ON SAINT BENEDICTA
NUN AT ROME.
CommentaryBenedicta, nun at Rome (S.)
G. H.
In the Tables of the Roman Martyrology, on this VI May, is celebrated the sacred memory of S. Benedicta the Virgin at Rome. About her, as Baronius notes, S. Gregory in book 4 of the Dialogues c. 13, Sacred cult. where he treats of the death of S. Galla, whom Benedicta after the thirtieth day (as S. Peter the Apostle had foretold) followed to the crown. That S. Galla died on April VI we said among the Pretermitted on the said day, intending to treat of her with the Roman Martyrology on day October V. The whole matter somewhat more broadly receive from S. Gregory.
[2] When almighty God had decreed already to give the perennial reward to her, that is Galla, for her labors, she was struck with a cancer ulcer in her breast. At nighttime moreover before her bed two candlesticks were accustomed to shine: because, namely as a friend of light, not only spiritual, but also corporeal darkness she held in hatred. Who while one night from this same infirmity she lay wearied, she saw B. Peter the Apostle between both candlesticks before her bed standing; nor terrified did she fear, but taking boldness from love she rejoiced, and said to him: day of death indicated by S. Peter appearing to S. Galla. What is it, my Lord, are my sins forgiven me? To whom he, with most kind countenance as he is, with bowed head nodded assent, saying: They are forgiven; come. But because she loved a certain religious woman in the same monastery above the rest; immediately Galla added: I beg that sister Benedicta come with me. To whom he replied: Not, but let so-and-so come with you. But she, whom you ask, on the thirtieth day will follow you. With these things finished, the vision of the Apostle standing by and conversing with her was taken away. But she immediately summoned the Mother of the whole Congregation, and indicated to her what she had seen and heard. On the third day with that Sister who had been ordered, she died: but the one whom she herself had begged for, on the thirtieth day followed. Which deed to this very day in that monastery remains memorable, and so handed down by the preceding Mothers, the younger nuns there, who are now holy Virgins, are accustomed to narrate it accurately, as if at that time they had also been present at this so great miracle.
[3] These things S. Gregory, who calls Benedicta a religious woman: Head at Rome, but afterwards in the same monastery he says were holy Virgins, and that S. Benedicta was such is indicated in the Roman Martyrology: by whose authority among the holy Roman Virgins her Antonius Gallonius places: who adds the Head of S. Benedicta is preserved at Rome in the church of the holy Apostles, but it is not known where the body is. Octavius Pancirolius in the Treasure of the City of Rome, region 7 church 7, treats of the Church of S. Catherine Virgin and Martyr, and asserts it with the adjacent monastery to have been founded by S. Galla near the church of S. Peter; but of which order it was, is not indicated by S. Gregory. In the archive of S. Peter the church is called of S. Catherine, Whether of the Benedictine order and the nuns called of S. Benedict. Hence S. Benedicta is inscribed in the Benedictine Martyrologies of Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, Bucelinus, as also in the Calendar of Mabillon for the first Benedictine century. The same Pancirolius judges that the bodies of SS. Galla and Benedicta still lie hidden in the said church of S. Catherine, Relics, sometime to be elevated and placed on an altar in the customary way, and so in the Index of Relics he hands down that the body of S. Benedicta is kept in the church of S. Catherine de Burgo, the head at the holy Apostles, and some relics in the church of S. Lucy in Silice: of which he treats, Region 2 church 40.
[4] Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy concerning her birth, youth, and entry into the monastery hands down these: Benedicta the Virgin, noble Roman, eulogy of Ferrarius. from her tender years burning with desire of serving Christ the Lord and of dedicating her virginity to Him, having spurned for God parents and faculties, in a monastery as a young girl she enclosed herself: in which so holily her Life she instituted, that the heavenly bridegroom of Virgins took her to Himself not many years afterward. These Ferrarius and almost from the cited Gallonius: who by likely conjecture asserted such things, took the rest from S. Gregory. Of her have made mention Arturus du Monstier in the Sacred Gynaeceum, and Brautius the Bishop in his Poetic Martyrology, and others more recent with Carolus Bartholomaeus Piazza in the Roman Sanctuary, asserting her sacred head to be exposed in the Church of the Apostles.