Now, on to Benedict.
The religious feastday honoring St. Benedict falls on 21 March. However, this date typically falls during the middle of Lent, the Catholic/Orthodox season of penitence. Within Monasticism, Lent is a special time of personal and communal spiritual renewal and celebrations of any sort are discouraged. Therefore, the Church also celebrates Benedicts feast on 11 July (which is never during the lenten season).
Benedict is designated the "Patron Saint of Europe" because of the impact of his Rule during the Middle Ages and the pivotal role Benedictine monks played in the civilization of Europe.
Benedict himself was born about AD480 and probably died around AD547. The only source of information about the man is found in the late sixth century Dialouges of Pope Gregory the Great. Gregory was a monk of a Roman monastery which followed Benedict's Rule - or so it seems. After becoming Pope, Gregory encouraged the Benedictines to become evangelists, ultimately sending Augustine of Canterbury to Britain.
The movement of Benedictine influenced monks north of the Alps spread not only the Roman liturgical practice and code of law, but also the Rule of St. Benedict. This Rule was described by Gregory in his Dialouges as noteworthy for its moderation and brevity (it still had 72 chapters). This contrasted sharply with the Irish forms of monasticism which already existed in Northern Europe and the Islands.
Irish monasticism was influenced not only by the rugged environment of Ireland and Britian, but also the highly ascetical monasticism of Egypt and the Middle East. Focused on extremes of fasting and personal mortification, Irish monasticism was also intensely evangelical. Foundations can be found as far south as Italy as well as deep into Germany.
To oversimplify this complex and fascinating history, the two forms first clashed, then hybridized becoming the standard monastic form of the Middle Ages. Benedictines contributed to the arts first in manuscript preservation and illumination (Lindisfarne, Kells and Durrow come immediately to mind) as well as architecture (Plan of St. Gall). By the Tenth Century reforms like that at Cluny were fostering a cultural and artistic revolution devoted to higher realism and emotional intensity in art (Gero Crucifix). They were also instrumental in the development and spread of Romanesque architecture.
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