☩ πππ ☩@SecretFire79
According to the traditional biography written by Pope St. Gregory the Great, St. Benedict once faced a deadly plot from the very monks he had been called to lead.
After the abbot of a nearby monastery died, the community begged Benedict to become their superior. He warned them that their ways of life were very different and that they would not get along. Eventually he accepted out of charity.
But the monks soon grew restless under his firm and holy discipline. Preferring their old, looser habits, some of them decided to kill him. They mixed poison into his wine.
When the glass was brought to the table for the abbot’s blessing, as was the custom, Benedict calmly raised his hand and made the Sign of the Cross over it.
At that very moment the glass shattered into pieces, as if the Sign of the Cross had struck it like a stone. The “drink of death,” St. Gregory writes, could not endure the “sign of life.”
Benedict understood at once what had happened. Rising with a peaceful face and quiet spirit, he simply said:
“Almighty God have mercy on you and forgive you. Why have you treated me this way? Did I not tell you beforehand that our ways of life could never agree? Go and find another father more suited to your desires. I will not stay among you any longer.”
Then he quietly returned to the solitude he loved.
Reading this revealed both the power of the Holy Cross and the meekness of a true man of God. Evil could not overcome the blessing of Christ, and Benedict responded not with anger but with forgiveness and freedom.