Prayers to St. Benedict

The following two prayers to St. Benedict are highly recommended. St. Benedict is an extremely powerful intercessor for us in Heaven.  Born in the year 480, St. Benedict was the founder of western monasticism and is renowned for his power against the Devil. St. Benedict was also a great miracle worker, as many books document.  In particular, we recommend The Life of St. Benedict by Pope St. Gregory the Great. He is a powerful patron that we need today when impurity, apostasy and infidelity inundate the earth. St. Benedict died March 21, 543, as he stood before the altar of Monte Cassino immediately after receiving Holy Communion. St. Benedict is easily one of the greatest saints of all time.

Prayer to St. Benedict for a Happy Death

"O holy Father, St. Benedict, blessed by God both in grace and in name, who, while standing in prayer, with hands raised to heaven, didst most happily yield thy angelic spirit into the hands of thy Creator, and hast promised zealously to defend against all the snares of the enemy in the last struggle of death, those who shall daily remind thee of thy glorious departure and heavenly joys; protect me, I beseech thee, O glorious Father, this day and every day, by thy holy blessings, that I may never be separated from our dear Lord, from the society of thyself, and of all the blessed. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen." St. Benedict himself revealed to St. Gertrude - also one of the greatest saints in the history of the Catholic Church, and herself a Benedictine nun - that "whoever reminds me of the extraordinary privilege with which God deigned to glorify my last moments, shall experience my particular assistance in his final combat. I will be a faithful protector against the assaults of the enemy. Fortified by my presence, he will escape the snares of the evil one and safely attain eternal happiness."

"O Glorious St. Benedict, sublime model of all virtues, pure vessel of God's grace! Behold me, humbly kneeling at thy feet. I implore thy loving heart to pray for me before the throne of God. To thee I have recourse in all the dangers which daily surround me. Shield me against my enemies, inspire me to imitate thee in all things. May thy blessings be with me always, so that I may shun whatever God forbids and avoid the occasions of sin." "Graciously obtain for me from God those favors and graces of which I stand so much in need, in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life. Thy heart was always so full of love, compassion, and mercy towards those who were afflicted or troubled in any way. Thou didst never dismiss without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to thee. I therefore invoke thy powerful intercession in the confident hope that thou will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favor I so earnestly implore (mention it), if it be for the greater glory of God and the welfare of my soul." "Help me, O great St. Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to be ever submissive to His holy will, and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven. Amen."