It is no coincidence that the etymology of the word ‘rule‘ comes from the extension of meaning of the tool used to accompany the hand in drawing straight lines. A rule is nothing more than a norm (derived from experience or established by convention) indicating a constant course of events or a fixed direction of behaviour.
The Rule established by St Benedict in 534 A.D. opens with these words:
«Listen, my son, to the Master’s teachings and open your heart meekly; welcome willingly the counsels inspired by his fatherly love and put them into practice with commitment, so that you may return through the diligence of obedience to Him from whom you have turned away through the sloth of disobedience. I address you personally, whoever you are, who, having decided to renounce your own will, take up the very strong and valiant weapons of obedience to fight under the true King, Christ the Lord […]».
The prologue continues and introduces the 73 chapters that direct and organize the life of the brothers who share spiritual and material life in the monastery, the fulcrum and fixed point for achieving eternal salvation. Stabilitas loci (i.e. stable permanence in a place) is fundamental for those who adhere to cenobitic monasticism. Coenobites, including Benedictine monks, lead a community life in the cenobium (the monastery, (from the Latin coenobium, in turn from the Greek word κοινός, meaning “common”, and from βίος, meaning “life”) as opposed to hermits who practise their spirituality in solitude. St Benedict, who had withdrawn into hermitage in an early part of his life, interpreted the monastic vocation as a call to live together, with the accompaniment of a spiritual guide.
It is believed that the Benedictine rule has entered so deeply into the European religious and cultural spirit that it has represented a model for the management and valorization of human resources over the centuries up to the present day.
St Benedict, whose birth is conventionally dated to 480 A.D., closes the list of Rules he formulates thus:
«Whoever you are, therefore, that with solicitude and ardour you are heading towards the heavenly homeland, put into practice with Christ’s help this very modest Rule, sketched as a simple introduction, and with God’s grace you will finally reach those higher peaks of science and virtue, of which we have spoken above. Amen».
Saint Benedict is buried at the Abbey of Montecassino together with his twin sister: St. Scholastica. Both died in the middle of the 6th century.