Rule of St. Benedict
(6th c.)
St. Benedict of Nursia
St. Benedict of Nursia. 1950. The Rule. Translated by Dom Justin McCann. Archabbey Press.
From the beginnings of Christianity, some believers attempted to live lives of radical self-denial and service, usually carried out within the context of the local church. After the legalization of Christianity, however, churches began to attract less intense, devoted members. For those who still desired a more intense religious life, the new model was the solitary holy man in the desert. When famous hermits began to gather groups of followers, rules were created for these communities.
Benedict of Nursia had become a monk after a career as a Roman soldier, and the influence of military structure and discipline is evident in his Rule of St. Benedict. Written in the sixth century, it became the most important and influential rule for monastic communities in Western Christianity. Taking vows of poverty, chastity (renouncing marriage and sex), and obedience to the abbot (head of the monastery), monks lived a life revolving around scheduled, communal prayer, individual prayer and study, and manual labor. Not only did monks become the spiritual elite of the West, but, because there was a virtual monopoly on education after the fall of Roman power in the West, they dominated the intellectual and political culture of Europe for a thousand years.
What are the Instruments of Good Works --
First Instrument: in the first place to love the Lord God with all one's heart, all one's soul, and all one's strength.
Then, one's neighbour as oneself.
Then not to kill.
Not to commit adultery.
Not to steal.
Not to covet.
Not to bear false witness.
To honour all men.
Not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
To deny oneself, in order to follow Christ.
To chastise the body.
Not to seek after delicate living.
To love fasting.
To relieve the poor.
To clothe the naked.
To visit the sick.
To bury the dead.
To help in affliction.
To console the sorrowing.
To keep aloof from worldly actions.
To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
Not to gratify anger.
Not to harbour a desire of revenge.
Not to foster guile in one's heart.
Not to make a feigned peace.
Not to forsake charity.
Not to swear, lest perchance, one forswear oneself.
To utter truth from heart and mouth.
Not to render evil for evil.
To do no wrong to anyone, yea, to bear, patiently wrong done to oneself.
To love one's enemies.
Not to render cursing for cursing, but rather blessing.
To bear persecution for justice's sake.
Not to be proud.
Not given to wine.
Not a glutton.
Not drowsy.
Not slothful.
Not a murmurer.
Not a detractor.
To put one's hope in God.
To attribute any good that one sees in oneself to God and not to oneself.
But to recognize and always impute to oneself the evil that one does.
To fear the Day of Judgement.
To be in dread of hell.
To desire with all spiritual longing everlasting life.
To keep death daily before one's eyes.
To keep guard at all times over the actions of one's life.
To know for certain that God sees one everywhere.
To dash down at the feet of Christ one's evil thoughts, the instant that they come into the heart.
And to lay them open to one's spiritual father.
To keep one's mouth from evil and wicked words.
Not to love much speaking.
Not to speak vain words or such as move to laughter.
Not to love much or excessive laughter.
To listen willingly to holy reading.
To apply oneself frequently to prayer.
Daily to confess in prayer one's past sins with tears and sighs to God, and to amend them for the time to come.
Not to fulfill the desires of the flesh: to hate one's own will.
To obey in all things the commands of the Abbot, even though he himself (which God forbid) should act otherwise; being mindful of that precept of the Lord: "What they say, do ye; but what they do, do ye not."
Not to wish to be called holy before one is so: but first to be holy, that one may be truly so called.
Daily to fulfill by one's deeds the commandments of God.
To love chastity.
To hate no man.
Not to be jealous, nor to give way to envy.
Not to love strife.
To fly from vainglory.
To reverence seniors.
To love juniors.
To pray for one's enemies in the love of Christ.
To make peace with an adversary before the setting of the sun.
And never to despair of God's mercy.
Behold, these are the tools of the spiritual craft, which, if they be constantly employed day and night, and duly given back on the Day of Judgement, will gain for us from the Lord that reward which He Himself has promised --"which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard; nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him." And the workshop where we are to labour diligently at all these things is the cloister of the monastery, and stability in the community.
OF OBEDIENCE
The first degree of humility is obedience without delay. This becomes those who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ, and who on account of the holy servitude which they have taken upon them, and for fear of hell, and for the glory of life everlasting, as soon as anything is ordered by the superior, just as if it had been commanded by God Himself, are unable to bear delay in doing it. It is of these that the Lord says: "At the hearing of the ear he hath obeyed me." And again, to teachers he saith: "He that heareth you heareth me."
THE SPIRIT OF SILENCE
Let us do as says the prophet: "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I have placed a watch over my mouth; I became dumb, and was silent, and held my peace even from good things." Here the prophet shows that if we ought to refrain even from good words for the sake of silence, how much more ought we to abstain from evil words, on account of the punishment due to sin!
Therefore, on account of the importance of silence, let leave to speak be seldom granted even to perfect disciples, although their conversation be good and holy and tending to edification; because it is written: "In much speaking thou shalt not avoid sin;" and elsewhere: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." For it becomes the master to speak and to teach, but it beseems the disciple to be silent and to listen.
And, therefore, if anything has to be asked of a superior, let it be done with all humility and subjection of reverence, lest he seem to say more than is expedient.
But as for buffoonery or silly words, such as move to laughter, we utterly condemn them in every place, nor do we allow the disciple to open his mouth in such discourse.
OF HUMILITY
The Holy Scripture cries out to us, brethren, saying: "Everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." In saying this, it teaches us that all exaltation is a kind of pride, against which the prophet shows himself to be on his guard when he says: "Lord, my heart is not exalted nor mine eyes lifted up: nor have I walked in great things, nor in wonders above me." Any why? "If I did not think humbly, but exalted my soul: like a child that is weaned from his mother, so wilt thou requite my soul."
Whence, brethren, if we wish to arrive at the highest point of humility and speedily to reach that heavenly exaltation to which we can only ascend by the humility of this present life, we must by our ever-ascending actions erect such a ladder as that which Jacob beheld his dream, by which the angels appeared to him descending and ascending. This descent and ascent signify nothing else than that we descend by exaltation and ascend by humility. And the ladder thus erected is our life in the world, which, if the heart be humbled, is lifted up by the Lord to heaven. The sides of the same ladder we understand to be our body and soul, in which the call of God has placed various degrees of humility or discipline, which we must ascend.
HOW THE MONKS ARE TO SLEEP
Let them sleep each one in a separate bed, receiving bedding suitable to their manner of life, as the Abbot shall appoint.
If it be possible, let all sleep in one place; but if the number do not permit of this, let them repose by tens or twenties with the seniors who have charge of them. Let a candle burn constantly in the cell until morning.
Let them sleep clothed, and girded with belts or cords -- but not with knives at their sides, lest perchance they wound themselves in their sleep -- and thus be always ready, so that when the signal is given they rise without delay, and hasten each to forestall the other in going to the Work of God, yet with all gravity and modesty.
Let not the younger brethren have their beds by themselves, but among those of the seniors. And when they rise for the Work of God, let them gently encourage one another; because of the excuses of the drowsy.
OF THE DAILY MANUAL LABOUR
Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore should the brethren be occupied at stated times in manual labour, and at other fixed hours in sacred reading.
We think, therefore, that the times for each may be disposed as follow: from Easter to the Calends of October, on coming out in the morning let them labour at whatever is necessary from the first until about the fourth hour. From the fourth hour until close upon the sixth let them apply themselves to reading. After the sixth hour, when they rise from table, let them rest on their beds in all silence; or if anyone chance to wish to read to himself, let him so read as not to disturb anyone else. Let None be said rather soon, at the middle of the eighth hour; and then let them again work at whatever has to be done until Vespers.
If, however, the needs of the place or poverty require them to labour themselves in gathering in the harvest, let them not grieve at that; for then are they truly monks when they live by the labour of their hands, as our Fathers and the Apostles did. But let all things be done in moderation for the sake of the faint-hearted.
From the Calends of October until the beginning of Lent let the brethren devote themselves to reading till the end of the second hour. At the second hour let Terce be said, after which they shall all labour at their appointed work until None. At the first signal for the hour of None all shall cease from their work, and be ready as soon as the second signal is sounded. After their meal let them occupy themselves in their reading or with the psalms.
OF THE RECEPTION OF GUESTS
Let all guests that come be received like Christ Himself, for He will say: "I was a stranger and ye took me in." And let fitting honour be shown to all, especially, however, to such as are of the household of the faith and to pilgrims.