Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Authority t— The Acts of his Canonisation. Ac.] S. Benedict the Blackamore was born in Sicily, about the year 1526, of slave parents of negro race. His father's name was Christopher Manasseri, and his mother’s was Diana Lercan. They were both Christians. They lived together in continence, as they could not endure the prospect of children being bom to them who would continue in the same miserable slavery as themselves. However, their master having promised to give freedom to their firstborn, heaven bestowed on them a son, whom they called Benedict The little negro boy was given charge of sheep among the mountain pastures, and there, far from men, he lived to God, absorbed in meditation and prayer, passing long hours on his knees with his hand clasped, and his eyes raised to the blue sky. As he grew up, he was able, by economising his wages, to buy a pair of oxen, with which he worked for three years independently. At the age of twenty-one, feeling a divine call, he sold his oxen, and entered the order of the hermits of S. Francis, and retired to the hermitage of S. Domenica, clothed in a dress of palmleaves. The fame of the piety of the hermits of S. Domenica having spread abroad, many people came to visit them, and the hermits, fearful of the danger to their humility, departed to the valley of Mozzara, and eight years after to the barren and frozen solitude of Mancusa. But in consequence of a miracle wrought by S. Benedict this retreat was again invaded, and the hermits fled to Monte Pellegrino, where they erected rude cells among the rocks. On the death of the superior, S. Benedict was elected by the other hermits to be their head, and he executed his office till 1562, when Pope Pius IV. incorporated the order with that from which it had originated. The saint then entered into several convents of the children of S. Francis, and laboured to carry out reformations in the order. In one of these convents he acted in the capacity of cook, and the story is told of him, that one day when the friars were unable to procure any food on account of the heavy fall of snow, Benedict filled several large vessels with water, and prayed all night to God. And lo ! when morning came, the water was alive with fishes.

In 1578, he was appointed superior of the convent of Santa Maria. As soon as his turn of tenure was expired, he was made instructor of novices, and then again, cook. In February, 1589, S. Benedict [father of Western monks (d. c. 547), author of the Rule] fell ill, and lingered on till April 3rd, when he died. In his last sickness he believed that he was visited by S. Ursula, surrounded by a blaze of light. He was reckoned among the saints by Pope Pius VII. •SJT. Agathopus & Theodulus.