Benedict was born in the Italian town of Nursia and as a young man fled the corruption of Rome to live as a hermit. Disciples gathered around him, and in time he founded the great abbey of Monte Cassino, where he wrote his Rule — a short, balanced, deeply humane document that has shaped Western monasticism ever since.
The Rule prescribes a life of prayer, work, and study ("ora et labora"), under the authority of an abbot who is to be "father, brother, and physician" to his monks. It calls for moderation in food, sleep, and discipline; for hospitality to strangers; for stability — staying in one community for life. Benedict's monasteries preserved learning through the collapse of the Roman world, copied the Scriptures and the Fathers, and quietly built the civilization of medieval Europe. Pope Paul VI named him patron of Europe in 1964.