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