Sacred Energy

A novice spends a full year in trial before taking final vows, so that the choice, once made, is made with open and settled eyes

The Rule requires the text itself to be read aloud to the candidate repeatedly during the trial year, so consent is renewed with full knowledge rather than given once blindly.

Chapter 58 of the Rule of Saint Benedict lays out one of the more procedurally careful admission processes in ancient monastic law. A newcomer is not received quickly: Benedict specifies that the Rule must be read aloud to the candidate at set intervals during the trial year, with the warning each time that this is the law under which he proposes to live, so his consent is renewed with fuller knowledge rather than given once in ignorance. Only after this extended testing — traditionally understood as roughly a year — does the novice make final, binding vows of stability, conversion of life, and obedience. The chapter reflects a broader instinct in the Rule: a permanent commitment, including its implicit commitment to celibate community life, is only as sound as the deliberation that preceded it.

Rule of Saint Benedict

Written about in

• What the celibate traditions say about making a hard decision

  Benedict's Rule pulls hard the other way. Chapter 58 has the Rule read aloud to the candidate at set intervals through the trial year, each time with the warning that this is the law he proposes to live under, so consent is renewed with fuller knowledge rather than given once in ignorance.