Benedict of Urbino

Saint Benedict of Urbino, called in some sources Benedict of Benevento, was a Camaldolese monk and missionary in Poland, killed on 12 November 1003 in his monastery together with four other brothers, known as the martyrs of Międzyrzecz. Being of the time of the undivided Church, he is regarded as a saint of the undivided Church and is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology.

He was born around 970 at Benevento into a rich family. Learning that their son wished to be a priest, his parents bought from the bishop of the city his ordination and a canonry; Benedict refused this simony and withdrew to a monastery in Naples to repent of it. Then he went to live as a hermit on Mount Soracte, where he met Saint Romuald of Ravenna, who had come ill, and cared for him. Together they went to Rome and met the Emperor Otto III, who asked them to found a monastery in Poland and evangelize the Slavic population. From Rome, Benedict went with Romuald to the hermitage of Pereum, where they met Bruno of Querfurt.

After a time of common life, Benedict went to Poland with another Italian brother, John of Cervia, to found the first Camaldolese monastery, the order itself being then still in formation under Romuald. They were joined by three Polish novices, Matthew, Isaac and Barnabas. The monks settled and began evangelizing the surroundings; Benedict was considered the prior of the group. In 1003 the Polish prince Bolesław I sent them ten pounds of silver as a gift for the pope. Robbers, learning of the treasure, attacked the monastery at night, while the monks were singing the Office, and tortured and killed them in the monastery.

After their death the monks were venerated at once as saints: they are the five "martyrs of Międzyrzecz", and their hermitage remained a place of pilgrimage, even after the relics were moved to Olomouc. In 1508 Pope Julius II confirmed their cult. Benedict's head was placed in a silver reliquary and sent to Italy, to Ascoli Piceno.