SOURCE: "The Miracles of St. Benedict" in Benedictus: Studies in Honor of St. Benedict of Nursia, edited by E. Rozanne Elder, Cistercian Publications, 1981, pp. 1-14.

In the following essay, Ward investigates accounts and changing conceptions of the miracles associated with St. Benedict.

'One day when the brethren of this monastery were quarreling, one of them met St Benedict outside the door and the saint immediately gave him this command: "Go and tell the brethren that they give me no rest. I am leaving this house and let them know that I shall not return until I bring from Aquitaine a man who shall be after my own heart." "¹ The place is the abbey of St Benoît-sur-Loire at Fleury; the man from Aquitaine Odo of Cluny, the reforming abbot called in to deal with that turbulent house; and when the monk met St Benedict in the cloister, the...