Feast Day: March 24th
If you’re anything like me, you have never heard of St. Aldemar.
He was a monk at the famous Abbey of Monte Casino in Italy. That abbey, one of the first established by St. Benedict, around 529 AD, was where the Rule of Benedict was first lived-out and Benedict’s vision of monastic life first seen for everything it could be. When that monastery was sacked by the Lombards in 580, forcing the monks to evacuate to Rome, that way of life began to spread throughout the Latin Church (Pope St. Gregory the Great spoke highly of it just a few years later) and within a few centuries it was the standard for Western Monasticism).
Probably you do know the Benedictine motto “ora et labora” / “pray and work”. These certainly are the pillars of the life and structure of Benedictine Monasteries. The monks begin their day well before the sunrise singing the first period of psalms and readings (called “matins” from the latin word for morning, probably at 3 or 4am), then, perhaps after a brief break, “lauds” (this is what we would now simply call “morning prayer”, but it took this traditional name from the repetition of the theme of praise, “laudate”, that resounds through the psalms sung at sunrise, Psalms 148-150. At 6am.) Then the monks would go off to various labors around the monastery and surrounding territory – farming, building, writing, teaching … – but always ready to pause their efforts and return to the monastery for another time of prayer. Throughout the middle of the day you would have terce (third hour of the day, 9am), sext (sixth hour, noon), and none (ninth hour, 3pm). The day would also include time for meals, except for feast-days it would be simple fare, a Mass attended by the entire community and individual Masses offered by any of the monks who were priests (concelebration was only done on specific occasions, usually with a bishop), and the day would conclude with the final hours of prayer, vespers (6pm) and compline (9pm or so).
You can see the discipline and intensity of this life, but also the amazing spiritual and cultural fruit that could come from a place of such stability, sanctity, and seriousness. It is no wonder that monasteries became hubs for medieval towns, precursors to schools and hospitals, and engines of evangelization as they moved hearts towards Christ by their prayer and example.
But we need to get back to St. Aldemar. He wasn’t born a monk of Monte Cassino. Actually, he didn’t even begin his monastic life there. He was born in Capua, Italy (not far from Monte Cassino, but a bit closer to Naples) and happily became a monk in his hometown. A princess of the region came to like the wise and faithful monk and tapped him to be in charge of a new religious house she was building. Exciting, right?! You’re living your best monastic life and then get noticed by a princess and given a brand-new monastery! … but it wasn’t God’s plan.
Aldemar was reassigned by his Benedictine superiors to move to Monte Cassino, a request he obediently followed. The princess threw a fit, Aldemar had to flee to Boiana still narrowly escaping with his life, and eventually winding up all the way North of Rome in the Abruzzi region, where he founded several other monasteries.
Here’s what I want us to focus on: deep prayer and dutiful work were important, and they must be the backbone of our life too but they didn’t make Aldemar a saint. What got him to heaven was obedience. Here’s what St. Benedict said about that in chapter 5 of his rule:
The first step of humility is unhesitating obedience, which comes naturally to those who cherish Christ above all. Because of the holy service they have professed, or because of dread of hell and for the glory of everlasting life, they carry out the superior’s order as promptly as if the command came from God himself. The Lord says of men like this: “No sooner did he hear than he obeyed me” (Ps 17[18]:45); again, he tells teachers: “Whoever listens to you, listens to me” (Luke 10:16).
– Fr. Dominic made several different promises at his ordination, so do any of you who are married or in any religious vocation, but the most important thing that we offer to the Lord, whether through our spouse, or through our religious superior is our obedience.
Jesus was obedient unto death. His obedience saved the world! Our emulation of that obedience will be how He saves us.
Read more of St. Benedict on Obedience here – https://christdesert.org/rule-of-st-benedict/chapter-5-obedience/ – or in the QR code: