The Rule of St Benedict Chapter 69
That monks do not presume to defend one another
Text
It is most important to take care that at no time does a monk presume to defend or as it were protect anyone else in the monastery, even if they are joined by the nearness of family relationship.
Summopere præcavendum est, ne quavis occasione præsumat alter alterum defendere monachum in monasterio, aut quasi tueri, etiamsi qualibet consanguinitatis propinquitate jungantur.
Let the monks not presume to do this in any way, because from this the most serious occasion for scandal can arise.
Nec quolibet modo id a monachis præsumatur, quia exinde gravissima occasio scandalorum oriri potest.
If anyone transgresses this rule, let him be punished severely.
Quod si quis hæc transgressus fuerit, acrius coerceatur.
In these posts I take a chapter of St Benedict’s Rule for monks, translate it and add some comments from monastic writers or from my own experience.
Comment
Recently I have been reading a history of the Popes; it’s quite brief and doesn’t go into massive detail but gives the key highlights and, sadly, lowlights, of each papacy. What crops up again and again is nepotism. Popes promote their (often unordained) nephews or other relatives to senior positions such as cardinal with depressing regularity. It almost always ends badly, because families are often blind to the faults of their members.
This chapter of the Rule, being in the “add-ons” at the end, suggests that St Benedict had observed or experienced personally the negative effects of this kind of favouritism; it undermines the fraternal love which all members of the monastery should have for each other. A monastery is a supernatural family, bound by spiritual relationships and blood relationships should therefore be relegated to incidental relevance, not to be discussed and protected within the community.
There are good practical reasons for this. Many years ago, I met a nun in France who was English and when I asked her why she had entered this monastery, she said it was partly because her sister was in a monastery in England and she thought it wouldn’t be a good thing for them to be together. As it turned out, their niece entered that English monastery later so there were two of the family there and would have been three if she had also entered! I can’t remember all of the conversation but she felt that she couldn’t be herself while living with her sister, their prior relationship would have got in the way.
She was very sensible on this and communities are often cautious of multiple blood family members living together for this and the other reasons listed in this chapter. Relatives can feel a need to intervene to defend or protect a family member as those ties are visceral and deep-rooted. Conversely, existing relationships can get in the way of the spiritual development of either party; people change and need the freedom to do that without being held back by past habits of their families.
The same goes for friendships, and you notice that in the first sentence of this chapter, the text says not to defend or protect “anyone”, with blood relatives simply being an example. So St Benedict is reminding his monks that their supernatural family does not allow them to have favourites, or act for someone in protecting them; every monk stands or falls on his own actions, and his behaviour must be regulated by the monastic Father – the Abbot, and not by family members. “Particular” friendships are strongly discouraged in traditional monasticism, a rule which can generally only be ignored at one’s own peril. St Aelred is probably the only one I can recall who had strong friendships within the monastery without causing problem.s
It's a good reminder, I think, not to put our own family relationships or friendships before our spiritual duties.
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acrius coerceatur . Not so kumbaya then.