Customer Reviews

Citadel of God: A Novel about Saint Benedict

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I received this book as a gift recently. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down. The title of the book implies that it is a novel about St. Benedict, but he is actually just one of many characters in this historical novel. DeWohl does a wonderful job describing the Roman world at the time of St. Benedict, making it come to life.
If you are a fan of historical fiction, read this book. If you are a fan of Louis DeWohl, read this book.

The novel Citadel of God is one of the finest works I have read about St.Benedict. While keeping St.Benedict as the main subject of the book, de Wohl also includes the chaotic war between the Goths and Byzantium. In doing this de Wohl unites the almost opposite "plots" through wicked Peter's visit to Monte Cassino and conversation with St.Benedict at Cassino while also remaining historically accurate.

In all this book is a must read for those who are interested in history and most importantly for a look at one man's journey to God.

Until I read this gem by de Wohl, all I knew about St Benedict was that he founded a Catholic order of priests now known at the Benedictines. He certainly was close to God, and God must have inspired him to write his rules for living together. After 1,500 years, the Order of St Benedict is still operating.

The book got me interested in Theodoric, the Ostrogoths, and Boethius, and it's been fun reading about them on the Internet and seeing how well de Wohl knew his history.

What a story! A beautiful rendering of the life of Saint Benedict against the backdrop of struggles between Rome and Byzantium. The history is rich and detailed, and the characters well-developed. I would recommend it for both men and women.

The Roman Empire in the West has fallen and Italy is under the government of the Gothic king, Theoderich. Under his generally benevolent rule, Italy has found security and a measure of prosperity it has not known for a century. But the Romans who make up the vast majority of the population are chaffing under the barbarian yoke. The Young Lions in the Roman Senate talk quietly of freedom, but the elders among them--men like Albinus, Boethius, and Symmachus--urge caution. Boethius's young wife, Rusticiana, favors the approach of the Young Lions and a rash comment of hers is taken literally by a boy, Peter, who makes a clumsy and unsuccessful assassination attempt against Theoderich. Peter, injured both body and spirit after his failure, nurses a grudge in his heart against the Goths. But he is entrusted to the gifted young teacher, Benedictus, to see to his moral education.

Thus begins Citadel of God, a wonderful old book by Louis de Wohl. Originally written in 1959, the work is a gripping journey through the history of the early 6th century AD, bringing alive many of the celebrated names of that epoch. As someone with a particular interest in that time period, I found the book to be utterly fascinating. It is sub-titled A Novel of Saint Benedict, and indeed it is. Entire passages in the book are based directly on the biography of Saint Benedict as contained in the The Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great (Christian Roman Empire Series). De Wohl's portrayal of Benedict, the founder of western monasticism, is close to perfect. He comes across as a man inspired by God and driven to do great things for His greater honor and glory.

But surrounding the Benedict story is the entire panoply of late Roman history--the triumph and tragedy of the Justinianic era. It is a tale that few people in our current day know at all, though it is very much worth knowing. Citadel of God reads like a 1950s Hollywood epic and the story itself certainly lends itself to that kind of treatment.

One word of warning: there are a few PG-13 rated scenes in this book. They are nothing a young person over the age of 14 or so couldn't handle, but still--this is not a children's novel. That said, Citadel of God is a wonderfully engaging read and a good history lesson. I can not recommend it highly enough. If you read it and enjoy it, you might also try Belisarius: The First Shall Be Last which is set during the same time period and is similarly faithful to the history.

This is the 3rd of Louis De Wohl's historical novels that I have read and they are consistently good reads. De Wohl has a talent for making his stories believable with enough fact included so they are informative about the life of the saint as well as being entertaining reading. I am interested in St. Benedict because of the impact his life and teachings have had on modern spirituality and I was not disappointed in this book.

This novel, Citadel of God, about St. Benedict is a must read, it's one of the best books yet, I loved it, it's very detail, exciciting, interesting, and hellarious at times. I'm not dissapointed at all for I thought it was going to be kind of boring, the characters and the city of Rome which is in chaos comes alive with vivid details and characters that take you back to St. Benedict's time. St. Benedict is truly a man of God, and dedicated his whole life to Him by builing and living in famous monestaries which were truly Citadels of God.

I would definitely recommend instead - St. Benedict, Hero of the Hills and St. Benedict by Mary Windeatt.

While I really liked Wohl's book about the life of Catherine of Siena which showed how her life impacted the history of her time; this story of St. Benedict, however, seemed to be the opposite and was very disappointing, inaccurate and also plain boring.

This book is a novel about Rome with its politics and affairs (characters giving long speeches about their feelings on the subject of Rome and its rulers). While taking great liberty in trying to tie Benedict's life in with the other characters by inventing a whole storyline, soap opera style, about St. Benedict prior to his leaving Rome and being a hermit and monk. To me it was degrading to the true story of St. Benedict's life.