Fault (culpa)
The Rule of Benedict continues to instruct after fifteen centuries in part because it prescribes a discipline of humility. It proscribes destructive behavior while prescribing remedies. Blameworthy infractions from trivial to egregious, from personal shortcomings to insubordination, have traditionally been called “faults.” The Latin used was culpa – a failure or offense, rather than peccatum – a sin. A respect for the Rule’s historic contribution to cloistered and individual formation merits a closer reading.
The historic need for correction is best put into perspective. Stringent penal response was mandatory to modulate medieval society, especially in larger communities so that faults did not fester or flourish. As noted in the Rule, more immediate satisfaction for errors was enacted either summarily or with the community gathered in a “chapter of faults.”
The most serious listed faults were a “rash deviation from the Rule” or “contending defiantly with the abbot,” striking another brother, or defending a brother who was being disciplined. Lesser errors included wanton disregard for property or schedule, selfishness, pride, lazy self-indulgence, arrogance, interpersonal squabbling, gossip, grumbling, general discord, and unauthorized gifts or letters to or from the outside. All of these seem self-evident as disruptive of communal living. At times, monks revealed their own shortcomings seeking to “do better”, as I like to say, asking guidance and blessings from the group gathered in Chapter.
That being said, what were the punitive options within the discipline? There was no death penalty, or monetary fine. Rather, punishments prescribed range from verbal warning, admonition, censure, criticism, standing aside from others to attract shame, varying isolation including excommunication from the community, eating alone, exclusion from the oratory, solitary confinement, physical punishment, dismissal, and banishment from the monastery. All these were within the authority of the abbot. Should a member leave the community, provision was provided for readmission to the monastery with stipulations.
Words of nuanced punishment include reproof, rebuke, remove, replace, reprimand in the presence of all, come before the abbot and community, prostrate oneself, whip, and use of strokes of the rod.
After addressing faults and potential punishments, the Rule urged and expected wisdom from those in authority, especially the abbot, and senior monks with the directive to “hate faults but love the brother” and to “prune with prudence and love” for each member as an individual. The abbot’s instructions were to assess and determine the gravity of the fault employing the most generous advice: “Drawing on discretion the mother of all virtues he (the abbot) must arrange everything so that the strong have something to yearn for and the weak nothing to run from.” Favoritism was not condoned, treating all fairly. The abbot was to “act as a wise physician” seeking with compassion to heal while punishing. In contemporary terms the concept of “tough love” seems evident.
Moving now to a current observation: Vatican II documents concluded 60 years ago that religious orders should return to their original charism while embracing contemporary realities. The question of whether older monastic traditions should adapt to survive in a modern world has been answered. The rigid earlier medieval, European models have been supplanted. New monastics tend to be older with broader life experiences. There is no caste of more manual or less scholarly members. Monasteries are more often governed by benevolence with discipline respecting advances in medicine, counseling, and social sciences, encouraging a personal search for an intimate relationship with God. (2)
The need for monastic and spiritual formation remains paramount. Harmony of necessity demands concordance with the customs and expectations of the monastery while allowing for the complexities of those inquiring or entering the structured monastic life, renouncing the experiences of our complex twenty-first century. The tradition of public confession of shortcomings and community censure has given way to modern adult discipline employing humility, obedience, prudence, maturity, and compassion.
Those attracted to the Rule, whatever their state in life, can identify with the foibles of being human, embrace the instructions to review shortcomings, avoid scrupulosity, and strive for a continued life conversion.
(1) I use the English language terms of the 1980 translation edited by Fry et. Al: The Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with Notes; The Liturgical Press; Collegeville,
(2) McDonald R.R., Between the Marsh and the Skies the Mepkin Abbey Story; Evening Post Books; Charleston, S.C. 2023; p. 155
Richard Fitzgerald
