A GREAT LADY

 

Today is the feast of St Scholastica. I first learned of this in Oxford, where her feast-day in 1355 gave rise to a stupendous riot that left over 80 people dead and the city’s narrow paved streets running with blood.

Scholastica herself, I later found out, was the sister – some say the twin sister – of St Benedict of Nursia, the founder of cenobitic monasticism, in other words, monks living together instead of on their own in a desert. He wrote the great Rule which became the basis for all such communities; and it is said that his sister adapted it to found the first convent for Benedictine moniales or nuns. There is a delightful story about her and her brother, who were very close and used to visit once a year and have lengthy talks about God and the Holy Spirit. One year, when Benedict was visiting, they had talked until supper and beyond. When, finally, Benedict said it was time for him to leave, she protested, and begged him to stay with her for the evening so they could continue their discussions. He refused, insisting that he needed to return to his cell. At that point, Scholastica closed her hands in prayer, and after a moment, a wild storm started outside of the guest house in which they were housed. Benedict asked, "What have you done?", to which she replied, "I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery." Benedict was unable to return to his monastery, and they spent the night in discussion. According to Gregory's Dialogues, three days later, from his cell, he saw his sister's soul leaving the earth and ascending to heaven in the form of a shining white dove – which reminds me of the lovely Spanish song “La Paloma” sung memorably by Caetano Veloso in Almodóvar’s film Talk To Her.

            If you are a 21C non-monastic person, what do you do with someone like Scholastica? I think that first of all you give thanks that such people still exist. On this blog I have once or twice mentioned the admirable Sr Emmanuelle Billoteau, that great intellect of the faith, who is one of Scholastica’s successors, having started as a Benedictine moniale and graduated to being a Benedictine hermit who translates works from the English and writes fine meditations. The religious, as they are properly known, are what you might call the salt of the salt of the earth, the leaven in the bread of the faith.

            Secondly, Scholastica teaches us that it is not only pleasing but good to discuss religion, and to do so intelligently among spirits who fundamentally agree. This is not the same as the difficult and occasionally maddening task of discussing it with those who deny not just its truth but its value: it is the inspiring activity of collaboration between like minds, allowing them to reach further than each would on its own.

The illustration is "St Scholastica" by Andrea Mantegna, from the San Luca altarpiece in Milan.