The Rule of St. Benedict

MP3 Audio CD. The Rule of St. Benedict


CHAPTER 1

On the Kinds of Monks


Jan. 8—May 9—Sept. 8


It is well known that there are four kinds of monks. The first kind are
the Cenobites: those who live in monasteries and serve under a rule and
an Abbot.

The second kind are the Anchorites or Hermits: those who, no longer in
the first fervor of their reformation, but after long probation in a
monastery, having learned by the help of many brethren how to fight
against the devil, go out well armed from the ranks of the community to
the solitary combat of the desert. They are able now, with no help save
from God, to fight single-handed against the vices of the flesh and
their own evil thoughts.

The third kind of monks, a detestable kind, are the Sarabaites. These,
not having been tested, as gold in the furnace, by any rule or by the
lessons of experience, are as soft as lead. In their works they still
keep faith with the world, so that their tonsure marks them as liars
before God. They live in twos or threes, or even singly, without a
shepherd, in their own sheepfolds and not in the Lord’s. Their law is
the desire for self-gratification: whatever enters their mind or appeals
to them, that they call holy; what they dislike, they regard as
unlawful.