CSMA 500
Ana Catalina Correa Morales
Week 6 The End of Rome: Barbarians and Monasticism
The ideals of the monks were to leave the world, to be apart from it so they could return to God.
In other words, the monks pretend to dedicate their entire life to prayer and worship. That
implied leaving the cities and going into the desert. The way in which they achieved these ideals
was by an institutional form expressed by rules. A rule was the description of how those living
this life were set apart when they lived together.
In fact, the principles of order and organization of the monastery as found in the Rule were in
first place obedience and spiritual discipline, secondly silence, and lastly humility. But it is
important to clarify that the priority is prayer. And to avoid idleness, Benedict suggests Sacred
reading, and manual labor when not in prayer. Moreover, the greatness of the rule of St. Benedict
is that it does indeed give an order of organization to the common life of the monks. A common
life that an abbot ultimately rules. Someone whose principal job is to care for the souls of the
monks in the monastery, and the monks’ relationship to the abbot is to foster a virtue, the virtue
of obedience. Also, Monks need to be literate. They cannot live the rule without being literate,
and therefore they must be educated. That´s the reason why Sacred reading it’s a very important
part of the Rule and also the manual labor.
I have to say that when reading the Rule and watching the videos of monasticism I identified
with the description of how important the study and the Sacred reading for the monks was
because in the last 2 years, I have become more interested in understanding my faith and
especially the Sacred Scripture.
In other matters, I think that, according to St Gregory, the distinctive marks of holiness of St.
Benedict were, his virtuosity that was visible in his capacity to suffer different obstacles in order
to conform his life with God. He also was a man who was very clear that the only way to be a
good leader was to get rid of himself and abandon every pleasure and every possession so he
could be able to strip away everything so that his only treasure was God and by doing that he
could guide others towards God. The above can be evidenced in the quote that appears in
Chapter 2 which says: “He is able to cleanse himself of deep sin before in order to serve the
monastery as an abbot” (Chapter 2 pages 168-169). In my opinion, the most relevant hallmark
of Saint Benedict's holiness was his obedience since he knew how to lead his life according to
the rule that he himself wrote for the sanctification of all monks. As a matter of fact, in Chapter 5
of The Rule, he identifies obedience as the first step to achieving humility.
