SOURCE: "The Liturgical Work of St. Benedict" in Saint Benedict and His Times, translated by Gregory J. Roettger, O. S. B., B. Herder Book Co., 1951, pp. 228-36.

In the following essay, Schuster details the influential liturgy St. Benedict outlined in his Rule—later known as the Cursus S. Benedicti.

Besides the Roman rite, the Oriental rite, and the Ambrosian rite, the Middle Ages also recognize a Cursus S. Benedicti, that is, they give the Patriarch's name to the entire liturgy of the Divine Office which the monks day and night chanted in their monastery churches. This special rite of the Opus Dei, as the Patriarch usually calls the Divine Office, is described in the Rule in chapters 8-20 and in chapters 43, 47, 52, 58, one of the most complete expositions of the Divine Office left us by the ancients.

As in the rest of the Rule, so also with regard to...