Advice to Solitaries

Advice to Solitaries, belonging to Mar Rabbula, bishop of Edessa. Before all else, solitaries shall be idle. Women shall not enter their monasteries. The brothers of the monastery shall not enter villages, except only the steward of the monastery, while he observes the rule of humility. The steward who enters a village or a city shall not wander among houses, and shall not lodge in the houses of laypeople, but in a church or in a monastery, if one is near. Solitaries shall not drink wine, lest they blaspheme; and they shall be especially careful not to buy and drink. Solitaries shall not grow their hair, and they shall not wear iron or bear arms, except only those who are imprisoned and do not go out. Stewards who go out for the business of the monastery shall not wear garments of hair, and no one among the brothers outside the monastery shall go out, lest the dignity of the monastic habit be diminished. No one among the solitaries shall make oil, and especially for women. But if there is someone who has a manifest gift, he shall give oil to men; and if there are women who are in need, it shall be sent to them through their husbands. Memorials in monasteries shall not be in the names of laypeople, but only of the brothers of the monastery itself. Sheep and goats, or horses and mules, or other livestock, solitaries shall not acquire, except one ass for those who are sick, or one yoke of oxen for those who plough. Books that are outside the faith of the Church shall not be in monasteries. Merchandise of buying and selling shall not be in monasteries, but only that which suffices for their needs, without deceit.

No brother of those who are in monasteries shall have anything for himself individually, except for what is common property of the brotherhood and under the authority of the superior of the monastery. The superiors of monasteries shall not allow brothers to be negligent in their duties, or to go out and wander about idly, so that they do not become dissolute. Brothers shall not abandon their monasteries on the pretext of illnesses, and wander about in cities or villages; rather, they shall endure their hardships within their monasteries, for the love of God. Solitaries shall not abandon their dwelling-places and hire themselves out to others as day-laborers, and go to cities or to day-laborers. On the pretext of a business matter or of work, solitaries shall not neglect the hours which are appointed for the service, by day and by night. They shall receive guests lovingly, and shall not shut the door in the face of any brother. No brother shall write individually, unless it be one who has given proof of his works in the furnace of the contest. No solitary shall take a response from a book for anyone. No brother, unless he is a priest or a deacon, shall presume to offer the Eucharist. Those who are priests and deacons in monasteries, and to whom churches in villages have been entrusted, the superiors of monasteries shall appoint in their monasteries those who have shown proof and are able to administer the brotherhood; and they shall serve in their churches. The relics of martyrs shall not be found in monasteries; rather, everything that there is shall be brought to the earlier fathers. For if they are genuine, they shall be honored in the house of the martyrs; but if not, they shall not be placed in the tomb. The corpses of the dead, which solitaries wish to bury for them, shall be buried in the ground, so that they are not seen at all.

If a brother or a superior of a monastery goes out from the world from one of the monasteries, the brothers alone of his own monastery shall bury him in peace. And if they are not sufficient, they shall call to them brothers from a monastery that is near to them. And they shall not be hindered by villages and seculars for the funeral. And if someone goes to buy grain for the need of the monastery, he shall not take anything extra, but just as it is sold, at that market price he shall buy, while not acting in the name of the monastery. No one shall receive a brother who moves from monastery to monastery, except with the word of the superior of the monastery, the one who was with him. Here end the Admonitions of the Solitaries.