Medal of São Bento: know its origin, inscriptions, how to use it and more!

Upon his death in 547, Saint Benedict left many disciples in the various monasteries he founded during his lifetime. Shortly after his death, the Benedictine monks created the medal in honor of the master. Therefore, the medal is personalized, unique, and through the details it carries, it is possible to understand a little of the life of the saint.

The monks of the Order of São Bento created the medal based on events that occurred in the life of the Saint, and it is officially declared as a sacramental (sacred object) by the Catholic Church. The medal has several symbols, with the cross being the object that São Bento most believed in and used as inspiration.

Sacramental objects such as the São Bento Medal, added to the individual faith of those who wear it, transmit the power of achievement, strengthening willpower, and are not, therefore, a simple amulet. In this article, you will find the entire history of the São Bento Medal. Enjoy reading.

To understand the meaning of the São Bento Medal, you need to know the details of the Saint’s life, who renounced the privileges of a life among the rich to follow what his heart asked. In the text ahead, which is divided into blocks for better understanding, you can learn about the entire history of São Bento.

His baptismal name is Benedito de Nursia and he was born on March 24, 480. His origin is from a noble Roman family, who sent him to Rome, capital of the Roman Empire, to continue his studies. Rome was at the time one of the largest cities in Europe, although the empire was already in decline.

However, the current way of life in Rome was degrading, as the decay of the empire was reflected in the moral aspect of the inhabitants, which did not please the young nobleman who had other aspirations. Thus, the young man preferred to leave the capital and lived for three years in a cave as a hermit, to meditate and strengthen his religious vocation.

Saint Benedict had his origins in a wealthy family in Italy, but he lived as a hermit for some years, and this fact already shows the absence of vanity. Thus, his attire was simple without luxury or ostentation. His first monk’s cassock was given to him by an abbot named Romero who helped him while he lived in the cave.

Saint Benedict used a tall staff that ended in a cross and this is the most common visual representation in images of the saint. Some of his images also show the chalice and the raven, which symbolize the two best known miracles that are attributed to the saint.

The life of Saint Benedict shows through examples that he was a selfless and faithful devotee of Christ. The founding of monasteries means the understanding that it was necessary to form others who would continue his work, taking the message of the power of the cross to the world, an object he revered.

Thus, Saint Benedict is the example of the power of faith through sacrifice and renunciation, and also represents the struggle that the faithful face against temptations. São Bento also symbolizes the willpower that fuels the actions of holy men, in the arduous task of fighting against the power of darkness.

The life story of St. Benedict is moving because he knew wealth, as well as the promiscuous life of Rome, where he could have lived amidst the delights of the flesh and the power of money. However, he gave up all this to live in a cave, and later in monasteries.

The life of voluntary seclusion in monasteries is difficult, as it is necessary to produce the resources for subsistence. In addition, considerable time is devoted to studies to strengthen the faith, having nothing that is known as entertainment. This was the real life story of Saint Benedict, which resembles that of many other saints.

Saint Benedict was made holy by the Catholic Church in 1220 by Pope Honorius III, obeying the church’s tradition of sanctifying martyrs and other characters who had proven miracles, in addition to a life dedicated to fulfilling duties for the church.

As the saint died in 547, it took about seven hundred years for the church to recognize the saint and finalize the process. In the meantime he was already a saint in the hearts of many devotees.

The performance of at least two miracles is a requirement for the church to recognize a saint. St. Benedict’s first miracle saved his life when a group of disgruntled monks tried to poison him with wine. The cup broke when the saint blessed it before drinking the wine.

Years later, he saved his own life again in yet another assassination attempt. This time, a priest overcome with envy sent a bread with poison, but Saint Benedict gave the bread to a crow, who, although he was waiting for crumbs, did not even nibble at the poisoned bread.

As the name suggests, the Rule of Saint Benedict is an instruction manual for good coexistence among monks, and also for regulating and distributing all the work that was performed by monks in monasteries. St. Benedict had a lot of experience in this area, as he helped found 12 monasteries.

These rules unified the necessary acts within a convent, which previously functioned according to the norms that each abbot created. Furthermore, it was the rules of Saint Benedict that gave rise to the Order of the Benedictines, even though many years after his death.

You will now learn about the history of the São Bento Medal, a Catholic sacramental of great cultural, historical and religious value. If you believe that some objects can have their own energy, the São Bento Medal has all the requirements to be one of these objects.

The medal that is most in use today is the one that commemorates the 1400th anniversary of São Bento, which would have taken place in 1880, when the medal was created to honor the date. However, medals with different designs can still be found, since they have been modified over time.

There is no official date for the first medals that featured only a cross, the monk’s object of devotion. Then they added the image of Saint Benedict with the book of monastic rules. Later modifications included the many letters of the Latin words, in addition to the images of the chalice and the raven and this is the most common model.

The main meaning of the medal is to invoke the powers of Saint Benedict through faith because the medal itself is not a magical object. However, it contains the cross and the objects with which they were present in the two miracles that sanctified and eternalized the man Benedict.

Thus, the medal means recognition of São Bento’s victories in the face of enemy forces, who always tried to remove him from the path. The use of the medal brings those who wear it closer to the forces of good, thus increasing their own forces.

The Catholic Church has always cultivated the tradition of creating relics of men who have been sanctified. In addition to the expression of faith, the relics served, and still serve, not only to attract the faithful, but also to contribute to the church’s income, once they were offered for sale. Thus, many objects were considered sacred by the church and among these is the São Bento Medal.

An object can only become a sacred relic after being authorized by a Pope, when it then gains the name of sacramental. The Saint Benedict Medal was authorized by Pope Benedict XIV to include the image of the cross in 1741 and was made official as a sacramental in 1942.

The São Bento Medal can be found in various versions and materials because it is not only sold by the church. Like a crucifix, it can be made in slightly different formats, but the best known official version is the Jubilee Medal, when Saint Benedict would have turned 1400 years old.

Unlike other sacramentals that were objects that belonged to the saint, the São Bento Medal brings together a set of objects, such as the cross, for example, and phrases that help tell the story of the saint. Furthermore, the first medal was minted long after his death.

The current medal brings together so many elements that both sides are used to show them. Thus, there are only five on the front, which will be detailed later. They are: the best known image of the saint, an inscription in the original in Latin, and the images of the cross, the book and the staff.

In the most traditional image of São Bento, the saint holds the cross in his right hand, being one of the most important symbols of Christianity, while his left hand holds the book where he wrote a set of norms that became known as the Rules of São Bento .

The image of the saint, which today is just another element of the medal, was the only one that appeared in the primitive versions, when it still did not have authorization from the church to be manufactured. Today, the medal appears in many different styles, as in addition to catering to religious sentiment, it is marketed all over the world.

Of the inscriptions in Latin that are inserted in the medal, the first one does not need comments, but only the translation that informs the name of the person honored by the medal. Thus, the phrase “Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti” is translated into Santa Cruz do Padre Bento. The second sentence in Latin refers to the 1400 year jubilee date in 1880 at Monte Cassino and reads: SM Casino, MDCCCLXXX’.

Finally, there is the third phrase “Eius in Obitu Nostro Praesentia Muniamur!” means “May We Be Strengthened By His Presence At The Hour Of Our Death!”. The text makes reference to the title of patron of good death, which Saint Bento earned for dying peacefully after predicting the fact six days before.

The cross was already known as a mystical object even before Christ transformed it into the great symbol of Christianity. With the crucifixion, it came to mean the difficulties that everyone must face during life, and at the same time the confidence that Jesus would help those who believed in him.

Saint Benedict was always a devotee of the symbolism of the cross, recommending that everyone always make the sign of the cross several times a day. His devotion led a Pope to authorize the addition of a cross to the Medal of Saint Benedict, a fact that gave the saint more power of recognition.

The book that São Bento wrote to systematize the functioning of a monastery is still used today, both in male and female religious establishments. It is a set of rules that determine from…