Grave-robbing monks! Oh yeah! Jaunty times continue in CHRISTIANITY: THE FIRST THREE THOUSAND YEARS by Diarmaid MacCulloch. So these seventh-century French monks steal the bones of St. Benedict from an Italian monastery - "plus the corpse of his even more shadowy sister" Scholastica. Scholastica! Only the greatest name ever. But the main thing is: grave-robbing monks! On a heist to steal a saint! Action packed! And what happened to (as MacCulloch puts it) "their swag of bones"? Dig this: "Benedictine monks STILL tend them in a crypt in their great church, to the continuing mortification of the Benedictines of Monte Cassino." Caps mine! For emphasis! I want to see the sequel! (When I was looking for a "link" to use for the word "Italian," I came across this picture of Marcello Mastroianni in DIVORCE, ITALIAN STYLE, which I got in an improper way, back before I knew what "stealing bandwidth" was. That problem has now been corrected. If only the monks of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire would follow suit!)
