Benedict is generally considered the father of Western monasticism. He was born around 480, at Nursia in central Italy, and was educated at Rome. Rome at this time was in the midst of considerable political and social instability. Benedict’s disapproval of the manners and morals of his society led him to a vocation of ascetic renunciation. He withdrew to a hillside cave above Lake Subiaco,about forty miles west of Rome, where there was already at least one other hermit.

Gradually, after many setbacks and considerable opposition, a community grew up around Benedict. Sometime between 525 and 530, he moved south with some of his disciples to Monte Cassino, midway between Rome and Naples, where he established another community, and, around 540, composed his famous monastic Rule. He died sometime between 540 and 550 and was buried in the same grave as his sister, Scholastica.

It has been said that no personality or text in the history of monasticism has occasioned more studies than Benedict and his rule. The major problem for historians is the question of how much of the rule is original. This is closely related to the question of the date of another, very similar but anonymous, rule for monks, known as The Rule of the Master, which may antedate Benedict’s Rule by ten years. This does not detract from the fact that Benedict’s firm but reasonable rule has been the basic source document from which most subsequent Western monastic rules were derived. Its average day provides for a little over four hours to be spent in liturgical prayer, a little over five hours in spiritual reading, about six hours of work, one hour for eating, and about eight hours of sleep. The entire Psalter is to be recited in the Divine Office once every week. At profession, the new monk or nun takes vows of “stability, conversion of life, and obedience.”

The prologue to the Rule says: “And so we are going to establish a school for the service of the Lord. In founding it we hope to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome. But if a certain strictness results from the dictates of equity for the amendment of vices or the preservation of charity, do not be at once dismayed and fly from the way of salvation, whose entrance cannot but be narrow (Matthew 7:14). For as we advance in the religious life and in faith, our hearts expand and we run the way of God’s commandments with unspeakable sweetness of love. Thus, never departing from his school, but persevering in the monastery according to his teaching until death, we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter 4:13) and deserve to have a share also in his kingdom.”

Gregory the Great wrote Benedict’s Life in the second book of his Dialogues. He also adopted Benedictine monasticism as an instrument of evangelization when, in 596, he sent Augustine and his companions to convert the Anglo-Saxon people. In the Anglican Communion today, not only are there several Benedictine communities, but the rules of many other religious orders also have been strongly influenced by the Benedictine rule.