St. Benedict (480-547) rejected wealth and worldliness and became a hermit. He then founded 12 monasteries and wrote The Rule of St. Benedict requiring prayer, spiritual reading, manual labor, obedience and the development of hospitality, medical, educational and agricultural skills.
St. Benedict taught about Prayer in The Rule. He recommended specific times throughout the day and night for study and prayer, often as a community: reading, teaching, memorizing and singing passages of Scripture. Other times of private, personal prayer were certainly also recommended for a deep and intimate prayer life and relationship with God.
St. Benedict recommended a balanced lifestyle of work and prayer, and living simply. He insisted that we should pray as we begin to work and as we work, with humility and reverence.
From various writings of St. Benedict on prayer, I think the most unique and specific approach to prayer was his recommended practice of prayer and work simultaneously. St. Benedict steered away from compartmentalizing these two fundamental aspects and practices so that one did not interrupt the other, and by consistently praying during work, study, rest, and while serving others, one could truly pray unceasingly.
