OSB. Rule of Benedict. Text, English. Table of Contents (2024)

The Order of Saint Benedict

The Rule of Benedict

Regula Benedicti (RB)

Arranged by Chapter Titles

Read Today's Passage

"We wish this rule to be read often in thecommunity,
so that none can offer the excuse of ignorance" (RB 66, 8).

Today, women monastics outnumber men by more than two to one. Thus, the even-numbered chapters below have been adapted for a women's community. The odd-numbered chapters are for a men's community such as Saint Benedict would have known. Mr. J. Frank Henderson edits a website that provides information about the history, dissemination and use of the Rule of Benedict adapted for and by women. Several contemporary scholarly and literary translations of the Rule into English exist, but the Leonard Doyle translation used here is familiar to generations of US and other English-speaking monastics from its widespread and long term use in refectories and chapter rooms.

The Rule of Benedict

The Prologue
Chapter 1: On the Kinds of Monks
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be
Chapter 3: On Calling the Brethren forCounsel
Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of GoodWorks
Chapter 5: On Obedience
Chapter 6: On the Spirit of Silence
Chapter 7: On Humility
Chapter 8: On the Divine Office Duringthe Night
Chapter 9: How Many Psalms Are to Be Said atthe Night
Chapter 10: How the Night Office Is to BeSaid in Summer Time
Chapter 11: How the Night Office Is to BeSaid on Sundays
Chapter 12: How the Morning Office is to BeSaid
Chapter 13: How the Morning Office to BeSaid on Weekdays
Chapter 14: How the Night Office Is to BeSaid on the Feasts of the Saints
Chapter 15: At What Times "Alleluia" Is to BeSaid
Chapter 16: How the Work of God Is to BePerformed During the Day
Chapter 17: How Many Psalms Are to Be Said atThese Hours
Chapter 18: In What Order the Psalms Are to BeSaid
Chapter 19: On the Manner of Saying the DivineOffice
Chapter 20: On Reverence in Prayer
Chapter 21: On the Deans of the Monastery
Chapter 22: How They Are to Sleep
Chapter 23: On Excommunication for Faults
Chapter 24: What the Measure of ExcommunicationShould Be
Chapter 25: On Weightier Faults
Chapter 26: On Those Who Without an OrderAssociate With the Excommunicated
Chapter 27: How Solicitous the Abbot Should Befor the Excommunicated
Chapter 28: On Those Who Will Not Amend After Repeated Corrections
Chapter 29: Whether Brothers Who Leave theMonastery Should Be Received Again
Chapter 30: How Boys Are to Be Corrected
Chapter 31: What Kind of Man the Cellarer of theMonastery Should Be
Chapter 32: On the Tools and Property of theMonastery
Chapter 33: Whether Monks Ought to HaveAnything of Their Own
Chapter 34: Whether All Should Receive in EqualMeasure What Is Necessary
Chapter 35: On the Weekly Servers in theKitchen
Chapter 36: On the Sick
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 theWork of God or to Table
Chapter 44: How the Excommunicated Are to makeSatisfaction
Chapter 45: On Those Who Make Mistakes in theOratory
Chapter 46: On Those Who Fail in Any OtherMatters
Chapter 47: On Giving the Signal for the Time ofthe Work of God
Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor
Chapter 49: On the Observance of Lent
Chapter 50: On Those Who Are Working FarFrom the Oratory or Are on a Journey
Chapter 51: On Brethren Who Go Not Very FarAway
Chapter 52: On the Oratory of the Monastery
Chapter 53: On the Reception of Guests
Chapter 54: Whether Monastics Should ReceiveLetters or Anything Else
Chapter 55: On the Clothes and Shoes of theBrethren
Chapter 56: On the Abbess's Table
Chapter 57: On the Artisans of theMonastery
Chapter 58: On the Manner of ReceivingSisters
Chapter 59: On the Sons of Nobles and of thePoor Who Are Offered
Chapter 60: On Priests Who May Wish to Live inthe Monastery
Chapter 61: How Pilgrim Monks Are to BeReceived
Chapter 62: On the Priests of the Monastery
Chapter 63: On the Order of the Community
Chapter 64: On Constituting an Abbess
Chapter 65: On the Prior of the Monastery
Chapter 66: On the Porters of the Monastery
Chapter 67: On Brethren Who Are Sent on aJourney
Chapter 68: If a Sister is Commanded to DoImpossible Things
Chapter 69: That the Monks Presume Not to DefendOne Another
Chapter 70: That No One Venture to Punish atRandom
Chapter 71: That the Brethren Be Obedient toOne Another
Chapter 72: On the Good Zeal Which They Ought toHave
Chapter 73: On the Fact That the FullObservance of Justice Is Not Established in This Rule

Selections above from Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, translated from the Latin by Leonard J. Doyle OblSB, of Saint John's Abbey, (© Copyright 1948, 2001, by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, MN 56321). Adapted for use here with the division into sense lines of the first edition that was republished in 2001 to mark the 75th anniversary ofLiturgical Press. Doyle's translation is available in both hardcover and paperback editions.

Rule of Benedict:
Bibliographic Resources / Bibliographica Benedictina

S. Aquinata Boeckmann's "Bibliography for Students of the Rule of Benedict" is a comprehensive, classifiedlist of books and articles online that is updated with care and regularity through 2009.

More Bibliographica Benedictina

MnPALS is an on-line catalog that includes three Benedictine libraries in Minnesota whose collections are rich in monastic holdings.

Bibliographic Index (to 2000) includes manuscripts, books, editions, translations, etc. Items are ordered chronologically by date of publication and, in some sections, also by language. For more recent items use S. Aquinata's excellent "Bibliography for Students of the Rule of Benedict."

OSB Index |Rule: Index | About the Rule

OSB. Rule of Benedict. Text, English. Table of Contents (2024)

The Rule of Benedict

Arranged by Chapter Titles

The Rule of Benedict

Rule of Benedict: Bibliographic Resources / Bibliographica Benedictina

More Bibliographica Benedictina

References

Rule of Benedict:
Bibliographic Resources / Bibliographica Benedictina