedict's own. Her relics were venerated at Monte Cassino, and a portion was carried to Le Mans in Gaul, where a cult grew around her.
Feast and commemoration
Scholastica is commemorated on February 10 (church date; Old Calendar civil February 23) in East and West alike, a saint of the undivided Church kept in the Roman calendar and honoured by the Orthodox among the righteous mothers of the West before the Schism. She has no proper Byzantine office; where the Orthodox West keeps her, the common of a venerable woman is sung. Her feast is one day removed from that of her brother Benedict (kept March 14 in the Byzantine calendar, July 11 in the West), and the two are constantly named together.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O mother, was the divine image faithfully preserved; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach that the flesh is to be disdained, for it passeth away, but the soul cared for as a thing immortal. Wherefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Scholastica, rejoice with the angels.
Original translation from the Latin
Iconography
Scholastica is depicted as a veiled nun in the dark monastic habit, most often with a dove — the form in which her soul was seen ascending — at her breast, on her hand, or beside her head; she may hold a book, a lily of virginity, or a crosier as an abbess, and is frequently shown together with her brother Benedict.
The stored image is a panel of Saint Scholastica by the Italian painter Bernardo Parentino (Bernardo da Parenzo), painted about 1496: the saint veiled and haloed, in monastic habit, holding a book (source, public domain, pd-old-work).