Saint Scholastica and the monastic life

Saint Scholastica is remembered for a life of prayer, service and quiet influence. Born in Nursia in Italy, she became the sister of Saint Benedict and a formative presence in the early Benedictine tradition. On her feast, 10 May, her example invites us to ask how a person can shape others without seeking the spotlight.

Her story is closely bound to the Rule that Benedict wrote for his monks. Tradition recalls that Benedict appeared to her in a dream and entrusted her with the Rule, linking their two lives in a profound way. Scholastica also encouraged hospitality towards women within the monastic community. Her contribution therefore reaches beyond a single institution: it concerns the formation of people who live with God and one another.

At Mother of the Redeemer Monastery in Plaisance, Louisiana, an Olivetan Benedictine community within the Diocese of Lafayette, that heritage is lived rather than merely displayed. The monks gather for prayer, work by hand, share meals and welcome people who seek silence or spiritual companionship. Their public witness shows that monastic life can belong to a particular place without turning inward from the wider world.

For Australian readers, this is an invitation to look at familiar habits with fresh attention. The rhythms of family life, work and commuting may resemble those of the monks only from a distance, yet each offers opportunities for discipline, patience and charity. Considering Scholastica beside these ordinary experiences reveals a tradition concerned with how daily actions become forms of love.

Saint Scholastica's hidden authority

Scholastica's influence was often exercised in support of others. She helped Benedictine communities understand obedience as service rather than personal display, and her attention to guests and to the needs of women gave her a lasting voice in early monastic history. Her authority rested on conviction, but it was made credible through care.

Tradition credits her with helping establish communities of women who followed the Benedictine Rule. Their work, prayer and mutual support gave new shape to the monastery. The witness of those communities reminds us that a shared rule can unite very different people, including those whose responsibilities differ because of culture, family or physical capacity.

Her feast draws attention to a figure whose influence was frequently hidden behind Benedict's more public reputation. This does not make her secondary; it makes her a useful guide to a particular kind of power. When a community listens patiently, protects the vulnerable and serves without self-display, it reveals a strength that titles alone cannot provide.

A Benedictine rhythm for daily life

The Rule of Saint Benedict is more than a historical document. It gives a practical pattern for prayer, work, silence, hospitality and decisions made in common. The monastery's Saint Benedict's Rule can help readers see how an ancient text addresses ordinary human needs, including rest, reconciliation and the choice between comfort and responsibility.

For the monks of Mother of the Redeemer, the rhythm begins with the liturgy and extends into manual work, shared meals and periods of prayer. Repetition matters here. Each day repeats familiar actions, yet repetition can create the space in which a distracted person becomes more attentive. Stability is not stagnation; it is a discipline that allows deep attention to grow.

Monastic hospitality also has a contemporary meaning. Guests may arrive for a retreat weekend or a quiet period of reflection, but they encounter a community whose life is already moving towards God. Visitors do not need to become monks or possess religious knowledge. They are received as people, and their presence can prompt the monks to renew their own commitment to welcome others.

Faith within Australian surroundings

In Sydney and Melbourne, many weekdays follow a compressed routine: a school run, a drive-through coffee and a commute that can swallow much of the morning. People accustomed to these quick transactions may understand why Benedictine silence feels demanding. Waiting without filling the silence, or walking without checking a phone, can become a small but genuine discipline of presence.

Commercial life is equally insistent. The availability of 24-hour gaming venues in Parramatta, a busy western Sydney suburb, shows how commercial life now reaches beyond traditional closing hours. New South Wales law, including the Liquor Act 2007, regulates gaming licensing and venue hours. For a community shaped by monastic hours, this contrast is more than cultural trivia: constant availability can make deliberate quiet seem impossible.

The Benedictine response need not be withdrawal or sweeping judgement. It is a rhythm of presence within the world as it is. A monk working among busy people, sharing a meal with neighbours or caring for a distressed guest practises the same attentiveness that begins in solitary prayer. The goal is to choose habits that make love more possible rather than less.

Practices that renew a common vocation

A monastic vocation is sustained by practices small enough to repeat and substantial enough to reshape the heart. The following suggestions draw from the Benedictine tradition, but their value is not confined to monasteries. They can be adapted with care to household life, parish activity or friendship, always with the advice and wisdom of a community.

• Begin the day with communal prayer where possible, even when its length must be brief and its form adapted to local needs.
• Keep a short period of silence each day, putting away notifications and allowing thoughts to settle without immediately acting on them.
• Give regular priority to Scripture and the Jesus Prayer, making room for both familiar psalms and passages that challenge familiar assumptions.
• Share meals and conversation without screens when that is practical, paying attention to the person in front of you rather than to the pace of the conversation.
• Receive guests generously, especially those who bring no status or obvious advantage, because hospitality tests the quality of our self-respect.
• Review commitments together, asking whether work, technology and comfort are serving the mission of love rather than quietly directing it.

These practices do not turn an Australian reader into a monk, nor should they. Their purpose is to sharpen attention and strengthen charity in whatever setting a person inhabits. Oblates and friends of the monastery can also discover how the Rule supports a family, a workplace or a neighbourhood. The common thread is a more faithful way of living within ordinary life.

Support the monastery's life of prayer

A monastery cannot sustain a contemplative life on inspiration alone. It needs buildings, food, utilities, medical care and people whose work allows the community to keep its rhythm of prayer. People who value silence and hospitality can help by supporting the community directly, by encouraging a friend to make a retreat, or by giving time to practical needs that are easy to overlook.

As Mother of the Redeemer pursues its planned chapel expansion, such support helps make that development possible while strengthening the daily life of the monastery. The community's ways to give page explains the various options for contributing. Generosity expressed in practical assistance can be as meaningful as a financial gift.

Join this life of prayer by arranging a visit, taking part in a retreat or offering your assistance. Support the monastery today and help sustain a home for hospitality, contemplation and the quiet service of Saint Scholastica's tradition.