Reading Saint Benedict

Cistercians are men and women who follow Saint Benedict's Rule for Monks and the Constitutions of Citeaux. Settling in 1098 in a remote burgundian marsh (in Latin a cisterna), the first Cistercians determined to live simply and to balance in their lives common prayer, personal reflection, and manual labor. For guidance they read the Bible, the writings of the Church Fathers, and the documents of centuries of christian monasticism. The literature they created resonates their love of God and their reasoned analysis of the intensely personal experience of growth through self-knowledge to…