Chapter 31
J 94
THIRTY-FIRST CHAPTER
The Cellarer of the Monastery Let there be chosen from the community as business ad ministrator one who is wise, mature in the pursuit of virtue, sober, not given to much eating, not proud, not irascible, not violent, not dilatory, not wasteful, but a God-fearing man; and let him be like a father to the whole community.3
Let him take conscientious.care of everything. He shall do nothing without orders from the abbot, and he shall abide by them.1 He may not hurt the feelings of the brethren. Should a brother perchance ask for something that is unreasonable, let him not grieve his confrere by belittling him, but reasonably and humbly disallow the improper request.
3 The office of temporal administrator, or/Cellarer (as St. Benedict called him, or procurator in our American parlance), js probably as old as the cloister itself.
In the coenobium of St. Pachomius, he was called the oikonomos, literally, manager of the house, administrator, or director. The abbot entrusted the details of in come and expenses accruing from the monastic labor and property to one of his monks. Whether the other monks can devote themselves peacefully and without worry to the "service of the Lord," depends to a very large extent upon the wise administration of the cellarer. He it is who distributes the manual labor among the monks. The Holy Rule draws a rather attactive sketch of the ideal monastic business manager, one who should be not only a competent and shrewd admin istrator in material things, but a "God-fearing" person as well. On account of the involvement of his office with the outside" world," there is always the danger that through that monastic opening the "world" may try to inveigle its way into the Koinobion and makes its influence felt there. It is understandable, therefore, why the Holy Rule demands such lofty traits in the character of the cellarer. St. Basil dealt quite at length with the qualifications of his house manager (Longer Rules xiv). Surely, the kitchen was under his management, also the department of sup plies, services in the kitchen and refectory, and in general all business transactions
(cf. chap. xlvi). Upon him devolved the procuring and storing of all foodstuffs.
He provided the kitchen and dining room staffs with the requisite utensils and foods that had to be prepared and distributed to the brethren (cf. chap. xxxv). In the matter of the weekly rotation of servers in the kitchen and refectory, as provided for in the Rule, the cellarer was expected to follow a certain system of continuity, as St. Benedict clearly presupposes will also be done in the other affairs of his management. Apparently, he was expected to work out a kind of regular schedule, by which the brethren could know approximately when their turns came to serve and could arrange their other affairs accordingly.
' In the monastery of St. Pachomius, there was a cellarer who, by reason of his good relations with the state official who had charge of the public granary, was able to procure a considerable amount of wheat for the brethren during a famine. Pa chomius reprimanded the monk for the way in which he had managed the business in other words, because he had "acted arbitarilv and without authority" (Second
Life lxxiv). This same manifestly shrewd cellarer had sold the products of the cloister shoemaking department very profitably for the interested parties in that
Let him keep a watch over his own soul, ever mindful of that saying of the Apostle: "For he that discharges his service well shall win for himself a good (higher) status" (cf. 1 Tim. iii, 13).
He shall be most (lovingly) solicitous in his care for the sick, the children, the guests, and the poor, because he doubtless knows that he will have to give an account of all these things on the day of judgment.
He shall regard the utensils of the monastery and all its property as if they were the vessels of the altar.1 Let him no.t think that he may neglect anything. He shall not be given to avarice, nor shall he be a prodigal or a wastrel of the substance of the cloister, but he shall manage everything in moderation and in accordance with the directions of the abbot.
He must above all things have humility, and if he has nothing to give, let him give in answer a good word, as it is written: "A good word exceeds the best gift" (cf. Ecclus. xviii, 17).
Let him have under his (loving) charge every task that the abbot has assigned him; but let him not take upon himself to perform what the later has reserved to himself.2 He shall pro vide the brethren with the appointed allowances of food without any highhandedness or delay, lest they be scandalized, mindful of that sentence of the Lord which he may thus deserve: "He that shall scandalize one of these little ones" (Matt, xviii, 6).
If the community be rather large, let him be given help, so that with their assistance he may with a calm mind discharge the office entrusted to him. The articles that are to be asked for and the things are to be given out shall be asked for and dis tributed at convenient hours, so that no one need be troubled or grieved in the house of God. he had disposed of them at three times the price which the shoemaker had given him. It was for this that Pachomius had also rebuked him, although the cellarer had tried, convincingly so, to justify his action. In vain! On account of his dis obedience he was removed from his office (loc. cit., Ixxv).
1 In the conception of St. Benedict, the cloister was the ideal Church of Christ
(in miniature), in other words, "the House of God."
2 Canon Law and the various monastic constitutions today determine the cases in which the abbot and with him the procurator are to adhere to the majority opinion and counsel of the seniors (cf. chap, xxi) or to the majority vote of the community in chapter assembled, (cf. chap, iii, e.g., sale or alienation of monastic property and cases of major expenditures).