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The
incorporation of the lay-brothers and their place in the Order (1/14)
The Cistercians were renowned for
their commitment to manual work and their insistence on self-sufficiency.
They intended to live from the fruits of their own labour in isolated
spots, ‘far from the haunts of men’. In c. 1115, some
twenty years after the foundation of Cîteaux,
the Cistercians realised that to achieve this ideal they needed
help: the monks could not themselves tend the livestock, cultivate
the land, manage outlying properties and participate in a full liturgical
day at the abbey. It was therefore decided to introduce a community
of lay-brothers (or conversi), men who would be primarily
responsible for managing the land and animals, yet would take vows
of obedience to the abbot and observe the rules of the Cistercian
Order. The incorporation of lay-brothers was not a Cistercian invention,
but the White Monks were the first to draw up comprehensive legislation
for their organisation [the Usus
Conversorum] and to make the lay-brothers an integral part
of the community.
Nevertheless, the lay-brotherhood
formed their own separate community within the abbey. It was thus
stipulated that no lay-brother should ever take the monastic habit
but, following the words of I Corinthians 7:20, Every
one should remain in the state in which he was called.(1)
The lay-brotherhood was not seen as a stepping stone to the monastic
life, but as a separate vocation. Each Cistercian abbey, therefore,
consisted of two distinct, yet complementary communities living
in communion.
They enacted
a definition to receive, with their bishop's permission,
bearded lay-brothers, and to treat them as themselves in
life and death - except that they might not become monks
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Both the
monks and lay-brothers worked and prayed, but whereas the monks’ day
centred on the celebration of the Canonical
Hours in the church, the lay-brothers’ time was structured
around the workplace and most of their Offices were celebrated
here. Furthermore, while the monks spent much of their time reading
and meditating on the Word of God (lectio divina) the
lay-brothers were generally illiterate and were not, in any case,
to read from
books.(2) An anecdote recounted by
Jocelin of Furness tells
of a lay-brother of Melrose who
was influenced by the devil to learn to read, but ultimately realised
the errors of his ways and repented of his
sin.(3)
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