The Life and Times of St. Benedict

THIS history of The Life and Times of St. Benedict has been translated with the hope that it may increase in some small degree the knowledge of a saint who in good old Catholic days held a place in the heart of nearly every Englishman. That this was so we cannot doubt, seeing that his sons brought to our land the gift of the true faith, and with it all that was noblest and best, and that Benedictine Abbeys were studded over the length and breadth of the country. When the Reformation swept away the monasteries and sea ttered the monks, devotion to St. Benedict gradually declined and becam.e extinct. Now, however, when a brighter day is dawning for the Church in England, surely it is time to stir up and re-enkindle in our hearts the love of our forefathers for a saint to whom we owe so much. The translation is a very free one, and some stories and traditions culled from old writers have been here and there inserted with a view of enhancing the interest of the book. As regards dates, many of them are the subject of controversy; but on this point it has been thought best to adhere strictly to our author. As formerly St. Benedict gathered some of the greatest of his saints from our English soil, so may he now reap once again a fresh and yet more fruitful harvest from a land which has so long lain fallow.