This is a timely biography of the original St. Benedict, patron saint of Europe, father of Western monasticism, and inspiration to our new pope. Towards the close of the fifth century, when young intellectual elites at the finest rhetoric schools in Rome were mastering the art of saying-the-expected-thing-in-the-right-way and squandering their free hours in self-indulgent partying and drunkenness, Benedict left behind a life of privilege to live in a cave and learn how to be silent. There, he also learned how to walk the way of truth and be God's friend. Set against the bloody backdrop that...