The Foundations of Western Monasticism

The Life of Saint Anthony of the Desert. the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict, and the Twelve Degrees of Humility and Pride

Dr. William Fahey

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780895557797
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

St. Antony of the Desert, St. Benedict of Nursia, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux rise above all other figures in Catholic history as guides. To travel with them and to seek a view upon the heights of their personal holiness and wisdom is to secure passage into the rich and complex world of monasticism. Monasticism distills the essence of Catholic spirituality for all time and for all Christians. The Foundations of Western Monasticism, the latest addition to our TAN Classics, concentrates on three of the finest Christian texts available and will provide both first-time and advanced readers with an essential review of Christian monasticism and the foundational principles of Catholic prayer life, spiritual combat, contemplation, and communal living. These three texts, The Life of St. Antony, the Holy Rule of St. Benedict, and St. Bernard's Twelve Degrees of Humility and Pride, are offered to the reader as a simple and short path to the essence of Christian monasticism and authentic Christian teaching. St. Antony is presented as monasticism's foremost Founding Father, St. Benedict as its greatest Law-giver, and St. Bernard as its most daring Mystic. Taken together, these men and their writings will allow the reader to ascend the very heights of Christian monasticism and arrive at certain firm principles by which to evaluate and deepen his commitment to the Faith.Foundations of Western Monasticism also includes introductions and reading lists provided by Dr. William Edmund Fahey, Fellow and President of Thomas More College. A Benedictine oblate, Dr. Fahey has provided a new translation of the famous Rule of St. Benedict.

THE HOLY RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT

Edited by William Edmund Fahey, Ph.D.

THE HOLY RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT

LIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN—THE LAST ROMAN FATHER AND THE BIRTH OF CATHOLIC EUROPE 83

A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

On the Kinds or the Life of Monks

CHAPTER TWO

What Kind of Man the Abbot Ought to Be

CHAPTER THREE

On Calling the Brethren for Counsel

CHAPTER FOUR

The Tools of Good Works

CHAPTER FIVE

On Obedience

CHAPTER SIX

On Silence

CHAPTER SEVEN

On Humility

CHAPTER EIGHT

On the Divine Office during the Night

CHAPTER NINE

How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at the Night Office

CHAPTER TEN

How the Office Is to Be Said during the Summer Season

CHAPTER ELEVEN

How the Night Office Is to Be Said on Sundays

CHAPTER TWELVE

How Morning Prayer Is to Be Said

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

How Morning Prayer Is to Be Said on Week Days

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the Saints

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

At What Times the Alleluia Is to Be Said

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

How the Work of God Is to Be Performed during the Day

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

How Many Psalms Are to Be Sung at These Hours

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said

CHAPTER NINETEEN

On Properly Reciting the Psalter

CHAPTER TWENTY

On Reverence at Prayer

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

On the Deans of the Monastery

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

How the Monks Are to Sleep

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

On Excommunication for Faults

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

What the Manner of Excommunication Should Be

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

On Graver Faults

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

On Those Who without the Abbot’s Permission Associate with the Excommunicated

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

How Concerned the Abbot Should Be about the Excommunicated

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

On Those Who Having Often Been Corrected Do Not Amend

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Whether Brethren Who Leave the Monastery Ought to Be Received Again

CHAPTER THIRTY

How Young Boys Are to Be Corrected

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The Kind of Man the Cellarer of the Monastery Ought to Be

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

On the Tools and Goods of the Monastery

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Whether All Should Receive in Equal Measure What Is Necessary

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

On the Weekly Servers in the Kitchen

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

On the Sick Brethren

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

On the Aged and Children

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

On the Weekly Reader

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

On the Quantity of Food

CHAPTER FORTY

On the Quantity of Drink

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

At What Times the Brethren Should Take Their Meals

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

That No One Speak after Compline

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

On Those Who Are Tardy in Coming to the Work of God or to Table

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

On Those Who Are Excommunicated—How They Make Satisfaction

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

On Those Who Commit a Fault in the Oratory

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

On Those Who Fail in Any Other Matters

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

On Giving the Signal for the Time of the Work of God

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

On the Daily Work

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

On the Keeping of Lent

CHAPTER FIFTY

On the Brethren Who Work a Long Distance form the Oratory or Are on a Journey

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

On the Brethren Who Do Not Go Very Far Away

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

On the Oratory of the Monastery

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

On the Reception of Guests

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Whether a Monk Should Receive Letters or Anything Else

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

On the Clothing and the Footgear of the Brethren

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

On the Abbot’s Table

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

On the Craftsmen of the Monastery

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

On the Manner of Admitting Brethren

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

On the Children of the Noble and of the Poor Who Are Offered

CHAPTER SIXTY

On Priests Who May Wish to Live in the Monastery

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

How Pilgrim Monks Are to Be Received

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

On the Priests of the Monastery

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

On the Order in the Monastery

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

On the Installation of the Abbot

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

On the Prior of the Monastery

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

On the Porter of the Monastery

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

On the Brethren Who Are Sent on a Journey

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

If a Brother is Commanded to Do Impossible Things

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

That in the Monastery No One Presume to Defend Another

CHAPTER SEVENTY

That No One Presume to Strike Another

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

That the Brethren Be Obedient to One Another

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

On the Virtuous Zeal Which the Monks Ought to Have

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

The Whole Observance of Justice Is Not Laid Down in this Rule

PREFACE TO THE HOLY RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT

LIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN—THE LAST ROMAN FATHER AND THE BIRTH OF CATHOLIC EUROPE

By William Edmund Fahey, Ph.D.

There was a man of venerable life, who was blessed in both grace and name. From his boyhood, he had the heart of a mature man. In his way of life he outstripped his years for he would not give himself over to sensual pleasure. On earth he could have indulged himself with liberty, but he looked dimly upon the glory of this world and did not desire its vanities.

Born in the region of Nursia to honorable parents, he was sent to Rome for an education in the humanities. Yet when he saw how many—though thoroughly educated—were leaping into a lewd life, he held back his foot, which was just beginning to cross the threshold of this world. He was duly afraid that worldly learning would trip him up and cast him into the godless abyss. So, he set aside his studies, forsook his father’s house and inheritance, and desired to please God alone…. Thus, he left Rome schooled with learned ignorance and nourished by an unlearned wisdom.

So opens our near contemporary account of the life of St. Benedict. The majority opinion is that this biography was penned half a century after the death of Benedict by Pope St. Gregory the Great, himself a Benedictine. That account, or “life of Benedict,” can be found in the second book of Gregory’s Dialogues, a long, conversational narrative in which the lives of many Italian holy men were set down. Although the second book is often isolated and reprinted as if a Vita or Biography, students should be aware that the narrative of Benedict’s life was part of a larger story in the work. St. Gregory had access to records and personal accounts of Benedict left by his disciples: indeed, Gregory interviewed four of St. Benedict’s original disciples before retelling the saint’s life. Prior to Gregory’s account, there is only a short hymn to St. Benedict. Students must keep in mind that St. Gregory’s account is not a modern biography, but, rather like a textual icon, an image of a man who succeeded in imitating Christ.

The details of this “life” reveal a man making a transition from the monastic spirit of the East to something new, Roman, and Western. St. Benedict is held to have been born about 480. His family was wealthy, free, and perhaps noble. The education to which he had access and small details known about his social circle point to an aristocratic background, but secular Rome—even the inspirational idea of Rome as the center of life and culture, Roma aeterna—was not to be the center of Benedict’s life.

The young Benedict left his liberal studies for an education in the Abruzzi mountains, some fifty miles from Rome, and with him came a loyal nurse or household slave. Benedict lived in loose communion with a group of men residing at a church dedicated to St. Peter. Here may be seen the origins of the long-standing tradition which has tied the Benedictines with the See of Peter. Soon after his time with this community, Benedict moved ten miles further to the highlands near Subiaco, where he lived close to the ruins of a villa of Nero. In a small cave, above a lake, Benedict dwelt in solitude, but not out of communion. He placed himself under the direction of Romanus of Subiaco, a monk from a nearby community directed by the Abbot Adeodatus. Though receiving only brief attention in the narrative of St. Gregory, this phase of life may account for Benedict’s sober assessment of the various forms of monasticism, found in the first chapter of his Rule—the anchorite (who largely lives alone, in the eastern fashion); the Sarabaites (who live in small groups without clear laws or direction); the gyrovagues (who live a vagabond life and are ruled largely by passionate impulses); and the cenobites (who live in community under the dual authority of a rule and an abbot). To varying degrees, Benedict learned by trial, error, and observation what each life meant. Experience, therefore, not theoretical knowledge, lies at the heart of Benedictine monasticism. In the end, his hard-won experience pointed him and others over the centuries towards the life of the cenobites as the most fruitful and realistic form of monasticism for most ordinary men and women.

Although St. Benedict lived for three years in the cave (Sacro Speco) near Subiaco, his solitude did not prevent men from learning about his character and holiness. He was approached by a small neighboring community and pressed to be its spiritual director. From Gregory’s description, this community sounds like what Benedict would term Sarabaites. They soon grew to detest Benedict’s desire for consistent rules and authority. In the end, they attempted to poison him and, having failed, traded the father of western monasticism for the rule of individual whim. Benedict returned to the region of Subiaco, where he continued in his own prayer life and contemplation, and the journey towards greater self-mastery. Gregory’s “life” concentrates on Benedict’s interior life, but reveals that he not only remained in communion, but established twelve monastic communities. The greatest was Monte Cassino, eighty miles south-east of Rome. Here, in the ruins of a temple dedicated to Apollo, Benedict established another community. This site, if not always the locus of...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Ascending the Heights—An Introduction to Christian Monasticism
• Saint Antony of the Desert
• The Holy Rule of Saint Benedict
• The Twelve Degrees of Humility and Pride
• Acknowledgments
• Back Cover