A video reflection on St Benedict

The Revd Dr Peter Doll, Norwich Cathedral's Canon Librarian and Vice Dean, shares a reflection on St Benedict.

Watch the video message above and read the full text below.

"On Sunday 14 July, Norwich Cathedral will be keeping the Feast of St Benedict of Nursia. He lived in the sixth century, and the monastic Rule that he wrote has had an incalculable influence on the history not only of the Church but also of Europe as a whole.

"In the middle ages, Benedictine monasteries preserved the learning of the ancient world, provided medical care and hospitality for the needy and travellers, educated young people, pioneered scientific agriculture, and built great churches like Norwich Cathedral. For the last fifteen hundred years, men and women all around the world have felt called to live by his Rule, enabling them to grow to their full potential as human beings created in the image and likeness of God. Today the Rule also provides inspiration for business leaders and managers.

"For the first 450 years of its existence, this place was a Benedictine priory as well as a cathedral, and even though the monastery was dissolved in 1538, the Benedictine spirit has not left it. Today’s community continues the same witness of prayer day in and day out, with music remaining at the heart of worship.

"I’m standing in the Cathedral’s Chapel of Our Lady of Pity, also known as the Bauchun Chapel, built around 1327 at the expense of William Bauchun, master of the cellar of the monastery. Its large stained-glass window was installed in 1964 and records something of the history of the Benedictines and their importance in the history of England.

"In the top left corner it shows Benedict first as a solitary hermit and then holding a manuscript of his Rule with some of his monks gathered around him. Next we see Pope Gregory the Great, himself a monk and biographer of Benedict, sending the monk Augustine to England to bring the Gospel back to our land. We then see Augustine arriving in Kent and meeting King Ethelbert, whom he converted to Christianity. The monks are holding aloft a golden icon of the image of Christ.

"Benedict Biscop was the 7th century founder of the great monasteries at Jarrow and Wearmouth; he is holding a window because he introduced glass making into England from France. In a sense, without him, this window would not exist! The greatest of the monks of Wearmouth Jarrow was St Bede the Venerable, a great scholar remembered as the first historian of the English people.

"From the tenth century we have Dunstan, Oswald, and Aethelwold representing the great revival of monasticism. In the middle, Aethelwold is holding the manuscript of his Benedictional, one of the greatest artistic treasures of his time.

"From the Norman period we have St Anselm, one of the greatest scholars and thinkers to become Archbishop of Canterbury. He is shown with King Henry I, because they had a long disagreement over the rights of the Church against the State. Anselm won in the end.

"We then see the monk Herbert de Losinga as first bishop of Norwich building our Cathedral, assisted by his monks, among them William Bauchun holding a model of the chapel in which we’re standing.

"Finally we have Julian of Norwich experiencing her revelations of the love of God. Although she was not a nun herself, Julian was much influenced by the Benedictines of Norwich.

"Among all these figures we have two Latin mottoes associated with Benedict: Ora et Labora, which can be variously translated as Prayer and Work, Prayer is Work, or Work is Prayer. And Ut in ominibus Deus glorificetur, ‘That in all things God may be glorified’.

"As we remember Benedict at this time, we give thanks for his abiding presence and influence in the church and the world today, using words we regularly pray at Evensong:

Stir up, Lord, in your Church, the spirit which fired the heart of our holy father Benedict, that we, being filled with that spirit may learn to love what he loved and put into practice what he taught. Grant us, Lord, to be steadfast in the service of your will, that your servants may grow in love and holiness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."