Would Saint Benedict have let you in?

The Rule of Saint Benedict, written around 530, says “an easy entrance shall not be granted”. Chapter 58 sets out the trial, step by step. Seven questions, beside the text.

The Rule is the oldest admission procedure in the West still in use. It asks for no talent and no birth: only that the candidate does not go away. Answer for yourself; nothing is sent anywhere.

1. Would you keep knocking for four or five days at a door where you are insulted?

If he who comes perseveres in knocking, and is seen after four or five days to patiently endure the insults inflicted upon him, and the difficulty of ingress, and to persist in his demand: entrance shall be allowed him.

Yes Sometimes No

2. Would you accept being watched closely by an elder, and given the tasks nobody wants?

An elder shall be detailed off for him […] who shall altogether intently watch over him, and make it a care to see if he reverently seek God, if he be zealous in the service of God, in obedience, in suffering shame.

Yes Sometimes No

3. Would you still want in after being told, in advance, everything that is hard about it?

And all the harshness and roughness of the means through which God is approached shall be told him in advance.

Yes Sometimes No

4. Would you wait a year, hearing the same rule read to you three times, before being allowed to decide?

After the lapse of two months this Rule shall be read to him in order […] after the lapse of six months, the Rule shall be read to him […] after four months the same Rule shall again be re-read to him.

Yes Sometimes No

5. Could you promise never to leave?

From that day he shall not be allowed to depart from the monastery, nor to shake free his neck from the yoke of the Rule, which, after such tardy deliberation, he was at liberty either to refuse or receive.

Yes Sometimes No

6. Would you give away everything you own, keeping nothing?

If he have any property, he shall either first present it to the poor, or, making a solemn donation, shall confer it on the monastery, keeping nothing at all for himself.

Yes Sometimes No

7. Would you hand over even your own clothes?

Straightway, therefore in the oratory, he shall take off his own garments in which he was clad, and shall put on the garments of the monastery.

Yes Sometimes No

Rule of Saint Benedict, chapter 58, translated by Ernest F. Henderson, London, 1892.

Where this comes from

Benedict of Nursia wrote his Rule for the monastery of Monte Cassino around 530. Its 73 chapters became the common rule of Western monasticism. Chapter 58 is “Concerning the manner of receiving brothers”. The full translation is on Wikisource.

This page belongs to no order and opens no door. Benedictine monasteries exist today and receive novices under their own rules and the law of their church, not under this page.