The Rule of St. Augustine

The Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about the year 400, is a brief document divided into eight chapters and serves as an outline for religious life lived in community. It is the oldest monastic rule in the Western Church. The rule, developed by Augustine of Hippo, governs chastity, poverty, obedience, detachment from the world, the apportionment of labor, the inferiors, fraternal charity, prayer in common, fasting and abstinence proportionate to the strength of the individual, care of t...