Benedict of Skalka

Venerable Benedict of Skalka was a Benedictine monk born at Nitra, then a hermit, who died in 1012 and was canonized in 1083. He is regarded as the first Slovak martyr and patron of the diocese of Nitra. He is remembered on 17 July (in other calendars, on 1 May or 13 June).

He became a monk at the monastery of Saint Hippolytus on Mount Zobor near Nitra, in the Hungary of that time, at the end of the tenth century or the beginning of the eleventh. In the time of King Saint Stephen of Hungary he became a hermit, with Saint Andrew Zorard (Svorad), his spiritual teacher. They lived an austere life in a cave along the river Váh near Trenčín, in today's Skalka nad Váhom. Andrew died in 1009, but Benedict continued to live in the cave for three more years, until he was strangled in 1012 by a gang of robbers looking for treasure. The Russian sources give the year 1034. The robbers dumped his body in the Váh, but the body was found perfectly preserved a year later. According to the legend, a great eagle came to the bank of the river after his death; therefore the raftsmen who floated down the Váh began to regard him as their patron.

In 1083, at the urging of King Ladislaus I of Hungary, Pope Gregory VII numbered him among the saints, and his relics were translated to Saint Emmeram's Cathedral in Nitra, where they remain to this day. In 1224 Bishop Jakob of Nitra founded a Benedictine monastery in his honour at that place. The life of him and of Andrew was written by Maurus, bishop of Pécs, in the “Legend of the Hermits Svorad-⁠Andrew and Benedict.” He was renowned for piety and strict asceticism. He is venerated especially in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, but also in the United States. Churches in honour of Saints Andrew-⁠Svorad and Benedict are found at Kysucké Lieskovec, Nitra, Radvaň and Skalka nad Váhom.