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 for Counsel
• Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works
• Chapter 5: On Obedience
• Chapter 6: On the Spirit of Silence
• Chapter 7: On Humility
• Chapter 8: On the Divine Office During the Night
• Chapter 9: How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at the Night
• Chapter 10: How the Night Office Is to Be Said in Summer Time
• Chapter 11: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on Sundays
• Chapter 12: How the Morning Office is to Be Said
• Chapter 13: How the Morning Office to Be Said on Weekdays
• Chapter 14: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the Saints
• Chapter 15: At What Times "Alleluia" Is to Be Said
• Chapter 16: How the Work of God Is to Be Performed During the Day
• Chapter 17: How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at These Hours
• Chapter 18: In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said
• Chapter 19: On the Manner of Saying the Divine Office
• 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 Excommunication Should Be
• Chapter 25: On Weightier Faults
• Chapter 26: On Those Who Without an Order Associate With the Excommunicated
• Chapter 27: How Solicitous the Abbot Should Be for the Excommunicated
• Chapter 28: On Those Who Will Not Amend After Repeated Corrections
• Chapter 29: Whether Brothers Who Leave the Monastery Should Be Received Again
• Chapter 30: How Boys Are to Be Corrected
• Chapter 31: What Kind of Man the Cellarer of the Monastery Should Be
• Chapter 32: On the Tools and Property of the Monastery
• Chapter 33: Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own
• Chapter 34: Whether All Should Receive in Equal Measure What Is Necessary
• Chapter 35: On the Weekly Servers in the Kitchen
• 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 the Work of God or to Table
• Chapter 44: How the Excommunicated Are to make Satisfaction
• Chapter 45: On Those Who Make Mistakes in the Oratory
• Chapter 46: On Those Who Fail in Any Other Matters
• Chapter 47: On Giving the Signal for the Time of the Work of God
• Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor
• Chapter 49: On the Observance of Lent
• Chapter 50: On Those Who Are Working Far From the Oratory or Are on a Journey
• Chapter 51: On Brethren Who Go Not Very Far Away
• Chapter 52: On the Oratory of the Monastery
• Chapter 53: On the Reception of Guests
• Chapter 54: Whether Monastics Should Receive Letters or Anything Else
• Chapter 55: On the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren
• Chapter 56: On the Abbess's Table
• Chapter 57: On the Artisans of the Monastery
• Chapter 58: On the Manner of Receiving Sisters
• Chapter 59: On the Sons of Nobles and of the Poor Who Are Offered
• Chapter 60: On Priests Who May Wish to Live in the Monastery
• Chapter 61: How Pilgrim Monks Are to Be Received
• 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 a Journey
• Chapter 68: If a Sister is Commanded to Do Impossible Things
• Chapter 69: That the Monks Presume Not to Defend One Another
• Chapter 70: That No One Venture to Punish at Random
• Chapter 71: That the Brethren Be Obedient to One Another
• Chapter 72: On the Good Zeal Which They Ought to Have
• Chapter 73: On the Fact That the Full Observance 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 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.
 

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