BENEDICT OF NURSIA (c. 480–547), Christian saint, monastic founder, and spiritual leader. Best known as the author of the monastic rule still followed by Benedictine and Cistercian monks and nuns. Benedict is looked upon as the father of Western monasticism because of the widespread influence of his rule. Book 2 of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, written about 593–594, is the only source of information on the details of Benedict's life. Although the primary purpose of the Dialogues is moral edification rather than biography in the modern sense, Gregory's work provides facts that conform to the general history of sixth-century central Italy; hence most scholars agree that the core of Gregory's information is basically reliable. His account of Benedict, however, concentrates mainly on miracles and encounters with demons.

Benedict was born in the Umbrian province of Nursia, northeast of Rome, into what the Dialogues describe as...