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This letter contains no such clear, minute prescriptions as are found in other monastic rules, such as that of Saint Pachomius or the anonymous document known as "the Rule of the Master".

Though he wrote chiefly to quiet troubles incident to the nomination of a new superior, Augustine took the opportunity to discuss some of the virtues and practices essential to religious life as he understood it: he emphasised such considerations as charity, poverty, obedience, detachment from the world, the apportionment of labour, the mutual duties of superiors and inferiors, fraternal charity, prayer in common, fasting and abstinence proportionate to the strength of the individual, care of the sick, silence, and reading during meals. Saint Augustine wrote this letter in 423 to the nuns in a monastery at Hippo that had been governed by his sister and in which his cousin and niece lived. Letter 211 and Sermons 355 and 356 were written by Augustine. The two preceding rules are of unknown authorship. The last is a treatise on eremitical life by Saint Ælred, Abbot of Rievaulx, England, who died in 1166.

In 388, Augustine returned from Milan to his home in Thagaste. It came into use on a wide scale from the twelfth century onwards and continues to be employed today by many orders, including the Dominicans, Servites, Mercederians, Norbertines, and Augustinians. The rule, developed by Augustine of Hippo (354–430), governs chastity, poverty, obedience, detachment from the world, the apportionment of labour, the inferiors, fraternal charity, prayer in common, fasting and abstinence proportionate to the strength of the individual, care of the sick, silence and reading during meals. It is the oldest monastic rule in the Western Church. The Rule of Saint Augustine, written about the year 400, is a brief document divided into eight chapters and serves as an outline for religious life lived in community. The book inscription is the beginning of the Rule of Saint Augustine: ANTE OIA FRATRES CARISSIMI DILIGATVR DEVS DEINDE PROXIMVS QVIA ISTA PRECEPTA SVNT NB DATA - "First of all, most beloved brothers, God shall be loved, thereafter the neighbour, for these instructions have been given to us." Saint Augustine surrounded by Augustinian monks (Paduan school, 15th century), relief in the portal tympanum of the former Augustinian convent of Santo Stefano in Venice.
