Quote in context
Benedict on prayer and work
Benedict of Nursia · Rule of Benedict, summary maxim
“Ora et labora — pray and work.”
Plain English
This is a later summary of Benedictine life rather than a direct line from the Rule. It captures the rhythm of worship, labor, reading, and community discipline.
Why it matters
The phrase became the popular shorthand for Benedictine spirituality.
Who said it
Benedict of Nursia
c. 480 – c. 547 · Born in Nursia · Roman West
The Rule of St. Benedict is seventy-three short chapters telling a community how to pray, work, eat, sleep, and treat each other. For fifteen hundred years it organised Western monasticism, and through monasticism it organised the preservation of every classical text we still have. Without Benedict's monks copying manuscripts in the dark centuries after Rome fell, we wouldn't have Plato or Aristotle in our libraries. The Rule itself is also still readable — moderate, kind, weirdly modern.
Book of the day
The Rule of Saint Benedict
Benedict of NursiaA reading pick tied to today's figure, quote, era, or event. The compact rule that shaped Western monastic life for centuries.
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