ST. BENEDICT’S
RULE FOR MONASTERIES
Translated from the Latin by
Leonard J. Doyle
THE LITURGICAL PRESS
St John’s Abbey Collegeville, Minnesota
This translation of the Holy Rule of St. Benedict was made from the
third edition of the text as edited by Dom Cuthbert Butler of Downside
Abbey in England (St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1935).
_Nihil obstat:_ Basil Stegmann, O.S.B., _Censor librorum._ _Imprimi
potest:_ ✠ Alcuin Deutsch, O.S.B., D.D., Abbot, St. John’s Abbey,
January 5, 1947. _Imprimatur:_ ✠ Joseph F. Busch, D.D., Bishop of St.
Cloud, January 8, 1947.
Copyright 1948 _by_ The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville,
Minnesota.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
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
ST. BENEDICT’S
RULE FOR MONASTERIES
PROLOGUE
Jan. 1—May 2—Sept. 1
Listen, my son, to your master’s precepts, and incline the ear of your
heart. Receive willingly and carry out effectively your loving father’s
advice, that by the labor of obedience you may return to Him from whom
you had departed by the sloth of disobedience.
To you, therefore, my words are now addressed, whoever you may be, who
are renouncing your own will to do battle under the Lord Christ, the
true King, and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience.
And first of all, whatever good work you begin to do, beg of Him with
most earnest prayer to perfect it, that He who has now deigned to count
us among His sons may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds. For
we must always so serve Him with the good things He has given us, that
He will never as an angry Father disinherit His children, nor ever as a
dread Lord, provoked by our evil actions, deliver us to everlasting
punishment as wicked servants who would not follow Him to glory.
Jan. 2—May 3—Sept. 2
Let us arise, then, at last, for the Scripture stirs us up, saying, “Now
is the hour for us to rise from sleep.” Let us open our eyes to the
deifying light, let us hear with attentive ears the warning which the
divine voice cries daily to us, “Today if you hear His voice, harden not
your hearts.” And again, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches.” And what does He say? “Come, My children,
listen to Me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Run while you have
the light of life, lest the darkness of death overtake you.”
Jan. 3—May 4—Sept. 3
And the Lord, seeking His laborer in the multitude to whom He thus cries
out, says again, “Who is the man who will have life, and desires to see
good days?” And if, hearing Him, you answer, “I am he,” God says to you,
“If you will have true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil
and your lips that they speak no guile. Turn away from evil and do good;
seek after peace and pursue it. And when you have done these things, My
eyes shall be upon you and My ears open to your prayers; and before you
call upon Me, I will say to you, ‘Behold, here I am.’”
What can be sweeter to us, dear brethren, than this voice of the Lord
inviting us? Behold, in His loving kindness the Lord shows us the way of
life.
Jan. 4—May 5—Sept. 4
Having our loins girded, therefore, with faith and the performance of
good works, let us walk in His paths by the guidance of the Gospel, that
we may deserve to see Him who has called us to His kingdom.
For if we wish to dwell in the tent of that kingdom, we must run to it
by good deeds or we shall never reach it.
But let us ask the Lord, with the Prophet, “Lord, who shall dwell in
Your tent, or who shall rest upon Your holy mountain?”
After this question, brethren, let us listen to the Lord as He answers
and shows us the way to that tent, saying, “He who walks without stain
and practices justice; he who speaks truth from his heart; he who has
not used his tongue for deceit; he who has done no evil to his neighbor;
he who has given no place to slander against his neighbor.”
It is he who, under any temptation from the malicious devil, has brought
him to naught by casting him and his temptation from the sight of his
heart; and who has laid hold of his thoughts while they were still young
and dashed them against Christ.
It is they who, fearing the Lord, do not pride themselves on their good
observance; but, convinced that the good which is in them cannot come
from themselves and must be from the Lord, glorify the Lord’s work in
them, using the words of the Prophet, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but
to Your name give the glory.” Thus also the Apostle Paul attributed
nothing of the success of his preaching to himself, but said, “By the
grace of God I am what I am.” And again he says, “He who glories, let
him glory in the Lord.”
Jan. 5—May 6—Sept. 5
Hence the Lord says in the Gospel, “Whoever listens to these words of
Mine and acts upon them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his
house on rock. The floods came, the winds blew and beat against that
house, and it did not fall, because it was founded on rock.”
Having given us these assurances, the Lord is waiting every day for us
to respond by our deeds to His holy admonitions. And the days of this
life are lengthened and a truce granted us for this very reason, that we
may amend our evil ways. As the Apostle says, “Do you not know that
God’s patience is inviting you to repent?” For the merciful Lord tells
us, “I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he should be
converted and live.”
Jan. 6—May 7—Sept. 6
So, brethren, we have asked the Lord who is to dwell in His tent, and we
have heard His commands to anyone who would dwell there; it remains for
us to fulfil those duties.
Therefore we must prepare our hearts and our bodies to do battle under
the holy obedience of His commands; and let us ask God that He be
pleased to give us the help of His grace for anything which our nature
finds hardly possible. And if we want to escape the pains of hell and
attain life everlasting, then, while there is still time, while we are
still in the body and are able to fulfil all these things by the light
of this life, we must hasten to do now what will profit us for eternity.
Jan. 7—May 8—Sept. 7
And so we are going to establish a school for the service of the Lord.
In founding it we hope to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome. But if
a certain strictness results from the dictates of equity for the
amendment of vices or the preservation of charity, do not be at once
dismayed and fly from the way of salvation, whose entrance cannot but be
narrow. For as we advance in the religious life and in faith, our hearts
expand and we run the way of God’s commandments with unspeakable
sweetness of love. Thus, never departing from His school, but
persevering in the monastery according to His teaching until death, we
may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ and deserve to have a
share also in His kingdom.
CHAPTER 1
On the Kinds of Monks
Jan. 8—May 9—Sept. 8
It is well known that there are four kinds of monks. The first kind are
the Cenobites: those who live in monasteries and serve under a rule and
an Abbot.
The second kind are the Anchorites or Hermits: those who, no longer in
the first fervor of their reformation, but after long probation in a
monastery, having learned by the help of many brethren how to fight
against the devil, go out well armed from the ranks of the community to
the solitary combat of the desert. They are able now, with no help save
from God, to fight single-handed against the vices of the flesh and
their own evil thoughts.
The third kind of monks, a detestable kind, are the Sarabaites. These,
not having been tested, as gold in the furnace, by any rule or by the
lessons of experience, are as soft as lead. In their works they still
keep faith with the world, so that their tonsure marks them as liars
before God. They live in twos or threes, or even singly, without a
shepherd, in their own sheepfolds and not in the Lord’s. Their law is
the desire for self-gratification: whatever enters their mind or appeals
to them, that they call holy; what they dislike, they regard as
unlawful.
The fourth kind of monks are those called Gyrovagues. These spend their
whole lives tramping from province to province, staying as guests in
different monasteries for three or four days at a time. Always on the
move, with no stability, they indulge their own wills and succumb to the
allurements of gluttony, and are in every way worse than the Sarabaites.
Of the miserable conduct of all such men it is better to be silent than
to speak.
Passing these over, therefore, let us proceed, with God’s help, to lay
down a rule for the strongest kind of monks, the Cenobites.