Entering a monastery means leaving the world. Christian monasticism expressed this passage through a long and gradual rite, in which the candidate is not welcomed at once but tested, instructed and finally consecrated with gestures of strong symbolic value. The reference text for the West is the Rule of Saint Benedict, written in the sixth century, which in chapter 58 describes precisely how to receive new brothers.
Do not admit easily
The Rule opens this subject with a surprising instruction: whoever comes to enter monastic life should not be granted easy entry. Quoting the first letter of John, Benedict recommends "testing the spirits to see whether they are from God".
The candidate therefore knocks at the door and persists. If he keeps doing so for four or five days, patiently bearing difficulties and refusals, he is allowed to enter. It is a first threshold, the physical one of the door, which must be won by perseverance.
The stages of the novitiate
After entry, the path unfolds in precise periods.
- The guest house. The candidate stays a few days in the guests' quarters.
- The novices' quarters. He then moves to the place where novices study, eat and sleep, separate from the rest of the community.
- The master. He is entrusted to a senior skilled in guiding souls, who watches him closely and checks whether he truly seeks God, whether he is eager for prayer, obedience and accepting humiliations.
- Readings of the Rule. After two months the whole Rule is read to him, with the words: "This is the law under which you wish to serve: if you can keep it, enter; if you cannot, leave freely". The reading is repeated after six months and then after another four.
Only after a year, if he perseveres, may he be admitted to profession.
The promise
Profession takes place in the oratory, before the whole community. The novice promises stability, conversion of life and obedience. The promise is written in a document in his own hand or, if he cannot write, by another at his request, and signed by him with a mark. The novice places it with his own hands on the altar.
The Suscipe
Then comes the most intense moment. The novice sings a verse of Psalm 118 (119 in the Hebrew numbering): Suscipe me, Domine, secundum eloquium tuum, et vivam: et non confundas me ab exspectatione mea, "Receive me, Lord, according to your word, and I shall live; do not disappoint me in my hope". He repeats it three times, and each time the community answers by repeating it, adding the Gloria at the end.
Then the new monk prostrates himself at the feet of each brother, asking them to pray for him. From that day he is counted a member of the community.
The stripping
The Rule prescribes a very concrete gesture: if the novice has possessions, he must distribute them to the poor or give them to the monastery, keeping nothing for himself. He is then stripped of his own clothes and dressed in those of the monastery. His garments are kept in the wardrobe: should he one day leave the monastery, he will take them back, but the document of his promise will remain with the community.
Tonsure and a new name
In the centuries after the Rule other signs spread. The tonsure, the shaving of part of the head, became the distinctive mark of monks and clerics. In many communities the religious also received a new name, indicating the beginning of a new life. Some medieval theologians, among them Bernard of Clairvaux, went so far as to compare monastic profession to a second baptism.
Death to the world
In many monastic traditions profession is described as a death to the world: the monk renounces possessions, family according to the flesh, free disposal of himself. It is a symbolic death that prepares a new birth in the community, following the typical sequence of rites of passage.
| Stage | Elements in the Rule |
|---|---|
| Separation | Persistence at the door, giving up possessions |
| Margin | Year of novitiate in a separate place |
| Aggregation | Promise, Suscipe, prostration, new clothing |
In short
- The Rule of Saint Benedict, in chapter 58, describes how to receive new monks.
- The candidate must persist at the door for several days before being admitted.
- The novitiate lasts a year, with three readings of the Rule and the guidance of a senior.
- Profession includes the written promise, the chant of the Suscipe and prostration before the brothers.
- The old clothes are laid aside: the sign of a symbolic death to the world.
