As this website explains:
St. Benedict was the father of Western Monasticism. He was born in Nursia, Italy, in 480. Beginning in 520, he founded twelve monasteries in the region of Subiaco. The foundation at Monte Cassino (529) became the cradle of his Order. His twin sister was St. Scholastica. Benedict died march 21, 542.
St. Benedict had a profound veneration for the Holy Cross and for our Saviour Crucified. In virtue of the Sign of the Cross he wrought many miracles and exercised great power over the spirits of darkness.
In consequence of the great veneration in which St. Benedict was held from the early middle ages, it followed that a medal was struck.
His medal has exceptional powers against the demons of Hell.
The Medal of Saint Benedict is one of the Sacramentals of the Church. The value and power of the Medal must be ascribed to the merits of Christ Crucified, to the efficacious prayers of St. Benedict, to the blessing of the Church, and specially to the faith and holy disposition of the person using the Medal.
Description
The front of the medal shows St. Benedict holding a cross in one hand and the book of his Rule in the other. Flanking him on each side are the words: Crux S. Patris Benedicti (The Cross of the Holy Father Benedict).
Below his feet are these words: Ex S M Casino MDCCCLXXX (From the Holy Mount of Cassino, 1880). On that date , Monte Cassino was given the exclusive right to produce this medal.
Inscribed in the circle surrounding Benedict are the words: Ejus in obitu nostro presentia muniamur (May his presence protect us in the hour of death).
The other side of the medal is where the real exorcistic force reveals itself. In the center is the Cross. Benedict loved the Cross and used it to drive away demons.
The vertical beam of the Cross has five letters: C.S.S.M.L., meaning Crux Sacra Sit Mihi Lux (May the holy Cross be for me a light).
The horizontal beam of the Cross also has five letters: N.D.S.M.D., meaning Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux (Let not the dragon be my guide).
The four large letters at the angles of the Cross: C S P B stand for Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti (The Cross of the Holy Father Benedict).
Encircling the Cross in a circle around the right margin are these letters: V.R.S.N.S.M.V., meaning Vade retro Satana; nunquam suade mihi vana (Begone Satan! Suggest not to me thy vain things).
Around the left margin of the circle are these letters: S.M.Q.L.I.V.B., meaning Sunt mala quae libas; ipse venena bibas (The drink you offer is evil; drink that poison yourself).
At the top of the circle is the word PAX (Peace).
Use
No special way of carrying or applying the Medal is prescribed. It may be worn around the neck, attached to the scapular or the Rosary or simply carried in one's pocket.
Often it is placed in the fields, the foundations of buildings or attached to automobiles to call down God's blessing and the protection of St. Benedict. No particular prayer is prescribed, as the devout wearing itself is a continual silent prayer."
What is not very well known is that St. Benedict had to wrestle regularly against the principalities and powers of this world. The holy and heroic Saint was confronted by extraordinary manifestations of evil spirits who resisted the building of his monastery on the crest of Monte Cassino. The reason for these unusual confrontations? Monte Cassino had been a place where Satanism was practiced. Evil spirits would appear in visible form to the saintly monk (as they would to St. Padre Pio in his day) and would instigate accidents and strange occurrences. On more than one occasion, St. Benedict found it necessary to exorcize some of his monks.
It is not known for certain when the medal of Saint Benedict originated. However in 1647, during a trial for witchcraft at Natternberg, near the abbey of Metten in Bavaria, the accused women testified that they had no power over the abbey. A later investigation revealed that a number of painted crosses surrounded by the letters described above were all over the walls of this abbey.
So powerful is the Saint Benedict medal (worn with faith in Christ and His Church and not superstitiously), that the evil spirits cannot bear to be around it. For example, Father Montague Summers relates how, "In the case of the possessed boys of Illfurt (Alsace) they exhibited the utmost horror and dread of a Medal of St. Benedict." He says that two of the five sons of Joseph Burner and Anna Maria, his wife, "were seized with a mysterious illness which would not yield to the ordinary remedies....a number of..doctors were..consulted [and] declared themselves unable to diagnose such extraordinary symptoms...the two boys displayed most abnormal phenomena. Whilst lying on their backs they spun suddenly round like whirling tops with the utmost rapidity. Convulsions seized them, twisting and distorting every limb with unparalleled mobility, or again their bodies would for hours together become absolutely rigid and motionless so that no joint could be bent, whilst they lay motionless as stocks or stones...Their voices were, however, not their normal tones nor even those of children at all, but the strong, harsh, hoarse articulation of rough and savage men. For hours together they would blaspheme in the foulest terms, cursing and swearing, and bawling out such hideous obscenities that the neighbors took flight in sheer terror at the horrible scenes...They seemed particularly enraged by the blessed medal of Saint Benedict and pictures of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour."
I have had the Saint Benedict Medal Crucifix for years. And there have been many times when I was wearing it that I have experienced strange manifestations of evil. For example once, when I was leaving Buckley's Religious Goods store in Leominster, Massachusetts (at their old location), a man walked out of the woods and in front of my automobile and stopped. He was screaming and uttering unintelligible words. His eyes actually appeared to be red. On another occasion, while refuting the errors of a group of individuals who were disparaging devotion to Our Lady (at a Catholic parish dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary!) in Gardner, Massachusetts - during a Bible study - the lights began to flicker on and off and the Bible study leader, who was wearing dark sunglasses at night in the Church basement, stared at me for some ten minutes with a look which I have never forgotten. It was a look of pure hatred and malice.
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