unciation of
our own will.

Footnotes:
1. Called by the Italians, who frequently soften _l_ into _i_, Subiaco.
2. Vicovara, anciently Varronis Vicus, a village between Subiaco and
Tivoli.
3. These twelve monasteries were situated in the same neighborhood, in
the province Valeria. Moderns disagree in their names and
description; according to the account of Dom. Mege, which appears
most accurate, the first was called Columbaria, now St. Clement's,
and stood within sixty paces from the saint's cave, called the Holy
Grotto; the second was named of SS. Cosmos and Damian, now St.
Scholastica's; the third, St. Michael's; the fourth, of St. Donatus,
bishop and martyr; the fifth, St. Mary's, now St. Laurence's; the
sixth, St. John Baptist's, situated on the highest part of the rock,
but from a fountain which St. Bennet produced there by his prayers,
and which still subsists, it is at present called St. John dell'
Acqua; the seventh, St. Jerom's; the eighth, Vita AEterna; the ninth,
St. Victorian or Victorin's, called from a martyr of that name, who
is patron of the province of Valeria; the tenth, at the neighboring
village Trebare; the eleventh, at St. Angelus's; the twelfth, at a
fountain near the ancient castle, called Roca de Bore. These
monasteries have been all united in that of St. Scholastica, which
remains in a very flourishing condition, and is regarded as the
mother-house of the whole Order, being certainly more ancient than
that of Mount Cassino. It is a member of the Congregation of St.
Justina, and though it is usually given in commendam, by a peculiar
distinction, it is governed by a regular abbot chosen by the General
Chapter. Of the rest of these twelve monasteries, only some cells or
ruins remain. Besides the hundred and forty-four monks which were
distributed in these twelve monasteries, St. Gregory tells us that
the holy patriarch retained a small number with himself, by which it
appears that he continued to live ordinarily in a distinct little
monastery or hermitage about his grotto, though he always
superintended and governed all these houses.
4. See Dom. Mege, p. 84.
5. It has been related in the life of St. Maurus, how he walked on the
water to save the life of Placidus, then a child, who, going to the
lake to fetch water, had fallen in; for to monasteries no
distinction w