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Audiobook edition · 2 h 29 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How can people share one roof, one purpose, and daily work without making life harsh?
St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries offers a practical guide to communal Christian life. Saint Benedict sets out how monks pray, work, eat, sleep, and share their goods. Across seventy-three brief chapters, ordinary choices become part of a larger question: how can a community hold firm standards while treating its members with care?
The text begins with a call to listen. Its prologue and chapters move through leadership, obedience, silence, humility, daily prayer, work, and hospitality. Benedict gives the abbot authority, but also responsibility. He describes the monastery as a school for the Lord's service, with steady habits rather than harsh demands at its heart.
What you’ll discover
- Authority with responsibility Explore a model of leadership in which the abbot leads and the community offers advice.
- The practice of listening Consider how obedience, silence, and humility shape the moral heart of life under shared rules.
- Days shaped by prayer Follow the Divine Office, the cycle of daily prayer that Benedict places before other tasks.
- Work beside sacred reading See how set hours for manual work and sacred reading give ordinary days a steady rhythm.
- A welcome for strangers Discover Benedict's instruction to receive guests as Christ, greeting them with prayer and peace.
Who will love it
Readers who love monastic life, quiet routines and practical spiritual wisdom will feel at home here, as will anyone who wants steadier habits for a busy life.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Begin by listening and joining a school
- A leader answers for every soul in his care
- Practical tools and a guarded tongue build character
- Twelve steps of humility form a ladder
- Prayer sets the rhythm of the whole day
- Work, reading and rest keep idleness away
- Shared goods, care for the weak, welcome for guests
- Correction heals, and the Rule is only a beginning
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La Règle de saint Benoît
by Saint Benoît · 530
A sixth-century abbot sets seventy-three short chapters on prayer, work and kindness for one shared household.
Medium level2–5 hours to readfrançais
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In short
What would it take to join a household where nobody owns a pen, where the day begins in the dark with song, and where even the kitchen rota is a form of prayer? That is the picture drawn in St.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Begin by listening and joining a school
The Rule opens with a single word of command: listen. Benedict speaks as a father to a son, and he asks the reader to open the heart and carry out loving advice. Obedience is the way back to God, from whom a person has strayed through the laziness of disobedience.
Benedict promises to found a school for the Lord's service, and he hopes to bring in nothing harsh. Some strictness may be needed to correct faults or protect love, and the entrance to the path is narrow. But as a person advances, the heart expands, and the commandments are run with the sweetness of love.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 530
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 1 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Benedict. St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/st-benedicts-rule-for-monasteries.
Benedict. (2026). St. Benedict's rule for monasteries. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/st-benedicts-rule-for-monasteries (Original work published ca. 530)
Benedict. St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/st-benedicts-rule-for-monasteries.
@book{benedict2026st,
author = {Benedict},
title = {St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/st-benedicts-rule-for-monasteries},
note = {First published ca. 530}
}
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What is St. Benedict's Rule about?
It is a guide to community life for monks, covering prayer hours, daily work, meals, clothing, care of the sick, welcome of guests, correction and the choice of an abbot. Under the details runs a call to listen, obey and love.
What are the twelve steps of humility in the Rule?
Found in chapter seven, they form a ladder that begins with fear of God and giving up self-will, moves through obedience, patience, honesty and contentment, and ends with quiet speech and a humble bearing that leads to love.
When was the Rule written and by whom?
Saint Benedict wrote it in the sixth century as a rule for monks living together under an abbot. He died in 547. It draws on Scripture and on earlier monastic writers, and monasteries have used it ever since.
The author
Saint Benedict
480–547 · Italian monk and religious founder
Founder of Christian monasticism, founder of the Benedictine order.
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