The Rule Of Pachomius, Part 1
Translated by Esmeralda Ramirez de Jennings
Edited by Rev. Daniel R. Jennings
Prescriptions from our Father Pachomius. Man of God who Founded the Coenobitic
Life In Its Origins By the Order of God
The precepts start here:
Whoever comes for his first time to the sinaxis of the saints, will be introduced by the doorman as it is he who will
normally accompany visitors from the door of the monastery and will make him sit in the assembly of the brothers; he
will not be allowed to move, nor modify his rank; he will wait for the oikiakos, namely: the purpose of the house, that
will install him in the position that is convenient for him to occupy.
He will sit with all decorum and modesty, placing underneath him the bottom part of his goat skin that he ties to
his shoulder, and closing his dress very carefully, this is the sleeveless linen tunic, so that he has his knees covered.
When the voice of the trumpet is heard that calls the sinaxis, in the same moment they will go to the cell,
meditating a passage of Scripture until they reach the door of the place of the sinaxis.
When they go to church to take the place where they have to sit or stand, they will be careful to not smash the
steeped rushes prepared for the fabric of the strings, so that the negligence does not cause any damage, even if
minimum to the monastery.
In the evening, when they hear a sign, do not delay next to the fire that is usually lit to warm up the body to
defend from the cold.
Do not stay sitting without doing anything during the sinaxis, but prepare with a watching hand the rushes that will
serve to weave the strings of the dorm mats. Nevertheless, avoid being tired, he who has a weak body, will be given
a permission to interrupt his duty from time to time.
When the one that has the first place has clapped his hands, repeating a memorized passage from Scripture, to
give a sign of the end of the prayer, none will delay in getting up, but everybody will get up at the same time.
No one should watch the other brother who would be prancing a string or praying; his eyes should be focused on
his own job.
Behold the precepts of life that the elders have transmitted. If during the chanting, the prayers, or the readings,
someone talks or laughs, he will untie his girdle instantly and will go before the altar with his head bowed and
downfallen arms. After the father of the monastery had reprehended him there, he will repeat this same penitence in
the refectory, when all of the brothers had gathered.
During the day, when the trumpet had rung for the sinaxis, the one who gets there after the first prayer will be
lectured by his superior with a reprimand and will stay standing in the refectory.
But, during the night, since (at those hours) we are more understanding to the weakness of the body, the one
who arrives after the first three prayers, will be corrected in the same way at church and at the refectory.
When the brothers are praying during the sinaxis, no one will leave without orders from the elders, or without
having asked and being given the permission to leave for the natural needs.
No one will distribute the rushes that are to weave the strings, unless he is the one who is on duty during the
week to do that. If someone is not allowed to do it because of a justified work, he will wait for the orders of his
superior.
For the service during the week in each house, they will not choose the ones who have the first places who recite
passages from Scripture in the assembly of all the brothers. They will choose by the order of the brothers who are
sitting and standing, the ones who were capable to repeat by heart whichever thing has been commanded to them.
If the weekly person in charge of officiating the choir or the altar forgets or hesitates when reciting something, he
will get the correction that negligence and forgetfulness deserve.
None of them will be absent on Sundays, or when they make the oblation because he must have the place of the
singer to respond to the one who chants. This regards to at least the ones who belong to the house that is on duty
of the great week. Because in each house there is a service of a small week assured by a smaller number of
brothers. If this number were to increase, the chief of the house of the great week will call other brothers of the same
group that his house belongs to. But without his order no one who belongs to another house of the same group will
chant. And it is absolutely forbidden to a brother from a house to participate in the service of another house, unless
it is a part of the same group, or tribe, as his. We call tribe the group of three or four houses (this number varies) it
depends on the number of brothers and the importance of the monastery, which we could call families or clans of a
same nation.
None will receive permission of chanting on Sundays or during the sinaxis in which he should offer oblation,
except the chief of the house and the elders of the monastery or the ones which function is incumbent on.
If an elder makes a mistake when he chants, namely: when he reads the Psalter, he will submit to the point,
before the altar, to the ritual of penitence and of the reprimand.
He who abandons the sinaxis of the offering of the oblation without the permission of its superior, will be rebuked
instantly.
By the morning, in each house, after finishing the prayer, the brothers will not go back immediately to their cells.
They will first have a colloquy about what was exposed by the chairman in the conferences and then they will return
to their rooms.
The ones who govern the houses will give three conferences a week; in these conferences, when the brothers sit
or stand, they will take their own seats, according to the order of the houses and the individuals.
If anyone who is sitting falls asleep during the conference, the chairman of the house or the father of the
monastery, will commanded to him to stand up immediately and will remain standing until he has received the order
of sitting again.
When the signal had rang for getting together to listen to the precepts of the elders, no one will stay where they
were and will not stir the fire up, until the end of the conference. Whoever omits one of these precepts, will be
reprimanded with what we had mentioned before.
The one who is on duty during the week will not be able to give the [musical] strings or any other object without
the order of the father of the monastery. Without it he would not even be able to give the sign to gather for the
sinaxis at noon or the six prayers in the afternoon.
After the morning prayer, the officer of the week whom has been trusted the work, will ask the father of the
monastery about all the things that he consider necessary and about the moment in which the brothers should go to
work in the fields; and, according to the order that he had received, he will traverse each house and will teach each
one what they have to do.
If anyone asks for a book to read, he will receive it. But on the weekend he will return it to its place because of
the brothers that succeed in the service.
If they weave door mats, the weekly person in charge of the choir and the altar will ask in the afternoon the chiefs
of each house which is the amount of rushes that they need in their house; depending on the answer he will wet the
amount of rushes needed, to distribute them the next morning to each one by their order. If during the morning he
realizes that he is going to need more, he will wet them and take them to each house, until they give the sign for
lunch.
The chief of the house who finishes the week and the one who relieves him, as well as the father of the
monastery, will take care of checking what has been omitted or neglected from the work. He will also make the door
mats shake that are extended ordinarily on the floor of the church and will count the strings of each week that are to
be weaved. They will write the result on the wooden tablets that they will keep until the time of the annual reunion, in
the course of which they settle accounts and give absolution of the faults.
When coming from the sinaxis, the brothers, who are leaving one by one, to their cells or to the refectory, will
meditate about any passage of Scripture and no one will have their heads covered when they meditate.
And when they had come to the refectory, they will sit by order of the places that have been given and will cover
their head.
When an elder tells you to change tables, you will not resist him in the least. You will not dare to serve yourself
before the chief of the house. You will not observe the ones who eat.
Each of the chairmen will teach the members of their house how to eat, with discipline and modesty. If anyone
talks or laughs during the meals he will make penance and will be rebuked instantly in his place. He will stand and
will stay standing until some of the other brothers that are sitting stand.
If anyone gets to the table late, unless it was because the order of a superior had caused the tardiness, he will
make the same penance or will go back to his house without having eaten.
If at the table they need something, no one will dare to talk; but rather, through a sound will make a sign to the
ones who serve.
If you leave the table, you will not speak when you come back, until you have come back to your place.
The ones who serve will not eat any other thing but that which has been prepared for all the brothers in general
and will not be permitted to make different dishes.
The person in charge to call the brothers to the refectory will meditate while he does it.
That one who, at the doors of the refectory, distributes the dessert to the brothers who leave the table, will
meditate about any passage from Scripture while he does his duty.
The person that receives the given dessert, will not put it in his cowl but in his skin (of goat) and will not eat
before having come to his house.
The one who distributes the dessert to the brothers will receive his portion from the hands of his chairman, which
the other servers will also do. Whatever they have received should be enough for three days. If at the end of those
three days they have some in excess, they will take it back to the chief of the house who will reintegrate it in the
pantry, where it will remain until, mixed with others, will be given to all the brothers.
Nobody will give more to one than to another.
If one is sick, the chairman will go to see the servants of the sick and will receive from them whatever is
necessary.
If the sick is one of the servants of the table, he will not have permission to enter into the kitchen or in the pantry
with the purpose of withdrawing anything. The other servants will be the ones who will give him whatever he needs.
He will not be allowed to cook for himself if he wants to, but the chairmen will receive from the other servants
whatever they consider necessary.
No one will enter the infirmary without being sick. Whoever is sick will be conducted by the chairman of his house
to the infirmary. If he needs a robe or other things like dresses or food, the chairman will be the one who will receive
from the hands of the servants and will give them immediately to the sick person.
A sick brother won’t be able to enter into the place where they eat, nor consume whatever he desires, without
being taken there to eat by the servant in charge of that duty. He will not be allowed to take anything to his cell
from which he had received in the infirmary, not even a fruit.
The ones who cook will serve by turns to the ones who are in the table.
Nobody will receive wine or soup out of the infirmary.
If anyone from the ones who are sent on a trip gets sick on the way or on a boat and has the need or desires to
eat soup of fish or other things that are eaten usually in the monastery, he will not eat with other brothers but apart
from them, and the ones who serve will give him abundantly, so that that sick brother is not contrite in anything.
No one will dare to visit a sick person without the permission of his superior. Not even someone of his relatives
or his brothers will be able to see him without the order of the chairman.
If anyone transgresses or neglects some of these prescriptions, he will be rebuked with the usual reprimand.
If anyone who comes to the door of the monastery with the purpose of quitting the world and to be considered
among the brothers, he will not have the freedom to enter. They will start by informing the father of the monastery.
The candidate will stay some days in the exterior, at the door. They will teach him the Lord’s Prayer and the psalms
that he is able to learn. He will send carefully the proofs to show that his will motivates him [to join]. This is to make
sure that they haven’t committed a crime, and troubled by fear, had fled without delay to the monastery; or that he is
a slave of someone. This will allow us to discern if he will be able to quit his relatives and to undervalue material
richness. If he satisfies all of these exigencies, they will teach him all of the disciplines of the monastery, and what he
should carry on and that which he has to accept, whether it is in the sinaxis that gathers all of the brothers together,
in a house where he would be sent or in the refectory. Instructed like that and consumed in every good deed, he will
be able to be with the brothers. Then he will be divested of his dresses from the century and dressed with the habit
of the monks. Then he will be trusted to the doorman who, during the time of prayer, will take him to the presence of
all the brothers and will make him sit in his assigned place. The clothes that he brought will be received by the ones
in charge of this duty, kept in the clothier’s trade and at the disposition of the father of the monastery.
No one who lives in the monastery will be able to receive somebody in the refectory; but will send him to the
doorman of the hostel so that he is received by the ones in charge of this duty. When people come to the door of
the monastery, if it is about clergymen or monks, they will be received with samples of the highest honor. They will
wash their feet, according to the evangelic precept (John 13) and will be taken to the hostel where they will supply
them with all the things that are used by the monks. If, at the moment of the prayer or the sinaxis, they desire to
participate in the reunion with the brothers, if they belong to the same faith, the doorman or the servant of the hostel
will warn the father of the monastery; then they will be taken to the prayer.
If they are laymen, sick or weaker persons (1 Peter 3:17) we mean women by weaker persons, the ones who
come to the door will receive them in different places, depending on their sex and the direction of their purpose.
Over all women will be treated with a higher respect, including attention and fear of God. They will host them totally
separated from men, so that immoral things will not happen. And even if they arrived in the evening, it would look
bad if they did not receive them. In this case they will receive them in the separate and closed lodging which we
have mentioned before, with all the discipline and precautions required so that the multitude of the brothers can be
freely busy in their works and we don’t give a motive so anyone is denigrated.
If anyone shows up at the door of the monastery, asking to see his brother or a relative, the doorman will let the
father of the monastery know, and this one will call the chief of the house and will ask him if the brother is part of it,
and with his permission, the brother will receive him with a safe companion and will send him to see his brother or
relative. If by any chance this one has taken some of the kind of food that it is allowed to eat in the monastery, the
monk will not be able to receive them directly but will call the doorman who will receive the gift. If this gift is something
that can be eaten with bread, this will not be allowed to be eaten anywhere by the monk, except in the infirmary. But
if they are snacks or fruits, they will give them to the doorman so that he can eat them and the rest will be taken to
the infirmary.
The doorman will not be able to eat anything that he has received. He will recompense the donor with cabbage,
breads or some vegetables.
That one who had been given the food which we have mentioned, the ones that are brought by relatives or
friends and are to be eaten with bread, will be taken by his chairman to the infirmary and he will eat them just once.
What is left will be to the disposition of the servant of the sick, but not for his personal needs.
When letting a brother know that one of his relatives or friends is sick, the doorman will first tell the father of the
monastery. This one will call the chairman of the house which that brother is a part of, he will interrogate him, and
together will think of a man they trust and is observant of the rules no matter how hard the trial and will send him with
the brother to visit the sick person. (For the trip) they will take the amount of provisions that the chief of the house
had disposed. If the need obligates them to stay longer (from what they had planned) out of the monastery and to
eat with his parents and relatives, they will not accept it, but rather they will go to a church or a monastery of the
same faith. If the relatives or friends prepare or offer food they will not accept them or eat them unless they are the
same that are usually eaten in the monastery. They will not taste brine-pickle, nor wine, nor other thing out of the
ones they usually eat at the monastery. When they have accepted a thing from their relatives, they will eat only
enough for the trip, the rest they will give it to the chief of the house, who will take it to the infirmary.
If the father or brother of one of the brothers dies, this person will not be able to attend the funeral rites unless
the father of the monastery allows him to.
No one will be sent alone to take care of a matter of the monastery, but he will be given a companion.
And when they come back to the monastery, if they find someone in front of the door that wants to see someone
from the monastery that they know, they will not be able to look for him, or tell him that someone is waiting outside for
him or call him. They will not be able to say anything in the monastery of what they had seen outside.
When they ring to leave for work, the chief of the house will march ahead of the brothers and no one will remain
at the monastery without having been told to do so by the father of the monastery. The ones that leave for work will
not ask where they are going.
When all the houses get together, the chief of the first house will march ahead of everybody else according to
the order of the houses and individuals. They will not speak, but each will meditate over a passage from Scripture. If
somebody happens to encounter the brothers and wants to speak to one, the doorman of the monastery will go
ahead of them that is in charge of this duty and will reply to him. They will be served by him as an intermediate. If
the doorman is not there, the chief of the house or some other brother that has received the order for it, will reply to
the ones that are with the brothers.
During the work of the brothers they will not utter any worldly word; they will meditate in the holy things, or, at
least, will keep quiet.
No one is allowed to take their mantle of linen for going to work, unless their superior has allowed him to. In the
beginning, no one will dress in his mantle when they are walking around the monastery after the sinaxis.
Nobody will sit during the work without the order of his superior.
If the ones that guide the brothers by the way have the need of sending someone for any kind of business, they
will not be able to do it without the order of the chairman. And if the same that guides the brothers is compelled to go
to a certain place, he will trust his obligations to the one that, according to the order, comes after him.
If the brothers that are sent to work in the exterior of the monastery need to eat outside of the monastery, a
weekly worker will accompany to give them their meals that do not need baking and to distribute them water, as it is
done in the monastery.
No one will be able to stand up to take out or to drink water.
When coming back to the monastery (from their job) they will do it in the order that is correspondent to each of
them by their rank. When they return to their houses, the brothers will give the supplies back, and their shoes will be
given to the second after the chief of the houses. By the afternoon this one will take them to a separate cell where
he will keep them.
By the end of the week, all of the supplies will be taken and put in order just in one house so that the ones that
take their turn every week know what they will provide for each house.
No monk will wash the robes and all that is a part of their outfit on a day other than Sunday, except the sailors
and the bakers.
No one will go do the laundry if they have not given the order for everybody to do so; they will follow their
chairman; the laundry will be done silently and with order.
When doing the laundry, no one will roll up their clothes more than what is allowed. When they finish washing,
everybody will come back at the same time. If anyone is absent or at the monastery, he will let his chairman know
who will send another brother. Once he has washed his clothes he will return to his home.
The brothers will pick up their robes in the afternoon when they are dry, and will give them to the second
(namely, the one that is next to them up to the chairman), who will send them to the clothing room. But if they were
not ready, they will hang them in the sun until the next they or until they are dry. They will not be exposed to the
sunbeams any later than nine a.m.. After they pick them they will soften them lightly. They will not be kept by the
brothers in their cells, but they will hand them in so they are put in order in the clothing room until Saturday.
No one will take vegetables from the Garden; they will receive them from the gardener.
No one will just decide to pick up the leaves of the palm tree that are used to weave the baskets, except the
person in charge of the palm trees.
No one is supposed to eat grapes or ears of corn that are not ripe yet, this is to be careful to keep everything in
order. And in general, no one that eats in private can find it in the field or in the garden patch before the products
are presented to all of the brothers.
The cook will not eat before the brothers.
The person in charge of the palm trees will not eat of its fruits before the brothers had tasted them.
The ones that had been told to reap the fruits of the palm trees will receive each from their chairman, in their
same work place, some fruits to eat, and when they have come back to the monastery, they will receive their part like
the rest.
If they find fallen fruits from the trees they will not dare to eat them, and the ones on their way will put them at the
foot of the trees. The one that distributes the fruits to the workers will not be able to eat them. He will take them to
the curator-trustee that will give him his part at the moment of the distribution to the other brothers.
Nobody will store food in their cells, except he had received it from the economist-trustee.
Regarding the bread the chiefs of each house receive to give them to the ones who don’t want to eat in the
common refectory with the brothers, because they are dedicated to a more austere abstinence, the chairmen will
take care to give them to them without making any difference, not even with the ones who leave (to travel). They will
not place them in a common place because then everybody could take anything they want. They will give them to
each brother in their cell, respecting the order of periodicity with which they want to eat. With these pieces of bread,
the brothers will not eat anything other than salt.
The food will be cooked only at the monastery and in the kitchen. If the brothers go to the exterior, namely, if they
go to work in the fields, they will receive seasoned vegetables with salt and vinegar. In the summer these vegetables
will be prepared in an abundant amount so there is enough (food) for the prolonged works.
Nobody will have in their house or cell anything beyond what it is prescribed in general in the rule of the
monastery. Therefore, the brothers will not have a linen robe, nor a softer skin –the one for the lamb that has not
been sheared -, nor money, nor pillows of feathers for their head, nor other effects. They will not have anything but
what the father of the monastery distributes to the chiefs of the house, which is two robes, plus another worn out by
the use, a garment big enough so as to roll the collar and the back, and a skin of goat, that is buttoned on one side,
shoes, two cowls, and a cane. Everything they find beside this they will put away without protesting.
No body will have for their particular use tweezers to remove the thorns that he sticks himself with when walking.
They are reserved for the chairmen of the house and their second-in-command; he will hook it in the window where
they place the books on.
If anyone passes from a house to another one, he will not be able to take more than what we have said above.
Nobody will be able to go to the fields, walk around the monastery or go beyond their place without having been
allowed by the chairman of the house.
It is necessary to restrain from bringing stories from one house to the other, or from a monastery to the other, or
the monastery to the fields, or from the fields to the monastery.
If a brother is traveling, on land or by ship or works outside the monastery he will not tell anyone at the
monastery what he has seen people doing outside it.
They will always sleep upon the sidewalk prepared for this reason, or in the cell, on the terraces (where one
settles at night to avoid the high temperatures), or in the fields.
When they have settled to sleep they will not speak with anybody. If after being laid down they awake during the
night and they are thirsty, if it is a day of fasting they will not be allowed to drink.
Outside the door mat, nothing will be extended on the sidewalk.
It is prohibited to enter in the cell of the neighbor without having knocked first on the door.
Nobody will go eat without having been called by the general sign. They will not circulate around the monastery
before they have been given a signal.
Monks do not walk by the monastery to go to the sinaxis or to the refectory, without their cowl and their goat skin.
They are not allowed to soften their hands after work without the company of a brother. Nobody will anoint the
body completely, except in the case of sickness; nor would take a shower or wash completely with water without
being manifestly sick.
No one will be allowed to shower or anoint a brother without being told to do that.
Don’t let anyone talk to their brother in darkness.
Do not let any brother sleep with another brother on the same door mat.
Let no one hold another’s hand.
When the brothers are standing, walking, or sitting, there will always be between them the distance of an elbow.
No one will be allowed to remove the thorn of another’s foot, except the chairman of the house, their second or
the one that has received that order.
Nobody will cut their hair without his superior’s order.
It will not be allowed to exchange the things that are received from the chairman. Do not accept something better
in place of something not as good. And vice versa, do not give something better in change of something not as
good. Regarding the attires and habits, they will not procure anything that is newer than what they have over the
other brothers, wanting it because of its elegance.
All of the skins will be adjusted and will be pinched in the back. All of the cowls of the brothers will have a mark of
the monastery and their house.
Let no one leave their book opened when going to the church or the refectory.
The books that are placed underneath the window in the evening, in the void of the wall, will be under the
responsibility of the second in command, who will count them and take them according to the custom.
Nobody will go to the sinaxis or to the refectory covered with their linen robe, whether at the monastery or the
fields.
The ones who leave their clothes exposed to the sun beyond the sixth hour when the brothers are called to the
refectory, will be lectured for their negligence. And if anyone scornfully breaks this by rejecting the mentioned rules,
he will be lectured with a proportional punishment.
No one will be allowed to anoint their shoes or to take care of any object, unless the chairman of the house has
received this order.
If a brother has injured himself, but has the need to stay in bed, if he walks with difficulty and needs something –a
pawn, a garment, or anything that can be useful-, the chairman of his house will go to the people in charge of the
clothes room and will take whatever is necessary.
When the brother has healed, he will give whatever they lent him without any delay.
No one will receive anything from another brother without the order of the chairman.
No one will sleep in a locked cell, and will not have a cell in which he can lock himself, unless the father of the
monastery has given that permission to a brother in reason to his age or illnesses.
Let no one go to the farm without being told, except the shepherds, the cowherds, and cultivators.
Do not let two brothers ride the same donkey, and do not sit over the pole of a cart.
If anyone rides a donkey without being sick, he will dismount before the door of the monastery, and then will go
on ahead of his donkey having the reins in his hand.
Only the chairmen will go to the different workshops to receive there what is needed. They will not be allowed to
go after the sixth hour, in which the brothers are called to the refectory, unless there is an urgent need; in this case,
they will send a weekly brother (in charge of the altar and singing) to the father of the monastery to warn him and let
him know that it is urgent.
In general, without the order of the superior, nobody will be permitted to enter in the cell of another brother.
No one will receive anything lent, not even from his own flesh and blood brother.
Do not let anybody eat anything inside his cell, not even a common fruit or other foods of the same type without
the permission of the chairman.
If the boss of a house is on a trip, another chairman that belongs to the same nation and to the same tribe will
take responsibility of the one that leaves. He will use his powers and will be in charge of everything with solicitude.
Regarding the catechesis, on the days of fasting, he will give one in his house and the other one at the house of the
one that is being substituted.
Let’s talk about the bakers. When they pour the water in the flour and when they dough the pasta, nobody will
talk to their neighbor. In the morning, when they take the bread to the ovens and hearths, they will be as silent and
will chant psalms or passages from Scripture until they have finished their job. If they need anything, they will not
talk, but they will make a sign to the ones that are able to take that which they need.
When they make a sign to the brothers to dough the pasta, no one will stay in the place where the bread is being
baked. Besides the ones that are enough to boil and that have received the order to make it, no one will stay in
place where it is baked.
Concerning the ships, the rule to follow is the same. Without the order of the father of the monastery no one will
untie a boat from the edge of the water, not even a little boat. Do not let anyone sleep in the bilge-sink nor any other
place of the boat; the brothers will rest on the bridge. And no one will tolerate the laymen to sleep with the brothers
from the embarkation.
Women will not sail with them, unless the father of the monastery has allowed it.
No one will be allowed to light a fire in their house without everybody else being able to do it.
The one who is late, after the first of the six prayers in the evening, as well as the one who had whispered with
his neighbor or laughed secretly, will do penance according to the established way, during the rest of the prayers.
When the brothers are sitting in their houses, they will not be allowed to say worldly words. And if the chairman
teaches any word from Scripture, they will repeat it between themselves taking turns, and will take advantage of what
each of them has learned and memorized.
When they are trying to memorize they will not be allowed to do any work, nor take water, nor to weave cords,
until the chairman has given an order to do it.
Nobody will take by himself the rushes put to soak by the workers, if the servant of the week does not give them
to them.
Anyone who breaks a jar of clay or had soaked the rushes three times will make penance during the six prayers
in the evening.
After the six prayers, when everybody separates to go to sleep, no one will be allowed to leave their cell, except
in case of necessity.
When a brother had slept in the Lord, the community of the brothers will accompany him. No one will stay at the
monastery without the order of their chairman. No one will chant but the one that had been told to do it. No one will
add any other psalm to the one that he finished reciting without the approval of their superior.
In the case of a duel, they will not chant by two; they will not take the garment of linen.
Do not let any brother restrain from replying to the one that chants, but every brother will be in concord in the
same position and at unison.
The one that is sick during a funeral will be sustained by a servant.
In general, anywhere where the brothers are sent, the servants will go with them during the week to assist the
sick, in case that any bad thing happened during the trip or in the fields.
Do not let anyone march ahead of the chairman, nor the conductor of the brothers. Do not let anyone separate
from their lines.
If anyone loses anything will be punished publicly before the altar; if what he lost was part of his trosseau-layette,
he will be three weeks without receiving what he lost, but on the fourth week, after having made a penance, he will
receive a similar effect similar to the one he lost.
The one who finds any object, he will suspend it during three days before the place where the brothers celebrate
the sinaxis, so that the one who recognizes it as of his own can take it.
The chiefs of the houses will be enough to reprimand and exhort about the matters that we have indicated and
established. But if they are before a fault that we have not anticipated, they will refer it to the father of the monastery.
The father of the monastery is the only one who will judge the matter; and it will be his decision to rule of the new
cases.
Any punishment will be fulfilled like this: the ones who suffer any correction will be without a belt and will stay
standing during the great sinaxis and in the refectory.
The one who has abandoned the community of the brothers and then had come back, will not return to his place,
after having made penance, without the order of the superior.
The same we establish for the chief of the house and the trustee-economist: if any night they leave to sleep
outside, far from the brothers, but they change their mind and return to the assembly of them, they will not be
allowed to enter in their houses, nor to occupy their places without the order of the superior one.
May the brothers be seriously compelled to review among them all of the teachings that they have listened to in
the common meeting, do this mainly on the days of fasting in which their chairmen teach the catechesis.
The new arrivals to the monastery will be taught first of all about what they have to observe; then after this first
instruction and they has accepted everything, they will be told to learn twenty psalms, or two epistles of the Apostle,
or a part of another book from Scripture.
If he is illiterate, he will go, at the first, third and sixth hour, to meet the one who can teach him and was assigned
for that. He will keep standing before him and will learn with the greatest attention and gratitude. Next to that, he will
write the letters and syllables, the verbs and nouns, and will be forced to read even if he refuses to do it.
In general, no one at the monastery will stay without being able to read or memorize something from Scripture, at
least the New Testament and the Psalter.
Do not let anyone find excuses for not going to the sinaxis, to the chanting or the prayer.
They will not skip the prayer time and chanting time for any reason, even if they are sailing or at the monastery,
or in the fields or on their way.
Let’s talk finally about the monastery of the virgins. Do not let anyone visit them, unless she has their mother
there, or a sister, or a daughter, relatives or cousins or the mother of his children.
If it is necessary that those who had not quit the world, nor entered the monastery see the virgins, a necessity
caused by the death of the father (whose inheritance they have the right to have), or rather by other unquestionable
reason, they will send the visitors to a man of age and proven virtue. They will see her together and will return.
Therefore, let anyone go to see the virgins, except those who we have mentioned above. And when they go to
visit them, they will first of all let the father of the monastery know. This one will send them to the elders who have
received the ministry of the virgins. The elders will go with them to visit the virgins whom they need to see, with all of
the discipline that the fear of God demands. When they see them they will not talk about secular things. Anyone
who breaks any of these dispositions will make public penance without any delay, due to their negligence and
contempt, to be able to enter possession of the kingdom of heaven.
End of the first part.