Rule Of Saint Benedict
The Rule of St. Benedict was written by Benedict of Nursia to guide his followers in the monastic community life ( cenobitism ). The writing began about 540
Benedict was founded around 529 a community of monks on Mount Cassino in Italy. Over the centuries that followed, this rule was gradually adopted by a growing number of monasteries in the West, beyond its influence religious , she had a great importance in the formation of medieval society , through the ideas it brought : the idea of a constitution written, control of the authority by law, and the appointment of the holder of that authority by election, Benedict has sought that the abbot is elected by the brothers The life of Benedict Benedict of Nursia left the comfort side of student life in Rome around 500 AD to seek God in solitude: he settled first at Subiaco. Fleeing too many visitors attracted by its reputation for holiness, and following a dispute with a priest of the place, he withdrew to 529 with some followers on Monte Cassino , on the site of an ancient temple of Apollo. The number of those who wish to live with him like him and rising, it should organize more accurately the life of his new community: he then wrote his rule, called a great success (see below). It is assumed that he died around 547. In writing his Rule, Benedict did not try to create an original work. To develop a rule of life for his community, he does not hesitate to rely on the treasures of a monastic tradition still young in our eyes but already rich. Its main source is probably from a monastic rule of Italy at the same time: the rule of the Master . But it resumed and modified, entire passages of Cassian and many ideas of Augustine (for example: the abbot must serve more than preside: magis quam prodesse presse ). It also builds on St. Basil , the legislature of eastern monasticism, which he refers explicitly to the end of his rule. The model of monastic life according to St. Benedict is the family whose Father is the Father (Abba) and where all religious are brothers. At the time of St. Benedict, the priesthood seems to have been relatively rare among the monks and it seems that Benedict himself has not been a priest . The monk's day is set according to what Saint Benedict calls "Work of God" ( Opus Dei ): the liturgy of the hours eight times a day the community gathers to pray together, from the Psalms and the Bible. These liturgical services are of variable duration: the three great offices of Vigils , Lauds and Vespers are longer, other offices ("Small Hours") are shorter-Prime, Tierce, Sext, None and Compline. For Saint Benedict, it is very important: We do prefer nothing to the Work of God . The day starts at "the eighth hour of the night, with nocturnal vigils . Before the arrival of wax candles , the fourteenth-century, this office was in darkness or very little lighting, which had little importance because the monks learned by heart the psalms and other texts the liturgy. Vigils are followed by a reading time. Then at daybreak come Lauds . Offices of Prime, Tierce, Sext, None are as their name indicates respectively the first, third, sixth and ninth hour of the day (at the time of St. Benedict, the schedule was defined according the sun, so depending on seasonal length of day). The Vespers (Vespa), as their name suggests, too, are the evening service. After lunch and a reading in common is the last act of the day, Compline. They are followed by the silence of the night . Outside the offices, the monks engage in manual labor for, "said Benedict, then they are truly monks when they live by the work of their hands, like our fathers and the Apostles . The work must be organized so that it does not require the brothers to leave the enclosure of the monastery: The monastery should, whenever possible, be arranged so that one can find everything you need: the water, a windmill, gardens and workshops so that we can practice the various trades within the fence. In this way the monks do not need to disperse outside, which is not good for their souls . Time is also reserved for reading, study of Scripture and the Fathers of the Church, which is a true spiritual nourishment: it is the lectio divina. This has particular importance in Lent . The division of work and reading, meal times vary with the seasons and the liturgical . Thus, in Lent, the brothers take a single meal in the evening after Vespers . The rule not only describes the various offices and work, but also the arrangements for meals, clothing, hospitality, selecting officials, travel abroad, etc.. ... But Benedict is not fussy and it is often said that the abbot , depending on the community, the constraints of place and time to settle the details. The rule is therefore concerned primarily with the spiritual aspect of monastic life. Benedict's Rule has placed under the patronage of the great writers of the monastic life (see above), we are not surprised to find the traditional ingredients of monasticism. Benedict, a Roman, put in place a structured community life firmly under the authority of a spiritual father, the abbot. He organized the monks' life through three main activities: prayer, expressed especially in the Eucharist and the Divine Office (Latin Opus Dei, the work of God, also called Liturgy of the Hours) the prayerful reading of Sacred Scripture or spiritual writers (This is the lectio divina ) and manual labor. As in all monastic traditions, prayer is central. Benedict emphasizes community prayer expressed especially in the Liturgy of the Hours (or Opus Dei), but personal prayer is not excluded. It also limits the ascetic requirements, aiming at a more intense search for God in prayer with tears, reading, compunction of heart and cessation . It also encourages traditional monastic virtues: obedience leads to humility , which leads to charity . The monk away from the world to seek God and the monastic enclosure allows it to focus on this goal . In fact, Benedict told his disciples as fundamental and even single injury, the search for God . At his death around 550-560, Benedict left to posterity a community: the monastery of Monte Cassino , and his Rule. But the monastery was destroyed by the Lombards and was abandoned by its monks quarter of a century later, around 580. Rule already copied and disseminated, was not lost . Soon after, Pope Gregory the Great would give publicity decisive Benedict and his work, by writing the dialogues , a compilation of lives of saints among them who would become the patriarch of Western monks: Benedict of Nursia. The Rule of Saint Benedict therefore diffuses throughout the Christian part of Europe. In the late sixth century, Pope Gregory the Great sends a Benedictine re-evangelize England: is the future Augustine of Canterbury. The Rule of Benedict is reported in Gaul from 625 . His success is not surprising because, in comparison with other monastic rules existing at the time that Benedict did show some restraint: if the Divine Office takes an important place, it is not overly heavy, and she has no extraordinary penances such as St. Columban . But it is in the ninth century that the rule of Benedict will make an important decision. Indeed, the Emperor Louis the Pious decides with the Council of the Benedictine abbot Benedict Aniane to impose it on all the monasteries of the Empire, that is to say almost all the monasteries of Europe West. The synod of Aix-la-Chapelle, 817, ratified this decision . Until the eleventh century, the monks of the West will all Benedictine . Over the following centuries, many foundations and reforms, which are all return to the Rule of Benedict, demonstrate the relevance of this style of life and vitality of the spiritual son of Benedict. In 910, Burgundy witnessing a most famous Benedictine abbeys, which will give rise to the order of the same name: Cluny is one of the great symbols of the Benedictine life. In 1098, still in Burgundy, Citeaux arises from the desire of some Benedictine monks to follow more closely and more perfect, the very Rule of St. Benedict . The Cistercian Order nascent see the founding of hundreds of monasteries of monks and nuns throughout Europe. They are also the orders Camaldoli (1012), that of Vallombrosa (1039), the College of Mount Olivet (1313); reforms of Saint-Vanne (1604), Saint-Maur (1621), The Trap (1662 , 1892 Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe and Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance ). In 1833, Dom Prosper Guranger restore the Benedictine Order in France, Solesmes , soon to head the Congregation of the same name. In 1843, the Congregation of Subiaco is formed, which will be affiliated to the Abbey of La Pierre-qui-Vire and many others in France. Today, nearly 24 000 Benedictine (s) and 6400 Cistercian (ne) s still follow the Rule of St. Benedict. Rule
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Daily life under the rule of St. Benedict
The spirituality of the Rule of Saint Benedict
The success of the Rule of Saint Benedict
monastic orders living under the rule of St. Benedict
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