SOURCE: "The Psychological Dimensions of the Rule of St. Benedict," The American Benedictine Review, Vol. 34, No. 4, December, 1983, pp. 424-35.

[In the following essay, Sipe endeavors "to extrapolate ten essential psychological features that show [Benedict's] understanding of the human experience" that are addressed by the monastic experience.]

Benedict of Nursia, born in 480 A.D., wrote a brief rule—an order for a way of life—for monks. In 1980, approximately 30,000 men and women around the world claim this rule as their guide. That one fact alone would be of interest: why do some things endure over long centuries? But it is not simply durability that impresses me as I look into the Rule of St. Benedict. Much of the history of religious life in western culture has been influenced in some way by the Rule. Bernard of Clairvaux, Bruno of Cologne, Ignatius of Loyola, and even Thomas Aquinas, who grew up in a Benedictine house, are part of its legacy. Reforms, both monastic and ecclesiastical, cultural movements of almost opposing emphasis have been influenced by the Rule.

Wherein lies the Rule's secret for its endurance and attraction? In examining this document, one would find that it embodies a perception of reality that allows for vitality and that seeks creative expressions. Some say that the vitality and creativity of the Rule comes from its inspiration in Scripture, for it is an astute application of the Gospel message in the establishment of a Christian community. But there is also a psychological dimension that ensures the Rule's persistence. It lies in Benedict's keen perception of human nature and the human condition. To be sure, this psychological area is an appropriate one for study, as exemplified by the workshops and publications of the Institute for Religion and Human Development, the heir to St. John's University's Institute for Mental Health, in Collegeville, Minnesota. The Mental Health Institute was a unique endeavor that brought together Catholics and Protestants, laity and clergy, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.

Yet even those at the Institute would admit that the psychological elements to be studied are grounded in the monastic experience.¹ So, before identifying ten such elements, let me review the essential features of that monastic life.

Essential Elements of the Monastic Way of Life

Four elements characterize the Benedictine tradition: adaptability, relatedness, community awareness, and contemplation—all of which are related ultimately to a real awareness of the mystery of life and death.²

1. Adaptability.

The quality of adaptability is embodied in a vague vow, conversatio morum, unique to this religious tradition. By promising to change his habits, the monk seeks an ongoing change and development of himself and rejects any spiritual complacency that would hold him back. This quality implies a knowledge of the developmental character of any state in life and the necessity to be willing to give up what is outmoded if one is to grow. Indeed, there are both individual and communal (or social) components of this search for new or better ways to live and serve. The fact that monasticism has survived, is in some measure due to its adaptability.

2. Relatedness to Time and Place.

Because of this need to adapt to one's circumstances, the monk needs to be aware of his particular time and place—it is an historical realism that allows him to grow. Likewise, the monastic tradition, as contained in the Rule of St. Benedict, draws upon its historical ambience and relates to it. Because it is able to relate to it, monastic living is able to contribute in a real way to the culture of its time.

3. Community Awareness.

Benedictine monasticism is also concerned with the development of a community. Prior to Benedict's establishment of a rule, a person who pursued a religious dedication generally did it alone and practiced it in silence or in some remote area or even atop a pillar.³ Benedict's concept of community fosters individual dedication within the context of a group: it is based on the admonition of the Gospel to love one's neighbor as oneself. The community ideal is to make love of neighbor a practical reality. In modern terms, the monk is to become an expert in interpersonal relations. The sense of community goes beyond the community's immediate members and even extends its bonds of relatedness to the immediate and more distant historical past.

4. Contemplation (Intra-personal Integrity).

Contemplation is an essential part of the monastic life; yet it has been miserably misunderstood over the past decades and mistakenly identified with isolation or romanticized with no relation to practical existence. Contemplation as a process has to do essentially with self-discovery. In modern terms, it has to do with intra-personal awareness. Indeed, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy have secularized and popularized this ancient achievement. For Benedictines, it is a process of finding God in oneself and of losing oneself in God. It is more than an exercise, but a real, practical, and personal experience. There is no way of knowing God without knowing oneself: the measure of loving God whom one does not see is the love one has for the neighbor (the community) whom one does see, and the measure of one's love for another is the measure of love which one has for oneself. Especially at the beginning of the monastic experience, Benedict's Rule provides a time of quiet work and meditation to allow the novices to examine their deepest motivations and clarify life's goals. Erik Erikson has pointed out that the monastery

offers methods of making a meditative descent into the inner shafts of mental existence from which the aspirant emerges with the gold of faith or with the gems of wisdom. These shafts, however, are psychological as well as meditative; they lead not only into the depths of adult inner experience, but also downward into the most primitive layers and backwards into our infantile beginnings.4

Psychological Elements of the Monastic Way of Life

The monastic regimen—as marked by these four essential elements of adaptability, relatedness, community awareness, and contemplation—reflects Benedict's perception of reality and human existence. His understanding of human life values personal growth, productivity, charity, and humility—the fruits of the four essential elements of the monastic experience. But he recognizes, as other spiritual leaders before him do not, that religious life, one that was completely human, was not one of extremes or severe denials of the self. Instead, he sees the need for balance and integration.

Thus, when Benedict drafted his Rule in the sixth century, he intended it as a document that would guide others in their living, in order "to save their souls." His acute perception of what made human life "whole" fills the many concrete precepts of the Rule. At the same time, there are psychological underpinnings to the Rule that seem to speak even to the modern world. It is a credit to Benedict's genius that he recognized this psychological dimension to human life. In my reading of Benedict's Rule, I have tried to extrapolate ten essential psychological features that show his understanding of the human experience that are fulfilled in the monastic experience.

1. Interiority.

The spirit of interiority infuses the whole Rule (=RB); the commitment to this element is expounded unmistakably in chapter six, "On Silence," and chapter seven, "On Humility," which preeminently lays out the inner quest. Benedict compares the human condition—the present here-and-now life—of the monk with Jacob's ladder (Gen. 28:13): "We may call our body and soul the sides of this ladder, into which our divine vocation has fitted the various steps of humility and discipline as we ascend" (RB 7.9).⁵ He then describes a process of progressive interior awareness that will result in an integrated life. These twelve steps lead the aspirant into the depths, a course "tried by fire," that can be countered or matched only by difficult denials and mastery of self.

A modern psychologist might be tempted to dismiss summarily such a process that ends with the subject being "ever mindful of the guilt of his sins" before the judgment seat of God. But the language of sixth century Europe should not blind us to the profound reality that Benedict describes and the masterful observation it represents. The people who complete this process will find themselves beyond fear, free (cleansed), and "in tune" with themselves and their environment: "all that he once performed with dread, he will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, from habit.…" (RB 7.68) The process of growth that Benedict outlines is based on his observation of the human condition, one that reveals a deep abiding awareness of its external, internal, and transcendental reality.⁶ The awareness of guilt restores an essential order within ourselves and our environment that is manifested in meaningful and productive living.

2. Reverence for Physical Needs.

Benedict's concept of interiority fosters a sense of reverence for human needs—food, sleep, clothing—because the external life has to be ordered realistically, if the interior life is to grow without undue hindrance. The interiority of the Rule is not a product of excessive deprivation, aimed at killing human instincts. Order, self-mastery, moderation, faith in the process of personal growth and development characterize the rules that regulate the food, drink, sleep, and clothing of monks. Each person is to receive "as he had need" (RB 34). Infirmities are also to be looked after.

Seven full chapters (RB 35-41) are devoted to the regulation of meals. Those persons who serve food should be given enough help so that they may perform their duty "without distress." Kitchen workers should receive "a drink and some bread over and above the regular portion, so that at mealtime, they may serve their brothers without grumbling or hardship" (RB 35.12-13). Sick brethren should have special food and care (RB 36). The elderly and children should also receive special consideration: e.g., they should eat before regular hours (RB 37). The atmosphere at these meals should be peaceful, free from the concern or burden of socializing: thus, a competent reader reads from Scripture or sacred writings to provide this ambience. His service, too, "because of Holy Communion and because of the fast may be too hard for him to bear [should be eased] by some diluted wine before he begins to read" (RB 38.10). The amount of food and drink is regulated by chapters thirty-nine and forty. The portions allowed are certainly generous and at least two dishes are provided: "In this way, the person who may not be able to eat one kind of food may partake of the other … and if fruit or fresh vegetables are available, a third dish may also be added" (RB 39.3) and an amount of wine is provided daily. The hours of meals are set, but flexible, depending on work, weather and needs of the liturgical season. "Similarly, he [the abbot] should so regulate and arrange all matters that souls may be saved and the brothers may go about their activities without any justifiable grumbling" (RB 41.5).

Benedict's provisions for clothing (RB 55) is a masterpiece of common sense: "The clothing distributed to the brothers should vary according to local conditions and climate" (RB 55.1). Preferably, they should be locally-made, economical, and well-fitting. Discarded clothing should still be good enough to be of use to the poor. Those who go on a journey ought to dress a little better than they usually would at home.

Sleeping arrangements are well-provided for (RB 22), and Benedict's instructions even reveal a sensitivity for those who find it difficult to rise from sleep. Bed linen should be in good supply and on the comfortable side (RB 55). Sleep should be ample, so that they may rise fully refreshed (RB 8), with digestion comfortably completed.

3. Community Bonding.

The Rule is clearly intended for cenobites, "those who belong to a monastery, where they serve under a rule and an abbot" (RB 1). The psychological binding is to a group of people, who share a common space and time. The analogy to "family" is natural. The abbot is the "father" (or "mother") figure who bears the ultimate and awesome responsibility for the functioning and well-being of the monastery (RB 2). Although the image of "shepherd" is also liberally used throughout the Rule to describe the role of the abbot, he is ultimately the "father" (parent) to the monks, who are termed "brothers" (RB 64). Although the abbot is to seek counsel from the brethren (RB 3), and even if he appoints assistants to aid in administering affairs, in the end, all must remain under his direction (RB 65): "For the preservation of peace and love we have, therefore, judged it best for the abbot to make all decisions in the conduct of his monastery" (RB 65.11).

Thus, the monastery provides that important psychological factor—a personal structure to which a person can relate. The particular disciplines of monastic living are not as essential (in psychological terms) as the reality of the object relationships that are expected, fostered, relied upon, and enhanced by the members of the community. The Rule provides for a well-regulated, ordered, and well-disciplined social organization that can be called a family. Entrance into this close communal bond is first through a period of thoughtful deliberation that ends with a religious ritual marking the reception of the candidate into the community (RB 58). Once a candidate becomes a full member of the community, he is given a particular place or rank within the group (RB 65). The seven chapters on the manner of punishment (RB 23-30) only emphasize the importance of the group's solidarity: excommunication is the severest consequence of aberrant behavior. The order, reverence, mutual concern, and interdependence of its members upon each others talents and material goods as required by the Rule cultivates personal identification, a sense of belonging, and deep friendship—in short, it offers a personal bonding, based on authentic object relatedness.

4. Attention to Learning.

The Rule allows a place for learning, education in the more formal sense, in recognizing it as an essential part of human nature. Schools, one of the hallmarks of the Benedictine order, are not a necessary outgrowth of the Rule, but this essential psychological orientation toward learning makes schools logical and acceptable. The monastery itself as "a school for the Lord's service" (RB Prologue) is a place and an experience of personal growth and development (we have already commented on the seminal nature of the growth process described in chapter seven of the Rule). Chapter four, on the instruments of good works, provides a compendium of tasks to be mastered and attitudes to be actively cultivated.

Learning, reading, and study are woven closely into the fiber of daily existence. Reading, for instance, found its way into the monastic routine: "Reading will always accompany the meals of the brothers" (RB 38.1); as soon as they have risen from supper, "all the monks will sit together immediately.… Someone should read from the Conferences or Lives of the Fathers or at any rate something else that will benefit the hearers" (RB 42.3). Reading is encouraged at midday, and during Lent special attention is given the task of reading (RB 48). Through the daily recitation of psalms in the liturgy of the hours (the Divine Office), a monk grows to know the psalter well: "In the time remaining after Vigils, those who need to learn some of the psalter or readings should study them" (RB 8.3).

A love for learning is presumed by the Rule. A monk must know his letters, since his petition for vows is to be written in his own hand (RB 58). When an abbot is to be selected, "goodness of life and wisdom of teaching must be the criteria for choosing the one to be made abbot" (RB 64.2). The final chapter of the Rule (RB 73) is a veritable bibliography for monastic study: the books of the Old and New Testament, the teaching of the Holy Fathers (i.e., the Desert Fathers), the holy Catholic Fathers (Fathers of the Church), conferences, Institutes of John Cassian, and Lives of the Fathers, and the Rule of St. Basil, among others. Furthermore, this reverence for learning as an integral part of daily living led naturally to the preservation and reproduction of books, secular as well as sacred, in the monastic scriptorium. This psychological stance toward learning, then, as a natural part of daily existence, supports a tendency toward competency and an intellectual orientation that is confirmed by observing the monastic life itself.

5. Work as Mastery.

The learning that is encouraged is balanced by the practical demands of physical work. This positive attitude toward work is sustained partly by the nature of communal life and common property. Some time is spent each day in maintaining one's environment. Two substantial work periods are prescribed for each day, when the monks "are to return to whatever work is necessary" (RB 48.6). Since "the monastery should, if possible be so constructed that within it all necessities, such as water, mill, and garden are contained, and the various crafts are practiced" (RB 16.6), work is always at hand. No one looks upon work as demeaning or the wages of sin; instead, "when they live by the labor of their hands, as our fathers and the apostles did, then they are really monks" (RB 49.8). Through work, the monks come to understand the meaning of interdependence and mutuality as well as how to develop and share their talents. This pride in the necessity of labor flowered over and over again in the agricultural, artistic, and architectural expressions of significant dimensions wherever the Rule was established throughout history.

6. Service as Meaningful Existence (Altruism).

The idea of service is central to a monk's whole life, for he believes that service makes a difference in the lives of others. In one of the final chapters, the Rule encourages a zeal for altruism as inspiration for the monastic life: "No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else" (RB 72.7). In fact, the monastic life is wholly dedicated to another's service, that of God. Each member of the community provides a service. The abbot serves the brethren and does not lord it over them (RB 64). The prior (RB 65), the cellarer (RB 31), and the porter (RB 66) see "that no one may be disquieted or distressed in the house of God" (RB 31.19). Service is always directed toward someone else. Honor, empathy, charity, sincerity, and humility should mark the brotherhood and their mutual service. The cellarer is "like a father to the whole community" for he attends guests with reverence (RB 53). All monks should receive the poor with a prompt and gentle response (RB 66). Indeed, Benedict speaks of the "usual measure of our service" (RB 49.5) that is fulfilled in the regular daily observance of the Rule.

7. Order.

Thirteen chapters of the Rule are devoted to the regulation of community prayer. Called the opus Dei (work of God), the official regimen of prayer set aside specific times of the day—morning, noon, night—around which all other aspects of daily life, work, maintenance, and meals were fit. Even a journey outside the monastery (RB 50) or the inability to return to the oratory for prayers was not in itself enough cause to lay aside this daily order and structure of life. The daily, seasonal, and annual cycle of recitations measured out human life into manageable segments and made synchrony with vital rhythms possible. Since it is a high priority of the Rule, order provides a major force for fostering inner regulation in strong personalities and at the same time provides a workable structure for weaker developing ones.

8. Balance (Moderation).

If any quality of spirit stands out in the Benedictine Rule, contrasted to earlier monastic rules or later reforms, it is moderation. Moderation in all things is counseled; excess should be avoided (RB 39). In food and drink, wine should be used sparingly (RB 40), and the hour of meals should be tempered and arranged to avoid complaints among the brethren. The abbot, especially, has responsibility for the tone of life and must practice the moderation the Rule seeks. He "must show forethought and consideration in his orders, and whether the task he assigns concerns God or the world, he should be discerning and moderate" (RB 64.11). In correcting vices, he must "use prudence and avoid extremes" (RB 64.12). He must accommodate himself to the character, intelligence, and disposition of many (RB 2) as well as be adaptable and balanced in his judgment. Even prayer, in spite of its premier place in the structure of monastic life, was to be moderated—always "short and pure" (RB 20.4)—and "if anyone finds this distribution of psalms unsatisfactory, he should arrange whatever he judges better" (RB 18.22).

Thus, balance lies at the heart of the Rule. It provides structure without rigidity, principle without arrogance, and like tempered steel, it is both strong and flexible. Besides infusing the whole of monastic living with a tone of moderation, it integrates its various parts. Benedict must have understood that balanced living could meet the demands of human nature, resolve the conflicts between the inner and outer realities, and forge a psychic unity and a spiritual integrity.

9. Security.

The Rule also anticipates the need for security in human nature. Several aspects of monastic living engender this sense of security. One of them is the distribution of goods, where each receives according to his particular need (RB 34), so that mutual reliance is cultivated. As a correlative, a monk should not own anything, but hold all things in common with his brothers (RB 33). However important these matters are in the ordinary material disposition of daily life, they do not comprise in themselves the core of the security described in the Rule. Essentially, this security rests upon a commitment to a way of life, formalized in the vow to a monastic way of life (conversatio morum) and made permanent in the vow of stability. The monastery is the "house built on rock"; it is the world where the monk lives and perseveres until death (RB Prologue). Cenobites are the "strong kind" of monks (RB 1) and the only ones whom Benedict will consider in his Rule. One is not easily admitted to this community, but only after being examined for "perseverance in his stability" (RB 58) and after having studied the Rule three times.

In other words, the sense of stability, enduring circumstances, rootedness in interpersonal relationships, with bonds to time, place, and practical realities, are fundamental to personal growth and development as Benedict sees it. Commitment to a community in time and place reflects the inner reality of these permanent bonds and roots that make transformations of external reality a logical consequence. One needs only to look at the cultural, educational, and scientific achievements made by religious communities in Western culture to appreciate the impact—and freedom—of psychological security in coping with life.

10. Beauty (Acknowledgment of Legitimate Pleasure).

Beauty is an integral part of the Rule. The monasteries themselves testify to this.⁷ The site of Benedict's first full monastic experiment, Monte Cassino, is only the premier example of this element in monastic life; Mont St. Michel is perhaps the most romantic example of it in practice. To be sure, this last element, the need for legitimate pleasure in forms of beauty, is the most derivative and the least explicit of the elements presented in the Rule. Yet, a love for beauty seems to flow naturally from the conditions provided by monastic living. The order and balance in day-to-day living, reverence for learning, and attention to simple human needs, form a psychological synergism easily demonstrable in monastic history. They give rise to a number of expressions. For example, liturgical prayer led to its natural enhancement through psalmody and gesture. The practical necessity of providing permanent, stable housing allowed for architectural achievements. The task of copying manuscripts led to the art of embellishment and illumination. In short, it seems that the monastic spirit cannot be indulged without a natural sublimation into beautiful as well as practical forms.

Thus, the psychology manifested in the Benedictine Rule reveals a keen perception of the human condition. Yet my exploration into this psychological dimension of the Rule barely touches the wealth of insight embedded in the document. Further analysis of the psychological principles of the Rule can profit from inquiry that takes into account the formulations of modern social sciences. Topics such as character formation, narcissism, and object relationships are but a few areas where religious and social scientific perspectives can exchange insight with mutual practical results. Scientific analysis and identification of modern psychological equivalents of the monastic experience do not denigrate the Rule's religious value. If anything, they only deepen our appreciation for the profound religious contribution made by St. Benedict.

Notes

¹ Thomas Merton, The Silent Life (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy 1957) p. 81.

² A. W. Richard Sipe, "Memento Mori: Memento Vivere—In the Rule of St. Benedict," The American Benedictine Review 27 (March 1974) 96-107.

³ Although St. Basil wrote rules for communal monasticism in the fourth century and, in the same century, St. Pachomius established monastic communities in Egypt, neither tradition represents the balance, maturity and integration manifest in Benedict's rule.

⁴ Erik H. Erikson, Young Man Luther (New York: W. W. Norton 1958) p. 109.

⁵RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict, in Latin and English with Notes, ed. Timothy Fry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press 1981).

⁶ Thomas Merton, "Final Integration: Toward a 'Monastic Therapy,'" The Journal of Pastoral Counseling 4 (1969).

⁷ Walter Horn and Emest Born, The Plan of St. Gall, 3 vols. (Berkeley: The University of California Press 1979).