Chapter 67
The porter should have a cell near the entrance to the cloist er, so that any arrivals may always find someone available to give them information. As soon as someone knocks, or a paup er calls out, let him answer: "Thanks be to God," (Deo gratias),1 or say: "Your blessing, please," and supply the requested in formation speedily and courteously, in the fear of the Lord and in the fervor of charity.2
Should the porter need help, let him be given a younger brother as assistant.
If it can at all be done, let the lay-out of the monastery be such that all the necessary facilities, that is, the mill, the well, the garden, (etc.), all be located within the precincts of the cloister, and let the various crafts also be conducted there, in order that there need be no occasion for the monks to wander about outside the monastic enclosure, because this is not con ducive to the welfare at their souls.3
We wish that this Rule be read quite frequently in the com munity, so that none of the brethren may excuse themselves on the plea of ignorance.4
SUPPLEMENT (Chaps. Ixvii—Ixxii)
SIXTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER
Brethren who are sent on a Journey senior from among the more virtuous monks was chosen to sit at the portal. He instructed the arriving guests and pilgrims in the elements of monastic life but per mitted only the visiting monks to enter the monastic enclosure. All the others had to remain outside (chapter xvii). In Cassian's monastery, the novices were appoint ed to look after the guests (Institutes iv, 7).
1 The Deo gratias was the customary greeting with the monks of St. Augustine (On psalm cxxxii, 6).
2 Even in our time, the monastery porters often take care of the immediate needs of the pilgrims, the poor, and sometimes also of vagrants.
3 In the monastic "paradise" of Abbot Isidor, which, like that of St. Pachomius, was shut away from the outer world by high walls, there were several wells and gardens, containing all kinds of fruit and other trees, so that there was no need for the monks to wander about outside (cf. comment no. 1, next page).
4 There is no support in any of the manuscripts for the opinion that this 66th chapter was the last chapter of a first edition of the Holy Rule. It is practically a universal custom in all branches and Congregations of the Order to have the whole
Rule read publicly at least three times in the course of the year. It is also one of the abbot's tasks to explain it to his monks and to introduce them to its spirit and its meaning.