ON ST. BENEDICT, BISHOP IN SARDINIA
Around the year 1100.
Historical summary.
Benedict, Bishop in Sardinia (S.)
I. B.
[1] Arnold Wion, in Book 3 of his Lignum Vitae, in the Notations for this day, writes that he learned of the feast of St. Benedict, Bishop of the Sardinians, from a very ancient calendar of the library of Monte Cassino, written in Lombard script; and he thus consecrates his memory on this day: "In Sardinia, St. Benedict, Bishop of Sardinia, St. Benedict is venerated on February 17th, who, sent by the Abbot of Monte Cassino at the request of the King, governed the people committed to him most holily." Hugh Menard has the same. More briefly, Benedict Dorgani: "St. Benedict, Bishop, who governed the people committed to him most holily." Ferrarius likewise in the General Catalogue: "In Sardinia, St. Benedict, Bishop." Dionysius Bonfant, in his Triumph of the Saints of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Book 13, chapter 39, writes that St. Benedict was buried in the basilica of St. Saturninus, and that there his anniversary memory is celebrated on the 17th of February: and that his painted image may be seen on the high altar, in monastic habit, carrying an archiepiscopal crozier in his hand, at the right of the Mother of God.
[2] Benedict was elevated to the Episcopate by Pope Urban II in the year 1089. This is gathered from Peter the Deacon in Book 4 of the Chronicle of Monte Cassino, chapter 7, where he has this: created Bishop around the year 1089 "At a later time the same Pope Urban, coming again to these parts, ordained John of Gaeta, a monk of this house from boyhood, as Deacon in the Lateran Patriarchate. At that same time, when he held a synod at Troia, a city of Apulia... In those days, upon the death of Leo, Bishop of the Church of Gaeta, Rainald, a monk of this monastery, is ordained Bishop there. In the island of Sardinia, Benedict, a monk of this monastery, in Sardinia, is substituted upon the death of the Bishop." Two councils are recorded as having been held at Troia by Urban II: the earlier in the year 1089, as can be seen in Baronius at that year, number 8; the later in the year 1093, during Lent. At this later council, or shortly after, Benedict could be seen to have been made Bishop, especially since Berthold of Constance writes that there the Pontiff "took care to attend competently to the various needs of the Churches by synodal provision." And also because Peter the Deacon at the passage already cited says "at a later time" this happened, when Urban had "come again to those parts." But in the small anonymous Chronicle of Monte Cassino it is said that in the year 1093 the church of St. Andrew the Apostle was dedicated by Bishop Rainald of Gaeta on the 3rd day before the Kalends of February — namely before Lent, since in that year Ash Wednesday fell on the 2nd of March. Rainald was therefore already a Bishop, and Benedict likewise — unless one wishes them to have been promoted in the month of January and Rainald to have immediately dedicated the church built by Abbot Oderisius.
[3] Concerning the same Benedict, Wion in Book 2, chapter 53, listing the Bishops of Churches whose names begin with the letter S, writes thus: "Of the Sardinians, under the Archbishop of Cagliari. St. Benedict, a monk of the monastery of Monte Cassino, a learned and holy man (about whose miracles Peter the Deacon reports having written one book), was created Bishop of the Sardinians by Pope Urban II around the year of the Lord 1090, and ended his life in holiness on the 13th day before the Kalends of March." Nearly the same is written by Antonio de Yepes in the Benedictine Chronicles, century 7, at the year 1088, chapter 2, citing Wion. Bonfant reproduces Wion's words in Latin, uncertain whether of Cagliari: but gives the title of his chapter as "Bishop of the Sardinians of Cagliari." He adds that the Archbishop of Cagliari, Primate of Sardinia, is designated by the title of Bishop of the Sardinians — which he does not prove to us at all. Although Peter the Deacon did not call him Bishop of the Sardinians, but "Bishop in the island of Sardinia." Wion seems to make him a Bishop of some other See, both because he lists him not among Archbishops (whether under the letter C in chapter 20 or S in chapter 31) but among Bishops, and because he adds "under the Archbishop of Cagliari." If, however, it is true, as the same Bonfant writes, that his image stands in the church of St. Saturninus at Cagliari at the high altar, it might seem probable that he was Archbishop of that city.
[4] About his miracles Peter the Deacon has this: "Whoever wishes to know the miracles of this Benedict, he was renowned for miracles, which were described about 500 years ago, let him read through the book which was written by us seven years ago about miracles." We have not seen this book. Mention of it is made in the supplement to the book on illustrious men of Monte Cassino, chapter 47, where this is read about the same Peter: "He described the miracles of Cassinese monks, which had not yet been put into writing." We have Peter the Deacon's manuscript book entitled The Origin and Life of the Just Men of the Sacred Monastery of Monte Cassino; also a little book on the illustrious men of the same sacred monastery, published in Rome, with careful annotations by the illustrious scholar Giovanni Battista Mario. In both there are some men named Benedict, but not this Bishop of Sardinia. Wion cites a book by the same Peter on the Saints of the monastery of Monte Cassino. Whether this is the book on Miracles, I do not know. Bonfant read the Chronicles of Monte Cassino too carelessly, if indeed he read them, since he says this Benedict was Abbot of that sacred monastery.