Chapter 37
THIRTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER
Old Men and Children If human nature itself is already drawn in sympathy towards these two stages of life, namely, the old and the very young, surely the Rule's authority should likewise take them into con sideration. In their case, one must ever take into account their frailties, so that in the matter of nourishment the rigor of the Rule should in no wise apply to them. Much rather let a bene volent consideration prevail in their regard, and let them receive some nourishment before the regular hours.
Excursus.
Old Men and Children.—As experience has shown, the occasionally excessive and inconsiderate zeal of the hale and hearty tends to tyrannize over the weak er, that is, the old and the very young. They seem, therefore, to call for the special protection of the Rule. St. Benedict's ordinance takes it wholly for granted that there will be children in the monastery, that is, boys under 15 years of age (cf. chap. Ixx), who, at least in his time, were actually regarded as monks (cf. chaps, xxx, xxxi, xxxix, xlv, lviii, & lxix). Monasticism has con sistently shown special consideration for these two periods of life. "Only the old men," says St. Jerome, "are allowed a measure of wine. Like the boys, the elderly monks are permitted to take a meal before the regular hours, so that the weakened condition of the latter may be strengthened and the growth of the former may not be stunted" (Letters xxii, 35).
St. Pachomius, on one occasion, arrived at a monastery for his accustomed visitation. The monks went out in a body to greet him. "At this point a young ster from that very group cried out to him: 'since you have been gone from here, we have up to this hour had no cooked food.' The saint answered him kindly: 'Be not troubled, my child, I shall see to it.' He went accordingly to the kitchen and found there the cook, who was working on a rush mat. He said to him: 'Tell me, brother, how long is it now since you have cooked no food for the brethren?' The man replied: 'Two months.' The father inquired further: 'Why did you not carry out your orders?' The cook tried to defend himself, saying: 'I wanted to do so daily, Father. But when I noticed that the cooked foods were not consumed, since the brethren live very abstemiously and only the children eat of them,—and in order that the foodstuffs prepared with so much care would not be thrown away since no adults partake of them, which I thought foolish and wasteful—therefore I did no cooking. But in order not to be found guilty of sloth, I made rush mats with the brethren; for I knew from one who was assigned (to work) with me how little suffices to satisfy the needs of only one.' " Pachomius immediately ordered the 500 mats, to which the cook could point in confirmation of his story, to be burned (Sec-