St. Benedict Sterling Silver Medal

St. Benedict, the father of west monasticism and patron of Europe, was born in Norcia in 480. We owe him the foundation of a new European civilisation no longer influenced by classical myth but based on Christian truth.In order to found the monastery in Montecassino, he pulled down the pagan temple dedicated to Apollo and destroyed the idol symbolising that god.
The origin of St. Benedict's Medal goes back in very ancient times. The episode happened to Pope St. Leon IX when he was still a boy. He was sleeping when a poisonous toad attacked him and bit him leading him at death's door. A few months later, the young dying boy had a vision. A venerable old man was descending a bright staircase and leaning on a stick on which Christ's Cross was engraved. With that very stick the man touched the boy and miraculously healed him on the instant. As he got near, he recognised the venerable old man was St. Benedict.