Excerpt from
The Rule of Saint Benedict
by David W. Cotter, O.S.B., Editor; Leonard J. Doyle, Translator
© The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced by any means, without the written permission of The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321.

Contents
Introduction
Prologue
Chapter
1. On the Kinds of Monks
2. What Kind of Man the Abbot Ought to Be
3. On Calling the Brethren for Counsel
4. What Are the Instruments of Good Works
5. On Obedience
6. On the Spirit of Silence
7. On Humility
8. On the Divine Office During the Night
9. How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at the Night Office
10. How the Night Office Is to Be Said in Summer Time
11. How the Night Office Is to Be Said on Sundays
12. How the Morning Office Is to Be Said
13. How the Morning Office Is to Be Said on Weekdays
14. How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the Saints
15. At What Times "Alleluia" Is to Be Said
16. How the Work of God Is to Be Performed During the Day
17. How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at These Hours
18. In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said
19. On the Manner of Saying the Divine Office
20. On Reverence in Prayer
21. On the Deans of the Monastery
22. How the Monks Are to Sleep
23. On Excommunication for Faults
24. What the Measure of Excommunication Should Be
25. On Weightier Faults
26. On Those Who Without an Order Associate With the Excommunicated
27. How Solicitous the Abbot Should Be for the Excommunicated
28. On Those Who Will Not Amend After Repeated Corrections
29. Whether Brethren Who Leave the Monastery Should Be Received Again
30. How Boys Are to Be Corrected
31. What Kind of Man the Cellarer of the Monastery Should Be
32. On the Tools and Property of the Monastery
33. Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own
34. Whether All Should Receive in Equal Measure What Is Necessary
35. On the Weekly Servers in the Kitchen
36. On the Sick Brethren
37. On Old Men and Children
38. On the Weekly Reader
39. On the Measure of Food
40. On the Measure of Drink
41. At What Hours the Meals Should Be Taken
42. That No One Speak After Compline
43. On Those Who Come Late to the Work of God or to Table
44. How the Excommunicated Are to Make Satisfaction
45. On Those Who Make Mistakes in the Oratory
46. On Those Who Fail in Any Other Matters
47. On Giving the Signal for the Time of the Work of God
48. On the Daily Manual Labor
49. On the Observance of Lent
50. On Brethren Who Are Working Far From the Oratory or Are on a Journey
51. On Brethren Who Go Not Very Far Away
52. On the Oratory of the Monastery
53. On the Reception of Guests
54. Whether a Monk Should Receive Letters or Anything Else
55. On the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren
56. On the Abbot's Table
57. On the Craftsmen of the Monastery
58. On the Manner of Receiving Brethren
59. On the Sons of Nobles and of the Poor Who Are Offered
60. On Priests Who May Wish to Live in the Monastery
61. How Pilgrim Monks Are to Be Received
62. On the Priests of the Monastery
63. On the Order of the Community
64. On Constituting an Abbot
65. On the Prior of the Monastery
66. On the Porters of the Monastery
67. On Brethren Who Are Sent on a Journey
68. If a Brother Is Commanded to Do Impossible Things
69. That the Monks Presume Not to Defend One Another
70. That No One Venture to Punish at Random
71. That the Brethren Be Obedient to One Another
72. On the Good Zeal Which Monks Ought to Have
73. On the Fact That the Full Observance of Justice Is Not Established in This Rule

The Rule of Saint Benedict

Introduction
Saint Benedict and His Rule for Beginners
Saint Benedict lived in central Italy during the fifth and sixth centuries. After some experience of life as a hermit, he founded monasteries at Subiaco and later at Monte Cassino. Like other monastic founders of that time, he composed for these communities a rule for the monastic life that depended in large part on earlier sources but also benefitted from his own wisdom and experience. With genuine humility he called it "a minimum Rule ... for beginners" and hoped that it would lead faithful disciples to the "loftier heights of doctrine and virtue" of other monastic authorities (RB 73). He wrote nothing else. His contemporaries took no note of him, at least not enough to cause him to be mentioned in any other document of his time. What little we do know of his life, and the miracles attributed to him, is found in Book II of the sixth-century Dialogues of Pope Saint Gregory the Great, which the pope says were based on the testimony of contemporaries and near contemporaries of the recently deceased saint.

One is drawn to Saint Francis by the stories told about him, which are known to Franciscan and non-Franciscan alike; how he embraced the leper, stripped himself of his garments, rebuilt the ruined church, gathered disciples, journeyed to the Holy Land, and received the stigmata. But however touching they may be, the stories are not how Saint Benedict is known. The miracles which so impressed Saint Gregory may well seem to modern readers to be quaint relics of a more credulous age, a didactic hagiography foreign to our tastes. Gregory himself explains why one is, nonetheless, drawn to Benedict:
With all the renown he gained by his numerous miracles, the holy man was no less outstanding for the wisdom of his teaching. He wrote a Rule for Monks that is remarkable for its discretion and its clarity of language. Anyone who wishes to know more about his life and character can discover in his Rule exactly what he was like as an abbot, for his life could not have differed from his teaching.1 The great modern commentator on the Rule, Anselmo Lentini, o.s.b., makes the same point rather differently. The good monk, he says,2 reads and rereads the Rule to find instruction for the soul and comfort for the heart. In it one hears the voice of the wise Teacher, the Father, the one who can show him or her how, in the company of many brothers and sisters, to attain the perfect love which casts out fear, to seek and find the way home to God (RB 73).

Benedict was thoroughly immersed in the two hundred years of monastic tradition that preceded him and reflects it in his Rule. He is clearly dependent on the somewhat earlier Italian Rule of the Master, parts of which he simply adopts but which he generally shortens considerably and always transforms by his own discretion, moderation, and humanity. He makes greater use of Saint Augustine, especially in his treatment of fraternal relations within the community, than does the Master. He knows the Egyptian sources, Saint Pachomius and Saint John Cassian, as well as Saint Basil. Other early Latin monastic writings less familiar to the modern reader, such as the Rule of the Four Fathers and the Second Rule of the Fathers, were also known and used by him.

Saint Benedict's Way of Life After the Prologue, Benedict's Rule falls into two sections. In chapters 1—7 one finds the core of his spiritual doctrine. This is followed, in chapters 8—73, by regulations for ordering the community's life of work and prayer and its system of administration. This distinction is not at all absolute, however, as the latter chapters of the Rule are also full of Benedict's own spiritual wisdom and teaching. Saint Benedict would not have seen himself as an innovator. His way was simply the monastic way. His task was to codify that way for his own community and other communities which might find his system useful. Innovator or not, his version of this tradition was so imbued with his wise personality that it won an acceptance which would eventually eclipse all other monastic rules. His way was marked by moderation in all things, the simplicity of a life lived in common, reticence in speech, humble obedience to a spiritual master, the willingness to allow personal ambition and career to be set aside for the good of the community, work and prayer, and a discipline known as lectio divina. A commitment to this way was sealed by the promises of stability, reformation of life (conversatio), and obedience.

Extended treatments of these topics can be found in the commentaries on the Rule listed below. Here a few words on the foundations of the monastic way, the abbot, work, prayer, and lectio divina, will have to suffice.

The heart of Benedict's teaching on the nature of monastic work is to be found in chapter 48, "On the Daily Manual Labor." He regards work as a necessity both for the community's livelihood and for the good of the individual monk, for "idleness is the enemy of the soul" and "then are they truly monks when they live by the labor of their hands, as did our Fathers and the Apostles" (RB 48). When a monk needs help, it should be provided and, similarly, the monk should be willing to help one of the other members of the community if the need should arise (RB 35, 66). Work is assigned to each individual by the superior (RB 48). If someone becomes proud or vain about the contribution to the community's income that is a result of one's craft, Benedict suggests that the monk be given a sort of "time out" to ponder the virtue of humility (RB 57). The work assigned may sometimes seem to beyond an individual's capacity. If that is the case, Benedict says that the monk must humbly lay out the reasons to the superior. "And if after these representations the Superior still persists in his decisions and command, let the subject know that this is for his good, and let him obey out of love, trusting in the help of God" (RB 68).

This level of trust is possible, even when seemingly impossible things are asked, because the monk believes, in Benedict's words, that the abbot holds "the place of Christ in the monastery" (RB 2). Chapter 2 of the Rule, "What Kind of Man the Abbot Ought to Be," is not only a job description of a particular monastic official, but is a precis of what all monks should be. This individual, normally chosen by the community from among its members, is to be for others a constant reminder of the loving and challenging presence of Christ in their midst. Just as one obeys Christ, so too one humbly obeys the abbot (RB 5). The monk has faith that the abbot is not making arbitrary demands but is helping one to come to the full stature of Christ. For his part, the abbot is warned not to be a despot. None of the monks should have any reason for murmuring (one of Benedict's principal sins along with favoritism and private ownership), and the abbot is reminded that his stewardship of the community will be judged by God. His task is to bring profit to their life together, not to be domineering over them.

But without prayer, both personal and communal, work and obedience are prone to sterile formalism. The communal prayer of the Opus Dei brings the monk into the very presence of God (RB 19). It is a time when the monks can lay their petitions before God with a pure heart and true compunction (RB 20). But although the monks gathered at least seven times a day, recited the entire Psalter weekly, (as well as many canticles of the Old and New Testaments), and listened to extended readings drawn from the Bible and other highly regarded writers, Saint Benedict seems not to have been impressed by extraordinary feats of spiritual discipline. He desires that prayer be "short and pure" (RB 20) unless a special grace of God draws one into some deeper form of communion.

There is no explanation of lectio divina, prayerful reading of Scripture, in the Rule, so much was it a part of monastic culture. It is already assumed in the very first word Benedict wrote, "Listen." The monk was formed by constantly listening to God's Word in sacred Scripture. This was, of course, the effect of the daily Divine Office, but it extended beyond this, throughout the monks' day as they worked and rested. Lacking easy access to books, the monk memorized as much of Scripture as possible and meditated on it throughout the day. This meditation, however, was not like the later Ignatian practice of mental prayer. Rather, the monk meditated on the words of Scripture by quietly repeating them over and over, ruminating on their meaning. This rumination moved the monk to prayer, and prayer moved the monk to love. In this way, the monk sought to be transformed into another Christ, to "prefer nothing whatever to Christ" (RB 72).

This Edition This special edition of the Rule of Saint Benedict is being published in conjunction with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of The Liturgical Press by Father Virgil Michael, o.s.b., a monk of Saint John's Abbey (Collegeville, Minnesota) in Advent of 1926. Founded to promote liturgical renewal in the Catholic Church in the United States, the Press began in the 1930s to publish books and other materials related to Benedictine monastic life and spirituality. Leonard Doyle's translation of St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries appeared in 1948 and has remained in print ever since. Currently in its twentieth printing, it has sold nearly 160,000 copies.

More recently The Press has published two other important translations and commentaries on the Rule. In 1981 RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict (edited by Timothy Fry, o.s.b.), a fresh translation with extensive commentary, many topical articles, indices, and concordances, was issued in conjunction with the fifteen hundredth anniversary of Saint Benedict's birth. In 1996 Terrence G. Kardong, o.s.b. of Assumption Abbey published his Benedict's Rule: A Translation & Commentary. Most recently, a compact disc containing the Rule and a host of other important primary and secondary sources needed for its study was published as The Rule of St. Benedict Library: Primary and Secondary Sources (edited by Scott Rains).

With at least two more recent translations available, why use Doyle's work for this special edition? Before all else, we would like to honor both this good man, a longtime Oblate of our monastery, and his venerable translation, which remains by far the most widely known and used English version of the Rule. Indeed, one suspects that no other single version of the Rule has ever had as wide a distribution. Generations of Benedictine, Cistercian, and Trappist men and women, to say nothing of the many Oblates (lay affiliates) and others whose lives are influenced by monastic spirituality but who are not formally vowed members of monastic communities, have encountered the Rule by means of Doyle's work, many of them carrying the pocket-sized version with them throughout their lives. He has called generations to incline the ears of their hearts and taught them about the "strong bright weapons of obedience" (Prol.) All monastic men and women know Benedict's strictures against "murmuring" (RB 5), that the duty of the superior is "rather to profit his brethren than to preside over them" (RB 64) that we are to "prefer nothing whatever to Christ" (RB 4). "And may he bring us all together to life everlasting!" (RB 72) is our common prayer.

But, of course, its familiar phrases also point to a shortcoming. Doyle's translation was made at a time when language, society, and the Church were very different than they are today, and he may well never have considered the need for a rendering of Benedict's Rule that was linguistically inclusive of the women who read and use it.

It is not infrequently the case, however—and this is another reason for choosing Doyle for this edition—that Doyle's language is more inclusive than the later RB 1980. Consider one example from chapter 5 "On Obedience." Where the RB 1980 has "The Lord says of men like this ..." Doyle has "Of these the Lord says .... " Yet one must honestly say that some of Doyle's language is no longer entirely consonant with contemporary American usage. Again in chapter 5, for example, he writes "But this very obedience will be acceptable to God and pleasing to men ...." Examples of this sort can be multiplied easily and reflect a world where one could still, if only just barely, use the word "men" to include both men and women. Today, though, even if all those who turn to Saint Benedict as a spiritual guide are happy to regard him as a loving father, he has far more daughters than sons (Prologue) and "men" does not include them. What are they to do? How can they use this Rule? Benedict was a man writing for a community of men, using a language which is highly gender marked. Yet women who have used the Rule over the centuries have felt free to adapt it to their own realities. Contemporary scholar Frank Henderson writes:

In the medieval and early modern periods, such reinterpretation and adaptation for women sometimes took the form of written versions of the Rule that were modified in language and content. Today these are generally referred to as "feminine versions" of the rule, or as "feminine rules." In place of purely masculine language, such versions may use explicitly feminine as well as gender-neutral and gender-balanced language; they may also continue to use explicitly masculine and generic masculine language. Other adaptations, e.g., regarding clothing and priests, might also be made in the text.3 No adaptation for a women's community will ever be perfect or entirely satisfactory to all those who use it, but a good deal can be done, as these medieval adaptations show. The Winteney version (early thirteenth century, Latin) begins "Ausculta o filia precepta magistri." By changing the Latin original to read "Listen, O daughter, to the master's (or, teacher's) precepts" we see that one option is simply to feminize the whole, to hear the voice of Benedict speaking to a community of women. The Caxton version (ca. 1491, Middle English) takes another approach, resulting in a Rule that is useable by both communities of women and men, as this passage on the election of the abbot or abbess shows: "He or she pat is to be made hede or souereyn in a monestary, in whom all the hole congregacion in one acorde after god consentyth, or els that the more parte thereof and sadder wyth god counseyll chesith ... " (RB 64).

In line with this long tradition, our hope is that this edition of the Rule will be adapted as needed by all those who use it.
We desire that this Rule be read often ...

In chapter 66 of the Rule, "On the Porters of the Monastery," Benedict wrote, "We desire that this Rule be read often in the community, so that none of the brethren may excuse himself on the ground of ignorance." Other rules before Benedict had made a similar requirement. Saint Augustine ordered that his Rule (VIII, 2) be read once a week. According to the Rule of the Four Fathers (3, 31) it was to be read daily as was the Rule of the Master (24, 15: prior to the meal in the refectory). After Benedict, other monastic legislators made similar prescriptions for the daily reading of a chapter. Unlike them Saint Benedict does not say when or how often the Rule should be read, but already in 817 the Council of Aix-la-Chappelle decreed that it should be read daily at the office of Prime. This daily reading of a brief portion has remained a nearly universal monastic custom ever since, with the entire Rule being read two or, more typically, three times a year. Since the Rule was supposed to be read to the novices three times during their novitiate (RB 58), this seemed the ideally formative frequency. We have included the traditional dates for the thrice-yearly reading in this edition. This is a book to be used, to be read and studied just as Benedict intended. We read the Rule over and over so that its doctrine, which is none other than the person of Saint Benedict himself, may permeate our lives. It is in these words that we hear the voice of him who is our Father and Teacher, him whose moderation, humanity, discretion and genuine Christian sanctity will show us how to hasten toward our heavenly homeland.
David W. Cotter, OSB
Saint John's Abbey
Collegeville, Minnesota
July 11, 2000 The Feast of Saint Benedict, Patriarch of Western Monasticism