Saint Scholastica, born around the year 480 in Nursia, Italy, was the twin sister of the great Saint Benedict, Patriarch of Western Monasticism, and with him she shared not only blood but a deep and irrevocable consecration to God from childhood. Consecrated as a virgin, she followed her brother to Monte Cassino, settling in Plombariola, where she founded and governed a monastery of nuns under the Benedictine rule, becoming the spiritual mother of countless souls. Her life was a silent witness of continuous prayer and ardent love, the most famous episode of her biography, narrated by Saint Gregory the Great in Book II of the Dialogues, being her last meeting with Saint Benedict: feeling the approach of death, she begged her brother to remain with her during the night to speak of heavenly joys, and faced with his refusal based on the Rule, Scholastica prayed and obtained from God a torrential storm that prevented the abbot's departure, proving that "she could do more, because she loved more." She died three days after this meeting, on February 10, 543, and Saint Benedict, from his cell, saw his sister's soul ascend to heaven in the form of a dove, a sign of her innocence and simplicity, both being buried in the same tomb at Monte Cassino, so that death would not separate those whom the spirit had united in Christ.
📖 Introit (Ps 44: 8 | ib., 2)
Dilexísti justítiam, et odísti iniquitátem: proptérea unxit te Deus, Deus tuus, óleo lætítiæ præ consórtibus tuis. Ps. Eructávit cor meum verbum bonum: dico ego ópera mea Regi.
Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Ps. My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the King.
✉️ Epistle (II Cor 10: 17-18; 11: 1-2)
Fratres: Qui gloriátur, in Dómino gloriétur. Non enim qui seipsum comméndat, ille probátus est; sed quem Deus comméndat. Utinam sustinerétis módicum quid insipiéntiæ meæ, sed et supportáte me: æmulor enim vos Deo æmulatióne. Despóndi enim vos uni viro vírginem castam exhibére Christo.
Brethren: He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he who commendeth himself is approved, but he whom God commendeth. Would to God you could bear with some little of my folly: but do bear with me. For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
✝️ Gospel (Mt 25: 1-13)
In illo témpore: Dixit Jesus discípulis suis parabolam hanc: Símile erit regnum cœlórum decem virgínibus: quæ accipiéntes lámpades suas exiérunt óbvia sponso et sponsæ. Quinque autem ex eis erant fátuæ, et quinque prudéntes: sed quinque fátuæ, accéptis lampádibus, non sumpsérunt óleum secum: prudéntes vero accepérunt óleum in vasis suis cum lampádibus. Moram autem faciénte sponso, dormitavérunt omnes et dormiérunt. Média autem nocte clamor factus est: Ecce, sponsus venit, exíte óbvia ei. Tunc surrexérunt omnes vírgines illæ, et ornavérunt lámpades suas. Fátuæ autem sapiéntibus dixérunt: Date nobis de óleo vestro, quia lámpades nostræ exstinguúntur. Respondérunt prudéntes, dicéntes: Ne forte non suffíciat nobis et vobis, ite pótius ad vendéntes, et émite vobis. Dum autem irent émere, venit sponsus: et quæ parátæ erant, intravérunt cum eo ad núptias, et clausa est jánua. Novíssime vero véniunt et réliquæ vírgines, dicéntes: Dómine, Dómine, áperi nobis. At ille respóndens, ait: Amen, dico vobis, néscio vos. Vigiláte ítaque, quia nescítis diem neque horam.
At that time, Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven shall be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom delaying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. The wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go you rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last come also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answering said: Amen I say to you, I know you not. Watch ye therefore, because ye know not the day nor the hour.
💡 Charity as the oil of true wisdom
The liturgy of the feast of Saint Scholastica invites us to meditate on the essence of the consecrated life and the primacy of charity over legalism, perfectly illustrated in the life of this saint and in the proposed readings. In the Gospel of the Ten Virgins, Saint Augustine (Sermon 93) teaches that the oil that distinguishes the prudent from the foolish is none other than charity, the love of God poured into our hearts; without this oil, physical virginity or mere external observance, represented by the lamps, do not sustain the necessary light to meet the Bridegroom. Saint Scholastica embodied this evangelical prudence in a sublime way: while her brother, Saint Benedict, represented in that last meeting the fidelity to the Rule and discipline, Scholastica manifested the superabundance of charity that transcends the law without violating it, but fulfills it. As Saint Gregory the Great relates, "she could do more, because she loved more" (potuit enim magis, quia amavit magis); her love for God was so intense that, in an act of holy audacity, she "forced" heaven to intervene with a storm, showing that union with God through charity has an irresistible power of intercession. The Apostle Paul, in the Epistle, speaks of presenting the community as a "chaste virgin" to Christ; this purity, however, is not sterile, but fruitful in the love that awaits the Bridegroom. The lesson of Saint Scholastica is that true Christian wisdom lies not only in "having the lamp" of faith or the religious state of life, but in maintaining the inexhaustible reserve of the "oil" of interior charity, the only thing capable of keeping the flame of prayer lit during the "delay of the bridegroom" and the dark nights of the soul, ensuring entry into the eternal wedding feast where the law gives way to consummated love.