One of the books that fell off the bookshelf lately was Citadel of God: A Novel of Saint Benedict by Louis de Wohl. A couple of the main characters in the story are Boethius and Cassiodor, whom I had not heard of before. They both embodied what was very good about Roman society, while the rest of the Latin characters represented the, by then, 500 year old moral decay of the culture. I highly recommend the book to any a dult; it's not for children.
Wouldn't you know it...in his general audience on March 12th, the Holy Father spoke about the two men I remembered from the story. In the translation of what he said on page 6 of the March 23rd edition of the National Catholic Register, Pope Benedict devoted slightly more words to Boethius, but he made it clear both men wrote about and lived out an exemplary philosophy of service to others and hope for eternal life. Cassiodor, apparently, was instrumental in starting the work of the monks that saved the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers through the time we refer to as the Dark Ages. The author of the story gave more credit for this to Saint Benedict, but, since the two likely knew each other, they both must have played a part in it.
I am left wondering how this coincidence is part of something larger.
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