Saint Benedict, taught that all tools, however humble, should be handled with the care given to the sacred vessels of the altar.  For centuries, this ethic has been embodied in Benedictine life and work.

The Benedictine monks of Saint John’s Abbey arrived in Minnesota in 1856.  In 1965, Saint John’s revived the Benedictine tradition of manuscript copying by establishing a library dedicated to the photographic preservation of singular documents.  Forty years and 100,000 manuscripts later, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library holds in trust the largest collection of manuscripts in the world.

By commissioning The Saint John’s Bible, the Abbey and University brought 1,500 years of Benedictine religious and creative experience together with their conviction that manuscripts are uniquely privileged media for expressing humankind’s deepest memories and aspirations.