Life and Monastic Foundation
Scholastica was born about 480 in Nursia, in the Umbrian region of Italy, to wealthy parents. Later tradition names her father Anicius Eupropius and her mother Claudia Abondantia Reguardati. Gregory the Great records that she was dedicated to God from a young age, and a ninth-century tradition makes her the twin sister of Benedict of Nursia. The siblings were raised together until Benedict left to pursue his studies in Rome.
She established a monastic community roughly five miles from Benedict's monastery at Monte Cassino, at a place later identified as Plombariola. Described as the first convent of Benedictine nuns and living under the Benedictine Rule, the community was directed by her brother, and Scholastica is traditionally regarded as the foundress of the Benedictine nuns.
The Yearly Meeting and Her Repose
Because monastic rules prevented the siblings from entering one another's monasteries, Scholastica and Benedict met once each year at a house convenient to both communities to discuss sacred matters. Gregory the Dialogist's Dialogues preserve the celebrated account of their last such meeting: when Benedict prepared to leave, Scholastica asked him to stay longer, and when he refused, she turned to prayer. A violent storm arose at once, making departure impossible and compelling the two to pass the night in spiritual conversation.
Three days later, from his cell, Benedict saw his sister's soul leaving her body and ascending to heaven in the form of a shining white dove. Scholastica died on February 10, 543, near Monte Cassino, at about sixty-two or sixty-three years of age. Benedict laid her body in the tomb he had prepared for himself, arranging that he too would one day be buried there.
Veneration
Scholastica is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, and the Anglican Communion, with a feast day on February 10. In Western tradition she is honored as the patron of Benedictine nuns and is invoked against storms and rain, an association drawn from the account of her final meeting with her brother.
In art she is depicted in a Benedictine habit, often as an abbess, holding the Rule of Saint Benedict, and accompanied by a crucifix or an ascending dove. Orthodox iconography likewise shows her as a nun in habit, sometimes holding a crosier with a dove nearby, and at times together with her brother Benedict.
