NGUYEN TRAN NGOC ANH (EMMA)

BSED - II
INTRODUCTION TO THEOLOGY

RESEARCH
MONASTIC LIFE OF SAINT BENEDICT

INRODUCTION
Monasticism or monkhood is a religious way of life in which one renounces
worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an
important role in many Christian churches, especially in the Catholic and Orthodox
traditions as well as other faiths such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.
Monasticism in Christianity, which provides the origins of the words "monk" and
"monastery", comprises several diverse forms of religious living. It began to develop
early in the history of the Church, but is not mentioned in the scriptures. It has come
to be regulated by religious rules (e.g. the Rule of St Basil, the Rule of St Benedict)
and, in modern times, the Church law of the respective apostolic Christian churches
that have forms of monastic living.
The Christian monk embraces the monastic life as a vocation for God. His goal is
to attain eternal life in his presence. The rules of monastic life are codified in the
"counsels of perfection".
The origins of and inspiration for monasticism, an institution based on the
Christian ideal of perfection, have traditionally been traced to the first apostolic
community in Jerusalem—which is described in the Acts of the Apostles—and to
Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness. In the early church, monasticism was based on the
identification of perfection with world-denying asceticism and on the view that the
perfect Christian life would be centered on the maximum love of God and neighbor.
Monasticism emerged in the late 3rd century and had become an established
institution in the Christian church by the 4th century. The first Christian monks, who
had developed an enthusiasm for asceticism, appeared in Egypt and Syria. Notably
including St. Anthony, the founder of Christian monasticism, they appeared as
solitary figures who, out of a desire for further and more advanced isolation,
established themselves in tombs, in abandoned or half-deteriorated human settlements,
in caves, and, finally, in the wilderness of the desert to do battle against the desires of
the flesh and the wiles of the devil. Soon there were great numbers of desert
anchorites, living solitary lives of devotion to God and coming together for weekly
prayer services. The pious lifestyle of these earliest holy men attracted numerous
imitators and admirers.

St. Benedict, in full Saint Benedict of Nursia, Nursia also spelled Norcia, (born c.
480 CE, Nursia [Italy]—died c. 547, Monte Cassino; feast day July 11, formerly
March 21), founder of the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino and father of
Western monasticism; the rule that he established became the norm for monastic
living throughout Europe. In 1964, in view of the work of monks following the
Benedictine Rule in the evangelization and civilization of so many European
countries in the Middle Ages, Pope Paul VI proclaimed him the patron saint of all
Europe.
Western monasticism, which has been shaped by the rule of Benedict of Nursia,
has been characterized by two distinct developments. The first consists of its
clericalization. In modern Roman Catholic cloisters, monks are, except for the serving
brothers (fratres), ordained priests and are thereby drawn in a direct way into the
ecclesiastical tasks of the Roman Church. Originally, however, monks were laymen.
Pachomius had explicitly forbidden monks to become priests on the ground that “it is
good not to covet power and glory.” Basil the Great, however, by means of a special
vow and a special ceremony, enabled monks to cease being just laymen and to attain a
position between clergy and laity. Even in the 21st century, monks of the Orthodox
Church are, for the most part, from the laity; only a few fathers (abbots) of each
cloister are ordained priests (hieromonachoi), who are thus allowed to administer the
sacraments.
The second special development in Roman Catholicism consists of the functional
characteristics of its many orders. The individual orders aid the church in its various
areas of activity—e.g., missions, education, care for the sick and needy, and
combating heresy. Developing a wide-ranging diversification in its structure and
sociological interests, Roman Catholic monasticism has extended all the way from the
knightly orders to orders of mendicant friars, and it has included orders of decided
feudal and aristocratic characteristics alongside orders of purely bourgeois
characteristics. To the degree that special missionary, pedagogical,
scholarly-theological, and ecclesiastically political tasks of the orders increased in the
West, the character of ancient monasticism—originally focused completely on prayer,
meditation, and contemplation—receded more and more in importance. Few monastic
orders—the Benedictines and the Carmelites are notable exceptions—still attempt to
preserve the ancient character and purposes of monasticism in Roman Catholicism.
The only recognized authority for the facts of Benedict’s life is book 2 of the
Dialogues of St. Gregory I, who said that he had obtained his information from four
of Benedict’s disciples. Though Gregory’s work includes many signs and wonders,
his outline of Benedict’s life may be accepted as historical. He gives no dates,
however. Benedict was born of a good family and was sent by his parents to Roman
schools. His life spanned the decades in which the decayed imperial city became the
Rome of the medieval papacy. In Benedict’s youth, Rome under Theodoric still
retained vestiges of the old administrative and governmental system, with a Senate
and consuls. In 546 Rome was sacked and emptied of inhabitants by the Gothic king
Totila, and, when the attempt of Emperor Justinian I to reconquer and hold Italy failed,
the papacy filled the administrative vacuum and shortly thereafter became the
sovereign power of a small Italian dominion virtually independent of the Eastern
Empire.

BODY
Benedict thus served as a link between the monasticism of the East and the new
age that was dawning. Shocked by the licentiousness of Rome, he retired as a young
man to Enfide (modern Affile) in the Simbruinian hills and later to a cave in the rocks
beside the lake then existing near the ruins of Nero’s palace above Subiaco, 64 km (40
miles) east of Rome in the foothills of the Abruzzi. There he lived alone for three
years, furnished with food and monastic garb by Romanus, a monk of one of the
numerous monasteries nearby.
When the fame of his sanctity spread, Benedict was persuaded to become abbot
of one of these monasteries. His reforming zeal was resisted, however, and an attempt
was made to poison him. He returned to his cave, but again disciples flocked to him,
and he founded 12 monasteries, each with 12 monks, with himself in general control
of all. Patricians and senators of Rome offered their sons to become monks under his
care, and from these novices came two of his best-known disciples, Maurus and
Placid. Later, disturbed by the intrigues of a neighboring priest, he left the area, while
the 12 monasteries continued in existence.
 A few disciples followed Benedict south, where he settled on the summit of a hill
rising steeply above Cassino, halfway between Rome and Naples. The district was
still largely pagan, but the people were converted by his preaching. His sister
Scholastica, who came to live nearby as the head of a nunnery, died shortly before her
brother. The only certain date in Benedict’s life is given by a visit from the Gothic
king Totila about 542. Benedict’s feast day is kept by monks on March 21, the
traditional day of his death, and by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe on July 11.
Benedict’s character, as Gregory points out, must be discovered from his Rule,
and the impression given there is of a wise and mature sanctity, authoritative but
fatherly, and firm but loving. It is that of a spiritual master, fitted and accustomed to
rule and guide others, having himself found his peace in the acceptance of Christ.

RULE OF ST. BENEDICT

Gregory, in his only reference to the Rule, described it as clear in language and
outstanding in its discretion. Benedict had begun his monastic life as a hermit, but he
had come to see the difficulties and spiritual dangers of a solitary life, even though he
continued to regard it as the crown of the monastic life for a mature and experienced
spirit. His Rule is concerned with a life spent wholly in community, and among his
contributions to the practices of the monastic life none is more important than his
establishment of a full year’s probation, followed by a solemn vow of obedience to
the Rule as mediated by the abbot of the monastery to which the monk vowed a
lifelong residence.
On the constitutional level, Benedict’s supreme achievement was to provide a
succinct and complete directory for the government and the spiritual and material
well-being of a monastery. The abbot, elected for life by his monks, maintains
supreme power and in all normal circumstances is accountable to no one. He should
seek the counsel of the seniors or of the whole body but is not bound by their advice.
He is bound only by the law of God and the Rule, but he is continually advised that he
must answer for his monks, as well as for himself, at the judgment seat of God. He
appoints his own officials—prior, cellarer (steward), novice master, guest master, and
the rest—and controls all the activities of individuals and the organizations of the
common life. Ownership, even of the smallest thing, is forbidden. The ordering of the
offices for the canonical hours (daily services) is laid down with precision. Novices,
guests, the sick, readers, cooks, servers, and porters all receive attention, and
punishments for faults are set out in detail.
Remarkable as is this careful and comprehensive arrangement, the spiritual and
human counsel given generously throughout the Rule is uniquely noteworthy among
all the monastic and religious rules of the Middle Ages. Benedict’s advice to the abbot
and to the cellarer, and his instructions on humility, silence, and obedience have
become part of the spiritual treasury of the church, from which not only monastic
bodies but also legislators of various institutions have drawn inspiration.
St. Benedict also displayed a spirit of moderation. His monks are allowed clothes
suited to the climate, sufficient food (with no specified fasting apart from the times
observed by the Roman church), and sufficient sleep (7 1/2–8 hours). The working
day is divided into three roughly equal portions: five to six hours of liturgical and
other prayers; five hours of manual work, whether domestic work, craftwork, garden
work, or fieldwork; and four hours reading of the Scriptures and spiritual writings.
This balance of prayer, work, and study is another of Benedict’s legacies.
All work was directed to making the monastery self-sufficient and self-contained;
intellectual, literary, and artistic pursuits were not envisaged, but the presence of boys
to be educated and the current needs of the monastery for service books, Bibles, and
the writings of the Church Fathers implied much time spent in teaching and in
copying manuscripts. Eventually, Benedict’s plan for an ideal abbey was circulated to
religious orders throughout Europe, and abbeys were generally built in accord with it
in subsequent centuries.
Benedict’s discretion is manifested in his repeated allowances for differences of
treatment according to age, capabilities, dispositions, needs, and spiritual stature;
beyond this is the striking humanity of his frank allowance for weaknesses and failure,
of his compassion for the physically weak, and of his mingling of spiritual with purely
practical counsel. In the course of time, this discretion has occasionally been abused
in the defense of comfort and self-indulgence, but readers of the Rule can hardly fail
to note the call to the full and exact observance of the counsels of poverty, chastity,
and obedience.
Until 1938 the Rule had been considered as a personal achievement of St.
Benedict, though it had always been recognized that he freely used the writings of the
Desert Fathers, of St. Augustine of Hippo, and above all of St. John Cassian. In that
year, however, an opinion suggesting that an anonymous document, the “Rule of the
Master” (Regula magistri)—previously assumed to have plagiarized part of the
Rule—was, in fact, one of the sources used by St. Benedict, provoked a lively debate.
Though absolute certainty has not yet been reached, a majority of competent scholars
favor the earlier composition of the “Rule of the Master.” If this is accepted, about
one-third of Benedict’s Rule (if the formal liturgical chapters are excluded) is derived
from the Master. This portion contains the prologue and the chapters on humility,
obedience, and the abbot, which are among the most familiar and admired sections of
the Rule.

SUMMARRY
Like in all the desert spirituality moreover there was for Benedict no split
between the outer and inner, spirituality was a lifestyle and the way you lived was the
way you prayed (and visa-Versa). So the best expression of an authentic relation to
God was the way you related to your neighbor. Life in common was for Benedict the
crucible of the spiritual life, both it's testing ground and the place where their “zeal for
God” expresses itself in patience, mutual obedience and respect (Ch 72). However I
propose there are four principles or attitudes on which that common life is grounded
and through which Benedict orientates his disciples to God: Obedience, Peace, Faith,
and Works together and Humility.
 Obedience: Benedict calls those who would follow Christ to “the labor of
obedience” (Prologue). This involves qualities of attentiveness, listening, readiness of
response, cheerful generosity, laying down of one’s own will, mutual respect, and
concern: “No one is to pursue what they judge better for himself, but instead, what
they judge better for someone else” (Ch 5, 71, 72).
Peace: “Let peace be your quest and your aim” (Prologue). This involves an
esteem for silence (Ch 6) especially at night and in the Oratory (Ch 42, 52), refraining
from gossip (Ch 6), purity of prayer (Ch 20, 52), and “supporting with the greatest
patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behavior” (Ch 72).
Faith and Works always go together. “Idleness is the enemy of the soul” (Ch 69).
Prayer is the “Work of God”; it comes before all else (Ch 47), and must be properly
performed (Ch 45). “Work” includes manual labor, prayerful reading and the work of
hospitality (Ch 48, 53). The tools of the workplace and kitchen are to be respected
like the vessels of the altar (Ch 32, 46). Stability in the community and monastery is
“the workshop” in which “the tools of the spiritual craft” are practiced (Ch 4).
Humility: “Not to us, Lord, not to us give the glory, but to your name alone”
(Psalm 113:9 Prologue). The Twelve Steps of humility (Ch 7) undercut any false
sense of complacency or self-satisfaction, they urge vigilance: We have to be
continually on our guard against our own destructive tendencies. Humility is what
keeps us connected, down to earth, real. It involves a true self-appraisal, not
overestimating our strengths but recognizing that we are always in the presence of
God. This ‘grounding experience’ often involves endurance, perseverance and
long-suffering.
He is like a gardener removing the weeds so that the flowers can grow, the fruits
of the Spirit. The Rule, therefore, acts as a garden hoe and watering can; clearing the
space, tidying things up and then making sure the plants are well watered. At times
like a secateur it prunes, at times like a lopper it removes what is incompatible with
our spiritual growth.
That these principles are the true criteria for monastic life can be seen in
Benedict’s procedure for receiving new members (Ch 58): “The concern”, he writes,
“must be whether the novice truly seeks God and whether he/she shows eagerness for
the Work of God, for obedience and for trails”. Here are the four attitudes I see as key
to the life Benedict envisions, attitudes which, in the rich meaning he gives them, are
applicable to us today. They do not necessarily involve a hierarchical understanding
of authority nor seclusion from the world.
Saint Benedict, his life and Rule, shows us how to live the contemplative life by
being open to God’s Providence and listen to God “with the ears of the heart”
(Prologue of The Rule). If mystical experience is to happen, it begins with letting go
of all that holds us back. It is a letting go of the many things we attach ourselves to
and see the power of God illuminating us with grace and “the inexpressible delight of
love” (Prologue of The Rule).