Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica

Benedict and Scholastica were twins; their birth was accompanied by tears, as it cost their mother Abundantia her life. The two children loved each other tenderly, but both loved God above all else. Early on, Scholastica was consecrated to God, while continuing to live with her father Euproprius. Benedict first led a hermitic life in a cave in Subiaco. Historians remain silent about what became of Scholastica until her brother Benedict, who had become the father of a monastic community, settled on Monte Cassino. It can be assumed with Mabillon that after her father’s death, she lived in a community of nuns and settled in a monastery near her brother’s, that of Palumbariola, “a small dwelling for doves,” so that she could visit him once a year.
It was during one of these visits that the episode reported by Saint Gregory the Great took place, where Scholastica obtained that a clear summer sky would turn into a violent storm, preventing her brother from returning to his monastery and compelling him to stay all night discussing the joys of the spiritual life with his sister. Three days later, Saint Benedict saw Scholastica’s soul fly to heaven in the form of a dove, and he had her buried in the tomb he had prepared for himself.