Preface To The Holy Rule Of Saint Benedict
PREFACE TO THE HOLY RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT
LIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN—THE LAST ROMAN FATHER AND THE BIRTH OF CATHOLIC EUROPE
By William Edmund Fahey, Ph.D.
There was a man of venerable life, who was blessed in both grace and name. From his boyhood, he had the heart of a mature man. In his way of life he outstripped his years for he would not give himself over to sensual pleasure. On earth he could have indulged himself with liberty, but he looked dimly upon the glory of this world and did not desire its vanities.
Born in the region of Nursia to honorable parents, he was sent to Rome for an education in the humanities. Yet when he saw how many—though thoroughly educated—were leaping into a lewd life, he held back his foot, which was just beginning to cross the threshold of this world. He was duly afraid that worldly learning would trip him up and cast him into the godless abyss. So, he set aside his studies, forsook his father’s house and inheritance, and desired to please God alone…. Thus, he left Rome schooled with learned ignorance and nourished by an unlearned wisdom.
So opens our near contemporary account of the life of St. Benedict. The majority opinion is that this biography was penned half a century after the death of Benedict by Pope St. Gregory the Great, himself a Benedictine. That account, or “life of Benedict,” can be found in the second book of Gregory’s Dialogues, a long, conversational narrative in which the lives of many Italian holy men were set down. Although the second book is often isolated and reprinted as if a Vita or Biography, students should be aware that the narrative of Benedict’s life was part of a larger story in the work. St. Gregory had access to records and personal accounts of Benedict left by his disciples: indeed, Gregory interviewed four of St. Benedict’s original disciples before retelling the saint’s life. Prior to Gregory’s account, there is only a short hymn to St. Benedict. Students must keep in mind that St. Gregory’s account is not a modern biography, but, rather like a textual icon, an image of a man who succeeded in imitating Christ.
The details of this “life” reveal a man making a transition from the monastic spirit of the East to something new, Roman, and Western. St. Benedict is held to have been born about 480. His family was wealthy, free, and perhaps noble. The education to which he had access and small details known about his social circle point to an aristocratic background, but secular Rome—even the inspirational idea of Rome as the center of life and culture, Roma aeterna—was not to be the center of Benedict’s life.
The young Benedict left his liberal studies for an education in the Abruzzi mountains, some fifty miles from Rome, and with him came a loyal nurse or household slave. Benedict lived in loose communion with a group of men residing at a church dedicated to St. Peter. Here may be seen the origins of the long-standing tradition which has tied the Benedictines with the See of Peter. Soon after his time with this community, Benedict moved ten miles further to the highlands near Subiaco, where he lived close to the ruins of a villa of Nero. In a small cave, above a lake, Benedict dwelt in solitude, but not out of communion. He placed himself under the direction of Romanus of Subiaco, a monk from a nearby community directed by the Abbot Adeodatus. Though receiving only brief attention in the narrative of St. Gregory, this phase of life may account for Benedict’s sober assessment of the various forms of monasticism, found in the first chapter of his Rule—the anchorite (who largely lives alone, in the eastern fashion); the Sarabaites (who live in small groups without clear laws or direction); the gyrovagues (who live a vagabond life and are ruled largely by passionate impulses); and the cenobites (who live in community under the dual authority of a rule and an abbot). To varying degrees, Benedict learned by trial, error, and observation what each life meant. Experience, therefore, not theoretical knowledge, lies at the heart of Benedictine monasticism. In the end, his hard-won experience pointed him and others over the centuries towards the life of the cenobites as the most fruitful and realistic form of monasticism for most ordinary men and women.
Although St. Benedict lived for three years in the cave (Sacro Speco) near Subiaco, his solitude did not prevent men from learning about his character and holiness. He was approached by a small neighboring community and pressed to be its spiritual director. From Gregory’s description, this community sounds like what Benedict would term Sarabaites. They soon grew to detest Benedict’s desire for consistent rules and authority. In the end, they attempted to poison him and, having failed, traded the father of western monasticism for the rule of individual whim. Benedict returned to the region of Subiaco, where he continued in his own prayer life and contemplation, and the journey towards greater self-mastery. Gregory’s “life” concentrates on Benedict’s interior life, but reveals that he not only remained in communion, but established twelve monastic communities. The greatest was Monte Cassino, eighty miles south-east of Rome. Here, in the ruins of a temple dedicated to Apollo, Benedict established another community. This site, if not always the locus of this early confederation under the direction of St. Benedict, quickly became a center of spiritual authority, the kind of power with which secular leaders in the world have ever been fascinated. It was here that Benedict was visited by Totila, the masterful king of the Ostrogoths. It was here that Benedict died in 543. At his death, a strong network living under a single rule had been established and the ideals of western monasticism indelibly pressed upon the soul of Europe. What is more, it is here that the birth of a culture formed by Christian principles was given a tone on structure to endure through the centuries. Indeed, it is not an overstatement to say that the Regula Sancti Benedicti—the rule of St. Benedict—was a founding document for Christendom, second only to Sacred Scripture for its influence on individuals and institutions during the middle ages.
Readers of the Rule should keep in mind several features found in the “life” of St. Benedict by Gregory the Great. First, we find a man who learns and acts upon experience, not literary or even theological knowledge. Although the text of the Rule is enlivened by Sacred Scripture and the writings of the Fathers, what may go unnoticed is the experience of a spiritual master so clearly born into the Roman world of laws and traditions. Benedict’s Roman heritage added a particular structure to his thoughts and encouraged him to articulate the spiritual life in a specific way: with constant reference to tested Roman concepts of law, family, fatherhood, love of community, and the military life. Second, miracles abound in Gregory’s Dialogue, but most miracles are either directly parallel to those of Christ or deal with utterly ordinary things—pots, pans, tools, food, and very common temptations of men and women. So too, the Rule is marked by an attention to detail in the most ordinary things. Indeed, the ordinary is elevated and made the sublime arena of the spiritual struggle: no desert or mountain or ruined temple is envisioned, only the everyday life of work and prayer and human needs. Yet the grand drama found in both the “life” and the Rule is the drama of the human will and how the human will can and must be subordinated to the will of God the Father for abiding human happiness and true progress to be made.
The Regula or Rule is the only work St. Benedict left for posterity. It is a singular gift: it is, of course, a written document—a kind of constitution, and yet behind the spare word is the imprint of Benedict’s whole way of living and his manner of understanding and upholding a way of life that forged a union between the Roman and the Christian. The Rule is Benedict’s union of contemplation and action. It is arguably western Christendom’s most glorious example of one man’s imitation of his master—Christ—and that imitation leading to a complete incarnation. For Benedict, to follow a monastic regula was to imitate Christ through the simple subordination of the will to legitimate Christian authority—the authority found in words and in a person; one must never lose sight that the Rule is an imitation of Christ, the Word.
A regula, or rule, for Benedict is made up of a systematic gathering of “precepts”—as he calls them in the prologue. Here he borrows heavily from the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, such as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and elsewhere, aimed at the education of youth: “He that instructeth his son shall be praised in him, and shall glory in him in the midst of them of his household. He that teacheth his son, maketh his enemy jealous, and in the midst of his friends he shall glory in him.” (Eccles. 30:2–3). Such texts are not systematic to most eyes, but to simple souls an education in the virtues, an education that comes through such morsels of thought, easily taken and slowly digested, is nourishment for the body and soul. St. Benedict clearly had a paternal instinct in grasping and staying close to the ancient tradition of living according to maxims short enough to be internalized, but thoughtful enough to be read again and again.
Parallel to his reliance upon the scriptural pillar of wisdom literature, St. Benedict depends also upon the great classical, and especially Roman, tradition of a father actively mastering his household and in so doing creating a true economy in the literal sense—a regulated household and a community of good living. His organization of the monastery is considerably informed by the aristocratic love for detailed organization that one finds in some of the oldest Latin authors. Men such as Marcus Porcius Cato (234–149 B.C.) and Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 B.C.) provided a codification of the Roman practice of setting out in handbook form the rules of a household. Cato had stated emphatically that “when it is clear and indisputable what labor lies before you, you must set out how it is to be done in an orderly way.” Unspoken traditions obviously continued to flourish, but the Roman impulse was always to codify and set out the basic truths of how to live. These truths were grounded in experience, not theory. As Varro put it, rules were derived from “what I observed in my own practice, what I read, and what I learned from the most experienced men.” Like his Roman antecedents, Benedict established his regula because he saw clearly that such a set of “household rules” was needed for Christian life. In producing his Rule, he wrote after reflecting upon years of personal experience, a lifetime spent meditating on the Word of God and in consultation with the minds of his monastic forbearers. The Hebraic and Roman traditions of fatherly guidance are perfectly wed in the Rule.
It is by the “labor of obedience,” as St. Benedict says, that the son returns to the heavenly father. To Benedict the word “obedience” had a richness obscured to us by the dust of language. Oboedire in Latin meant not only “to submit” or “obey,” but chiefly “to harken” or “to listen with care.” Reflection and action were called for by this single expression. Again, is this not what fathers traditionally called for from their households? No good father wishes for mere “obedience” from his children (though at times this must be enforced). Rather, a father wishes that his charges will reflect on his words and act in accord with them, not because his children are slavish drones, but because he as father is responsible for seeing that their minds and hearts are fully in accord with his own pursuit of truth and holiness. Rules are the path towards such thoughtful action and self-mastery.
“The labor of obedience” in English may seem negative to modern readers. Readers of Virgil will recall the attractiveness of the word labor. The word had none of the drudgery that “labor” increasingly carries in English. The “labor of obedience” was an opportunity to be seized! It was good and thoughtful work, not mechanical, but fully human and noble. The mind, soul, heart, and body were all called to purposeful engagement. That engagement was the kind set in motion by a father. And, as St. Benedict, the Roman tradition, and Holy Scripture all assert, it is labor that would end in glory. Again, the old Roman pursuit of personal glory can be seen in the Regula but now transfigured by a new piety and transformed by Christian teaching.
As in the “life,” the Rule bears witness to St. Benedict’s attention to order, detail, and tradition—all very Roman, given depth by the Hebraic wisdom literature and personal immediacy by an encounter with Christ. Benedict speaks even more directly than the authors of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. He speaks as father to son, as Christian disciple to brother disciple, understanding himself, and by extension all abbots, as on the same journey as the greenest monk towards a celestial patria.
Readers of the Rule should, therefore, understand the layers of western tradition behind the precise guidelines concerning food, sleep, reading, the calendar, travel, the treatment of illness, and corporal punishment. If one keeps in mind the synthesis of Roman aristocratic leadership and Hebraic wisdom literature, these sections are clearly of a piece not only with the guidelines on monastic officers (such as the porter, prior, and of course abbot), but also Christian meditations on the virtues.
Many readers will also approach the Regula with some notion that the Benedictine tradition is summarized in the motto—Ora est Labora, “Prayer is work.” This belief is gravely mistaken. Nowhere in St. Benedict’s Rule or subsequent literature does one find this expression. Pray and work are not equivalent in Benedictine’s view. More confusing still is the common notion that the Benedictine life is, in sum, a balance between work and prayer: Ora et Labora, “Prayer and Work.” This so-called motto does appear in writings by and about the Benedictines—starting in the later nineteenth century with the writings of Abbot Maurus Wolter, but again, the Rule never uses such an expression. It is best to read the Rule and let Benedict speak in his own words. He saw himself as compelled by the love of Christ to build something: Constituenda est ergo nobis dominici scola servitii (“We must, therefore, establish a school of the Lord’s service”). This new institution Benedict was establishing surely involved work, but for all Benedict’s appreciation of labor he nevertheless viewed it as lower in the hierarchy of goods. In the Roman world, scola or “school” was something set apart from work—as sacred things are apart from the profane. Indeed, the word also meant “leisure.” If one carefully counts the hours, Benedict did not imagine the need to work much more than about five hours—hardly comparable to what we think of as “work” since the industrial revolution. Work is part of the human condition and it has its dignity in the Roman and Benedictine world—hard work at times, but like most work in a traditional society, work was to be done at a humane pace and done for the sake of higher things. The expression “school of service” is an apparent paradox—for servitium denoted the condition of slavery. Yet it is slavery or service for the Lord. A school of “service,” yes, but the service was to Christ and His heavenly Father through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Read in the context of the Rule’s prologue, the “school of the Lord’s service” was a new institution: communal, traditional, Roman, but built around the study of Sacred Scripture, the pursuit of wisdom, loyalty to Christ, and all for the praise of God. All things were done for the sake arriving at the Kingdom of Christ, but by enjoying the fruits of that Kingdom in ordinary time through contemplation, especially that which was nourished in common prayer and discovered in the careful reading of Scripture (lectio divina).
Finally, readers should be aware that St. Benedict drew heavily, sometimes word for word, on other monastic texts, as well as Scripture (Indeed, modern translations—including the one that follows—obscure the experience of reading the Rule). There were no quotation marks or citations of Scriptural passage to let the reader know Benedict was quoting the Bible. A mature reader who had passages of Scripture in his mind would know the reference. Some readers no doubt detected the shift in style from Benedict’s Late Latin to the strange many-layered words of the Latin translation of the Bible, but it was hard to be sure—in fact, the need for such surety is really a modern preoccupation. Benedict and his monks aimed to allow the Word of God to penetrate the heart, mind, soul, and imagination. The words of a Christian writer should be shot through with the words of Scripture and the Fathers.
One of the greatest non-scriptural inspirations for St. Benedict was the Regula Magistri—the “Rule of the Master.” As modern editions with commentaries on the Latin have made clear, large portions of the rules have been lifted directly from the Rule of the Master. Noteworthy are the little changes and additions which come only from Benedict. These appear always as humane touches and the softening of a prior, but stiff, template. The character of St. Benedict emerges clearly at such moments. Many rules laid out guidelines for kitchen service and the details of guidelines such as are found in may bore first-time or inattentive readers. But consider this little aside, an addition to material that Benedict found elsewhere:
An hour before meal time let the weekly servers each receive a drink and a piece of bread over the prescribed portion. In this way, they may serve their brethren at meal time without murmuring or undue strain.
Here we see the Abbot Benedict emerge and the essence of his humane character revealed. Behind the law-giver is the abbot or father, and he reveals himself as a kind and attentive father. The heady principle of charity in the kitchen may be inspirational, but perhaps too intellectual, too theologically distant; the regulation of times and food allotments scarcely moves most readers; but how can this passage, born of real experience of human frailty, not warm the heart of anyone who has borne responsibility or sought to serve others day in and day out? A drink and a welcome morsel are natural goods on which the supernatural can more effectively transform the ordinary. It is in little details such as this that readers will find the heart of Benedict’s Rule.
Further Reading
The bibliography of works on St. Benedict and his Rule is vast. Readers who enjoy plumbing the depths of online resources should start with the largest Benedictine site, a veritable library created by the monks of St. John’s in Collegeville, Minnesota (www.osb.org).
The suggestions below are guided by a sense that many traditional or early works have been forgotten in the rush to publish new material. Thus, what follows is a mixture of basic readings—the “standards”—as well as neglected classics.
The Rule: translated editions and some recent commentaries
The Rule of Saint Benedict—A Commentary by the Right Rev. Dom Paul Delatte, Abbot of Solesmes and Superior General of the Congregation of Benedictines in France, trans. Dom Justin McCann, O.S.B. (Latrobe, PA: St. Vincent’s Archabbey Press, 1950). This commentary, written before the First World War, remains the crowning achievement of traditional Benedictine spirituality. It is now rarely cited and difficult to find.
The Rule of Saint Benedict in English and Latin, trans. and ed. by Abbot Justin McCann, O.S.B. (reprinted Roman Catholic Books: Fort Collins, CO, n.d.) Abbot McCann’s edition is one of the few that breaks the text into the traditional dated sections for reading according to the Benedictine calendar, three times a year. The notes are a wealth of grammatical and cultural detail.
The Holy Rule—Notes on St. Benedict’s Legislation for Monks by Dom Hubert Van Zeller (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1958).
The Rule of Saint Benedict—A Doctrinal and Spiritual Commentary by Dom Adalbert de Vogüé, O.S.B. (Spencer, MA: Cistercian Publications, 1983).
Benedict’s Rule—A Translation and Commentary, ed. Fr. Terrence Kardong, O.S.B. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1996). The academic fruit of fifteen years research, Fr. Kardong’s translation and commentary presents the latest findings regarding textual and theological studies of the Rule.
Biographies of St. Benedict: One early life exists, that written shortly after his death by Pope St. Gregory the Great as part of his larger work, The Dialogues. 
St. Gregory the Great, The Life of St. Benedict, trans. Hilary Costello and Eoin de Bhaldraithe, with commentary by Adalbert de Vogüé, O.S.B. (Petersham, MA: St. Bede’s, 1993).
St. Gregory the Great, The Life of St. Benedict, trans. and commentary by Terrence G. Kardong, O.S.B. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2009).
St. Gregory the Great, The Dialogues, trans. by Odo John Zimmerman, O.S.B. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Press of America, 1959). Some readers may wish to look at the “life” of St. Benedict in context. Dom Zimmerman’s is the standard modern translation.
Modern biographies and reflections
Dom Fernand Cabrol, O.S.B., St. Benedict (London: Burns, Oates, & Washbourne, 1934).
Adalbert de Vogüé, O.S.B., St. Benedict: The Man and His Work (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006).
Pope Pius XII, Flugens Radiatur (March 21, 1947). In this encyclical letter, Pius XII presents a summary of St. Benedict’s life and spirituality, followed by points that should inspire Catholics in the modern age.
There are many fine works which attempt to give a sense of the theology, spirituality, and very culture that spring forth from the Benedictine way. The works below provide keen readers with an overview of some of the best from the past two centuries:
Abbot Aelread Carlyle, O.S.B. Our Purpose and Method (Elgin, Scotland: Pluscarden Abbey Press, 1987). In this brief book, Abbot Carlyle sets out the vision of his Anglican Benedictine community on the island of Caldey, off the coast of south-west Wales. In 1913 the entire community entered the Roman Catholic Church. The book was thought by Bl. Columba Marmion to be an excellent introduction to the Benedictine way.
Michael Casey, O.S.C.O., Strangers to the City: Reflections on the Beliefs and Values of the Rule of St. Benedict (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2005).
Abbot Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, 15 vols. (London: Stanbrook Abbey, 1918). For those who wish to observe how St. Benedict’s simple codification of the cycle for the Divine Office grew into an effulgent meditation on the liturgy throughout the year, this work by Dom Guéranger is essential. Dom Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes, almost single-handed brought the Benedictine Order out of the ashes in France during the middle of the nineteenth century, when Benedictine communities had fallen from approximately 1500 in the eighteenth century to only 30 when Dom Guéranger was a young man.
To appreciate the rich spirituality and energy for broader Catholic renewal that Dom Guéranger and his community at Solesmes generated, readers should seek out The Spirit of Solesmes—The Christian Life in the Works of Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbes Cécile Bruyère, and Dom Paul Delatte, ed. Sr. Mary David Totah, O.S.B. (Petersham, MA: St. Bede’s Publications, 1997).
Dwight Longenecker, St. Benedict and St. Thérèse—The Little Rule and the Little Way (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2002).
Bl. Columba Marmion, Christ the Ideal of the Monk—Spiritual Conferences on the Monastic and Religious Life (London: Sands and Co., 1926). Born in Ireland, Bl. Columba eventually became the Abbot of monastery at Mardesous, Belgium. Of his many works, Christ the Ideal of the Monk is his most explicitly Benedictine. In addition to his own tradition, Bl. Columba was also a careful reader of St. Thomas Aquinas and well-read in the rich tradition of spirituality found in the other religious orders.
Bl. John Henry Newman, The Benedictine Order (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1914). This short work was derived from his inspiring essays “The Benedictine Centuries” and “The Mission of St. Benedict and Benedictine Schools”.
Dom Hubert Van Zeller, O.S.B. Approach to Monasticism (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1960). Building on the work that went into his translation and commentary of the Rule, Dom Hubert sets forth a practical and frank discussion of the monastic life. The object is to de-romanticize the Benedictine life and present to aspirants, veterans, and scholars of the monasticism a study which allows that life to be understood in decisive vocational terms: a life to be chosen and lived, not to be passively endured out of fear, inadequacy, or indecision.
The majority of the books listed above concentrate on spirituality and most have a non-academic intent. The following works, while originally written for scholars, will prove profoundly interesting to students of St. Benedict.
Dom Cuthbert Butler, O.S.B., Benedictine Monachism: Studies in Benedictine Life and Rule (London: Longman, Green and Co., 1919).
Dom David Knowles, The Benedictines (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1929). This short pamphlet by one of England’s best known Benedictine scholars of the last century has not been surpassed as a pithy, but erudite introduction.
Dom Jean Leclercq, O.S.B., The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (New York: Fordham University Press, 1960). To list this amongst academic titles may discourage broad readership, which would be unfortunate, since Dom Leclercq’s style and breadth will engage all audiences. This book has been the starting point and inspiration for much of the post-World War II scholarship on St. Benedict and the culture he helped to establish.
Oblates
Oblates in the modern age are typically those lay men and women who formally and according to a rite of the Church associate themselves with a Benedictine monastery and live out their lives—according to their place in the world—under the Rule of St. Benedict and are guided by Benedictine spirituality. While oblates have always been a part of the Benedictine family, in recent decades their numbers have now far surpassed those of cloistered monks and nuns. A cursory search at a bookstore or through internet sources will reveal the numerous works generated in the last few years by oblates and monks guiding oblate communities. The list below is provided only of those lesser known or older works which should receive a wider readership.
Anon., Manual for the Use of the Oblates of the Order of St. Benedict Affliated to the Abbey, Fort Augustus (Fort Augustus Abbey, Fort Augustus, Scotland, 1893).
Anon., Manual for Oblates of St. Benedict—Prepared by monks of St. John’s Abbey under the direction of the National Conference of Oblate Directors (Collegeville, MN: St. John’s Abbey Press, 1955).
Alcuin Deutch, O.S.B., Manual for Oblates of St. Benedict (Collegeville, MN: St. John’s Abbey Press, 1937).
T. F. Lindsay, The Holy Rule for Laymen (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1947).
Dwight Longenecker, Listen, My Son—St Benedict for Fathers (Leominster: Gracewing, 2000).
Dom Norbert Schachinger, O.S.B., The Lay Apostle after the Heart of St. Benedict (Collegeville, MN: St. John’s Abbey Press, 1931).