Benoit DíaNiane sAint

Benoit Díaniane Saint a reformer of monastic discipline, was born at Languedoc, about 750. He was the son of Aigulfe, count of Maguelonne, and was at first cup-bearer of Pepin and of Charlemagne. In 774 he retired to the Abbey of St. Seine, where the friars desired to make him priest, but he refused, and withdrew to his native place near Aniane. He constructed a small hermitage near the chapel of St. Saturnin, upon the river of Anian. The strictness and sanctity of the life of this hermit drew around him a large number of disciples, so that in 782 he added a new monastery to the one already constructed. Louis the Debonnaire placed him in charge of all the monasteries of the kingdom of Aquitania, and charged him to establish everywhere the rules of the founder. He died in 821, at the monastery near Aix-la-Chapelle. His chief work was, Codex Regularum (Rome, 1661; Paris, 1663), in three parts: the first containing the rules of the Oriental fathers, the second those of the fathers of the West, and the third those of the fathers of the Church, for the friars and nuns. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog, Generale, s.v.