De prandio monachorum
by Anonymous
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/138/de-prandio-monachorum/
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## On the Midday Meal of Monks

[1345B]Now when they come to the midday meal, the prior says the prayer with the brethren, that is: *the eyes of all;* it is said in full, drawn out, with the *Glory be to the Father* following, and afterward at the end they sing *alleluia;* and the priest says the prayer in such a voice that all may be heard, and may answer. *Amen. By this may thy gifts, O Lord, be blessed unto us.* Or there are very many others which are appointed for this meal. And afterward all sit in their own place; and they have near the abbot's table a lectern of this kind, set up on high with a book-rest, where the book is placed, and they sit while they read. And immediately, when the servers set out the first dish, and the signal has sounded for the blessing to be made over the food, all answer: *Thanks be to God.* The prior making the sign, or a presbyter, or whomever he shall have bidden, the blessing is made in such a voice that all may hear, and they answer: *amen.* At the very beginning of those eating, a reader is made ready, who at once asks the blessing, saying: *Bid, sir, a blessing.* And the senior says: *May the Lord save us;* and all answer *amen;* and he enters upon the reading, and reads as long as they are eating that dish; [1345C] and afterward, if they shall have had a long meal, so that they sit the longer, or if another course is served, the prior taps the table, so that the reader himself may be silent a little; and if there be fish, or even fowl, they eat. When it is served, and the signal has sounded for the blessing, all answer: *Thanks be to God,* and the prior blesses, or he whom he shall have bidden, saying: *May the Lord, the Creator of all, bless his own creature,* and all answer, *amen;* and it is eaten. Likewise if there be another dish, he says the prayer, that is: *By the prayers of the holy Mother of God, Mary, may Christ the Son of God bless both us and his own gifts;* all answer, *amen.*

And at the next course the reader again reads for so long, until the abbot shall bid him make an end. Or if he himself shall have found a fitting close — if the blessing has sounded at the last sentence — he repeats that same sentence again a second time, drawn out; and all answer: *Thanks be to God,* and he comes down. But if the reading shall have been long, and he shall have well finished the sentence, he repeats it, [1345D] and afterward says: *But do thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us,* and all answer, *amen.* So also at the night offices, or at the collect, or wherever they shall have read the divine precept, this is the custom: that always when he begins to read, having asked the blessing he says: *Bid, sir, a blessing;* and when the reader shall have finished the reading, they answer *Thanks be to God.* And as he comes down he goes before the abbot's table, and the abbot gives him the blessing, whereupon he eats and drinks. And as the brethren rise they shall say slowly: *Let them give thanks to thee, O Lord;* adding *Glory be to the Father,* and at the end singing *alleluia.* And if they shall have had a fuller refection, so that something is left over to them from it, the prior, or he to whom the charge has been committed, says the prayer: *May Christ the Son of God multiply the fragments which have remained over to his servants, and bless them, and make them abound — he who is blessed unto ages of ages,* and all answering, *amen,* they go into the oratory to prayer, giving thanks to the Lord, and there, after the prayer is finished, they shall say *He hath dispersed, he hath given,* the office of the meal being completed.

Likewise for those supping in the evening: when they shall have entered where they take refection, let them say, without drawing out the pauses, the prayer: *The poor shall eat,* adding *Glory be to the Father,* and [1346B] at the end singing *alleluia.* And the senior says the prayer, yet in such wise that all may hear, and answer, *amen,* that is: *May thy gifts, O Lord, unto us;* or there are many others according to the season. And sitting in their seats they do just as at the midday meal in the daytime; and if it should happen that night comes on while they are supping, and it is necessary to light a lamp, that brother who brings the lamp, immediately as he enters the house near the seniors, says in such a voice that all may hear: *The light of Christ,* and all say *Thanks be to God;* and again he himself, bowed down, says: *Bid, sir, a blessing.* And the senior says: *May it be in the name of the Lord;* and all answer, *amen,* and so he sets the lamp in its place, that it may give light to all in the house. And if it shall have been bidden that drink be mixed for the brethren, that they may drink, the server goes to his service, and touches the cup with his finger, and all answer *Thanks be to God,* and he makes the sign, and all answer, *amen,* and so they shall drink with a blessing; and if the Lord shall have given them fruit, the senior says the prayer thus: *May the Lord almighty bless his own fruits,* and all answer, *amen.* So it is done with [1346C] every (every) service. But when the refection shall have been completed, the signal being given for them to rise, that brother who keeps the week in the kitchen — who, when the brethren take refection, always serves along with the other servers at the table of the seniors or of the brethren — when they rise from table, that brother bows himself toward the east upon his knees, and asks prayer for himself, saying: *Sirs, pray for me;* and the senior says, *May the Lord save us;* and that brother, rising, says in a drawn-out voice, *Thanks be to God.* At once all the brethren begin to sing, *Thanks be to thee always, O Lord.* This so finished, the prior says with the brethren: *A God compassionate and merciful,* drawn out, with the *Glory,* adding also at the end *alleluia.* Or else: *Who giveth food to all flesh; give praise to the Lord of heaven, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever,* and the priest says the prayer, that is: *Thou hast filled us, O Lord;* which finished, all answer, *amen,* and so they go to prayer, and pray, as is written above.

Now that weekly servant who enters upon the kitchen [1346D] enters, or goes out, on the Lord's day, according to that which is contained written in the rule of Saint Benedict. Matins being finished, immediately in the oratory he who goes out asks prayer for himself, saying: *Sirs, pray for me;* and the senior says: *Save thy servant;* but he, following after, says with all the brethren: *Blessed art thou, O Lord God,* repeating this up to three times; and having received the blessing he goes out. Immediately he who enters says: *O God, come to my assistance,* and this prayer is repeated three times with all; and so, having received the blessing, he goes in to serve his brethren. So too in the church of blessed Peter the apostle, a presbyter keeps the week, or the *mansionarii*, who guard the lamp or the furnishings of that church: on the Sabbath day at the third hour they consign their offices to their fellows, and so they go down, and go to their own houses; and those others, with the presbyter or their fellows (their fellows), serve until the next Sabbath, and do likewise; and so in all the offices things are kept for God honorably and in due order.

And if perchance these things, which out of many we have written down as a few (I have written down), shall have displeased anyone, let him not be [1347A] slothful, but let him have prudence; so do other priests hold it, and fathers, and devout monks too, who desire to live in right order and to keep it with divine authority. In whatever way they go about it, let them carry forward this holy teaching with great labor, to their own profit, or their people's, or for the edification of many, so that here afterward, or in time to come, they may rejoice perpetually and be glad in the sight of God and of the angels, and of all his saints. Let a man go to Rome himself, or, if it irks him, let him send his own trusty man in his place, and let him inquire diligently whether it is so or is not so, this little that out of much we have written down; or if it is not so celebrated in that place, or if he shall have inquired well, with holy intent and devotion, and shall have found something a hundredfold better still, whereby he may make progress in the work of God — then afterward let him perhaps hear these things, and presume to despise or disparage them, or even to set himself against so many and such holy Fathers as established this holy standard. First, the blessed Pope Damasus, with the help of Saint Jerome the presbyter — who by leave of that same Saint Damasus transmitted the ecclesiastical order [1347B] set down in writing from Jerusalem — instituted and ordained it. After him the most blessed Pope Leo instituted the whole chant of the year, and published in canonical institution most brilliant little works; and if anyone shall not have received or venerated these down to a single iota, let him be anathema. Then the blessed Pope Gelasius (Zelasius) likewise wrote down the whole chant of the year, and also the decretals of the canons, honorably and most diligently, an assembly of very many priests having been convened in the see of blessed Peter the apostle. After him Pope Symmachus likewise himself published his own chant of the year. Again after him Pope John likewise himself wrote down the chant of the circle of the year, and in every order. After him Pope Boniface, who by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit both wrote down a rule and set in order the chant of the circle of the year. After these also the blessed Pope Gregory, upon whom, by the breathing of the Holy Spirit, the Lord conferred great and most lofty grace, so that upon the book of blessed Job he made the moral [1347C] diptychs (tibica) shine clear by a threefold investigation and a sevenfold exposition. Upon the prophet Ezekiel also, in the first part and in the last, he set forth a most brilliant exposition. What he did upon the Gospels in the exposition of forty homilies is known to all Christians — how beautifully he expounded them. What he thereafter set in order out of the books of certain men, by the working of the Holy Spirit, or how he interpreted many other Holy Scriptures, has been laid open to Christians dwelling in the world. And he published a noble chant of the circle of the year. After these also Abbot Catalenus, serving there at the tomb of Saint Peter, himself too most diligently published the chant of the circle of the year. After him also Abbot Maurianus, serving that same Saint Peter the apostle, himself too nobly set in order his own chant of the year. And after him the lord Vir Bonus, abbot, likewise magnificently set in order the whole chant of the circle of the year.



## On the Midday Meal of Monks (cont.)

If anyone, after he has come to know these things, shall neglect to keep or to celebrate them, so far as by God's bidding he is able, [1347D] or if perchance he shall boast that he knows better from elsewhere, or has received a better model, there is no doubt that he deceives himself and unhappily sinks himself down into the darkness of error — he who has dared to despise or disparage so many and such great Fathers, holy authors. I know not with what face, or with what rashness of a presumptuous spirit, they have dared to bring forward, as though for testimony, the blessed Hilary and Martin, or Germanus and Ambrose, or the many other saints of God — whom we know to have been directed from the holy Roman see by the successors of blessed Peter the apostle [Migne: *a beato Petro apostolum successoribus suis*] into this western land, and to shine with virtues and miracles; who in nothing swerved from the holy Roman see, or from the synod of the three hundred and eighteen catholic Fathers of the council of Nicaea (Nicaea) — the Spirit dwelling in their midst — or from the other three principal synods besides, with which all things are known to accord in holy canonical instruction — to bring them forward, I say, so that it may be said: as those men held and kept, so we too are seen [1348A] to hold and to keep; whereas their life, or their manners, and works and merit are seen to stand as far from these whom we have just now mentioned as heaven stands from earth. For those illustrious Confessors of Christ, whom we named above, we know to have walked often to Rome, and to have held conference with the blessed popes, or with Christian emperors, and, if any swerved from the holy Roman see, often to have set them right again — this is manifest among us. Let them therefore, who profess to have these men as their authors, inquire into their volumes, or their deeds, whether they hold and act as those men acted and held; and we too assent to them with all devotion and veneration. But if it is not so, they ought diligently to inquire, and to imitate, and to keep, even as the holy Roman church keeps, so that they too may hold the unity of the catholic faith, amen: lest, while inquiring after and following foreign customs, they be entangled, or cut off from the faith — lest that come upon them which the excellent preacher foretold: *In the last [1348B] days perilous times shall press in, and there shall be men lovers of their own selves, and bringing every understanding into captivity, but not speaking the truth, nor assenting to it;* and this: *For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables;* and this: *I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, or the tradition which they received from us; for being ignorant of the knowledge of God, and seeking their own, they resolved that their own righteousness should not be made subject to the righteousness of God.* Who are those, "they resolved"? Those who forsake true authority, and follow their own judgment or will; which it is not expedient for Christians so to do, but rather daily to search the divine Scriptures, and to investigate the teachings of the holy Fathers, and to imitate them — those who in all things always pleased the Lord, and here [1348C] in the world appeared approved unto men, and are not shown to be of the schismatics or of the gainsayers against the holy see of the Roman church; and lest perchance they be seen to be little branches — which are members of that seventh seal, that is, the seventh heresy, which is to arise at the last, as Holy Scripture attests: for it is near, at the doors, as is said, "before the gates" — since, according to the word of blessed John the Apostle, who was bidden by the Lord to write to the seven churches in the Apocalypse, and saw the book sealed with seven seals according to the mystery of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, from the adverse side there are seven wicked spirits contrary to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; and to the seven seals there are seven heresies. For six have already arisen in the world from the eastern part against the holy Roman church, but by the help of the grace of Christ the holy see of blessed Peter the apostle has broken all those heresies, and has reckoned them up. The seventh yet remains; and so the elders and the wise, and the Doctors [1348D] of the holy see of the Roman church, hand down that it is to arise from this western part, or from the north; and there has been given to them a power of darkness, and they destroy themselves, and others are led into error, and those whom they could not seduce by blandishments they win by force and by torments, or seek to slaughter and to extinguish by the sword of the Church of God. But the foundation of God stands strong and fixed, which the Lord himself deigned to promise in the Gospel through his own self, saying to blessed Peter the apostle: *Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.* But the faithful of the see of the Roman church can indeed be afflicted with torments and tribulations, or even die, yet their faith and belief can in no way be overcome nor broken.

Let us pray to the merciful Lord, and let us watch instantly, and be sober, and not sleep, like those who have no hope, that from all this evil which is soon to come upon the whole world, [1349A] he may deign to rescue and free us, and grant us to have and to keep the unity of the catholic faith unto the end, and that through the gates our entrance may be into the city of God, which is the heavenly Jerusalem, so that we may deserve to enjoy and to delight in the tree of life [1350A] for ever with the saints of God, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God unto all ages of ages, amen. Here it ends. Thanks be to God.
