Chapter 56
FIFTY-SIXTH CHAPTER
The Abbot's Table Let the table of the abbot always be with the guests and pil grims. However, as often as there are not many guests, let it be at his discretion to invite whomsoever he will from amongst the brotherhood. Nevertheless, for the sake of monastic discipline, let one or two of the seniors always be left with the brethren.1
FIFTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER
The Craftsmen of the Monastery If there are craftsmen in the cloister, they should work at their craft in all humility, provided the abbot permits it. Should, however, one of them grow arrogant because he seems to bring profit to the monastery on account of his skill, let him be re moved from his craft and not be permitted to go back to it until he humbles himself and the abbot orders him to do so.2
1 The Holy Rule at one time distinguished between three table groups or units: that of the abbot with the guests and pilgrims; that of the monks in the common refectory; and that of the novices in their apartment (cf. chap, lviii). The pre scriptions of this chapter, which might at first make an unfavorable impression upon us, find an explanation in the lofty position which the abbot holds in the Rule of St. Benedict. (We might add here as a reason the sacred duty of hospitality as devolving mainly upon the abbot. The translator) How much importance our Holy Patriarch places upon the fatherly hegemony of the abbot can be gathered from its relation to the authority of the prior (cf. chap. Ixv). On the other hand, it must not be overlooked that at certain times (as, for example, during work periods) the abbot was always with the brethren, so that his staying with the guests at meal times was hardly strange or remarkable. (Likewise, in our democratically minded days, the constitutions of most Benedictine Congregations provide, for the sake of peace in the community as well as good example to the visitors, that the abbot be permitted to invite the guests to the meals and reading at the common table. A separate refectory and kitchen for the abbot is by all odds a bygone tra dition. The translator) A fourth, but only an occasional group of diners was that of the sick in the infirmary (cf. chap, xxxvi). According to Caesarius in his
"Rule for Nuns," the sick and the infirm, under certain circumstances, had their own kitchen and storeroom.
2 Palladius reports as follows: "I found there (in the monastery of Pachomius at Tabennisi) 15 tailors, 7 smiths, 40 masons, 12 camel grooms, and 15 cloth-cutters.
They carry on every type of craft, and from the surplus income derived from them they make gifts to nunneries and prisons. They also operate a piggery.
When I voiced a word of criticism on this activity, they replied: "With us it has always been a practice to conduct a piggery, in order to dispose of our chaff,