DAILY LIFE IN AN IRISH MONASTERY:
The investigations of scholars in recent years brought to light several Rules[167] which were written by early Irish saints for the direction and guidance of their monks. These Rules were frequently referred to in ancient documents, but some historians doubted their existence until their discovery set all doubts aside and furnished another proof of the trustworthiness of Irish records. By comparing these Rules with the references in the Lives of the (Irish) Saints[168] to the domestic and religious discipline of the monks we are able to form a tolerably correct picture of the real character of monastic life in Ireland during the period under consideration. While these Rules are neither so elaborate nor so systematic as the famous Rule of St. Benedict, to which they eventually gave place, yet they enable us to realize the austere simplicity of Irish monasticism.
However they may differ in details these “Rules of the Irish Saints” are in agreement as to the character of the daily work. St. Columbanus thus tersely describes the work of an Irish monastery: “Ergo quotidie jejunandum est, sicut quotidie orandum est, quotidie laborandum, quotidie est legendum.”[169] Fasting and prayer, labour and study were the daily task of the monk in every Irish monastery.