St. Benedict, justly called the Patriarch of Western Monachism, established his rule of life in Italy ; first at Subiaco and subsequently at Monte Cassino about A.D. 529.  The design of his code was, like every other rule of regular life, to enable men to reach the higher Christian ideals by the helps afforded them in a well-regulated monastery.  According to the saint's original conception, the houses were to be separate families independent of each other.  It was no part of his scheme o establish a corporation with branches in various localities and countries, or to found an "Order" in its modern sense.  By its own inherent excellence and because of the sound common-sense which pervades it, the Rule of St. Benedict at once began to take root in the monasteries of the West, till it quickly superseded any others then in existence. Owing to its broad and elastic character, and hardly less, probably, to the fact that adopting it did not imply the joining of any stereotyped form of Order, monasteries could, and in fact did, embrace this code without entirely breaking with their past traditions.  This, side by side in the same religious house, we find that the rule of St. Columba was observed with that of St. Benedict until the greater practical sense of the latter code superseded the more rigid legislation of the former.   Within a comparatively short time from the death of St. Benedict in A.D. 543, the Benedictine became the recognised form of Western regular life.  To this end the action of Pope St. Gregory the Great and his high approval of St. Benedict's Rule greatly conduced.  In his opinion it manifested no common wisdom in its provisions, which were dictated by a marvellous insight into human nature and by a knowledge of the best possible conditions for attaining the end of all monastic life, the perfect love of God and of man.  Whilst not in any way lax in its provisions, it did not prescribe an asceticism which could be practiced only by the few ; whist the most ample powers were given to the superior to adapt the regulation to all circumstance of time and places ; thus making it applicable to every form of the higher Christian life, from the secluded cloister to that for which St. Gregory specially used those trained under it : the evangelisation of far-distant countries.
       The connection between the Benedictines and England began with the mission of St. Augustine in A.D. 597.  The Monastery of Monte Cassino having been destroyed by the Lombards, toward the end of the sixth century, the monks took refuge in Rome, and were placed in the Lateran, and by St. Gregory in the church he founded the honour of St. Andrew, in his ancestral home on the Coelian Hill.  It was the prior of St. Andrew's whom he sent to convert England.  With the advent of the Scottish monks from Iona the system of St. Columba was for a time introduced into the North of England ; but here, as in the rest of Europe, it quickly gave place to the Benedictine code ; and practically during the whole Saxon period this was the only form of monastic life in England.

Abbotsbury	Abbey		Dorset.
Abingdon	Abbey		Berks.
St. Alban’s (Also see info on shrines.)	Abbey		Herts.
Athelney	Abbey		Somerset.
Bardney	Abbey		Lincoln.
Bardsey	Abbey		Carnarvon.
Battle	Abbey		Sussex.
St. Benet’s of Hulme	Abbey		Norfolk.
Burton-on-Trent, or Modwenstow	Abbey		Stafford.
Bury St. Edmunds	Abbey		Suffolk.
Canterbury, St. Augustine’s	Abbey		Kent.
Cerne	Abbey		Dorset.
Chertsey	Abbey		Surrey.
Chester, St. Werburgh's	Abbey		Cheshire.
Colchester, St. John’s	Abbey		Essex.
Croyland, or Crowland	Abbey		Lincoln.
St. Dogmael’s	Abbey		Pembroke.
Evesham	Abbey		Worcester.
Eynesham	Abbey		Oxford.
Faversham	Abbey		Kent.
Glastonbury	Abbey		Somerset.
Gloucester, St. Peter’s	Abbey		Gloucester.
Humberston, or Hunston	Abbey		Lincoln.
Hyde, or Newminster, Winchester	Abbey		Hants.
Malmesbury	Abbey		Wilts.
Milton, or Middleton	Abbey		Dorset.
Muchelney	Abbey		Somerset.
Pershore	Abbey		Worcester.
Peterborough	Abbey		Northants.
Ramsey	Abbey		Hunts.
Reading	Abbey		Reading.
Selby	Abbey		Yorks.
Sherborne	Abbey		Dorset.
Shrewsbury	Abbey		Salop.
Spalding	Abbey		Lincoln.
Tavistock	Abbey		Devon.
Tewkesbury	Abbey		Gloucester.
Thorney	Abbey		Cambridge.
Walden	Abbey		Essex.
Westminster	Abbey		Middlesex.
Whitby	Abbey		Yorks
Winchcombe, or Winchelcombe	Abbey		Gloucester.
Wymondham	Abbey		Norfolk.
York, St. Mary’s	Abbey		Yorks.
Barking	Abbey	Female House (Nuns)	Essex.
Malling	Abbey	Female House (Nuns)	Kent.
Romsey	Abbey	Female House (Nuns)	Hants.
Winchester, St. Mary’s	Abbey	Female House (Nuns)	Hants.