Imagine being a Byzantine Emperor and all of a sudden, deciding to abandon everything and become a monk in a monastery.

Norcia is the birthplace of Western monasticism, the home of St. Benedict ... It’s not the fall of the Roman Empire all over ...

In the 500 years after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Christianity of Wales ... They introduced monasticism, the notion that the best path to holiness is to retire from the world and live ...