The Rule of Saint Benedict

Almost everything known about Benedict comes from the second book of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great, written near the end of the sixth century, which says that he founded the monastery of Monte Cassino and wrote a rule for monks. The Rule itself gives no date. It sets out the duties of the abbot, the steps of humility, the order of the psalms at each hour of prayer, the hours of work and reading, the care of the sick and of guests, and how newcomers are to be received.

Much of its early part is taken, often word for word, from a longer anonymous text known as the Rule of the Master, which most scholars now consider the older of the two. No copy from Benedict’s lifetime exists; the oldest surviving manuscripts were made long after his death, from about 700 onwards. The Rule spread gradually and was made the norm for the monasteries of the Frankish empire in the early ninth century. It says how a monastery ought to be run. It is not a description of what any particular house did.