CHAPTER XXVI. Of those who, without leave of the Abbot, consort with the Excommunicate
3 Mar. 3 July. 2 Nov.
If any brother presume without the Abbot’s leave to hold any intercourse whatever with an excommunicated brother, or to speak with him, or to send him a message, let him incur the same punishment of excommunication.

Saint Benedict knows that in every community there are busybodies who interfere in the disciplinary decisions of the abbot. These are, as a rule, one of three types. (1) There is the sentimental type who sees everything in terms of subjective feelings, and who is easily moved to a false compassion. (2) There is the type who sympathises with the excommunicated brother because he harbours a secret attachment to the very sin for which the brother is being punished. (3) There is the type who is critical of all the abbot’s decisions and who, convinced that he knows better, systematically seeks to undermine whatever the abbot does. In such a matter, Saint Benedict follows Cassian’s policy:

If one of them has been suspended from

CHAPTER XXV. Of Graver Faults
2 Mar. 2 July. 1 Nov.
Let that brother who is found guilty of a more grievous offence be excluded both from the table and from the Oratory, and let none of the brethren consort with him or speak to him. Let him be alone at the work enjoined him, and continue in penance and sorrow, remembering that dreadful sentence of the Apostle, “That such a one is delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” Let him take his portion of food alone, in the measure and at the time that the Abbot shall think best for him. Let none of those who pass by bless him, nor the food that is given him.

The abbot, even if he be obliged to excommunicate a brother both from the table and from the Oratory, will not neglect the other means recommended by Our Lord in the Gospels. The episode that, in Saint Matthew and Saint Mark, immediately follows the Transfiguration, is instructive:

CHAPTER XXIV. What the measure of excommunication should be
1 Mar. 1 July. 31 Oct.

The measure of excommunication or chastisement should be meted out according to the gravity of the offence, the estimation of which shall be left to the judgment of the Abbot. If any brother be found guilty of lighter faults, let him be excluded from the common table. And this shall be the rule for one so deprived: he shall intone neither Psalm nor antiphon in the Oratory, nor shall he read a lesson, until he have made satisfaction. Let him take his meals alone, after those of the brethren so that if, for example, the brethren eat at the sixth hour, let him eat at the ninth: if they eat at the ninth, let him eat in the evening, until by proper satisfaction he obtain pardon.

For Saint Benedict, to exclude a brother from the common table and silence his voice in choir is to put that brother outside the ebb and flow of daily life in the monastery. In the Mediterranean culture

CHAPTER XXIII. Of Excommunication for Offences
28 Feb. 30 June. 30 Oct.
If any brother shall be found contumacious, or disobedient, or proud, or a murmurer, or in any way transgressing the Holy Rule, and contemning the orders of his seniors; let him, according to our Lord’s commandment, be once or twice privately admonished by his elders. If he do not amend, let him be rebuked in public before all. But if even then he do not correct himself, let him be subjected to excommunication, provided that he understand the nature of the punishment. Should he, however, prove incorrigible, let him undergo corporal chastisement.

We begin today the eight chapters of Saint Benedict’s penitentiale or penal code. In order to understand, right from the beginning of this section, the end that Saint Benedict has in view, we must go to the last phrase of Chapter XXX: ut sanentur, “in order that they may be healed”. All eight chapters of the Benedictine penal code must be read in the light of these two words: ut sanentur. Saint Benedict would have the abbot,