The View Of The Body In The Statute Of Saint Benedict

The Rule of St.Benedict was made by St Benedict of Nursia in 6th A.D,for the monks in the Mont Cassion.The Rule of St.Benedict is the most influential monastic rule in Medieval.Body is the primary basis of human being existing in the world,and it is the origin of one's identity.The concept of body is the understanding of human body which is influenced by social and cultural condition.The concept of body in The Rule of St.Benedict is influenced by multiple factors.From a large social background,the Romans indulged their physical desires,and the barbarian invasion brought new customs.From the inside of Christianity,there are already some statement on body in Bible and the works of Latin godfathers.And the practice of physical asceticism of Egyptian monasticism began to spread to the west in the 4th century.From the point of view of St.Benedict,he had undergone a transformation from personal asceticism to monastic order.St.Benedict admits that there are bad habits in everyone,and the goal of monasticism is to escape death in the final judgment and achieve immortality,only by god's help.All parts of the body have their functions.The ears are used to obey the orders of god and the abbot;the eyes are used to read the Bible and classic Christian works;the mouth is used for prayer.As a whole,the body should abandon the external property and learn to obey.The body is weak,so it is rational to relax the rules of eating and labor for the elderly,children and patients.Forgive their sins for those who make mistakes but are eager to correct them.But for the monks who refuse to correct their errors despite repeated education,there should be body punishment,including whipping and isolation.The purpose of physical punishment is not to destroy the body itself,but to help the monks repent and mend their ways.Any bodily act must have the support of the soul,and the regulation of body is to save the soul.The body and soul are the two steps leading to god,so they are both important.The concept of body in The Rule of St.Benedict embodies the imitations of Jesus Christ,following the poverty,prayer,and obedience of Jesus Christ in the body and following the love and humility of Jesus Christ in the soul.The monks of the Benedictine monasteries,in accordance with the rules of life,transformed the teachings of god into a truly visible way of life by imitating Christ,which helped to preserve and spread Christianity in the social background of barbarian invasion.The concept of body in The Rule of St.Benedict is also a relief to the extreme physical suffering of Egypt,which is more suitable for the geographical and climate environment of Western Europe and promotes the.western development of its own model of monasticism.But the reform of the monasticism in the later generations is often a repetition of the strict physical asceticism.The Rule of St.Benedict effectively uses space,time,supervision,and punishment to regulate the monks' physical behavior,which were not only ensures the order of the monastery,but also influences the management of schools and hospitals to some extent.