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Handout #109 |
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Citeaux, or the 'new monastary' |
| Abbot Aubri and
his brothers, not forgetting their promise, decided unanimously to
institute in this place the Rule of St. Benedict and to apply it,
rejecting all that went against this Rule, cloaks and fur-lined coats,
shirts and cowls, bed coverings and varied dishes in the refectory, fat
too and all that was contrary to the purity of the Rule ...
And since, on reading the Rule of the life of St. Benedict, they noted that this doctor had not had either churches or altars or offerings or burial places or offerings from other people, or ovens or mills or villages or men to till the land; that "men did not enter his monastery" and that he did not bury anyone other than his sister, they renounced all these things ... Filled with scorn for the riches of this age, the new soldiers of Christ, poor like the poor Christ, began to examine by what means, by what system, by what practice they could assure their own existence in this life and that of the guests, rich and poor, who came to them and whom their Rule required them to welcome as though they were Christ. They then resolved to accept bearded lay brothers, with the authorization of their bishop, and to treat them as themselves in life and in death, save only in the monastic state; they also employed workers for hire because without the help of these people they did not think that they could completely fulfill day and night the prescriptions of the Rule. As these holy men knew that the blessed Benedict had built his monasteries not in the cities, strongholds or villages but in places remote from the throng, they set about imitating him. And just as this holy man required that in monasteries there should be twelve monks and an abbot, so they set about doing the same thing. The Charter of Love, the first legislation for Citeaux, dating from about 1118.Aubri was the second abbot of Citeaux (1098-1108) |
