St. Benedict Research Paper

Jeff Oskierko

Hist 300

10/20/2015

St. Benedict’s rule

St. Benedict’s rules required a very strict way of life for the monks. His rules if followed lead to a very minimalistic type of life, one that could fully focus on god. His rules require one to be completely humble, since one who is completely humble will never think of oneself but fully focus on living a life devoted to god.

According to St. Benedict there are four kinds of monks. The cenobites are the first kind of monk; that is, those living in a monastery, serving under a rule or an abbot. St. Benedict respects these monks the most since they are the most minimalistic and follow the rules he made the strictest. “With the aid of God, to lay down a rule for the best kind of monks, the cenobites. “ Second, there are the anchorites or hermits, who have come through the test of living in a monastery for a long time, and have passed beyond the first fervor of monastic life. Third, there

are the sarabaites; they are a detestable kind of monks according to St. Benedict. These monks acknowledged no monastic superior, obeyed no definite rule, and were like lost sheep. The fourth kind of monks is the kind that is called gyratory. These monks are considered the worst of all by Benedict. These monks are always on the move from monastery to monastery. “During their whole life they are guests, for three or four days at a time, in the cells of the different monasteries, throughout the various provinces; always wandering and never stationary, given over to the service of their own pleasures and the joys of the palate, and in every way worse than the sarabaites”.
Concerning the expected humility of the monks, there are several grades set in place. The first of the humilities are saying to be content with the least, and consider oneself in lowliness and unworthiness. "I was reduced to nothing and was ignorant; I was made as the cattle before you, and I am always with you" (Psalm 73:22-23). The next grade is awareness of one's own self and how vile and worthless one is. Next grade is following the rule and tradition of the monastery and the examples and orders of the elders. Next is Refraining from excessive speech, and do not speak unless spoken to. The next is to refrain from raucous laughter, or be easily made to laugh. Next is Speak as is appropriate in a monastery, which is slowly, humbly, and only using a few chosen words (no idle chatter). Lastly be humble not only in mid but body especially when one is outside of the monastery, and to always look at the ground. "Lord, I am a sinner and I am not worthy so much as to lift my eyes to Heaven" (Luke 18:13).
Chapters 39 and 40 regulate the quantity and quality of the food given to the monks each day.

Two or three meals are allowed each day, with two cooked dishes at each. Each monk is allowed a pound of bread and about half a pint of wine each day and only the flesh of four-footed animals is prohibited except for the sick and the weak. There is a very big emphasis on the evils of gluttony “Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with self-indulgence and drunkenness." Also of course it is stated that being drunk is a very bad thing since the mind is not clear when one is drunk. Here St, Benedict while probably wanting total absence of alcohol from his monks kind of breaks and lets them have it anyways, but with a limit. “We read that wine is not suitable for monks at all. But because, in our day, it is not possible to persuade the monks of this, let us agree at least to the fact that we should not drink until we are sated, but sparingly. For wine can make even the wise to go astray.”(St. Benedict rule

40)
Emphases the importance of daily manual labor appropriate to the ability of the monk. The hours of labor vary with the season but are never less than five hours a day. Idealness is another enemy of those that are faithful. Therefore, the brethren should be occupied at certain times in manual labor, and at other fixed hours in holy reading. Each of these times is appointed by the elders of the monastery, according to time of the day and season of the year. “there shall certainly be appointed one or two elders, who shall go round the monastery at the hours in which the brothers are engaged in reading, and see to it that no troublesome brother chance to be found who is open to idleness and trifling, and is not intent on his reading; being not only of no use to himself, but also stirring up others.”(St. Benedict 48)
The type and amount of clothing given to the monk’s dependent on the area and weather conditions at the discretion of the abbot. It must be as plain and cheap as is consistent with due economy. Each monk is to have a change of clothes to allow for washing, and when travelling is to have clothes of better quality. Old clothes are to be given to the poor.
IT is considered a vice for any monk to have anything of their own not given to them by an abbot. “He should have absolutely nothing: neither a book, nor tablets, nor a pen-nothing at all. For indeed it is not allowed to the monks to have their own bodies or wills in their own power. But all things necessary they must expect from the Father of the monastery” (St. Benedict 33) if the monk is found to have anything of his own and does not amend for this he is punished for this deed.
St. Benedict’s rules required a very strict way of life for the monks. His rules if followed lead to a very minimalistic type of life, one that could fully focus on god. His rules require one to be completely humble, since one who is completely humble will never think of oneself but fully focus on living a life devoted to god.