Chapter Sixty-One
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
How Pilgrim Monks Are to Be Received
IF A MONK on pilgrimage arrives from a distant lands and desires to live in the monastery as a guest, and he is content with the customs he finds there and does not trouble the monastery with unnecessary demands, but is content with what he finds, let him be received for as long a time as he desires. A situation may arise in which that visiting monk, with humility and charity, censures or reasonably critiques something. The Abbot should consider the matter carefully, especially, since the Lord may have sent him for that very purpose.
If later on this monk desires to promise his stability let his wish not be denied, especially since his manner of life will have been reviewed during his stay as a guest. If during the time that he was a guest he was found to be demanding or morally disordered, not only must he not associate with the monastic body but he should even be politely told to leave, lest others be infected by his wretched character. But if he is not the sort that deserves to be cast forth, he should not only be admitted to join the community, if he should seek it, but he should even be urged to remain, that others may be taught by his example. For in every land we serve the same Lord and fight under the same King.
If the Abbot should recognize the visiting monk to be such a man he may also place him in a somewhat higher rank. The Abbot may, in fact, place not only a monk, but also those of the aforementioned grades of priests and clerics in a higher position than according to their date of entry—if he observes their lives to be such as to deserve it. But let the Abbot take care never to admit a monk of any other known monastery to residence, without the consent of his Abbot or commendatory letters, because it is written: “What thou wilt not have done to thyself, do not to another.” (Tob. 4:16).