Conclusion

From all this we can conclude that in St. Benedict's Rule there are ample indications favoring and implying the existence of a cloister scriptorium in his own monastery. Writing was done in the earlier monasteries, but it remained to St. Benedict to organize and harmonize the individual's efforts with the common life and with the spontaneous spirit flowing from living "this least rule."

That the scribes might make their particular daily service an act of love unto God's greater glory and their own soul's daily and eternal salvation, their work was consecrated by prayer:

Vouchsafe, 0 Lord, to bless this scriptorium of your servants and all that dwell therein; that whatsoever sacred writings shall be read or written by them, they may receive with understanding, and bring the same to good effect, through our Lord.²⁷

--Fr. Landelin Robling OSB
Saint John's Abbey
Collegeville, Minn.

--

²⁷Matiland, op. cit., p. 445.

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