ARCHIVES: STATUE OF ST. BENEDICT

ARCHIVE SUNDAY-- THE STATUE OF ST. BENEDICT: The centerpiece of Subiaco would have to be the statue of St. Benedict located in our inner court. This statue has stood for 105 years when it was first dedicated on March 21, 1915. Countless students have stood beneath the statue to get their photo taken for graduation. Most of our records that might show where the statue was originally constructed were destroyed in the 1927 fire. We do know that it was purchased through Monahan and Son of Little Rock. We also know from an inscription that the statue was donated by Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Brady of Little Rock, AR. The 6 foot tall Italian marble statue features St. Benedict, dressed in what today we call his habit and a cuculla, holding a crosier in his left hand and an open book (the Rule of St. Benedict) in his right hand. On top of the Rule is a broken goblet with a snake crawling out of the break. At the feet of St. Benedict stands a raven. Each of these symbols are distinctive for St. Benedict and find their origins in the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great who writes about the Saint. On the other side of the pedestal we find an inscription which reads:  Romae didicit, Sublaci tacuit, Cassini docuit. This is generally translated as " At Rome he studied, at Subiaco he was silent, at Cassino he taught." Records from the old "Southern Guardian" (now Arkansas Catholic) tell us that Mr. Brady was a non-Catholic but purchased the statue for Subiaco while his son was studying in the seminary at Subiaco.  Which way the statue has faced has varied over the century. When the inner court was first built, the statue in 1915 faced to the NORTH where the main entrance to Subiaco was located. After the great fire of 1927 which came close to destroying the statue (the fire had cause the marble to crack in several places and it needed repairs), it was temporarily removed, cleaned, and then returned to face SOUTH. This was because the NORTH part of the monastery had been completely destroyed and you would now enter through the SOUTH entrance. Once the new Church had been built and the quadrangle formed again, the statue just remained facing south. After decades of more weather damage, the decision was made to try to clean the statue and again do some basic repairs. Finally, in 2015 (100th anniversary of the statue) the decision was made to delicately turn St. Benedict around to face the NORTH again. This task was undertaken by Sam Little, Tom Newman, Mike Beeton, and Rob Pugh. Today as our students get their diploma from the Abbot, they once again face St. Benedict who proudly looks north on another graduating class of Subiaco Academy Trojans. We have included photos of the statue from various times, but it is especially moving to see it in the midst of the smoke still billowing from the 1927 fire.