The Church Fathers · c. 530
The Rule of Saint Benedict
Regula Benedicti
Benedict of Nursia · c. 480–c. 547
What it is
Seventy-three short chapters ordering a monastery's day around prayer, reading, and manual work, with a striking moderation about food, sleep, and the failings of ordinary people.
Why it lasted
The operating system of Western monasticism for fifteen centuries, and by extension of the institutions — libraries, schools, farms — that carried Europe through the collapse of Rome.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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