e was no sooner come into the world, but he resolved to
bid an eternal farewell to it, not to be entangled in its snares. He
therefore left the city privately, and made the best of his way towards
the deserts. His nurse, Cyrilla, who loved him tenderly, followed him as
far as Afilum, thirty miles from Rome, where he found means to get rid
of her, and pursued his journey alone to the desert mountains of
Sublacum,[1] near forty miles from Rome. It is a barren, hideous chain
of rocks, with a river and lake in the valley. Near this place the saint
met a monk of a neighboring monastery, called Romanus, who gave him the
monastic habit, with suitable instructions, and conducted him to a deep
narrow cave in the midst of these mountains, almost inaccessible to men.
In this cavern, now called the Holy Grotto, the young hermit chose his
abode: and Romanus, who kept his secret, brought him hither, from time
to time, bread and the like slender provisions, which he retrenched from
his own meals, and let them down to the holy recluse with a line,
hanging a bell to the cord to give him notice. Bennet seems to have been
about fourteen or fifteen years old when he came to Sublacum; St.
Gregory says, he was yet a child. He lived three years in this manner,
known only to Romanus. But God was pleased to manifest his servant to
men, that he might shine forth as a light to many. In 497, a certain
pious priest in that country, while he was preparing a dinner for {631}
himself on Easter-Sunday, heard a voice which said: "You are preparing
for yourself a banquet, while my servant Bennet, at Sublacum, is
distressed with hunger." The priest immediately set out in quest of the
hermit, and with much difficulty found him out. Bennet was surprised to
see a man come to him; but before he would enter into conversation with
him, he desired they might pray together. They then discoursed for some
time on God and heavenly things. At length the priest invited the saint
to eat, saying it was Easter-day, on which it is not reasonable to fast;
though St. Bennet answered him, that he knew not that it was the day of
so great a solemnity, nor is it to be wondered at, that one so young
should not be acquainted with the day of a festival, which was not then
observed by all on the same day, or that he should not understand the
Lunar Cycle, which at that time was known by very few. After their
repast the priest returned home. Soon after certain shepherds discovered
the