Edward Cuthbert Butler

“ At the age of forty, when the leading man in Siena, he retired along with two companions to live a hermit's life at Accona, a desert place fifteen miles to the south of Siena, 1313. Soon others joined them, and in 1324 John XXII. approved of the formation of an order. The Benedictine Rule was taken as the basis of the life; but austerities were introduced beyond what St Benedict prescribed, and the government was framed on the mendicant, not the monastic, model, the superiors being appointed only for a short term of years. The habit is white. ”