Picture caption: Laborare est Orare ('to work is to pray')-
a 1862 painting by John Rogers Herbert
which depicts monks at work in the fields.
Saint Benedict (AD 480-550)
was the founder of Western monasticism and is regarded as a patron Saint of Europe. He wrote a Rule for monks living communally under the authority of an Abbot. This serves as the founding document of Benedictine monasticism and spirituality. Over the centuries, Benedictine monasticism
spread across the world; Benedictine
monasticism was introduced into Ireland during the eleventh- and
twelfth-century church reforms, and expanded further around the time of the
Norman settlement. An important branch
of the Benedictine family is the Cistercian Order, founded at Cîteaux in 1098
by Saints Robert of Molesme, Alberic and Stephen Harding.
