Benedict of Nursia (March 480 – 543 or 547 AD) is a Christian saint. He is a patron saint of Europe. Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, Lazio, Italy (about 40 miles (64 km) to the east of Rome), before moving to Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy. Benedict’s main achievement is his “Rule of Saint Benedict”, containing precepts for his monks.
Discipline is a way of focusing energy and attention on what matters. Benedictine life is built around a fundamental discipline of prayer, work and relationships that is set forth in the Rule and that seeks to free a monastic to take delight in God’s presence within the self, the community and the world. No learning takes place without discipline. Students must sacrifice short-time benefits for long-term goals. In pursuing academic excellence the faculty and staff seek to teach and model the skills for cultivating discipline. Within a Benedictine institution of higher education it is our intent to shape the classroom, laboratory, and studio – as well programs in athletics, service and leadership – to call forth and support personal discipline on the part of students. We rejoice at growth in knowledge and self-understanding that is the fruit of hard work, initiative and honest assessment.
Benedictine colleges and universities seek to enlist this practical focus on community building and its profound openness to human history and global experience. We attempt to provide students with an experience of community, deepened by curricular and co-curricular programs, to help them make the connection between the individual and the communal, the local and the global, the present and the past. Benedictine educational institutions seek to recognize the service their members give to promoting human well-being on campus, as well as off. It is our intent to commemorate the example and witness provided in the past, to celebrate human generosity wherever it is found, and to expand care and concern for our members on a regular basis.