Chapter 63
SIXTY-THIRD CHAPTER
Order of Precedence in the Monastery Let everyone in the cloister adhere to the order as determined by the date of his entrance into monastic life, the meritorious ness of his conduct, or as that order has been laid out by the abbot. But the abbot must not throw the flock entrusted to his care into a state of confusion or make any unjust distributions there, as if he had the right to make arbitrary use of his power.
Let him rather reflect always that he will have to render an ac count before God of all his decisions and arrangements.1
Consequently, let the brethren advance to receive the kiss of peace (at the altar), approach the Holy Table for Communion, read a psalm (at the lectern), and take their places at prayers in the oratory as the abbot has prescribed or which are theirs (in the order of monastic seniority). In no case, however, should mere age be considered to the prejudice of this order of pre cedence; for did not Samuel (1 Kings iii) and Daniel (xiii), both young men sit in judgment upon their elders?
With the exception, therefore, of those whom the abbot has promoted to a higher rank or demoted for specific reasons, let all take the places that are theirs according to the date of their entrance into religion. Thus, for example, the one who has enter ed the cloister at the second hour of the day should know that he becomes junior to the one who came in at the first hour, no mat ter what their respective ages are or what their dignities may have been.2 The children of the monastery, however, must be kept under discipline in everything and by everyone.3
In keeping with these principles, let the juniors honor their elders and the elders love the juniors. No one shall be permitted to address another by his name alone, but let a senior call his junior "brother," and a junior address his senior by the title
Nonnas, which signifies "Reverend Father,"4
' St. Benedict, unrivaled judge that he was of all human foibles, knew also what a source of temptation and spiritual pitfalls for the abbot his unlimited paternal authority can become (cf. cahp. xxvii).
2 This regulation touching the order of precedence was not a new one. It was also a prescription in the monastery of St. Pachomius. "He who comes first into
However, For the reason that the abbot, as it is believed, takes the place of Christ, he shall be called "lord" and "abbot," not by reason of any assumption of his own, but out of rever ence and love for Christ.1 He shall ponder on this matter and so conduct himself that he may be worthy of such an honor.
Whenever and wherever the brethren encounter one another, let the juniors ask their seniors for a blessing. Should a senior pass by, let the junior rise and invite him to be seated in his place. Nor shall he presume to sit down unless the senior first bid him to do so, in order that it may be true as was written:
"With honor they prevent one another" (cf. Rom. xii, 10). The small boys and the adolescents should keep strictly to their places in the oratory and at table. Outdoors, however, and every where, they should be kept under supervision and discipline until they arrive at a reasonable age.2 the cloister also sits in the first place, takes the first place in the ranks, is the first to intone a psalm, lays his hand first upon the table, and goes first in order to Communion in the church; we do not ask as to the date of his birth, but as to the date of his profession" (Rule, Prologue 3).
3 Cf. chapter lix.
4 The word nonnus seems to be of Egyptian origin. It still survives in the femi nine form of the word, namely, "nun" (German — Nonne or Klosterjrau).—The community of St. Benedict, as the ideal Church of Christ, was animated by this sacred reverence. To begin with, the restricted quarters in which the monks lived and moved, which inevitably grew out of the circumstance that the Holy Rule recognized only common rooms (oratory, refectory, or living room) and tolerated no private quarters (individual cells), naturally called for a high degree of mutual consideration and reverential demeanor; and this, of course, had to manifest itself in their manner of addressing one another. The fundamental reason, however, for this mutual reverence was the fact that the brethren were to exemplify a perfect
Church. St. Pachomius called his cloister a "communion of saints" (Rule 1). St.
Benedict required the cellarer to look after the implements and other chattels of the monastery as if they were the vessels of the altar (chap. xxxi). How much more worthy of this mutually reverent treatment were the brethren themselves in view of their dignity and chosen calling? In concluding his sermon on a passage in St.
Matthew (xi, 28), St. Augustine spoke these beautiful words: "Why do we all be come so weary in soul? Is it because we are mortal, frail, and weak human beings, who carry themselves about in earthen vessels (that is, our bodies) that crowd one another in a narrow space? But if these vessels of flesh press one another so closely, should they not (all the more) widen the spaces of their love" (Sermon lxix, 1)? (The modem system of private rooms, often lined up along an extensive hallway, has seemed to make the monk of today sometimes sadly inconsiderate of his closer neighbors. The translator) ' Cf. chapter ii.
2 Cf. chapter lix.