2025-05-03 Rediscovering St. Scholastica

An Evening with St. Scholastica

Bringing St. Scholastica to life in credible and revelatory ways

Saturday, May 3  6:30-7:30pm 

It is without any doubt that St Scholastica is revered by all Benedictines throughout the world. Indeed, she has been honored throughout the ages. Yet we know so very little about her other than what Gregory the Great tells us in his Life of Benedict. Is there a way of recovering her more fully for the 21st century that enables us to extend our esteem for Scholastica and to expand her significance in relation to the Benedictine identity? Using ancient storytelling methods and creative historical imagination, it is possible to bring Scholastica to life in credible and revelatory ways.

This engaging conversation about St. Scholastica is a hybrid presentation. Sister Carmel Posa SGS will present over Zoom from her Monastery in Australia. Participants have the option to join only online (beginning at 6:30pm) or to join the Sisters for Evening Prayer (5:00pm), the evening meal (5:30pm), and view the Zoom together in a room at the Monastery.

The Zoom link will be mailed to all registered participants on May 1.

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Sister Posa is the author of the book The “Lost” Dialogue of Gregory the Great (published by Liturgical Press). 

Imagine the enduring legacy and ancient hagiographical method used to recover the missing life and voice of St. Scholastica of Nursia.

In The “Lost” Dialogue of Gregory the Great, Carmel Posa, SGS, applies a “disciplined imagination” and the ancient hagiographical method to recover the missing life and voice of St. Scholastica of Nursia. Drawing on a wide range of scholarship, including Gregory the Great’s four famous dialogues, biblical models, and the Rule of Benedict, Posa follows a technique similarly used by Saint Gregory himself to create an engaging and credible account of Scholastica’s life.

In The “Lost” Dialogue of Gregory the Great, Posa’s use of the hagiographical method as a “disciplined imagination” serves as a tool for the repositioning of women’s lives in history. By presenting a “lost life” of Scholastica into the hagiographic record of Christianity, she gifts the Church for today with the story of a beloved saint that will not only inspire readers but encourage them to ponder more searchingly the sources of the wisdom contained in Benedict’s remarkable Rule. Carmel’s careful methodology also offers readers an image of Scholastica that has a spiritual standing apart from her famous and holy brother. She retrieves the enduring legacy of Scholastica from the margins and places her into the center of monastic history, in particular and church history, in general. Oblates, Benedictines, and those interested in monastic spirituality will also be challenged to reconsider those women whose voices have been erased, devalued, or ignored over the centuries and inspired to “listen carefully” to the whispered words and wisdom of women as we mark our journey together into a future full of hope, with Christ and his Gospel for our guide.