Rosarios de San Benito

What Do the Letters on the St. Benedict Medal Mean?

The reverse of the St. Benedict Medal carries an abbreviated Latin exorcism prayer arranged around a central cross. On the arms of the cross: C.S.S.M.L. stands for "Crux Sacra Sit Mihi Lux" (May the Holy Cross be my light) and N.D.S.M.D. stands for "Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux" (Let not the dragon be my guide). Around the medal's perimeter: V.R.S. — "Vade Retro Satana" (Begone, Satan), N.S.M.V. — "Nunquam Suade Mihi Vana" (Never tempt me with your vanities), S.M.Q.L. — "Sunt Mala Quae Libas" (What you offer me is evil), and I.V.B. — "Ipse Venena Bibas" (Drink the poison yourself). At the top of the medal, the word PAX means Peace — the Benedictine motto and the animating principle of the entire Rule of St. Benedict. Benedict did not mean peace as the absence of conflict. He meant the deep interior peace that comes from ordering one's life entirely toward God — the peace that makes spiritual warfare possible, because a man at peace with God fears nothing the devil can offer. These inscriptions make the St. Benedict Medal one of the few Catholic sacramentals that carries a complete exorcism prayer in its design.

Praying the Vade Retro Satana

The exorcism prayer inscribed on the St. Benedict Medal can be prayed aloud as a standalone prayer, not just carried as an object. Many Catholics pray it at the beginning of their rosary, before entering a difficult situation, or whenever they feel under spiritual attack. The full prayer in Latin and English:

Vade retro Satana, nunquam suade mihi vana. Sunt mala quae libas, ipse venena bibas.

Begone, Satan. Never tempt me with your vanities. What you offer me is evil. Drink the poison yourself.

It is short, direct, and has been prayed by Catholics for over fifteen centuries. There is no prescribed ritual for praying it as a layperson — you simply pray it with faith, invoking St. Benedict's intercession. Some Catholics make the sign of the cross before and after. Others hold the medal while praying it. The form matters less than the faith behind it.

The Story Behind the Medal — Why St. Benedict Is Called the Devil Chaser

St. Benedict of Nursia was born around 480 AD into a Roman family of some standing. He left Rome as a young man, disgusted by its moral corruption, and withdrew to a cave at Subiaco to live as a hermit. His reputation for holiness spread, and monks began seeking him as their abbot. This is where the attacks began.

A group of monks who resented his discipline tried to poison his wine. When Benedict made the sign of the Cross over the cup, it shattered. Later, hostile monks baked poison into his bread. A raven — which Benedict fed daily — took the loaf in its beak and carried it away before he could eat it. These stories, recorded by Pope St. Gregory the Great in his Dialogues, established Benedict as a man whom the devil could not touch through ordinary means. God protected him not because he was passive but because his life was entirely surrendered to prayer, work, and obedience.

The medal bearing his image was not formally approved until 1742, when Pope Benedict XIV granted a special jubilee indulgence to the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino and authorized the medal's devotional use throughout the Church. But monks had been using versions of the Benedictine cross and its exorcism inscriptions for centuries before that formal approval. The 1742 date marks official recognition of a practice that was already ancient.

Today St. Benedict is invoked against evil, against poisoning, against infectious disease, and against temptation of every kind. His medal is one of the most widely used sacramentals in the Catholic world — worn by soldiers, carried by missionaries, embedded in the foundations of homes, and now mounted on the centerpieces and crucifixes of rosaries prayed by Catholics on every continent.

What PAX Really Means

PAX — Peace — is the Benedictine motto, but reducing it to a single word misses what Benedict meant by it. The Rule of St. Benedict, written around 530 AD, is a document about how to organize an entire life around seeking God. Benedict called this life stabilitas — stability. A monk who stays in one place, prays at fixed hours, works with his hands, reads Scripture, and submits to an abbot is not living a confined life. He is building the interior conditions for peace that most people never achieve.

PAX in the Benedictine sense is not the absence of conflict. It is what remains when a man has stopped fighting God and started cooperating with Him. It is the fruit of a life structured around prayer rather than around appetite. This is why the St. Benedict Medal carries PAX at its crown — above the exorcism prayer, above the cross, above the abbreviated Latin. Peace is the goal. The rest of the medal is about clearing the path to it.

When you pray with a St. Benedict rosary, you are not just invoking protection against evil. You are participating in a fifteen-century-old tradition of men and women who believed that the most powerful thing a human being can do is pray with focus, consistency, and faith. That is what the Rule was for. That is what the medal is for. That is what the rosary is for.

Why Catholics Choose St. Benedict Rosaries

St. Benedict rosaries serve a dual purpose in Catholic prayer life. As five-decade rosaries, they guide the faithful through meditation on the mysteries of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. As bearers of the St. Benedict Medal, they invoke the saint's powerful intercession against evil, temptation, and spiritual attack. This combination makes them especially popular among men facing daily spiritual battles, military personnel seeking protection, and anyone experiencing a season of spiritual difficulty. The rosary is also closely associated with the Rite of Exorcism — priests who perform exorcisms frequently use St. Benedict medals and rosaries in their ministry.

St. Benedict rosaries are not only for men, though men reach for them most often. Women who pray the St. Benedict rosary typically do so with a specific intention in mind — protection for a household, intercession for a child or spouse going through a difficult season, or their own spiritual defense against habitual temptation. The medal does not distinguish. St. Benedict's intercession is available to anyone who prays with faith, and the rosary is a prayer form that has always belonged as much to women as to men.

Placing the St. Benedict Medal in Your Home

Catholic tradition extends the use of the St. Benedict Medal well beyond wearing it or carrying it on a rosary. Benedictine monks have long blessed medals and embedded them in the foundations of buildings, above doorways, on the walls of rooms where families gather, and in vehicles. The practice is rooted in the belief that a blessed sacramental invokes God's protection over a physical space, not just the person carrying it.

Many Catholics place a St. Benedict medal or crucifix above the front door of their home as a visible sign that the household is under divine protection. Others attach small medals to the fuse boxes or threshold beams of a new house before the family moves in — a tradition especially common in Catholic communities in Europe and Latin America. A St. Benedict rosary hung in a prominent place in the home serves the same purpose: a daily reminder of the household's consecration to God and its reliance on His protection against evil.

If you are looking for a St. Benedict crucifix for your home rather than a rosary for personal prayer, browse our St. Benedict Crucifixes collection for wall-mounted options in wood and metal.

How to Have Your St. Benedict Rosary Blessed

Any priest or deacon can bless a St. Benedict Medal using the standard blessing for sacramentals. However, for the full exorcism blessing specific to the St. Benedict Medal, a special ritual exists that includes prayers of exorcism over the medal itself. Ask your parish priest if he is familiar with the Benedictine blessing — many priests appreciate when the faithful request this specific ritual. Once blessed, your St. Benedict rosary becomes a sacramental that carries the spiritual graces of the Church's prayer. Our rosaries are not pre-blessed, as selling blessed items is considered simony under Catholic canon law.

A blessed St. Benedict rosary should be treated with the reverence owed to any sacramental. If it wears out or breaks beyond repair, it should not be thrown in ordinary trash. The traditional Catholic practice is to bury it in the ground, burn it, or bring it to a priest for proper disposal. The beads can be restrung while keeping the original medals if they remain intact.

Does the Medal Need to Be Blessed to Work?

This is one of the most common questions about the St. Benedict Medal, and it deserves a direct answer. The medal itself has no magical power. It is a piece of metal. What gives it spiritual efficacy is the Church's blessing, which invokes God's protection through St. Benedict's intercession, and the faith of the person using it. An unblessed medal is a devotional reminder — a good thing. A blessed medal is a sacramental — a sacred object through which the Church's prayer is attached to the object and the person who carries it.

So yes, the blessing matters. It is not superstition to say so. The Catholic Church teaches that sacramentals derive their power from the prayer of the Church, not from the object's material. Getting your St. Benedict rosary blessed by a priest is not an optional extra. It is what transforms it from a well-made devotional item into a sacramental instrument of the Church's protection.

Gift Occasions for St. Benedict Rosaries

St. Benedict rosaries are among the most popular Catholic gifts for Confirmation, RCIA, ordination, military deployment, and spiritual milestones. The protective symbolism of the St. Benedict Medal makes them especially meaningful for young men entering adulthood in the faith, adults converting through RCIA who may face spiritual resistance, and anyone going through a period of trial or difficulty. They are also a powerful sympathy gift — a St. Benedict rosary given to someone navigating grief, illness, or serious temptation carries a message that goes beyond condolence. It says: I want you to have the Church's protection in this. I want St. Benedict praying for you. Each rosary arrives ready for daily prayer and can be blessed by any Catholic priest. Browse our Men's Wood Rosaries collection for St. Benedict designs built specifically for daily use with larger beads and reinforced cord.