OK, today we're going to get right into the life of the five brothers and start reading some of the text. Just one more word about the literary genre again, which was what we were talking about the last time. Remember that the genre hagiography, lives of saints, is something that's been absent for a number of centuries from Western culture, even from Catholic culture. I mean, people write about saints, and even modern contemporary writers like Robert Bolt write about saints, but this is not hagiography. So hagiography is not historical writing as we understand the term. St. Peter Damian says in the prologue to The Life of St. Romuald that he is not writing a history, so he's not a biographer. They were not concerned to do precise research so as to be able to recount the details and

[01:01]

the relations of cause and effect in the life of their subject, of their saint. However, it is not fiction. It's not pure invention. There is a very definite attention to the tradition, the literary tradition, of lives of the saints beginning, shall we say, with the life of St. Athanasius, we said this last time, and continuing on through St. Jerome, St. Gregory the Great, and so forth. So they followed these patterns and very often took passages directly from these earlier lives of the saints and then adapted them to the saint they were writing about. But what is most important is that all lives of the saints, practically, were intended to be read in church in the context of the liturgical celebration, so they are liturgy. This is perhaps the best way to think about what a life of a saint is. It is liturgy. It's a celebration of the wonderful works of God, and its context, what the Germans

[02:09]

call Sitz im Leben, or the vital situation in which the text has its home, its natural place, is precisely the celebration of vigils, the psalmody, also singing, chant, the other readings, the scripture readings. And so you find the life of a saint as a commentary on scripture, as a celebration of the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in the church. As St. Gregory the Great said, the scriptures have not ceased to be written. They are now no longer written on paper or parchment. They are written in the lives of believers, of the faithful, of the saints. So the continuation of scripture and the celebration of the works, saving works of God, which scripture tells. The whole of salvation history is, as I said last time, democratized in the lives of the

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saints, so that you have an exemplar of a reality which each Christian is called upon to live. So we're not saints, we're on the way there. We have these saints who, at least at the end of their lives, realize fully that powerful work of salvation which God accomplished in Christ. Also this term, salvation, is very important. We'll see this in the life of the five brothers. People come to monasteries for salvation, not for perfection as we would think of purely moral perfection or some other kind of perfection, and not to polish their soul, as it were, but simply to be saved, to find Christ. We'll see that in the text. So let us now dive into it. The life of the five brothers by Bruno of Querfurt begins with a prologue, and it begins with a cry for help. It's very interesting. The first word of Bruno's book is help, adieu va me Deus, help me, oh God, help, he says.

[04:16]

Cry for help. Whereas the first word of St. Peter Damian is against, against you, oh unclean world, I must protect. That's how he begins, you see. So you can tell they're very different personalities. And so Bruno of Querfurt begins with this cry for help, and we assume that he is giving vent to his tormented conscience. Why? Because he betrayed his best friend. We'll see that in the story. He promised that he would follow Benedict, his best friend, up to Poland, and never did so, or didn't get there in time, because Benedict was killed before he managed to get there. But no, this is not the case, because every life of a saint begins with some act of humility and modesty on the part of the author. They all say it. Peter Damian says it rather more cursorily. I mean, he has to say it because this is what was done. Whereas Bruno of Querfurt says it more emphatically and apologizes for his lack of literary talent.

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There is some truth in this. His Latin is very difficult, is very contorted, and sometimes incorrect. He obviously treasures his knowledge of Latin. It's something that he enjoys writing, but it is a difficult Latin. It sounds as if he's talking with a German accent or something like that. But anyway, you can hear that this is not his language, that he's not a Latin, whereas Peter Damian's Latin is something that flows and sings. It's really an Italian with the Latin case and verb endings. So he begins here, help me, oh God, I'm a man of little talent, but I want to tell a great story. Give me eloquence, understanding, and feeling. Let me tell a tale of saints, men of pure hearts and good works, who have received from your hand the royal robe of martyrdom. Some of these phrases we find in a previous writing of Bruno of Querfurt, The Life of Saint Adalbert. We mentioned something about Saint Adalbert, this Bohemian saint who was martyred in Poland and who created a great impression on all of Europe, and also on the young Emperor Otto

[06:28]

III. This was the beginnings of the Christianization of the Slavic peoples in Eastern Europe, Magyars, Hungarians, etc. So he says, let me tell a tale of saints, men of pure hearts and good works, who have received the golden end of the purple passion. This is the literal translation of the Latin. What it means is that these saints received as a pure gift from God this royal robe of martyrdom. Their lives, their hearts were pure, and their works were good, but it was not the good works that earned martyrdom. I'm sure you all remember the sermon of Thomas, the Archbishop, in Murder in the Cathedral. This is a very fine theological statement that is made there. Martyrs are not made by men, but saints are not made by men.

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It's not a question of working towards it. The fourth tempter was tempting him to be a saint, to do the right deed for the wrong reason. That's the greatest treason according to TSL, and according to the theology of holiness. So, pure hearts, good works, but then, as a purely gratuitous gift, God gave them the robe of martyrdom. Bruno continues, Good Jesus, I know what I am. My sins have slain me and left me to rot like a dead dog on a dunghill. I wallow in evil like a sow in the mud. Do not condemn me, dear Jesus, if I dare to write about somebody else's virtues. And you, my reader, my judge, forgive me for telling this story with no style and without practicing what I preach. I simply must do it, for I am driven by love. So, this paragraph, you know, very emphatic, and there are phrases from Scripture, it's all woven into, it's a tissue of Scriptural allusions.

[08:35]

He says, I admit that I am a monstrous example of contradictory behavior, but even if I cannot sing a good song, at least let me bark like a dog. I will end up in hell if, like a guilty bystander, I fail to tell what I have seen. The sin of the guilty bystander is the sin of omission. So, he's alluding to the epistle of James here, et cetera. One thing is certain, as long as I keep dipping my pen into the inkpot of my mind, I will have no time to think about sin or commit it. So, as long as he's busy writing, he won't be doing anything wrong. To talk about good deeds is sometimes helpful, but writing about them always is. Barlam's talking ass told of God's mercy and might, and we humans guided, as Scripture says, this morning's reading said, by a little child. Should we not show the way to those who want to live rightly and be saved? So, here he is, again, taking references to Scripture one after the other. There's the book of Numbers.

[09:37]

There's Barlam, the pagan prophet who saw the future glory and perhaps the future Messiah of Israel, and his donkey prophesied to him. In other words, the donkey told him that there was an angel walking the way. It's this episode about the talking donkey. And then the being led by a little child, of course, refers to Isaiah 11, 6, which we read, and he says, should we not show the way to those who want to live rightly and be saved? Now, when he says, live rightly and be saved, these two are equivalent. This is very important. The terms here are important. He says, literally, to show the way of salvation, show salvation to those who are concerned to live rightly. The recte vivere, to live rightly, means to live according to right reason. And this is salvation. So, the human being is saved, that is, restored to integrity, to spiritual sanity, by returning

[10:38]

to human nature as rational, as rational or logical, using the Greek word logiki. Later, we'll see that Bruno calls Romul the father of rational or reasonable hermits, pater rationabilium erimitatum, who live according to right reason. They're reasonable hermits because they live according to the rule, according to a law, which is the rule of St. Benedict, for Bruno Querfurt, and for Romul, of course. But there is a law within that law, and the law, the great law of monks, is the law of discretion. Discretion. All of this is implied in this simple phrase, show the way to those who want to live rightly and be saved. All of this is implied because later on we'll find the same expressions coming up again and made more explicit. So, the great law for monks is the law of discretion, and this is an important theme in this book. So, he says, with this hope I have begun.

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Now let me tell my story. But first I need God's help, the touch of his hand, his word that resounds from heaven. He is my help who made earth and sky, who fashioned both saint and sinner by his power. And then he goes into a very beautiful prayer where he's constantly quoting the liturgy, God come to my assistance, Lord make haste to help me, etc., etc. Great Savior, he concludes, as I set sail on a stormy sea, have pity on me for your own namesake. Put an end to my anguish and say to my soul, I am your salvation. Psalm 34. So, now he gets into chapter one. Chapter one, the chapters in my translation are divided according to, you see I made the translation from the critical text which was published in Poland, the Monumenta Polonia Historica, these are collections of texts that relate to the history of Poland. So it's a Latin text and it's very carefully edited and annotated.

[12:43]

But there's the Italian translation by Bernardo Agnesti, one of our monks who arrived in Italy soon enough to know personally. He died in 1970, or 71, 71, yeah, who was a fine translator and he divided the text into rather short chapters, so he divides it easily and conveniently, but the chapter titles are mine, so this is not in the Latin text, but we will give the chapter titles as we go. Chapter one, Benedict's vocation. Benedict of Benevento is the star, is the main character of the life of the five brothers. Benevento is in southern Italy. It is not far from, it's within, it's inland from Naples, so we can think of him as a Neapolitan and we'll see. He is a highly emotional person, very emotional, very given to ups and downs of moods and very

[13:49]

intense, incredibly intense and always throwing himself into things. If anyone has ever known a southern Italian, especially a Neapolitan, one knows the personality type. You wouldn't speak of either type B or type A personalities. For Neapolitans, you need something more than type A. So they're very excitable and very ebullient and can be extremely joyful and extremely sad and singing and so forth. So this was the personality of Benedict of Benevento. And it's marvelous when we read about the friendship between him and this highly cultured and rather staid German, Bruno Quirk. So you see these two personalities and I somewhat imagine this, but this does appear from his writing that you have Bruno with a very Nordic, shall we say, Germanic personality, and you have this Neapolitan who is always very emotional and excitable, and yet they become very good

[14:55]

friends. The saint of whom I write came from Benevento and his name was Benedict. The very sound of his name echoes the benediction of his coming and going, the goodness of his living and dying. So I'm approximately translating a series of puns on his name. Bene means well. Benedictus, well said or well spoken of. That's the meaning of Benedict, well spoken of. Beneventum, bene, well. Ventum, having come, so having come, well. And therefore he says he came and went well and he lived and died well. Bene. So these are all based on his name. While yet a child, Benedict began to practice the true philosophy, the following of Christ. Another very important monastic term, monastic vocabulary. This expression, Christo filosofari, to philosophize for Christ. This expression, a key concept of medieval monastic vocabulary, once again links monastic practice to the evangelical and Pauline notion of salvation.

[15:59]

A person enters the monastery in order to live according to the gospel and so to be saved. And this is what true philosophy is. The term, the philosophy of Christ, you find in the apologists. I forgot the term. The apologists, various early Christian writers, the most notable of whom was Justin the Martyr. Justin himself, of course, was a philosopher as a pagan and then became a Christian and upheld Christianity as the highest philosophy. So this is what they mean. Philosophy, in our mind, is always something that has to do with theories about the world. But, of course, Marx said the task of philosophy is no longer to explain the world but to change the world. And this is a wise saying. Other sayings are less wise. And Marx, as we well know, but he makes a good point.

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Now, in earlier philosophy, let us say before Aristotle came to dominate Western thought with scholasticism, nothing against Aquinas, but Aristotle is a bit problematic, it would have been said the purpose of philosophy is not to explain the world but to explain the human person and how the human person must achieve the end of the human nature, human essence. Philosophy meant, first of all, a way of thought that gives light to our path, that helps us to live, that helps us to achieve the ultimate end. Wisdom is that which can govern our life and bring it to its ultimate end. Now, this is philosophy for most of the ancients and with the possible exception of Aristotle. This is debatable, perhaps, but being very schematic, one can say that you have this

[18:03]

general opinion of philosophy as a way of life more than a theory about the whole reality or whatever. So, then in the monastic tradition, monastic literature, to philosophize for Christ means simply to live the monastic life as the way of salvation. Let us get back to Bruno. He says, a bright lad, he learned, Benedict learned his lessons well, devout and chaste, he avoided the pitfalls of youth. And all of these are standard affirmations. One says this about saints, you find this in most lives of saints. Now, here's a particular point about Benedict's own life, which is also a fact that, a very important social fact in the church, about which Bruno Freifurt, St. Romuald, St. Peter Damian, St. John Walbert, and many other saints of the time were concerned, and that is simile. He says, Benedict's parents were eager to see him a priest. Erring in their love for him, they paid the local bishop to ordain him, although their

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son had not yet reached the canonical age. This is simile now, paying to get ordained or to have your son ordained. When Benedict learned about the money involved, in other words, this was after the ordination, he thought this was, he was being ordained because he was a smart lad. We don't know how old he was, maybe 18, something like that. The canonical age then would have been, it would have been 23, wouldn't it? Father, do you know that? Yeah, in the middle ages. I don't know when that, the age of 24 was actually the age of canon law, that the canon law, I was ordained, Andrew, so of course it didn't make any difference to me. But, so anyway, he was probably in his late teens. When Benedict learned about the money involved, he did penance for his parents' sin. He did penance for his parents' sin. A particular thing, which is also said of St. Romuald. About St. Romuald, it is absolutely certain that this was the mechanism, the dynamic of

[20:08]

his vocation. The other course I gave four or five years ago, we talked about that and how he came to the monastery. First is to do penance for his father, his father's committing a murder. So, Benedict did penance for his parents' sin by joining a community of canons regular. The canons regular were the exception, you see, they were the unmarried priests. Most of the priests at the time of Benedict and of course of Romuald, etc., were married. Many, I don't know how many, but some bishops were also married. This was a practice which was considered uncanonical. It was looked upon very unfavorably, but the marriages were not invalid, you see. This was something that came later. It came, Pope Vincent III, I think, was the one who declared invalid all attempted marriages on the part of those in holy orders. But these two things were connected together.

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The simony, the paying, buying, and selling of benefices, that is, of ecclesiastical offices. And, you see, when the priest was married, he could hand on the parish or whatever to his son, you see. So this was also a problem, nepotism. And so both of these abuses in the church were opposed very strongly by these reforming monks. So Peter Damian, of course, shows Romuald taking out the tomes of canon law. I don't know how historical this was. He may have done so in order to show the simoniacal priests where they were wrong. They shouldn't have paid to get themselves ordained. It's never against the laws. Well, anyway, he does penance by joining a community of canons regular. They followed the rule of St. Augustine. But they were still, they were living as secular clergy, we would say. Even though Benedict's life among them was exemplary, the Spirit soon moved him to give up everything for God, and he became a monk.

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So to become a canon regular was not giving up everything for God. It was simply living a somewhat stricter life and committing oneself to celibacy and to the common life, but not necessarily to a particularly spiritual life. But very soon he did become a monk. In reality, says Bruno, he was a monk already. He had taken chastity as his bride and kept his virginity with great zeal. Great zeal. The expression really is excessive zeal. He could be, Bruno Crifford could very well, I think really he is suggesting in a very subtle way that this adolescent fervor of Benedict was a little too much. It was exaggerated. And that Benedict had later to learn the great rule, the great wisdom of discretion. He learned this from St. Romuald. So he continues. When God called him, he entered the monastery of the Holy Savior, which overlooks the sea.

[23:15]

We don't know where this was. The Holy Savior, a monastery dedicated to the Holy Savior, is dedicated to the Transfiguration. So all of our hermitages except this one are dedicated to the Transfiguration. Camaldoli especially, because St. Romuald was very devoted to this mystery. There, Benedict, there at this monastery, Benedict found his mother, the monastic rule, his mother. So the rule of St. Benedict is his mother. The Holy Rule itself does not speak of itself as a mother, but there is an expression which Benedict alludes to in the following sentence. Benedict submitted to her commands even when they seemed harsh and painful, and soon he discovered what great sweetness flows from her breasts which feed God's servants. So it's a lovely image. There is, of course, in the prologue, verse 49 of the rule of St. Benedict, this expression that in the beginning there may be a certain strictness, a sense of the hardness in the

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rule, but as one practices it, one begins to, the heart is opened and one begins to run the way of God's commandments with unspeakable sweetness of love. So, this expression of St. Benedict was picked up by Bruno and then modified a bit in the direction of this beautiful feminine imagery. Benedict was an exemplary monk and in a few years he was ready to live as a hermit. Another theme here, the novice who is very fervent and right after his novitiate or after very few years of monastic profession is ready to live as a hermit. This is presented as an exception, because it is an exception, even for the disciples of St. Romuald. Most of the disciples of St. Romuald were Cenobites, the larger communities that he found. There were few, there were few who were ready immediately after at least one year of the Benedictine novitiate in the Cenobium. He always had them do this.

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This was part of the essential formation of his disciples, but some of them were capable already of a greater degree of solitude right at the beginning of their monastic life. The abbot would have let Benedict have a private cell in the abbey, but Benedict could not endure the mediocrity and lukewarm observance of his brothers. A lot might seem wrong. The Holy Spirit's fire raged in his heart and drove him out into the wilderness. So he fled far from his place of birth and came to Mount Serachte, of which the pagan poet sang, this is Horace, Do you see how deep the snow lies on Serachte's white peak? The quotation has nothing to do with the story, it's just Bruno Perfert showing off the fact that he's read Horace, that he's read the classics. And so he's just preening his feathers a little bit here.

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So Benedict spent about three years on the mountain. The hard life he led there made him vulnerable to every sort of temptation, as he himself admitted later. And here again, very subtly, very subtly Bruno Perfert is suggesting that there was this young monk, a young hermit, very indiscreet, very unpracticed. And the more penance he did, the more oversensitized he became. There's this example of this problem in the life of St. Benedict, chapter one of book two of the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, where he speaks of the hermitical experience of St. Benedict at the Sacro Speco above Subiaco, the holy cave. And there one day a bird fluttered around his head. And this completely innocuous stimulus provoked a very strong erotic explosion of emotions

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and he began to remember all of his girlfriends and at a certain point he decided, well, I am not cut out for the monastic life. I've got to go and get married. But at that moment, of course, says St. Gregory, he took off his robes and threw himself into a bush of stinging nettles, rolled around so that the sting of the nettles and the thorns would drive the passion out of his heart. And so thereafter he was never troubled by these temptations. Well, that's fine. But actually that is an exaggeration. And so Benedict doesn't have to really say that. The readers would realize that the point of monastic life is not to throw yourself into thorns and nettles. This is not the way of doing it. And when you do exaggerate, I mean, we all need to test our limits at times, but it is extremely important to humbly recognize our limits, recognize our limitations, recognize

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that we are capable of so much and no more. This is discretion. Discretion is a fundamental attitude of humility towards oneself and towards one's vocation. It means that God is calling me to greater things, but he is not yet giving me the grace to do all of those greater things that I imagine I should be doing, or I would like to do, or the saints did. And this is very, very important. So this is a golden thread kind of woven in through the story, as it is through a lot of monastic literature, as it must have been in the teaching of St. Romuald. And we find, of course, this is presented also by Peter Davy. There's a chapter nine of the Life of St. Romuald, which is out of its chronological order, but presents the teachings of St. Romuald about vigils, keeping watch at night, about prayer, and about fasting, and there are three very fine simple rules of moderation, of prudence

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and discretion. Better one psalm with devotion than a hundred psalms with a wandered mind. And Romuald would never permit any of his disciples to fast all day. To fast without eating anything. It's better to eat some every day and feel hungry every day. So that is the... The fasting then is something that, and also in another place, St. Peter Davy says that Romuald counsels his disciples to be on the watch against hypocrisy. And if they want to do, and they're eating at the common table, if they want to do a little extra fasting, all they need to do is kind of piddle and doddle over their food, you know, just be a little later starting, you see. And then, you know, then eat, and then, you know, then you finish with the others, you see, and you give the impression that you're eating what they ate, you know, even though you eat a little less. You avoid calling attention to yourself. Anyway, these are various rules that come from monastic literature.

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You find them in Cassian, you find them in St. Benedict, you find them in Romuald, and you find them here. So, this young Benedict on the mountain for three years and just had a lot of trouble with temptations because he was exaggerating a bit. Continues. Bruno continues. Meanwhile, the abbot, although he praised Benedict's... It's the abbot of his own monastery. The abbot, although he praised Benedict's austerity, kept trying to woo him back to the monastery. When Benedict did return, the abbot built him a cell near the abbey where he might enjoy that certain sweetness which God does not begrudge his lovers, and where the hermit life would be easier for him and edifying for others. There's nothing wrong if the hermit life is a little easier. It's also more glorious, says Bruno. What he means is that his example can shine before other people. He's not totally isolated. He's not totally cut off from the community.

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He has a greater degree of solitude. He joined the community for, one supposes, for Saturdays and Sundays. That was very often the custom. And he is not exaggerating with the penance and so forth. Chapter Two, Master Romuald. And here is the part where Bruno Quirford talks about Romuald and about how he himself and how Benedict of Beneveto met Romuald. Now at Monte Cassino there was a nobleman of mature years, John Gradinigo by name, a companion of Peter Orseolo, the doge of Venice. When the doge decided to become a monk, John, too, drawn to better things, renounced worldly power and riches. So remember when I mentioned the first time, that very important date, September 1st, 978, that was the date when Romuald went from Venice to Cusat, to this monastery in the Pyrenees,

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together with Peter Orseolo, the doge, that is the ruler of Venice. This was an elected prince or elected ruler, elected by the aristocratic, the great council, the council of the noble family, the family leaders of the city. And Peter Orseolo was a very holy man. He was on in years. He was 50. For those days it was a fairly advanced age. He had been a very devout man and actually had been living as a secret monk. He had been living a celibate life for many years before he became a monk, actually. His election as doge of Venice was under rather murky circumstances. There had been a kind of a revolution in the town. His predecessor was killed. And so some of the stigma of this fell on Peter Orseolo. In fact, Peter Damian assumes that Peter Orseolo was in on the plot. Whereas writers closer to the time of this Peter Orseolo do not speak of him as involved,

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but simply as, you know, stepping into the office because it was vacant, but then realizing that the only way to save himself was to join the monastery. So Peter Orseolo leaves for Cuscia and brings with him two of his closest friends and counselors, John Gradinigo and John Morosini, which is the name of Vincent Vincenzo Morosini, who later went back to Venice and founded a monastery there. Anyway, John Gradinigo was, and Romuald was, of course, with them. And John Gradinigo joined Romuald in the hermitage. John Gradinigo made as a bishop in the monastery, and then after his Benedictine profession went and joined Romuald in the cell, which was just about 15-20 minutes' hike up a hill near the abbey of Cuscia. John Gradinigo, it says here, showed such spiritual maturity as a novice

[34:56]

that immediately after monastic profession he was allowed to live as a hermit, subject to the authority of his spiritual father. I put in parentheses Abbot Gari of Cuscia, the Abbot of Cuscia, because from the context, it's not Romuald, even though Romuald became the leader of the little hermit colony there at Cuscia, but it is the father of the abbey. So, very important that the hermit be subject to obedience, be part of the community, be subject to the obedience to the Abbot, not on his own, risking to become a Seraphite, as St. Benedict calls them, a pseudo-hermit. Or a jinn. I wouldn't say that. The doge ended his days in God's service, clothed as a monk, and of course he was canonized. He was venerated there at Cuscia as a saint, and then was canonized locally, and his canonization was recognized eventually by the Holy See. And John, after the Father Abbot's death,

[35:56]

continued to pursue the solitary life near the abbey of Monte Cassino, where he learned great fame for his virtues. Monte Cassino had just recently been re-founded. You see, Monte Cassino had been destroyed at least, I believe twice, since the time of St. Benedict. First, just a generation after St. Benedict, and then, once again, it was re-founded and destroyed again, and the monks finally came back, and so Monte Cassino at this time was one of the centers of reformed monasticism. Spirit of Cluny, you might say, but also with a certain amount of Greek monastic influence from southern Italy. St. Nilos, of whom I spoke in the first talk, was also there for a brief period at Monte Cassino. And so there was a hermit colony near Monte Cassino, just as there was near Cuscia. This was a part of the whole vision of the reform of monastic life,

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generally called Cluniac. You see the Cluniac spirit. There is the Cluniac order, or the congregation of Cluny, where the monastery is directly subject to the abbey. But then there are other monasteries that have that same spirit, and so Romule is within this particular milieu of the reformed monasticism, emphasizing the hermit life, of course. But the hermit life was something he didn't invent. It was there as part of this reformed monasticism. Our young Benedict often came to visit Father John and even thought of sharing John's cell. A wise thought, for then he would not be wandering about following his own whims. This custom of sharing an elder's cell is very common, and very common among St. Romule's disciples and very common in the life of St. Romule. A number of times we read about his cellmate, the companion in his cell. And this was very generally practiced,

[38:01]

was the custom of Fonte Avellana. The cells were contiguous. As I've often said, the Fonte Avellana was built rather like the retreat house. Very similar in some ways. Even the dimensions of the cells was about the same. They didn't have an indoor toilet, that's the only difference. But the cells were about the same, and there were two monks who would stay there, the elder and then one of the novices. There wasn't one novice in that master, but a novice would come and he'd be assigned to one of the elder, one of the best monks to be trained. Father John instructed Benedict in the way of salvation, here again, instructed him in the hermit life. But no, the way of salvation, because the whole point is to be saved. So Father John instructed Benedict in the way of salvation, but with humility, ascribing all his teachings to the wisdom and virtue of Master Romule.

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He calls him Magister Romulus, Master Romule. He wouldn't call him Saint Romule, because he was still living, he wasn't canonized. He was a saint, but he wasn't canonized. Romule, John said, is the greatest hermit of our day, yet he lives this beautiful life humbly and without presumption. He does not take for granted, speaking of Romule, he does not take for granted his own understanding of the life, but follows the conferences of the desert elders. Theirs was the doctrine he taught us. So presumption is a typical monastic vice. Perhaps you could say it's the vice of hermits, par excellence, or those who are not yet really living the full, I mean, haven't really achieved their, what the hermit life really is supposed to be. Presumption. It means, I take for granted my own understanding

[40:05]

of what monasticism is about. Monks are either damned by presumption or saved by discretion. They are damned if they take for granted their ability to achieve salvation by willpower and self-control. They are saved if they recognize that all is grace and work out their salvation in fear and trembling, avoiding that bitter zeal which leads to hell and practicing the good zeal which monks ought to have. See the rules in Benedict chapter 72. These are my own words. I'm summarizing just the unanimous teaching of monastic literature. So, very important, this theme. Along those lines, would this novice living with the elder monk, would there be a disciple relationship as you define it? There is, yeah. It is analogous. It is analogous, keeping in mind, however, the fact of the hierarchical structure of the Christian church as of Western society in general,

[41:05]

keeping in mind also the scriptural doctrine of the teaching of the Holy Spirit, the New Covenant as the inner teaching of the Spirit, keeping in mind also the fact that the scriptures were the school and the function of the master, the teacher, was to lead the disciple to the scriptures and help him read there. So, the function is analogous on a phenomenological level. The relationship is often very similar, but there is a very different theology there. We must keep that in mind. But, you know, it is an interesting point, and so this is essential. But just to get back to the point about presumption versus discretion. St. John Bradenigo is very humble in presenting the teaching about the monastic and hermetical life. He says, this is not my doctrine, this is what I learned from St. Romuald.

[42:07]

I learned everything that I know from St. Romuald. But he wouldn't say St. Romuald, from Master Romuald, you see. I learned everything that I know from this Master Romuald, who is the greatest term of the writing. But then Master Romuald himself said, I'm not teaching anything that I invented, or that I cooked up, or that I discovered. I'm simply teaching you what you can read in the books, what you can read in the writings of Heschelman, the rules of St. Basil, etc., etc. Just the precise writings which are quoted in the last chapter of the rules of St. Benedict. That's a very important thing. We sometimes imagine, well, Romuald was obviously not much of a highly literary personality, but he did love books. And we see him presented as, with a book in his hand, several times by St. Peter Damian. He wasn't anti-intellectual. He wasn't an intellectual, but he was an anti-intellectual. It is not Romuald being to be anti-intellectual. Romuald's hermits always had books, and always read them,

[43:08]

and got a great deal of their nourishment, and of their training, and of their learning about being hermits from books. There's nothing wrong with book learning, provided that the book learning is only one part, and that what is drawn from books is translated into life, and is also received in a living way from others who are examples of the lived scriptures, of the lived teachings of the fathers, etc., of the elders, etc. So, we have this monastic literature. Romuald pointed his disciples back to it. He said, Romuald quotes these, and these, and these. Go back and read the Old Testament, the Psalms especially, the special book of monks, the conferences, and lives of the early monks, Ruth and Basil, etc. So, every time John spoke about Master Romuald,

[44:13]

who was then in the prime of his life, and famous throughout the land for his virtues, Benedict's heart burned within him. He wondered how it could be that a man like Father John, who was qualified to be a teacher in his own right, always presented himself as somebody else's disciple. So, anyway, we need to stop here. It's 8 o'clock. So, this gives us a beginning of this life of the five brothers. We will continue on. We're skipping a few sections, touching the most important parts of it. So, next time will be Thursday, okay? Thursday evening at the same time. Thank you very much. What we were into... Everyone noticed the different translation of discrezio, which we had in the reading at table today.

[45:16]

Discernment. I think between discretion and discernment in English, it's very hard to say exactly what the nuance is. There's a little difference, which is more apparent in the difference between the negatives, between indiscreet and undiscerning. The undiscerning person may simply be ignorant, whereas the indiscreet person is someone who's going wrong in some way. And I think certainly discretion, in the positive sense, is fruit of a high degree of consciousness, of awareness of one's life, and of, in general, the realities of life. It's a very realistic view of oneself and of monastic life and so forth. I think that's one element important in monastic discretion, in this great virtue of motherly virtues, which is extolled passionately by all the great monastic literature.

[46:21]

But now we move into the more secular dimension of the story, and we'll be talking about the emperor, Otto III, who was just no more than 20. Otto III assumed the office of emperor when he was 16 in 996, and immediately threw himself into a great deal of activity. People lived short lives, and therefore they lived, I think, more intensely, and people would try to accomplish more in a shorter length of time, a sense of urgency, because of the brevity of life. So people would just throw themselves into whatever activity or purpose that they had in existence. Shortly after he became emperor, Otto III,

[47:25]

the last of that name but second to none for his piety, dragged Romuald out of the hermitage and made him take over as abbot of Classe. But because certain laypersons had too much influence on the abbey, Romuald was unable to do any good there. He began to realize that he was losing his peace of mind and purity of heart. So lest he damn himself without saving anyone else, he took the abatial staff and threw it down at the emperor's feet. From then on, he tried to stay as far away as possible from those who knew him too well, so that with solitude as his friend, he might at least save himself. So we should add a couple of details. At that time, or at the time that Romuald was nominated in 998 as abbot of Classe, Gerbert of Aurillac was nominated archbishop.

[48:28]

Gerbert was perhaps the greatest mind of the 10th century, a man who would have found himself quite at home in the Renaissance. And he was actually suspected by some of being a kind of a shaman or something like that. There were suspicions about him because of his vast learning and his interest also in what people of those days could know about natural sciences, but also about other things, including astrology and so forth, which was at that time not totally unaccepted in Catholicism. But Gerbert was a brilliant person and a monk, of course. So he was named bishop of Ravenna by this young emperor, Otto III, and it's not unlikely that Gerbert himself suggested the nomination of Romuald. Gerbert was a friend of Abbot Garimus of Cusha, the Sabean, the Pyrenees.

[49:33]

In fact, had been there before Romuald was there. So certainly he had heard about Romuald. And then shortly after that, the pope died, who was the cousin of the emperor, Otto III. And he died. He was poisoned, most likely. And so the emperor nominated or had Gerbert elected, and he became Pope Sylvester II. So why Sylvester? Why the choice of the name Sylvester? Because Saint Sylvester, Sylvester I, was pope at the time that the emperor Constantine put an end to the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. So when Christianity was recognized as a legal religion, Sylvester I was pope. So it was the beginning of, you might say, of a certain triumphant type of Christianity.

[50:36]

Christianity linked with a political establishment. And this is always a problem, and it was a problem, of course, for Saint Romuald and the disciples of Romuald. But it's simply a fact. So Romuald did accept the nomination because he was always attached to his community. He had gone back to the Cenobium for a while. You see, about five years before then, in 993, he had a vision of Saint Apollinaris. And Saint Apollinaris instructed Romuald to return to his monastery. So he did so. We don't know how long he spent there in the community, but he was back there. So that generation of monks came to know him well, and they did esteem him. And Saint Peter Damian does say that they did want him, even though they were an unruly bunch and disorderly and so forth, especially because they had a kind of a class consciousness in the abbey.

[51:38]

And this is something Romuald was absolutely against, says Peter Damian. For him, it says, he kept them all to the strict observance of the rule, and then goes on to explain what he means by strict observance, that no one would have any special privilege on the basis of his birth or on the basis of his learning or something like that. So everyone had to be equal. Everyone had to be subject to the same rule of life. So for these various reasons, but above all the politics involved here, because now, you see, they needed a new bishop for Ravenna. Gerbert was made pope, and so logically people said, well, why don't we have Romuald step up and become archbishop? And Romuald, obviously, it was hard enough for him to accept the idea of being an abbot, but much, much less an archbishop. So Romuald had a kind of reverse ambition, an absolute allergy of the role of the superior.

[52:39]

Spiritual paternity, yes, it was something that he felt was God's calling and certainly God's gift, God's grace to him, this ability to nourish people's inner life, guide them to be a master, magister, teacher, in the highest sense of the word, but not a superior. So after he retired, after he resigned as abbot, very abruptly, he wasted no time. Leaving classe like a fugitive, he went to Monte Cassino, the fountainhead of monks who follow the holy rule. Romuald had a personal reason for going there. Many years had passed since he last saw John Gradenigo. Remember, we spoke about him last time. He was Romuald's companion from Venice to Cusha in the Pyrenees. Romuald missed John and was eager to see him again.

[53:39]

Romuald, the father of hermits who live according to right reason and follow the monastic rule, admired John's many virtues, especially his refusal to speak ill of people behind their back or to listen to those who do so. So this, I guess we talked about this in a recent chapter, it was last Sunday or a couple Sundays ago, about the sins of the tongue and detraction and so forth. And so this is a particular characteristic of John Gradenigo. It is also mentioned later at the end of the story as a characteristic of Benedict, Benedict of Benevento, who was John's disciple and so learned his lesson well. And he also refused to listen to any gossip or listen to people maligning others in their absence. And then it says, of course, that Romuald speaks of Romuald as the father of hermits who live according to right reason and follow the monastic rule. A more literal translation, but not a more correct translation, but a more literal translation would be the father of rational or reasonable hermits who live with a law.

[54:53]

Well, given the context, this rationality, this reasonableness of the hermits is that of following the concrete monastic rule, which is a rule of discretion and which balances the, you might say, the individualistic element and the risk of individualism of the hermit with dependence from a spiritual, from a superior. That also Romuald did believe in, that there should be a superior for the hermits. And, of course, he wanted the hermit, the superior also to be a hermit, to be perhaps the most fervent of them. And he did not always obtain this, or in fact he very rarely obtained this, if ever. So, when news arrived that Romuald was coming, Benedict, like someone who has just inherited a good fortune, jumped on his horse and galloped off to meet him. From the moment they met, they were inseparable.

[55:54]

What Benedict loved most in Master Romuald was his refusal to compromise his ideal. The more harshly Romuald treated him, the more Benedict complimented himself on having found such a severe master. Benedict deemed nothing good or holy except what Romuald taught him to do. He zealously followed his teacher's orders, denying his self-will and everything. Romuald had nothing but praise for Benedict. He is like a stone when he fasts or keeps vigil, says Romuald. Romuald held him up to me and to all his disciples as an example of monastic life lived with purity and joy in God's presence. And, of course, this is very strong. This is partly rhetorical. Certainly, one can imagine that this fiery Neapolitan would also, entering on to monastic life, spiritual life, would throw himself into it with the same intensity and the same vigor that is characteristic of him as a human being.

[56:58]

So this might be, to a certain extent, a portrait, not really a caricature, but not really quite realistic. These hagiographical texts are full of the expressions which show us the saint already a saint, already perfect at the beginning of his spiritual life. And this, of course, is very rarely the case. So we're in the autumn of the year 1000. Autumn is a season when people generally fall sick. And in the autumn of that year, 1000, Romuald took to his bed and lay close to dying. Benedict strove to outdo everyone in nursing Romuald and serving his every need. As soon as he had regained his health, Romuald left for Rome, which itself was ailing. With him was Benedict, his faithful servant, man of desires, and a golden flower of obedience and humility.

[58:01]

How could he let Romuald leave without him? He had joined his company in the quest for perfection, and this desire prompted him to endure every hardship and made him burn with the love of God to the very marrow of his bones. He was a very fervent young monk. Chapter 3, Otto's vow. Yeah, Rome itself was an expression of Bruno. He's a bit hard on Italy, and not on Italian so much, but on Italy and on Rome as a very chaotic place, you know. Actually, he was quite right, of course. The social conditions were quite miserable, and there was no government, none whatsoever. Of course, there was very little government today in Italy, but in fact, they spent half of the parliament without a government. But it works anyway. It's the most amazing thing that you could imagine.

[59:05]

But anyway, Bruno Perford says that Italy, you know, they're always fighting the wars, and there's all sorts of tragic things taking place in Italy. And so he says Rome is sick. You know, Rome is sick because of the politics of the papacy, you know, the papacy reduced to a purely political pawn and so forth. So, but we'll see also that there's another specific reference because of how the Romans treated Otto in his enthusiastic desire to establish his court there in Rome and to be not only a theoretical Holy Roman Emperor, but to be the Emperor of the Romans, and to have his imperial court and his imperial seat in Rome, and naturally with the Pope as his own chaplain. Of course, this was also his idea, the Reichskirche, the royal church. And also, we're at a time, you know, when there was this lay investiture problem was beginning to emerge in the church.

[60:11]

And then, of course, a generation later, there would be the reform of the monk Hildebrand, who became Gregory VII. Anyway, the devout Emperor Otto was also on his way to Rome. He was on his way to Rome from Poland. He had just made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Adalbert. Let me give you some things about St. Adalbert from a note here. St. Adalbert's death in 997 at the hand of Prussian tribes near Gdansk created a deep impression in all Christendom. His martyrdom, as well as his presence while living, were of an importance for the history of Central Europe, which has until recently been greatly underestimated. Adalbert, born in 956, so he's just slightly younger than St. Romuald, with the name Wojciech, was a Bohemian nobleman and disciple of another St. Adalbert, St. Adalbert of Magdeburg, whose name he took at confirmation.

[61:12]

So his own name, his personal name, was Wojciech. He was baptized, but they didn't give him a Christian saint's name. But he took the name Adalbert at his confirmation. At the age of 26, he is elected bishop of Prague, and shortly after his consecration meets St. Majol, or Majolos, abbot of Cluny, who inspires him with the Cluniac ideals of humility, the worship of God, and fidelity to the Roman sea. So our St. Adalbert was not yet a monk, but having known St. Majol, he becomes very monastic in his lifestyle and very austere. So Adalbert's monasticity of life and his fierce independence of the local aristocracy win him more enemies than friends in Prague, and in 990 he flees to Rome with his half-brother Radim.

[62:13]

While in Rome, while in Italy, he comes under the influence of the Italo-Byzantine abbot St. Nilos. We mentioned him before. He was, at this time, in his 90s. Very, very rare for someone to live so long, but he was very, very old. St. Nilos, so he was of the part of Italy, of Calabria, where the population spoke Greek and where their liturgical practice was Greek. They followed the Byzantine rite, and he established a monastery near Rome. So St. Adalbert comes under his influence, and it is St. Nilos who encourages Adalbert to enter the monastery of Sts. Boniface and Alexis on the Aventine. Sts. Boniface and Alexis, now called St. Alessio, is right near St. Anselmo. And this was a monastery of both Greek and Latin rite monks.

[63:15]

So there were Latin monks, Pluniac, under the rule of St. Benedict, and then there were these Greek monks under the rules of St. Basil. So he is, again, after three years there, he is recalled to Prague, but once more they drive him out, and he returns to the monastery on the Aventine in Rome, where the community elects him prior. Three years later, the 16-year-old emperor Otto, upon the death of John XV, has his cousin elected pope with the name Gregory V. That's the predecessor of Gerbert, or Sylvester II. While in Rome, the young emperor meets Adalbert, and Otto's personal chaplain, Bruno of Querfurt, joins him, that is Adalbert, at St. Alessio on the Aventine. So in these circumstances, in year 996, Bruno of Querfurt becomes a monk in that same monastery where St. Adalbert was. The following year, 997, after a last futile attempt to establish himself at Prague, Adalbert meets death at the hand of the pagan Prussians in northern Poland.

[64:28]

His body is brought back to Gniezno, where Poland's ruler, Bolesław Chrobry, buries him with honors befitting a holy martyr. So he's canonized locally, and then, of course, his sanctity as a martyr is accepted also in Rome. Otto's pilgrimage to Adalbert's tomb in the year 1000 is decisive for future Polish history. The emperor recognizes Bolesław's sovereignty and Poland's independence, both political and ecclesiastical, from Germany. See, the idea of Otto was to federate the nations in an empire, under an emperor, but not with the domination of any one of the national groups. So it wouldn't be the Germans over the Poles, or the Poles over whoever else, but it would be a kind of a confederated empire. And then Otto would live in Rome. Anyway, getting back to Bruno Querfurt's story, and I have to mention these things, maybe a little dry, these purely historical information,

[65:34]

but in order to understand the turns of events that we read in The Life of the Five Brothers. So when Otto reached the city, the people welcomed him with great festivities, but their joy was feigned. Like a dire presage of misfortune to come, his arrival was accompanied by a mighty rainstorm with violent thunder and lightning. Abbot Romuald, always a wanderer, now here, now there, gathering disciples in the power of the Holy Spirit, took with him Boniface and Thomas, otherwise known as Tomno, two of Otto's closest friends, and went off to serve God in solitude. So Romuald establishes a hermitage near Rome, and some have suggested that perhaps it was actually near Subiaco, St. Benedict's first monastery, Subiaco, and that's not unlikely. So Romuald had a, this was conceived as a temporary hermitage. Remember that I did mention that there were often, in Romuald's work, it would sometimes establish a temporary hermitage.

[66:40]

So, in fact, this was temporary. The emperor kept coming out to see Romuald, and he tried to keep it a secret, but this was not possible. People kept coming, and so the place was overrun with Otto's court, and Romuald decides to move on. And so he takes his disciples to a place north of Ravenna called Pereo, Pereo. At that time, it was in a swampy area, almost a lagoon, and so it was a kind of an island, an area that was slightly higher ground, was cultivated. Now, of course, it's just flat land. There are still little bits of the wetlands that Romuald might have seen in that area around north of Ravenna. But anyway, Pereo was where Romuald founded a hermitage, and here also Otto would come to visit them. Otto became very, very fond of Romuald and sought spiritual counsel from him.

[67:44]

So, on one of his visits to this hermitage in Pereo, Otto made a solemn promise to renounce for the sake of Christ's kingdom and its riches, the wealth and power which he possessed, but neither loved nor enjoyed. Pressed on every side by misfortune, and it is often misfortune that turns people toward the way of salvation, he finally decided to give voice to the thoughts that had been on his mind for so long a time. In the presence of God and his angels and before witnesses, so that every case may stand on the word of two or three witnesses, this is from Matthew, is it Matthew? Otto vowed, from this very hour I promise God and his saints that when three years have passed and I have restored order in the empire, I shall renounce my throne and distribute the riches I inherited from my mother. Then, naked, I shall give my all to Christ. So, it's a very typical expression, monastic vocabulary,

[68:53]

So, this virtue of nudity signifies the total stripping of earthly possessions and of the desire for them. Similar expressions are found throughout early monastic literature, and they signify the initial break with the world, which is a prerequisite for becoming a monk. And there's an initiatory symbolism here, symbolism of initiation, of course, is universal in all the great religions and spiritual traditions of humanity. Then, of course, this same symbolism of the initiation is taken up into baptism, so you have the stripping of the candidate for baptism, according to the traditional rituals of the early church, and also to a lesser extent practiced in the Middle Ages, and then also monastic profession, which involved the taking off of one's secular clothes, which were worn up till the day of the profession,

[69:58]

and then putting on the clothes of the monastery, which had a distinctive cut to them, who were, in a certain sense, monastic clothes as a habit, as a habit. So, this stripping of oneself, this removal of not the outward vesture, but of one's encumbrances is essential to the monastic choice. Also, an interesting point here, which is something that perhaps we may not be aware of, is that Otto is making a vow to make a vow. In other words, his promise is that he will enter the monastic life. So, it's a vow that does not bind him to monastic vows. In other words, he doesn't have to observe poverty, chastity, obedience, stability, conversion of life, etc., but he does have to arrange his life so that eventually he will enter the monastery. So, this was the kind of vow that people did take.

[71:00]

Some have said that a vow like this was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, because, according to the story, Luther was out in a thunderstorm, Martin Luther was out in a thunderstorm, and the lightning struck a tree nearby, and he was very frightened, and he said to Saint Anna, Ich will monk werden, I will become a monk. And so he understood this, I mean, he was a very scrupulous man, and a commitment like this could not be ignored, and so he felt immediately obliged, since he didn't die in the thunderstorm, he felt immediately obliged to join a religious order, so he became an Augustinian. So anyway, this was a very common practice, the promise to make a promise. Abbot Romuald was present on this occasion, together with the two disciples, Bruno and Thomas.

[72:01]

Because of his age and his many years as a monk, he answered in their name, Hold fast to this desire, O King, and if the uncertain course of human existence does not grant you the time to fulfill it, know that in God's eyes you have already done so, for he knows what will be, and he judges men's outward deeds according to what is in their hearts. So, as it were, Romuald seems to have a premonition that this will never take place, that Otto III will never become a monk. But he had this intention, this desire, to become a monk. Now, chapter 4, the Emperor's Project, as a means of realizing his desire to become a monk, I'm paraphrasing the Latin, which is very succinct, but does mean that the Emperor initiates a project which would eventually enable him also to join the monastery. What is this project?

[73:01]

Otto conceived the following project. He would choose some of the more fervent brothers and send them to Poland. There they would build a monastery in Christian territory, but near an area where pagans dwell, secluded and surrounded by woods. This would offer a threefold advantage. The community life, which is what novices want, golden solitude for those who are mature and who thirst for the living God, and the preaching of the gospel to the pagans, for those who long to be freed from this life in order to be with Christ. So this is very important. This paragraph is very, very important for understanding St. Romuald's view of monastic life and also the development of Kamaldoli as a monastic community and as the mother house of a congregation, which, of course, remember, always was not founded by St. Romuald, but founded by Kamaldoli itself, of course, many years after Romuald's death and after the founding of Kamaldoli.

[74:09]

So here we have this threefold, what is called a threefold advantage, or the triplex comodum, the community life, which is what novices want. And so it is natural to suppose that someone coming to monastic life wants to live this life in relationship with others, and obviously young candidates would not be sufficiently spiritually prepared for the solitary life, so it is necessary to live for a period in the monastery before going to the hermitage. This is one aspect of it. But also St. Romuald realized that many monks, the majority of monks, would spend their whole life in the monastery, the synobium, and in community, and therefore the community is essential for the sanctification of the monks.

[75:13]

But here, of course, it's presented as a phase, as a moment of initiation, after which one would be prepared for the hermitage, for the solitary life. This is very schematic, and St. Romuald was never so schematic. This is the emperor's project, this is the emperor's idea, probably Bruno Firth thought in this way. It is just a bit too rigid for what St. Romuald himself would have experienced, but neither is it against what St. Romuald had in mind, since he had lived in monasteries, he encouraged the cenobitic monasteries, he did not, previous to this time, it did not seem that he had any interest in missionary activity, but he does take to this. Anyway, let's continue with the story. Meanwhile, so that we might enjoy the first two advantages, the synobium and the hermitage,

[76:17]

while the third was not available here, that is, preaching to the pagans, Otto decided to build a synobium. So, to build a synobium, as soon as we had established a hermitage, we, meaning Romuald and the group of disciples which had gathered around him at this time, Otto acted with the best intentions, for the salvation of the greater number, but on account of our sins, his efforts produced the opposite effect. In the end, he lost the hermitage without succeeding in founding the monastery. When they saw the emperor doing all this for Romuald, many persons were scandalized, especially in the city of Ravenna itself. They accused father Romuald of greed, ignoring the pastoral motives that guided him. His intention was that the emperor might be saved through this good deed, and he, Romuald, also saw that the monastery would be useful for winning souls.

[77:20]

So, Romuald sees two reasons to go along with the emperor's project. For one thing, the emperor is doing a good work, and Romuald wants to encourage this, because doing a good work will make him more spiritual, more Christian, maybe a better emperor, etc. So, be supportive of these spiritual or religious interests and ambitions of the emperor. But also, because the synobium would be useful for winning souls. Because Romuald realizes the majority of monks have to live in the synobium. This is necessary for their spiritual maturing, and so forth. And also, the monastery could serve to prepare individuals for either the solitary life and or the life of the missions. Romuald's personality as a contemplative and a true servant of God had one outstanding characteristic.

[78:24]

Whatever people would have liked to see him do, he tried at all costs to do exactly the opposite. Only when he could get them to insult, taunt, and slander him, provided he did nothing against his own conscience, did he consider himself worthy of esteem and capable of preserving his virtue. Especially preserving the virtue of humility and its close relation, the virtue of discretion. But there is this characteristic of Romuald, that he's non-conformist, and he likes to provoke people. Provoke people who are ill-disposed anyway. In other words, he's not trying to scandalize people, certainly not the little ones, certainly not weak people. He's not trying to get them to see him by rash judgment, or something like that. But when people are ill-disposed to him, he has no qualms about exasperating them.

[79:26]

So, instead of winning them over, this could be said as perhaps something that is a somewhat unilateral virtue in St. Romuald. Although, on the other hand, you can put together various anecdotes here and in the life of St. Romuald by St. Peter Damian. And there, of course, in St. Peter Damian, it is said that Romuald inculcated fear in the hearts of the wicked. In the hearts of the wicked, the powerful wicked, you see. The people in power that he has no desire to win over. And I suppose he just simply feels that there is no hope. And so, he doesn't worry about ruffling their feathers. But when the simple people, or people who might have misjudged him, but innocently, out of not knowing the facts behind it,

[80:34]

with these people I'm sure he would be very gentle and indeed try to reasonably win them over, but not in order to maintain his own image. See, Romuald did not care about his image, only about his conscience. I think this is very important. It's interesting. I might note a modern hermit, Thomas Merton, who, especially in connection with his experience of a somewhat more solitary life nearby the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky, did mention this one particular fact, that a monk certainly should never be concerned about his image, his public image. A community, perhaps, there is prudence that must prevail and discretion, etc. So, I suppose a community should care about its image, but the individual not.

[81:37]

Isn't it that, it's an interesting incident here, that he was kind of in a break in his cell, and he wants to kind of break away from here, so talk to him, and in fact he's extremely compassionate to him. You know, uncontrollably loving. Yeah, there are a couple of episodes like that. It comes across as extremely temporary. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, there was the one, Romu was preaching to the monks in chapter, and he had this premonition that someone was breaking into one of the monks' cells. And so he said, run and check and see if there's somebody, a thief there. In fact, they found a thief there, so they bring him to Romu and ask, well, what should we do with him? And Romu said, well, let's see now, we could cut off his hand, but then he wouldn't be able to work, and he might starve to death. Well, no. Then how about cutting off his feet? Well, then he wouldn't be able to walk. We'd have to keep him here. And so forth. Well, while I decide, he says, give him something to eat, and then we'll see what to do with him.

[82:43]

So they set him on a table, Romu sat down with him, and with a very joyful and smiling countenance, says Peter Damien, he said a few gentle words of admonition and sent the thief happily on his way. So this is Romu with the little ones, with those who have no power and those who are exploited by those in power. But the powerful Romu simply didn't care about it at all. Romu was always totally consistent with himself. Here is an example. Romu loved young Benedict for his total dedication to monastic living. And when it came time to appoint an abbot for us in the hermitage and for the emperor's new monastery, Benedict was Romu's choice. This choice was not tantamount to an election. Romu wanted the monks to elect their own abbot, but he would publicly make known his preference.

[83:46]

In his humility, Romu saw himself as an abbot only of his disciples' souls, not of their bodies. So the abbot's function, Romu sees, is administrative, and he is concerned with material needs and organizational matters. So this would be a distraction from authentic spiritual life, and also the authentic kind of spiritual paternity which Romu believes in. So anyway, Romu's choice would have been Benedict. Whenever the number of the brothers made it necessary to elect an abbot, whom they would have preferred to be Romu himself, he had to choose one of them, since he would not accept it. So Romu would express his choice, and then the monks would vote, and of course most likely they would vote for the candidate that Romu recommended.

[84:49]

For the office of abbot at Pereo, Romu, guided in his discernment of persons by the Holy Spirit, found no one better suited to the task than Benedict, to whom he applied the saying, in his breast the thought of heaven made its stable abode, and in his way of life the virtues took possession of God's kingdom. We don't know where this quotation is from. There are several in Bruno Quirford where he's quoting some proverb, or quoting something else, and we just don't know where he's quoting it from. Perhaps some things he just made up, or perhaps he was quoting from memory, which is most likely commonly done. So in this case the brothers gladly agreed to Romu's choice, but Benedict doubted his own ability to serve as abbot. So, to be on the safe side of humility, he declared, It is hard to accept the task of judging others when one does not even know the state of one's own soul.

[85:51]

The only people who should undertake the care of souls and the correction of others' lives are those whose seriousness, maturity, holiness, and moderation make them fit to do so. So, very high ideals of what a monastic superior should be, and a very realistic assessment of his own capabilities or incapabilities. Now, my friend Benedict had been appointed to guide me in the spiritual life, and we were living in the same cell. Here another example of the two-to-the-cell arrangement. One is the novice master, the other is the novice. So Benedict turned to me, unworthy though I was, and had me ask the emperor to veto his election. Thus Benedict's willfulness thwarted Romu's plans, with the result that another monk was consecrated abbot, one who resembled Benedict as much as mud resembles gold.

[86:58]

Romu was very angry, and when he found out whose fault it was, he called a chapter meeting and had Benedict and me stripped to the waist and take the discipline, even though Benedict had sinned only through an excess of humility, whereas I was the one who got the emperor to annul the election. So, this discipline. Now, some of us have actually used the discipline. It used to be the rule here at this hermitage that every Friday after compline, before bedtime, we would recite a miserere, that's Psalm 50 in the Latin, using this discipline. And it's a little whip of cords, and it irritates your skin, but it wouldn't...it would be very, very hard to break the skin. So, this is not whipping, as we would think, but is an act of public humiliation. With a certain bit of corporal punishment, because people...maybe people were a little bit more integrated in those days, so that they felt this corporal punishment as a...in a different way than we do, certainly.

[88:10]

So, let us not project our own concepts of what should and should not be done upon them at that time. Today, of course, that sort of thing is totally out of place, alienating the contrary to healthy monastic life. Any disagreement with that? Anyway, well, we get them to the point...let's stop here...we get...we have them to the point where they are...where the emperor is trying to get things organized so that this hermitage synobium would become a training center for missionaries to go to Poland or to go to Hungary or to go to the Ukraine or wherever and preach the gospel. So, the spiritual principles are very profound, and I think the idea is very interesting, but obviously it didn't work.

[89:15]

I think these sort of things, you know, that are conceived very idealistically can be very beautiful and very exciting, but you need a certain practicalness and you need to lower your sights sometimes and to a certain extent in order to accomplish anything in monastic life, especially in order to accomplish anything community-wise. The individual perhaps can remain idealistic about his or her own goal, spiritual goal, etc., but a community has to have a much more modest goal, you might say, or at least a sense of the stages of a long period of time that wouldn't necessarily be required in order to realize certain things. So, we will continue next week. We'll see...we should do two more in order to get you into this, then you will be able to read it on your own. The most interesting things are here in the earlier chapters.

[90:16]

I mean, interesting in the sense that those which refer most directly to Ronald are in these few earlier chapters, and later it does speak only of the five brothers themselves, and also a very interesting, beautiful story, so you'll be able to read it on your own after that. Okay? Thank you.

[90:32]

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