St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism, planted a rose garden at his early monastery in Subiaco near Rome (c. 500). The two major medieval works on garden design and horticulture were by the ...

Lent shouldn't be necessary. That's what St. Benedict of Nursia, the great father of monks, thought at least. Jesus commanded us to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. In response, ...

her community was confined to a traditional monastic lifestyle and given the rule of St Benedict to live by. This rule did not contain the strictness of poverty which Clare wanted, and she strove to ...

This garden is a memorial to St. Clare of Assisi (c. 1193-1253), religious mystic and follower of apostolic poverty, spiritual friend of St. Francis, and the first woman in Western Europe to compose a ...