The Rule of St Benedict Chapter 57

Of the Artisans of the Monastery

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If there are any artisans in the monastery, they should practise their crafts with humility and reverence, provided the Abbot allows it.

Artifices, si sunt in monasterio, cum humilitate et reverentia faciant ipsas artes, si tamen iusserit Abbas.

But if any one of them be puffed up because of his knowledge of his craft, thinking that he is bestowing something [of benefit] to the monastery, let him be taken from his craft, and not return to it again, unless perchance when he has humbled himself, the Abbot again allows it.

Quod si aliquıs ex eis extollitur pro scientia artis suæ, eo quod videatur aliquid conferre monasterio, hic talis evellatur ab ipsa arte, et denuo per eam non transeat, nisi forte humiliato ei iterum Abbas iubeat.

If indeed any of the work of the artisan is to be sold, let those through whose hands the goods pass see that they presume not to commit any fraud. Let them remember Ananias and Saphira: lest they, or all who commit fraud with the goods of the monastery, suffer in their souls what these endured in the body.

Si quid vero ex operibus artificum venumdandum est, videant ipsi per quorum manus transigenda sunt, ne aliquam fraudem præsumant inferre. Memorentur Ananiæ et Saphiræ: ne forte mortem quam illi in corpore pertulerunt, hanc isti, vel omnes qui aliquam fraudem de rebus monasterii fecerint, in anima patiantur.

In the prices themselves, let the evil of avarice not creep in, but let them always be a little cheaper than is given by those in the world: so that God may be glorified in all things.

In ipsis autem pretiis non surripiat avaritiae malum, sed semper aliquantulum vilius detur, quam a secularibus datur: ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus.

Comment

St Benedict anticipated that some monks would arrive from the world with special skills which could be put to use by the monastery. In our modern times, someone who was an accountant could become a bursar/cellarer and deal with the monastery’s finances; an artist could produce goods for sale such as icons or paintings. But St Benedict warns that they should have no expectations of being permitted to pursue such activities in the monastery and if they become “puffed up” by thinking that they are making an extraordinary contribution, they should be removed from it, for the sake of their soul. This kind of pride is a risk to us all, and we should certainly remember that we are to rely on God, rather than our own abilities, for our sustenance.

These days there is a lot of talk about having sustainable and ethical supply chains in business; St Benedict got there first. Monks should take care to ensure that those who help them sell their goods are honest and trade fairly. Moreover, they should not charge high prices but price a little lower, to avoid the sin of greed. This, of course, does not mean selling at cost or at a loss; distorting the market by low prices would be as much a sin as selling at extortionate ones. St Benedict gives the example of Ananias and Saphira, who were struck dead through falsely representing that they were giving all the proceeds of their property to the community, while secretly holding some back.

A traditional occupation for monks was the production of books, and this would involve several different processes; preparation of vellum, writing, painting, bookbinding and leatherworking, plus perhaps metalworking for book decoration and making of clasps. So several monks would be occupied in this activity.

The cloister at Furness abbey, Cumbria. On the right of this photo are workshops, used for crafts, including metalworking.

This chapter became formative for the Benedictines and especially the Cistercians, and helped them spread across Europe at a fast pace. Why? It was instrumental in the development of what were called “lay brothers”. These were monks drawn from the labouring classes; they could be artisans such as metalworkers or stonemasons, or simple farmers and labourers. Often they would be illiterate and sometimes too old to learn to read. Late in the first millennium, these monks were admitted as “lay brothers”, separate to what were called “choir monks.” They would not be required to attend all the offices and may not learn to read; they could use their paternoster beads to pray instead. They had separate accommodation and instead of practicing lectio divina like the choir monks, would have other tasks. Most importantly, they would carry out all the manual tasks of the monastery which would otherwise have to be done by paid servants. Often they built the monastery, carved the misericords or painted the plaster with images from the Faith.

The nave of Rievaulx Abbey church; the 200 laybrothers who lived here sat in the immediate foreground of this picture for services, while the choir monks had their stalls in the chancel beyond.

This concept, pushed to its limits by the Cistercians, was responsible for their massive and speedy spread across Europe, along with the reclaiming and taming of wasteland and sculpting of the landscape. Cistercian lay brothers grew the vast quantities of grain to feed the brothers and sell at a profit, they raised sheep and cows used for their wool, meat and skins in book production, they built their monasteries, made tools, and created water management systems which were as good, if not better, than those we have today. They were revolutionary and each monastery had hordes of them, most living in the monastery but some living on their farms (“granges”) elsewhere on the lands they owned.

The only monastic building in England which kept its roof after the Dissolution of the English monasteries was this lay brothers’ dormitory at Whalley Abbey, Lancashire. In front of this building was the cloister and directly opposite was the choir monks’ dormitory.

Nuns also had lay sisters, who cooked and farmed in the same way. In the Benedictine world (and others such as Carmelites and Carthusians), a distinction grew up between the choir monks and lay brothers. Choir monks were called (in England) “Dom” or “Father” after profession, choir nuns “Dame” or “Mother”; lay brothers and sisters were simply “Brother” or “Sister”.

While the drop in population after the Black Death of the 14^th century resulted in the decline of this system, it persisted. Education was therefore no barrier to entry into a monastery; lay brothers would pray a simplified office, sitting in the lower choir stalls since the population drop meant there were fewer choir monks too. Monasteries had to employ more servants and farmers to manage their properties, but the system endured until Vatican II.

The nuns’ choir at Ryde; the lay sisters used to sit in the lower stalls.

This two-stage monastic community was deemed not in the spirit of the modern church. Recruitment for lay brothers and sisters stopped almost everywhere (I think the Carthusians still have them though). In the nuns’ monastery at Ryde, Isle of Wight, the last lay sister was admitted in the 1960s; after that all had to be choir nuns and go through the full programme of liturgy, theology and scriptural training. In the 1980s there were still several lay sisters left, doing the cooking, looking after the chickens and one of them made sandals for the community. They didn’t attend all the offices – vigils/matins was not required of them for example and they had their own office, with a Latin/English translation they followed while the nuns sang. They weren’t required to do the years of study of the choir nuns and so they were drawn from what we would call “working class” Catholics, with the choir nuns being drawn from the more educated and upper classes. Ryde also had 3 extern sisters, who managed the outside of the church and monastery while the choir nuns remained inside the enclosure. Only the last lay sister survives, though she is elderly now and effectively retired. They have no extern sisters and so the other nuns have to take it in turns (singly) to do what is needed outside. It’s hard to maintain the same standards with less people, or even maintain an effective Christian witness, and this has been the fate of all monasteries. Ryde has a healthy population of nuns but now they are all choir nuns; they are trying to recruit extern sisters again but recruitment in monasteries is now effectively restricted to degree level educated and young women (because of the very lengthy induction) and this is the same everywhere. Monasteries no longer take in older people with experience, or those who are less educated and simply want to serve God. I’m not speaking particularly of Ryde when I say that – you can see the same effect all over the monastic world, including the Carmelites. By trying to remove elitism, the church effectively created a more elite system.

Sadly the Cistercians have suffered massively from this change and are in more serious decline than the Benedictines. They used to farm, producing grain and particularly dairy. With no-one to do this, it became unviable. Some monasteries do produce particular products. Cistercians make Trappist beer, but they are only required to have one monk involved in it full time to qualify as Trappist and so employ lay people as well; in England Tynt Meadow ale has been a success story for the Cistercians here, but their community is not massively expanding. Other monasteries produce alcohol or chocolate for sale.

The monasteries still have people producing art and books, like before, but they no longer have many people with very practical skills such as those described in this post. That’s a shame and I fervently hope the monasteries see sense and bring these kinds of monks/nuns back before it’s too late; there are so many men and women, often older and single, who could make a contribution in the same way they did in the medieval period, when there were no rules on age for entry into monasteries and much less regulation.

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