Sermo In Sanctam Scholaticam

Certain Monuments to Be Appended to the Works of St. Benedict. Sermon of Alberic the Deacon on Saint Scholastica Prologue. At the time when Justin the Elder was governing the rights of the Roman Republic, and the most blessed John of blessed memory was held as the most worthy pontiff of the highest see in both life and doctrine, the holy and truly apostolic father Benedict in all things shone forth in the regions of the West; whose incomparable sanctity, magnificent virtues, and astounding signs the East and West, the South together with the North, admire. He had a sister, Scholastica by name, who from the time of her infancy, under the magistracy of the Holy Spirit in the school of Christ, lived in the religious habit; a woman who, by continuous fasts, frequent prayers, unwearied vigils, the prerogative of compunction, and the grace of tears, seemed to none of those among whom it was granted her to live to have been second. And to confine her countless virtues in very few words, she was to Benedict a sister both by blood and also by sanctity. This woman, therefore, following her brother in both character and footsteps, by his will and consent, fixed her station in the vicinity of Monte Cassino; where also, as will be clear in what follows, she ended a most holy life by a most renowned death.

She therefore, upon arriving there, earnestly besought her brother with insistent prayers, that he might deign to grant her at least a single day from the whole year's sum, on which, namely, she might be permitted to come to a designated place and converse with him concerning faith, hope, the love of God and of neighbor. The holy brother yielded to his sister's pious petitions, and judged a place on the slope of the descending mountain—where later generations built a church in honor of the same virgin—to be suitable for this business; a place, that is, where the ascent would not be too laborious for the virgin, and the descent from his monastery would not be too great for him. To this place, therefore, as long as the present soul ruled her virginal body, the virgin ascended each year on the appointed day, and Benedict descended, always accompanied by a choir of disciples. And when that day had been spent in spiritual discourse, and their bodies had been refreshed with thanksgiving as the sun declined, she would return to the cell of virgins, he to the dwelling of the monks.

Here begins the sermon. At that time Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: The kingdom of heaven is like ten virgins who, taking their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride; five of them, however, were foolish, and five prudent. And the rest. Matt. 25:1. You have heard, dearest brothers, the kingdom of heaven compared to ten virgins who, having taken up their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. You have heard that of these same virgins, some were sluggish with the vice of foolishness, others skillful with the virtue of prudence. You have heard that the foolish, having taken up their lamps, did not take oil with them; but the prudent had with them both lamps and oil in vessels; and that while the bridegroom made long delays, both the foolish and the prudent alike fell asleep. But at midnight, when a shout was made about the bridegroom’s arrival, all arose together to prepare their lamps; and with the lamps of the foolish gone out for lack of oil, they were sent by the prudent to the oil-sellers; and while they were going, those who were ready entered the wedding feast together with the bridegroom; and the foolish, returning with the door closed, and redoubling their suppliant cries that the door should be opened to them, were immediately answered by the voice of the bridegroom in these words: Amen, I say to you, I do not know you. And when the parable was finished, a closing admonition was immediately added, the Lord saying: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

I wish to run through in your ears, my brothers, the profound mysteries of this parable with as much brevity as I can, without the fog of obscurity, so that afterward, in praise of the holy virgin Scholastica, whose migration to the heavens we celebrate today, we may be permitted to have fitting delays. You know, most beloved brothers, that this is the rule of the catholic faith: that it affirms the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be three persons, and that it holds each one of these persons individually to be a perfect God, yet all three together not three Gods, but only one God, and teaches that this is to be believed in the heart for salvation and confessed by the mouth for righteousness. Therefore, the unity of the divinity joined to the trinity of persons produces the number four; and the number five is completed when we believe in the emptying of the Word of God, by which He is read to have emptied Himself, and, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man, and humbled Himself, showing obedience to the Father unto death, and that the death of the cross. Because of this, God also exalted Him, and gave Him a name that is above every name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee is bent, and every tongue confesses that the Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of majesty in the highest, whence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

Since, therefore, the orthodox and apostolic faith is that by which unity of divinity is believed in three persons, and by which the Word made flesh is believed to have wrought the salvation of the human race through flesh, most rightly and most fittingly are all who hold this faith of the fivefold reckoning designated by the number five. They are also most aptly called virgins, who could be divided by no schism from this integrity of faith, nor violated by any infection of heresy. But because this faith, in some, according to James, lies dead, vacant of works of love, while in others, according to Paul, it does not cease to work through love, in both parts the fivefold faith has completed the number ten. Therefore, the five prudent virgins are most suitably taken to be those in whom the faith designated by the number five is ceaselessly vigilant in works of justice through the affection of love. But in those in whom this same faith indeed perhaps works what may seem to pertain to justice, but the works themselves proceed more from the acquisition of some temporal gain than from the intention of charitable affection, such are called both virgins and five, on account of the inviolate faith signified by the fivefold compunction, and yet they are foolish because of the unwise and inept intention of the work.

But those who lack charity and love, although they may be able to perform many deeds that seem to pertain to justice, yet derive from them absolutely no benefit for salvation, the Chosen Vessel most clearly attests when he writes: "Even if I distribute all my possessions as food for the poor, and even if I deliver my body to be burned, yet if I do not have charity, it profits me nothing." This, therefore, is that oil which the foolish virgins do not have in their vessels, that is, in the receptacles of the inner man, whence they are called foolish. Now oil signifies charity for this reason, because just as oil always floats above all liquids with which it is mixed, so charity stands above all virtues. Whence also the Doctor of the Gentiles, about to speak of charity, prefaces: "I shall show you," he says, "a more excellent way, brothers." And after recalling many things in praise of charity, he added this: "But now faith, hope, and charity remain, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." This, therefore, most beloved brothers, is the oil by whose shining the holy operations of the prudent viriles, fostered, emit a light of great brilliance. Because the lamps, that is, the operations of the foolish virgins, lack the nourishment of this oil, although in the present they may not seem extinguished, yet they are to be extinguished in the scrutiny of the strict judgment.

All these virgins are prepared to meet the bridegroom and the bride, because the fivefold faith is held by all in the hope that, after the span of life has been completed, they will all joyfully present themselves before the eyes of the bridegroom Christ and his bride, which is the heavenly Jerusalem. But while the bridegroom delays, all the virgins doze and sleep, because while the judge postpones the examination, all begin the course of this life and measure it once begun. For to doze is to begin the course of life, but to sleep is to traverse it once begun by measuring it. That the course of this life may be signified by the name of sleep is taught by the authority of the Psalmist saying: They slept their sleep, and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands. All the men of riches sleep their sleep while they still walk through the spaces of this life. But then they are not sleeping, but it is said of them that they have slept, when the course of life is ended for them by death. And then they find nothing in their hands, because here they have left behind all the riches they vainly amassed. Therefore, while this sleep is taken by both the foolish and the prudent virgins, so that all may hasten to meet the bridegroom, a cry is heard at midnight.

The present age, my brothers, is called night in comparison with the future; since here, according to the Apostle, we see through a mirror and in a riddle, but then face to face; and here we know in part, but then we shall know as we are also known; when, that is, the Lord will come, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of hearts, and when there will be praise for each one from God. Therefore, in this intervening night, in this night not yet completed, not yet finished, a clamorous voice is heard, so that all the virgins should prepare themselves to meet the arriving bridegroom. This, most beloved brothers, is the cry that is enjoined upon Isaiah by the Lord’s command, saying to him: Ascend the high mountain, you who evangelize Zion, raise your voice in strength, you who evangelize Jerusalem, raise it, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God, behold the Lord God will come in strength, and his arm will rule. Likewise, it cries to him: Do not cease, like a trumpet raise your voice, and announce to my people their crimes, and to the house of Jacob their sins. You have heard, brothers, in the cry of the prophet with other words, but with no other sense, Behold the bridegroom comes; behold, he says, your God; behold, he says, the Lord will come in strength.

You have heard that the prophets are also charged to cry out and shout, "Go out to meet him," when by the Lord's voice it is commanded that they announce to their people their crimes, and to the house of Jacob their sins, and many other things that follow. In all of these, indeed, nothing else is done but a warning that urges the virgins to go out to meet the arriving bridegroom. This cry, brothers, while we sleep in the night of this age, is carried on in our ears through the Law, through the Psalms, through the Prophecies, through the Gospels, through the Apostolic Epistles, through the expositions and admonitions of the orthodox Fathers. The cry of all is this, the shouting of all is this: "Behold, the bridegroom comes; go out to meet him. Behold, he comes; he is near; he will soon be here; go out, meet him, run to him. It is now time to rise from sleep; for now our salvation, in which we believed, is near. The night has passed, the day has drawn near; let us cast off the works of darkness, let us put on the armor of light, let us walk honorably as in the day.

At this cry, virgins rise—both prudent and foolish—they trim their lamps, they prepare for the works; oil is lacking to the foolish virgins, the affection of love is lacking to them, the intention of charity is lacking, the bowels of mercy are absent, which in the strict examination might cause mercy to be merited. Oil takes its name from mercy; for in Greek it is called *elaion*, in Latin *misericordia*, and therefore oil fittingly figures mercy. Nor should you think, dearest brothers, that I am now saying one thing, and that earlier from my mouth another thing sounded in your ears. For it may perhaps seem to some that it is different, that earlier I said that charity should be understood through oil, and now I say that mercy is signified through oil. Never, my brothers, can charity be without the bowels of mercy, never can mercy be without the affection of love. Therefore oil cannot be a type of charity without also being equally a type of mercy. And it cannot bear the figure of mercy without also equally having the figure of charity. Thus when oil is said to figure charity, at the same time mercy is understood to be figured through oil. And when mercy is said to be designated through oil, it is necessary that love be understood as designated through oil.

Therefore, the foolish virgins do not have this oil, and often they recognize that they do not have it; they lack the affection of compassion, the affection of love, and they understand that they lack it. Hence they flee to the prudent virgins and beg them to give them some of their oil. They understand that the works of the reprobate are either not right or by no means proceed from a right intention. They understand and are stung with compunction; but because they are sown along the way and are temporal, they believe for a time, and in time of temptation they fall away. The foolish come to the prudent, cry out that their lamps are going out, demand that oil be given to them, because sometimes the reprobate, stung with compunction, take refuge with holy men, and by their own testimony confess that the things which seem to them to be good works proceed from an intention that is not good. They commend themselves to the charity, commend themselves to the love of these men, commend themselves to their prayers, commend themselves to the depths of their mercy. This is to ask oil from them, this is to wish their own lamps to burn from the fuel of these men. But what the prudent virgins answered, you have heard: "Lest perhaps," they say, "it may not suffice for us and for you; rather go to the sellers and buy for yourselves.

They say this sometimes, brothers—the God-fearing women say this, the humble souls say this—they answer those who strive to commend themselves through their prayers, through their petitions: "Our prayers scarcely, our petitions scarcely, the services we offer to God scarcely suffice for ourselves; we are scarcely such as to be found worthy of being heard on our own behalf. Our prayers are not, our acts of service in the presence of God are not of such worth that through them others can merit salvation. Do not place hope in our prayers, which are of no account; rather, strive to labor for yourselves." You do not have oil, as you yourselves confess; you can find many sellers of oil. The sellers of oil, the sellers of mercy, are the poor, because when we bestow mercy upon them, we ourselves merit mercy from the Lord. And they are the ones who, bound to us by a bond of friendship from ill-gotten wealth, receive us into eternal dwellings. And in the same measure that we measure out to them, it will be measured back to us. Therefore, go to them, make them your friends; give to them from your ill-gotten wealth not with an intention of vanity, as hitherto, but with the hope of oil, with the hope of obtaining divine mercy; be certain and unhesitating that they will give a good, heaped, shaken, and overflowing measure into your bosom.

The foolish women hear the counsels of the prudent, and they go to make a purchase of oil. But while they are going, the bridegroom comes, he enters with those prepared for the wedding, the door is shut. What does "they go" mean? They decide, they determine, they arrange. To decide, to determine, to arrange something in the mind is to go. They are said to have gone to buy oil, not to have bought it. They go, but they do not buy, because they decide, but they do not act, they promise, but they do not fulfill, they pledge, but they are not carried out, they delay, they procrastinate, they put off. While the foolish are going to buy oil, but the prudent are fitting lamps with the oil they had in their vessels, the bridegroom comes; because while the reprobate are always putting off doing good, and the elect are incessantly persisting in it, the judge through death summons both to judgment, and through death the elect are taken up in glory, but through death the door is shut on the reprobate, never to be opened to them again in perpetuity. For that hour is already at hand of which Truth speaks elsewhere: The hour will come, He says, in which no one can work. And the favorable time and the day of salvation have already passed for them, of which the Lord says through the mouth of the prophet: At the favorable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Hence they repeat in vain the cries of clamor, for the time of being heard has passed; and it is said to them, Amen I say to you, I do not know you. He denies them in that life, who in this life denied Him, even if not in words, yet in deeds.

But that what the Lord builds up with words may be denied by deeds, the testimony of the distinguished preacher is clear, which he brought forth concerning certain ones who teach rightly but do not depart from evil, in these words: They confess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny Him. To what end the whole series of the parable tends, the following clause of the admonition immediately reveals, as the Lord adds and says: Therefore be watchful, because you know neither the day nor the hour. Having run through the explanation of the Gospel reading with concise brevity, let the thread of our discourse now turn at once to the praises—as we promised at the very beginnings—of the virgin whose natal day we celebrate; and let it be our first concern to observe that nothing at all of those things which we learned from the Lord’s account that prudent virgins possessed was lacking in Scholastica. For she shone with complete virginity, who, beyond the common virginity of faith, also preserved the chastity of the flesh with an unblemished purity of mind. She was prudent, who, fixing her eyes on the ends of things, provided for herself goods with unceasing perseverance. She lit the lamp to meet the bridegroom, who, yearning for the vision of Christ, scattered the light of holy deeds around, more radiant than the rays of the sun. She received oil in vessels, always holding the nourishment of pious charity in the receptacles of her soul.

Through the intimate power of that love, Scholastica was so strong that, by the manifestation of a wondrous miracle, whereby she watered the face of the sky with weeping rains, she opposed the will of her most holy brother and prevented him from undertaking the return to the brothers which he had planned, with heaven fighting on her behalf. Therefore, prepared, she went out today to meet the bridegroom coming with lighted lamps, and rejoicing, she entered with him into the wedding feast. What great gentleness the soul governing her bodily limbs possessed was revealed to the world by God’s revelation, when it was ordered to leave the prison of the body, namely when, in the form of a bird lacking a gall, it was shown to her brothers’ eyes penetrating the secrets of heaven. There are said to be other properties of the dove, dearest brothers, whose mysteries can most worthily and most truly be applied to the most sacred virgin.

It is said that this bird more willingly and more frequently builds its nest in the holes of a rock; it is said to eat nothing living; it is said to defend itself not with its beak, not with its claws, but by the motion of its wings; it is said to love companionship in flying; it is said to have bleary eyes, and, flying against the sun’s rays, it cannot see an oncoming hawk in the bright contemplation; whence it is said to be accustomed to perch on a tree planted beside the flowing waters of a stream, and to fix its eyes, which it cannot expose to the sun’s rays, upon the waters, and, by the image reflected in the waters, to avoid the tricks and attacks of the hawk rushing to seize it. But that, my brothers, who does not know that the song of doves is nothing other than a moan? If we contemplate the mysteries of all these properties in Scholastica, dearest brothers, many reasons will become clear to us why it seemed good to divine wisdom to reveal the soul of the virgin, having left the body, to the sight of her brother in the form of a dove. Therefore, our dove built its nest in the holes of the rock, which clearly placed all the trust of its salvation and life in the passion and death of Christ. The Vessel of Election taught you that Christ is called a rock. This rock, moreover, was pierced at that time when on the cross it was fixed with iron nails to the feet and hands. The hole of this rock also existed in that place where a soldier opened its side with a fixed lance.

In these holes, therefore, Scholastica established her nest, because through them she placed unhesitating hope of an eternal dwelling for herself in the heavens. In these holes she established her nest, since she bore the credulity of certain faith that they were the causes of her salvation. In these holes, I say, she established her nest, in which she indeed preserved herself most safe from the devil, the hawk of souls. Nothing living was food for our dove, who, hearing the Apostle, strove to mortify her flesh with its vices and lusts. She did not defend herself with any claws, not with any beak, but by the sole protection of her wings, who, knowing no evil to repay evil, fortified herself against all adversaries solely by the love of God and neighbor. In flying she loved companionship, who strove to draw with her to the heavens whomever she could. She had bleary eyes, who in this life saw with Paul through a mirror and in a riddle. The tree planted beside flowing waters, on whose summit this dove was accustomed to perch, is the Lord Christ, on whose head, which the Apostle indeed testifies is God, she established for herself a most firm and fortified seat. This tree, according to the psalmist prophet, is planted beside the flow of waters, since whatever the faithful believe concerning him is sufficiently confirmed by the authorities of the Scriptures. For water is deep, says the wisest of men, the words from the mouth of a man, and the overflowing torrent is the fountain of wisdom.

Fixing her gaze upon these waters, she perceived the approaching hawk, because, intent upon the sacred Scriptures, she discerned and avoided the snares of the wily enemy. The song of our dove was a groan; she, an imitator of prophetic action, labored in her groaning, and each night washed her bed, watered her couch with tears, and from the sound of her groaning her bones clung to her skin. But, to commend the most sacred virgin with the fewest and most sufficient words at the last, my brothers: she was the sister of Benedict, both by blood and by sanctity. Having run through these praises of the virgin with compendious brevity, let us return to your exhortation, my dearest brothers, repeatedly pressing upon both your ears and minds that clause from the Gospel reading: "Therefore, be watchful, for you know neither the day nor the hour." Be watchful, brothers, I exhort, I urge, I warn; be watchful, since you know neither the day nor the hour of your departure. Run while you have light, lest the darkness of death overtake you. Work while there is time, while it is permitted, while the judge suspends his sentence. For the hour will come when no one will be able to work. We urge you, with the Apostle, not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: "At the acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you." Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold the day of salvation. Therefore, seek the Lord, my dearest brothers, while he can be found; call upon him while he is near.

Let the impious man abandon his way, and the iniquitous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He is great in forgiving. Is honor lost? It can be recovered. Is dignity lost? It can be recovered. Are riches lost? They can be recovered. Countless are the things which, once lost, can be recovered. But the time for working, the time for repenting, the time for pleasing God—if once lost, is never again recovered for all eternity. That it is still permitted to us to turn to God through penance, most beloved brethren, we know; but whether this permission will remain for us until evening, we do not know. Therefore, knowing, most beloved, that the patience of God leads us to penance, let us not, according to our hardness and impenitent heart, store up for ourselves wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works. Watch, therefore, most beloved brethren, watch; for you know neither the day nor the hour. Blessed are those servants, says the Truth, whom when the master comes, he finds watching! Amen I say to you, that he will set them over all his goods. May Christ Jesus our Lord make us partakers of those goods, to whom, with the Father and the life-giving Spirit, power, dominion, and rule remain without end, for ever and ever. Amen.