St. Benedicts Rule for Monasteries

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1 On the Kinds of Monks

CHAPTER 2 What Kind of Man the Abbot Ought to Be

CHAPTER 3 On Calling the Brethren for Counsel

CHAPTER 4 What Are the Instruments of Good Works

CHAPTER 5 On Obedience

CHAPTER 6 On the Spirit of Silence

CHAPTER 7 On Humility

CHAPTER 8 On the Divine Office During the Night

CHAPTER 9 How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at the Night Office

CHAPTER 10 How the Night Office Is to Be Said in Summer Time

CHAPTER 11 How the Night Office Is to Be Said on Sundays

CHAPTER 12 How the Morning Office Is to Be Said

CHAPTER 13 How the Morning Office Is to Be Said on Weekdays

CHAPTER 14 How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the Saints

CHAPTER 15 At What Times "Alleluia" Is to Be Said

CHAPTER 16 How the Work of God Is to Be Performed During the Day

CHAPTER 17 How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at These Hours

CHAPTER 18 In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said

CHAPTER 19 On the Manner of Saying the Divine Office

CHAPTER 20 On Reverence in Prayer

CHAPTER 21 On the Deans of the Monastery

CHAPTER 22 How the Monks Are to Sleep

CHAPTER 23 On Excommunication for Faults

CHAPTER 24 What the Measure of Excommunication Should Be

CHAPTER 25 On Weightier Faults

CHAPTER 26 On Those Who Without an Order Associate With the Excommunicated

CHAPTER 27 How Solicitous the Abbot Should Be for the Excommunicated

CHAPTER 28 On Those Who Will Not Amend After Repeated Corrections

CHAPTER 29 Whether Brethren Who Leave the Monastery Should Be Received Again

CHAPTER 30 How Boys Are to Be Corrected

CHAPTER 31 What Kind of Man the Cellarer of the Monastery Should Be

CHAPTER 32 On the Tools and Property of the Monastery

CHAPTER 33 Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own

CHAPTER 34 Whether All Should Receive in Equal Measure What Is Necessary

CHAPTER 35 On the Weekly Servers in the Kitchen

CHAPTER 36 On the Sick Brethren

CHAPTER 37 On Old Men and Children

CHAPTER 38 On the Weekly Reader

CHAPTER 39 On the Measure of Food

CHAPTER 40 On the Measure of Drink

CHAPTER 41 At What Hours the Meals Should Be Taken

CHAPTER 42 That No One Speak After Compline

CHAPTER 43 On Those Who Come Late to the Work of God or to Table

CHAPTER 44 How the Excommunicated Are to Make Satisfaction

CHAPTER 45 On Those Who Make Mistakes in the Oratory

CHAPTER 46 On Those Who Fail in Any Other Matters

CHAPTER 47 On Giving the Signal for the Time of the Work of God

CHAPTER 48 On the Daily Manual Labor

CHAPTER 49 On the Observance of Lent

CHAPTER 50 On Brethren Who Are Working Far From the Oratory or Are on a Journey

CHAPTER 51 On Brethren Who Go Not Very Far Away

CHAPTER 52 On the Oratory of the Monastery

CHAPTER 53 On the Reception of Guests

CHAPTER 54 Whether a Monk Should Receive Letters or Anything Else

CHAPTER 55 On the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren

CHAPTER 56 On the Abbot's Table

CHAPTER 57 On the Craftsmen of the Monastery

CHAPTER 58 On the Manner of Receiving Brethren

CHAPTER 59 On the Sons of Nobles and of the Poor Who Are Offered

CHAPTER 60 On Priests Who May Wish to Live in the Monastery

CHAPTER 61 How Pilgrim Monks Are To Be Received

CHAPTER 62 On the Priests of the Monastery

CHAPTER 63 On the Order of the Community

CHAPTER 64 On Constituting an Abbot

CHAPTER 65 On the Prior of the Monastery

CHAPTER 66 On the Porters of the Monastery

CHAPTER 67 On Brethren Who Are Sent on a Journey

CHAPTER 68 If a Brother Is Commanded to Do Impossible Things

CHAPTER 69 That the Monks Presume Not to Defend One Another

CHAPTER 70 That No One Venture to Punish at Random

CHAPTER 71 That the Brethren Be Obedient to One Another

CHAPTER 72 On the Good Zeal Which Monks Ought to Have

CHAPTER 73 On the Fact That the Full Observance of Justice Is Not Established in This Rule

Produced by Andrew Dunning.

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ST. BENEDICT’S
RULE FOR MONASTERIES

Translated from the Latin by
Leonard J. Doyle

THE LITURGICAL PRESS
St John’s Abbey      Collegeville, Minnesota

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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.

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