Among the monasteries which he had built in those parts, three of them were situated on the rocks of a mountain, so that it was very painful for the monks to go down and fetch water, especially because the side of the hill was so steep that there was great fear of danger. Therefore the monks of those Abbeys with one consent came to the servant of God, Benedict, giving him to understand, how laborious it was for them daily to go down to the lake for water. They added that it was very necessary for them to move to some other places.
The man of God, comforting them with sweet words, caused them to return. The next night, having with him only the little boy Placidus (of whom we spoke above), he ascended up to the rock of that mountain, and continued there a long time in prayer. When he had done, he took three stones, and laid them in the same place for a mark, and so, none of them being privy to what he had done, he returned to his own Abbey.
The next day, when the foresaid monks came again about their former business, he said to them: "Go your way to the rock, and in the place where you find three stones laid one on another, dig a little hole, for almighty God is able to bring forth water in the top of that mountain, and so ease you of that great labor of fetching it so far." Away they went, and came to the rock of the mountain according to his directions. They found it as if it were sweating drops of water. After they had made a hollow place with a spade, it was immediately filled, and water flowed out abundantly. So plentifully, that even to this day, the water springs out and runs down from the top of that hill to the very bottom.
OSB Index | Gen. Information | Saint Benedict
