S. BENEDICT OF ANIANE, AB.
(A.D. 821.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority:—His life by Ardo Smaragdus, his disciple.]
This Benedict, the reviver of monastic discipline, was the son of Aigulf, Count of Languedoc, and served King Pepin and his son Charlemagne as cupbearer. But, at the age of twenty, he resolved to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness with all his heart. From that time forward he led a mortified life in the Court for three years, eating sparingly and allowing himself little sleep. In 774, having narrowly escaped drowning, he made a vow to quit the world entirely. Returning to Languedoc, he was confirmed in his resolution by the advice of a hermit, named Widmar, and, under pretext of going to the Court at Aix-la-Chapelle, he went to the abbey of S. Seine, five leagues from Dijon, and became a monk there. His discipline of himself was most severe. He frequently spent the whole night in prayer, standing barefoot on the ground in a keen frost. On the death of the abbot, the brethren desired to elect Benedict, but he, knowing their aversion to a reformation, left them, and retired to a hermitage, in 780, on the brook Aniane, on his own estate in Languedoc. Here he was joined by the hermit Widmar and other solitaries, who placed themselves under his direction. They earned their livelihood by their labour, and lived on bread and water, except on Sundays and great festivals. In a short while Benedict had three hundred monks under his rule, and he built a monastery; and also exercised the office of general inspector to all the monasteries of Provence, Languedoc, and Gascony. King Louis the Pious, who succeeded his father, Charlemagne, in 814, committed to the saint the inspection of all the abbeys in his kingdom. In 817 he presided at an assembly of abbots, to enforce restoration of discipline in their monasteries. He died at Inde, a monastery near Aix-la-Chapelle, on February 11th, 821, at the age of seventy one; but his festival is usually observed on the following day, which is that of his burial.
[36] This is a mistake, as Bollandus has pointed out; the cross means the little-horse on which she was extended.
[37] It is uncertain whether he was first at Sebaste or at Berœa. Socrates says he was translated from Berœa to Sebaste, but there are circumstances which make this statement impossible to reconcile with other facts.
[38] Theodoret, lib. v. c. 2.
[39] Lib. v., c. 7.
[40] Lib. vii., c. 10.
