This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell, We shall escape the circle and undo the spell. Often deceived, yet open once again your heart, Quick, quick, quick, quick!—the gates are drawn apart. -- CS Lewis “Therefore it is the paradox of history that each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most.” GK Chesterton Dom Leclercq turns in Chapter 1 to the angusto initio of the beginnings of cenobitic monasticism, focusing on the conversion of St Benedict of Nursia. He was born a little after the Fall of Rome , probably around 480 AD, and sent to Rome to be educated. St Gregory the Great tells the story: There was a man of venerable life, Benedict by name and grace, who, from the time of his very childhood, carried the heart of an old man. His demeanor indeed exceeded his age; he gave himself no discontent or pleasure, but living here upon earth, he despised the world wit...