Scholastica

Scholastica (d. c.543), sister of Benedict and first Benedictine nun. All that is known of her comes from the Dialogues of Gregory the Great. Her nunnery was Plombariola, about five miles from Monte Cassino; Benedict and Scholastica used to meet once a year in a house at a distance from his monastery; on his last visit to her, she asked him in vain to stay longer to discuss ‘the joys of heaven’. When he refused, she prayed for rain to such effect that a violent thunderstorm prevented him leaving and they spent the night as she had wished. She died three days later and was buried in the tomb Benedict had prepared for himself. Her relics were alleged to have been translated to Le Mans when Benedict's went to Fleury. Feast: 10 February, in the Roman calendar with a high rank in Benedictine nunneries, of which she is the patron.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• AA.SS. Feb. II (1658), 392–412
• Gregory, Dialogues, bk. II, cc. 33–4 (ed. A. de Vogüé. S.C., 1978)
• W. Goffart, ‘Le Mans, St. Scholastica and the literary tradition of the translation of St. Benedict’, Rev. Bén., lxxvii (1967), 107–41