St. Benedict of Aniane

Model of Monastic reform in France

Born in 747 to a family of noble decent, Benedict of Aniane was originally known as Witiza, or the Second Benedict. Benedict was trained and sent to serve as a cupbearer to King Pepin III and Blessed Charlemagne.

At the age of 26, Benedict joined Charlemagne in his 773 Crusade against the Lombards, a Germanic tribe settled in Italy.

Benedict then left King Pepin and Charlemagne to enter into the religious life. Joining the monastery of St. Sequanus, he officially took the name “Benedict,” and survived for two and a half years on bread and water alone while sleeping on the ground and going barefoot.

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