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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 the community,
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

 


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 of Liturgical Press. Doyle's translation is available in both hardcover and paperback editions.

Benedict's Rule: A Translation and Commentary by Terrence G. Kardong, O.S.B. is the first line-by-line exegesis of the entire Rule of Benedict written originally in English. This full commentary -- predominately literary and historical criticism -- is based on and includes a Latin text of Regula Benedicti (Liturgical Press). Hardcover, 664 pp., 6 x 9, ISBN 0-8146-2325-5, $59.95.

RB 1980 in Latin and English with Notes is a modern, scholarly translation ed. by Timothy Fry, OSB (Liturgical Press, 1981), 672 p., $39.95. The translation by itself is also available in paperback, $2.95.
 


[Monk reading]Rule of Benedict:
Bibliographic Resources / Bibliographica Benedictina

S. Aquinata Boeckmann's "Bibliography for Students of the Rule of Benedict" is a comprehensive, classified list 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


 
 

Rev. 01 Jul 2014 / © Copyright 1995-2009 by OSB, MN 56321-2015 / Webmaster / archive.osb.org/rb/text/toc.html