Main Page

Saint Benedict of Nursia: founder of western monasticism, born at Nursia, c. 480; died at Monte Cassino, 543. The only authentic life of St. Benedict of Nursia is that contained in the second book of St. Gregory's "Dialogues". It is rather a character sketch than a biography and consists, for the most part, of a number of miraculous incidents, which, although they illustrate the life of the saint, give little help towards a chronological account of his career. St. Gregory's authorities for all that he relates were the saint's own disciples, viz. Constantinus, who succeeded him as Abbot of Monte Cassino; and Honoratus, who was Abbot of Subiaco when St. Gregory wrote his "Dialogues". Benedict was the son of a Roman noble of Nursia, a small town near Spoleto, and a tradition, which St. Bede accepts, makes him a twin with his sister Scholastica. His boyhood was spent in Rome, where he lived with his parents and attended the schools until he had reached his higher studies. Then "giving over his books, and forsaking his father's house and wealth, with a mind only to serve God, he sought for some place where he might attain to the desire of his holy purpose; and in this sort he departed [from Rome], instructed with learned ignorance and furnished with unlearned wisdom" (Dial. St. Greg., II, Introd. in Migne, P.L. LXVI). Read More.

Works Recently Added: Index of Saints - B | Girolamo Savonarola, Spiritual and Ascetic Letters, Sermon on the Ascension | St. Louis de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom | G.K. Chesterton, Twelve Types | St. Ephraem, The Pearl: Seven Hymns on the Faith | St. Augustine, The City of God | Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians | Caius, Fragments of Caius

NEW: St. Thomas Aquinas, The First Part of the Summa Theologica

Structural Changes: We will be implementing portals to enhance the coordination of information on this site and to aid in navigation. Visit our first portal: The Dominican Portal. Additional portals are coming soon. You can also view information that as it is coordinated through Categories.

The Dominican Portal — Resources related to the Order of Preachers.

Asceticism is a thing which in its very nature, we tend in these days to misunderstand. Asceticism, in the religious sense, is the repudiation of the great mass of human joys because of the supreme joyfulness of the one joy, the religious joy. But asceticism is not in the least confined to religious asceticism: there is scientific asceticism which asserts that truth is alone satisfying: there is aesthetic asceticism which asserts that art is alone satisfying: there is amatory asceticism which asserts that love is alone satisfying. There is even epicurean asceticism, which asserts that beer and skittles are alone satisfying. Wherever the manner of praising anything involves the statement that the speaker could live with that thing alone, there lies the germ and essence of asceticism. When William Morris, for example, says that 'love is enough,' it is obvious that he asserts in those words that art, science, politics, ambition, money, houses, carriages, concerts, gloves, walking-sticks, door-knockers, railway-stations, cathedrals and any other things one may choose to tabulate are unnecessary. from Francis by G.K. Chesterton

A famous painter of the Florentine school, born near Castello di Vicchio in the province of Mugello, Tuscany, 1387; died at Rome, 1455. He was christened Guido, and his father's name being Pietro he was known as Guido, or Guidolino, di Pietro, but his full appellation today is that of "Blessed Fra Angelico Giovanni da Fiesole". He and his supposed younger brother, Fra Benedetto da Fiesole, or da Mugello, joined the order of Preachers in 1407, entering the Dominican convent at Fiesole. Giovanni was twenty years old at the time the brothers began their art careers as illustrators of manuscripts, and Fra Benedetto, who had considerable talent as an illuminator and miniaturist, is supposed to have assisted his more celebrated brother in his famous frescoes in the convent of San Marco in Florence. Read more about the life of Fra Angelico or view selections of his artwork in our gallery.