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.

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

St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries