BENEDICT
442
BENEDICT
order to fulfil a vow went on a pilgrimage to the Holy-
Land. Wadding says that he was a man of most
distinguished parts and great culture, having thor-
oughly mastered the learning of his day ana bein^
especially conversant with the Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin tongues. In 1599 che first edition of his
"Somme des p^ch^s et le remede d'iceux comprenant
tous les cas de conscience" was published in Paris
and was immediately in great demand among con-
fessors, for we learn that after having been revised,
corrected, and augmented by the Theological Faculty
of Paris it reached its fifteenth edition. He also
wTote "La triomphante victoire de la Sainte Vierge"
which tells of a remarkable exorcism in the church
of the Cordeliers at Lyons. His remains were in-
terred in the Friary at Laval.
W.IDDING. Annales minor, ad arm., 1596, IV; Sbabalea, Supp. ad script. O. M. (Rome, 1806).
Andrew Eg.vx.
Benedict Joseph Labre, Saint, b. 26 March, 1748, at Amettes in the Diocese of Boulogne, France; d. in Rome, 16 April, 17S3. He was the eldest of fifteen children. His parents, Jean-Baptiste Labre and .\nne-Barbe Grandsire, belonged to the middle class and so were able to give to their numerous off- spring considerable opportunities in the way of educa- tion. His early training he received in his native vil- lage in a school conducted by the vicar of the parish. The account of this period furnished in the life written by his confessor, ilarconi. and that contained in the one compiled from the official processes of his beatifica- tion are at one in emphasizing the fact that he exhib- ited a seriousness of thought and demeanour far be- yond his years. Even at that tender age he had begun to show a marked predilection for the spirit of mortifi- cation, with an aversion for the ordinary childish amusements, and he seems from the very dawning of reason to have had the liveliest horror for even the smallest sin. All this we are told was coexistent with a frank and open demeanour and a fund of cheerfulness which remained unabated to the end of his life. At the age of twelve his education was taken over by his paternal uncle, Fran(,-ois-Joseph Labre, cur^ of Erin, with whom he then went to live. During the six following years which he spent under his uncle's roof, he made considerable progress in the study of Latin, history, etc. but found himself unable to conquer a constantly growing distaste for any form of knowledge which did not make directly for union with God. A love of solitude, a generous em- ployment of austerities, and devotedness to his re- ligious exercises were discernible as distinguishing features of his life at this time and constitute an intelligible prelude to his subsequent career. At the age of sixteen he resolved to embrace a religious life as a Trappist, but having on the advice of his uncle returned to Amettes to submit his design to his parents for their approval he was unable to win their consent. He therefore resumed his sojourn in the rectory at Erin, redoubling his penances and exer- cises of piety and in every way striving to make ready for the life of complete self-annihilation to which the voice within his soul seemed to be calling him.
After the heroic death of his uncle during an epi- demic in September, 1766, Benedict, who had dedi- cated himself during the scourge to the service of the sick and dying, returned to .Amettes in November of the same year. His absorbing thought at this time was still to become a reljgious at La Trappe, and his parents fearing that further opposition would be resistance to the will of God fell in with his pro- posal to enter the cloister. It was suggested, how- ever, by his maternal uncle, the Abb6 Vincent, that application be made to the Carthusians at Val-Sainte- Aldectonde rather than to La Trappe. Benedict's
Eetition at Val-Sainte-Aldegonde was unsuccessful, ut he was directed to another monastery of the same
order at Neuville. There he was told that as he was
not yet twenty there was no hurry, and that he must
first learn plain-chant and logic. During the next
two years he applied twice unsuccessfully to be re-
ceived at La Trappe and was for six weeks as a postu-
lant with the Carthusians at Neuville; he finally
sought and obtained admission to the Cistercian Abbey
of Sept-Fonts in November, 1769. After a short
stay at Sept-Fonts during which his exactness in
religious observance and humility endeared him to
the whole community, his health gave way, and it
was decided that his vocation lay elsewhere. In
accordance with a resolve formed during his con-
valescence he then set out for Rome. From Chieri
in Piedmont he wrote to his parents a letter which
proved to be the last they would ever receive from
him. In it he informed them of his design to enter
some one of the many monasteries in Italy noted
for their special rigour of life. A short time, however,
after the letter was dispatched he seems to have had
an internal illumination which set at rest forever any
doubts he might have as to what his method of living
was to be. He then understood "that it was God's
will that like St. Alexis he should abandon his coun-
try, his parents, and whatever is flattering in the world
to lead a ne a' sort of life, a life most painful, most
penitential, not in a mlderness nor in a cloister, but
in the midst of the world, devoutly visiting as a
pilgrim the famous places of Christian devotion'.
He repeatedly submitted this extraordinary inspira-
tion to the judgment of experienced confessors and
was told he might safely conform to it. Through
the years that followed he never wavered in the con-
viction that this was the path appointed for him by
God. He set forward on his life's journey clad in an
old coat, a rosary about his neck, another between
his fingers, his arms folded over a crucifix which lay
upon his breast. In a small wallet he carried a Tes-
tament, a breviary, which it was his wont to recite
daily, a copy of the "Imitation of Christ", and some
other pious books. Clothing other than that which
covered his person he had none. He slept on the
ground and for the most part in the open air.
For food he was satisfied with a piece of bread or
some herbs, frequently taken but once a day, and
either provided by charity or gotten from some
refuse heap. He never asked for alms and was anxious
to give away to the poor whatever he received ia
excess of his scanty wants.
The first seven of the thirteen remaining years of his life were spent in pilgrimages to the more famous shrines of Europe. He visited in this way Loreto, Assisi, Naples, Bari, Fabriano in Italy; Einsiedeln in Switzerland; Compostella in Spain; Paray-le-Monial in France. The last si.x years he spent in Rome, leaving it only once a year to visit the Holy House of Loreto. His unremitting and ruthless self-denial, his unaffected humility, un- hesitating obedience and perfect spirit of union with God in prayer disarmed suspicion not unnaturally aroused as to the genuineness of a Divine call to so ex- traordinary a way of existence. Liter.ally worn out by his sufferings and austerities, on the 16th of .\pril, 1783, he sank down on the steps of the church of Santa Maria del Monti in Rome and, utterly exhausted, was carried to a neighbouring house where he died. His death was followed by a multitude of unequivocal miracles attributed to his intercession. The life written by his confessor, Marconi, an English version of which bears the date of 1785, witnesses to 136 miraculous cures as having been certified to up to 6 July, 1783. So remarkable, indeed, was the char- acter of the evidence for some of the miracles that they are said to have had no inconsiderable part in finally determining the conversion of the celebrated- American convert, Father John Thayer, of Boston, who was in Rome at the time of the saint's death.
