32. Stories of Saint Benedict

At the bottom of the altarpiece of Saint Scholastica, we find four bas-reliefs depicting four episodes from the life of Saint Benedict. In this way, they visually show that the roots of Saint Scholastica’s life are deeply grounded in the way and spirituality of her brother Benedict.

Let us begin with the bas-relief furthest to the right.

Saint Benedict is still a teenager. His father has sent him to study in Rome, accompanied by his nurse, the woman who has looked after him since he was a child. But he dislikes the atmosphere he finds in the city and decides to withdraw to a solitary place.

They arrive at Enfide, a village south of Rome. There, his nurse asks some women to lend her a sieve for preparing the grain. The sieve is made of clay and, accidentally, she drops it on the ground and it breaks into two pieces.

Benedict sees her crying and begins to pray. Notice the ray of light coming down from heaven: his prayer is heard and, miraculously, the sieve is made whole again, as though it had never been broken.

According to the story of Gregory the Great, this is Benedict’s first miracle.

Now move your gaze to the far left and let us continue following the life of Saint Benedict in chronological order.

Benedict experiences a powerful temptation of the flesh. Look at the right-hand side of the scene: there is a demon, with a moustache and donkey’s ears, who sends him the temptation. Beside him, a naked woman reaches out towards a tree, clearly evoking Eve reaching for the forbidden fruit.

But Benedict reacts firmly so as not to give in to temptation: he strips off his clothes and throws himself into a thicket full of thorns.

The scene represented here shows the moment when Benedict has already overcome the test. His face is serene, and a golden palm covers his body, a sign of victory and of the strength of the martyrs. Above him, another ray of light coming down from heaven expresses divine approval.

Now move your gaze one scene to the right.

You will see a crowned king bowing before Benedict. He is Totila, King of the Ostrogoths.

Totila had wanted to test Benedict by sending one of his men disguised as a king, pretending to be him. But Benedict immediately saw through the deception. Now Totila himself comes before the saint and bows at his feet to ask for forgiveness.

Notice the gestures. Benedict points at him with one hand and, with the other, seems to indicate the ground. Gregory the Great explains that Benedict rebuked him for what he had done and asked him to change his way of life.

But look at a curious detail in the background of the scene: a rearing horse that the king is trying to hold back. This horse does not appear in Gregory’s story. Perhaps the artist introduced it to represent Totila’s own character: a powerful, violent man who is hard to control, like that wild animal.

Gregory tells us that, after his encounter with Benedict, Totila changed his way of life to some extent and, from that moment on, “was less cruel”.

Now move a little further to the right to look at the fourth episode.

On the right, we see a father arriving at the monastery carrying his young son, who has just died. Desperate, he seeks out Benedict.

But now look at the left-hand side. Benedict is not at the monastery: he is working in the fields. In one of the images, we see him with a hoe resting on his shoulder after finishing his work; beside him, there is also a monk holding a book, devoted to prayer.

In these two small figures, we can see a visual summary of the famous Benedictine ideal: “ora et labora” — pray and work.

When Benedict returns to the monastery, he finds the father pleading with him to bring his son back to life. Benedict replies that he is asking him for something extraordinary, something proper to the apostles.

But eventually he kneels down and prays.

This is precisely the moment represented in the bas-relief. The boy resurrects and brought back to life. Notice his hands: with one, he supports himself on the ground, as if beginning to sit up; with the other, he points towards heaven, indicating where the miracle comes from.

Now look at the four bas-reliefs as a whole. In a very small space, the artist has summarised an entire journey: a young man learning to trust in prayer, a man struggling against his own temptations, an abbot able to speak freely before a king and, finally, a monk who combines work and prayer and places all his trust in God.

And it is precisely above these four scenes, and on this way of life, that the figure of Saint Scholastica rises.