Christians celebrate the memory of St. Scholastica today. She’s remembered primarily for the moment captured in this painting from the monastery at Subiaco. She was the sister of St. Benedict (the “Father of Western Monasticism”). Both died a bit after 540.
He was a monk. She was a nun. Rules prevented them from getting out much. They could meet only once a year.
She loved him. She valued the time together. They talked all day of heavenly things but, rules being rules, come evening he had to go.
She asked him to bend the rules. Stay a bit longer. Continue the conversation. He said no.
So she set in to pray. She prayed up a storm–literally.
She prayed for God to keep him there, and God brought a downpour.
He was peeved:
God forgive you! What have you done?
he asked.
She was, so far as I can tell from the sources, snarky:
I desired you to stay, and you would not hear me; I have desired it of our good Lord, and he has granted my petition. Therefore if you can now depart, in God’s name return to your monastery, and leave me here alone.
The writer here was Benedict’s biographer, no less than Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604). Gregory sides with Scholastica in this case. Scripture teaches that God is love, Gregory reminds us, and so of course God listened to Scholastica, who frankly loved more.
So here’s to all the women who, driven by holiness and love, stand firm and assert what is right before God!
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