They gather in the chapel, their signal seven rings of the bell on the monastery roof. The abbot gently raps on the wooden desk that holds his Psalter. “O Lord, open our lips,” one monk quietly begins. “And our mouth shall declare your praise,” respond his religious brothers. This is matins, the first of seven daily “divine offices,” or times of prayer. During matins, the monks precisely recite 12 psalms and a set selection of scriptural readings. Afterward they return to their spare rooms to pray or read in private, then eat a small breakfast and do a few personal chores–all without saying a word, as the Great Silence that began at 8 PM the previous evening resumes.
The Tools of Good Works: To love the Lord God with all one’s heart, all one’s soul, and all one’s strength. . . . To deny oneself, to chastise the body, not to seek soft living, to love fasting. . . . Not to yield to anger, to nurse a grudge, to make a feigned peace, to swear, to render evil for evil. Not to be a wine-bibber, a glutton, not somnolent, slothful, not a grumbler, not a detractor. To fear the Day of Judgement, to dread hell, to keep one’s mouth from evil and depraved talk, not to love much speaking, not to love much or violent laughter, not to fulfill the desires of the flesh. To hate one’s own will.
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It wasn’t his rule alone that got Saint Benedict’s name out back in the Dark Ages. His celebrity biographer, sixth-century pope Saint Gregory the Great (patron of the Michigan abbey), really got the ball rolling. The account, written shortly after Benedict’s death in 549, offers a glowing portrait of the saint as a young man. A country boy, Benedict traveled to Rome to study law but hastily retreated from the cacophony of the city to the hills nearby. His charismatic spirit, the story goes, proved a big draw to disciples, which prompted him to organize a monastic community. He devised the rule over a period of years, gleaning ideas from earlier monastic writings and the Bible. Compared to previous canons, say scholars who consider these sorts of things, Saint Benedict’s rule struck a humane balance between radical asceticism and a life of indulgence.
Then came a glitch: in the 16th century Henry VIII gave the royal boot to the Catholic church and its monasteries and created his own Church of England. But portions of Saint Benedict’s rule managed to sneak into that church’s Book of Common Prayer. (For instance, certain aspects of morning and evening prayer rites practiced by modern-day Anglicans and their American counterparts, the Episcopalians, derive from Saint Benedict.) Meanwhile, the rule continued to thrive in Roman Catholic monasteries elsewhere in Europe.
The monastery should, if possible, be so arranged that all necessary things, such as water, mill, garden, and various crafts may be within the enclosure, so that the monks may not be compelled to wander outside it, for that is not at all expedient for their souls.
Chapter 55. Clothing According to One’s Climate . . . In ordinary places the following dress is sufficient for each monk: a tunic, a cowl (thick and wooly in winter, but thin or worn in summer), a belt for work, and for the feet shoes and stockings. And let not the monks complain of the color or coarseness of anything of these things, but be content with what is to be found in the district where they live and can be purchased cheaply.
The First Degree of Humility: That man keep the fear of God before his eyes, guarding himself against sins and vices, including desires of the flesh, in all ways . . . second, that a man love not his own will, nor delight in fulfilling his own desires . . . fifth, that he humbly confess and conceal not from his abbot any evil thoughts that enter his heart, and any secret sins that he has committed . . . sixth, that a monk be content with the meanest and worst of everything . . . seventh, that he believe that “I am a worm and no man, a byword to all men and the laughingstock of the people” . . . tenth, that he be not ready and prompt to laughter, for it is written, “the fool lifteth up his voice in laughter” . . . twelfth, that a monk should not only be humble of heart, but should also in his behavior . . . always have his head bowed and his eyes downcast, pondering always the guilt of his sins, and considering that he is about to be brought before the dread judgment seat of God, constantly saying to himself, “Lord, I a sinner am not worthy to raise mine eyes to heaven.”
