CHAPTER 56
102 The Rule, Chapter 56 St. Benedict, however, is not concerned about fashions.
What he has in mind is simply that the monk should look like a monk. He wants the habit to fit properly, and he wants it to be worn all the time— even to bed.
There was a time when Oblates were allowed to wear the Benedictine habit on special occasions. And they could be buried in it. With you, as with us, the important thing is to be a Benedictine. The habit does not necessarily make the Benedictine. Certainly, this is another lesson St. Benedict teaches us.
CHAPTER 56
The Abbot's Table Chapter 56 is one of those very short chapters in the Rule. It is so short that it leaves much unsaid. We are left wondering where the abbot ordinarily takes his meals. The first sentence of this chapter says, "The abbot's table must always be with guests and travelers." In chapter 53, St. Benedict indicates that "the kitchen for the abbot and guests ought to be separate/'
So, the abbot not only eats with the guests, but their meals are prepared in a separate kitchen. St. Gregory offers no evidence, however, of St. Benedict's dining apart from the monastic community.
In chapter 38 St. Benedict provides the superior an opportunity to say a few words of instruction in the monastic refectory, where silence is normally expected, so the monks can listen to table reading. Is this superior the abbot? If so, then it is clear that he is eating with the monks. Or is this superior one of the seniors who must "always be left with the brothers" because the abbot dines with the guests? One way commentators on the Rule have solved the question is to conclude that the abbot ate with the monks whenever no guests were pres-
The Rule, Chapter 56 103 ent at the monastery. But chapter 56 recommends that when
"there are no guests, it is within his right [the abbot's] to invite any of the brothers he wishes." Does this mean invite them to his table in the monastery refectory or to the dining room where he ordinarily eats with the guests and travelers?
Does it matter where the abbot eats? What is more important is that the poor man be fed, isn't it? To me, this chapter of the Rule seems to provide an excuse for abuses by future abbots. If St. Benedict ever shows indiscretion, it is here in chapter 56.
In later ages the abbot's dining room became a banquet hall where he wined and dined only the distinguished visitors to the monastery. The monks, in their own refectory, ate the ordinary fare, but his Lordship served his guests a bountiful and varied menu. Even meat! On high feast days, some of the brethren were invited to dine at the abbot's table; often they were the ministers who had functioned at High Mass on that day. By now it was a definitely established custom for the abbot to take his meals outside the refectory. And he lived in his own grand house and had his own courtyard. Sometimes these opulent accommodations were not the choice of an abbot but were demanded by the nobility or by a bishop. When these dignitaries of the Middle Ages visited an abbey, they expected their abbatial host to receive them and their retinue in the manner to which they were accustomed.
In chapter 53, we see St. Benedict's first act of leniency with regard to the abbot's relationship with the guests. "The superior may break his fast for the sake of a guest, unless it is a day of special fast which cannot be broken. The brothers, however, observe the usual fast." In chapter 56 St. Benedict excuses the abbot from eating with the monks. The abbot needn't fast, he needn't eat with his monks. But the monks should fast, and a senior or two should always eat in the refectory to make certain the monks don't misbehave.