Put Christ before everything

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

Today, July 11, as our church celebrates the Memorial of Benedict, Abbott, our treasure is from the Rule of Benedict, abbot.

Saint Benedict was born in Nursia in Umbria about the year 480. Educated at Rome, he began the eremite life at Subiaco, where he gathered disciples, and then departed for Monte Casino. There he established the famous monastery and composed the Benedict Rule. Because this rule was subsequently adopted throughout Europe, he received the title of patriarch of Western monasticism. He died on March 21, 547, but since the end of the eighth century, his memory has been observed on this day.

The monastic movement that began in Egypt and Syria in the third century and soon spread to the Western Mediterranean used and produced all sorts of texts: lives of saints, monastic travelogues, descriptions of monastic institutions, and homilies or talks on spiritual topics. In the fourth century a new type of text emerged: monastic rules. They laid down the basic organization of a monastic community, provided guidelines for the abbot and other office holders, and explained spiritual principles for the monks.

The most successful of these rules is the “Rule of Monasteries.” It was written by Benedict of Nursia after 529 and is commonly referred to as the Rule of St Benedict. It reflects Benedict’s own long experience as a monk and abbot, and his study of the older monastic tradition which he uses extensively, especially an older text called the Rule of the Master by an anonymous author.

The Rule of St Benedict consists of a Prologue and seventy-three chapters, ranging from a few lines to several pages. They provide teaching about the basic monastic virtues of humility, silence, and obedience as well as directives for daily living. The Rule prescribes times for common prayer, meditative reading, and manual work; it legislates for the details of common living such as clothing, sleeping arrangements, food and drink, care of the sick, reception of guests, recruitment of new members, journeys away from the monastery, etc. While the Rule does not shun minute instructions, it allows the abbot to determine the particulars of common living according to his wise discretion.