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The Rule of Saint Benedict

Chapter 44. Of those who are excommunicated, how they are to make satisfaction

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Saint Benedict of Nursia

Transcribed from a dated scan; artifacts may remain. Edition notes

LET him, who for graver offences is excommunicated from the Oratory and the table, prostrate himself at the door of the Oratory, saying nothing, at the hour when the Work of God is being performed: lying prone, with his face upon the ground, at the feet of all who go out from the Oratory. Let him continue to do this until the Abbot judge that he hath made satisfaction ; and then, coming at the Abbot’s bidding, let him cast himself at his feet and at the feet of all, that they may pray for him. After this, if the Abbot so order, let him be received back into the choir, in such a place as he shall appoint: yet so, that he presume not to intone Psalm or lesson, or anything else, in the Oratory, unless the Abbot again command him. And at all the Hours, when the Work of God is ended, let him cast himself on the ground, in the place where he standeth, and so make satisfaction, until such time as the Abbot bid him cease therefrom. But let those, who for lighter faults are excommunicated only from the table, make satisfaction in the Oratory so long as the Abbot shall command, and continue so doing until he bless them and say it is enough.

Trans. D. Oswald Hunter Blair (in religion, Dom Oswald Hunter Blair; David Oswald Hunter Blair, 4th Baronet, 1853-1939), a Benedictine monk of Fort Augustus Abbey, Not part of a named series — a standalone Abbey Press printing, 1906. Public domain.

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