Our Work

Monks work. We understand work as a regular, creative expression of being alive as a human being. We do everything from pastoring to teaching, administering, repairing, and maintaining the monastery, and growing food for the table.  “When they live by the labor of their hands, as our fathers and the apostles did, then they are really monks.” (RB 48:8)

Along with many lay faithful, a young monk may dream of an austere life of constant prayer: praying the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary, litanies, and devotions, all with no thought of having to work and attend to the concerns of daily life.  A simple life committed to God and the attainment of holiness. But to what end? Scripture tells us “…faith without works is dead.” (James 2.18) Novice and junior monks are trained and guided into expressing their faith in good works. What is learned and gained in prayer is embodied and realized in the community work and the good it brings about in the Church.

A man working in a woodworking shop, wearing safety glasses and ear protection, is using a saw to cut a piece of wood.

The motto of the Benedictines is “Worship and Work.” The conjunction “and” is significant because we are always striving to maintain the balance between the two, prayer and work. If we tip in either direction, we will begin to place created things, ideas, worries, ambitions, and the like between ourselves and God. Too much time in prayer can change from devotion and pursuit of union with God into a self-serving narcissism that is unaware of the needs of others and God's command to “go out.” Too much work can easily lead one to rationalize the loss of prayer, Eucharist, holy reading, and the life of the community from one’s life. Prayer and work, in balance, form the motto that expresses a distinctive element of Benedictine monastic spirituality.

A monastic teacher, dressed in a black Benedictine habit, helps a student with a laptop in a classroom filled with other students working on computers or tablets.

Living and Working at Saint John’s Abbey

Saint John’s Abbey is located on a 2,944-acre tract of land that is remarkable in both its natural and architectural beauty. It includes an extensive pine and hardwood forest, an oak savanna, a restored prairie and wetlands, and five lakes.  

Five men dressed in black Benedictine religious habits are gathered outdoors near a lake, sitting and standing on and around a wooden bench, engaged in conversation under a partly cloudy sky surrounded by tall trees and foliage.

The work of Saint John’s Abbey is unique and multifaceted. Saint John’s monks have envisioned and founded Saint John’s University, the Saint John’s Preparatory School, as well as the School of Theology and Seminary, the Liturgical Press, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, the Saint John’s Abbey Arboretum, the first radio station, KSJR, in the Minnesota Public Radio network, and The Saint John’s Bible.

Our monks today are:

  • theology students

  • faculty residents

  • mechanics

  • guest masters

  • and more. 

  • woodworkers

  • foresters

  • accountants

  • artists

  • musicians

  • pastors

  • chaplains

  • editors

  • teachers

  • firefighters