A revised rule for nuns

Translated letter:

HERE BEGIN THE RULES FOR HOLY VIRGINS [Caesarius] 

Caesarius bishop, to our holy and highly venerated sisters in Christ, established in the monastery which by the inspiration and help of God we have founded.
Because the Lord in His mercy has deigned to inspire and aid us to found a monastery for you, we have set down spiritual and holy counsels for you as to how you shall live in the monastery according to the prescriptions of the ancient Fathers. That, with the help of God, you may be able to keep them, as you abide un­ceasingly in your monastery cell, implore by assiduous prayer the visitation of the Son of God, so that afterwards you can say with confidence: " We have found Him Whom our soul has sought." [Cant. 3:1, 4]  Hence I ask you, consecrated virgins and souls dedicated to God, who, with your lamps burning, await with secure consciences the coming of the Lord, that, as you know I have labored in the constructing of a monastery for you, you beg by your holy prayers to have me made a companion of your journey; so that when you happily enter the kingdom with the holy and wise virgins, you may, by your suffrages, obtain for me that I remain not outside with the foolish. As you in your holiness pray for me and shine forth among the most precious gems of the Church, may the divine favor both fill you with present good things and render you worthy of the eternal.
2.   And, because many things in monasteries of women seem to differ from the customs of monks, we have chosen a few things from among many, according to which the elder religious can live under rule with the younger, and strive to carry out spiritually what they see to be especially adapted for their sex.
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47.  I admonish and I charge you before God and the angels, holy and highly venerated mother of the monastery, and you, the prioress of the holy congregation, let no one's threats or persuasions or flattery ever relax your spirit, and do not yourselves take away anything from the established form of the holy and spiritual rule. I trust moreover, by the mercy of God, that you will not incur guilt for any negligence, but through your obedience, holy and pleasing to God will be able happily to attain eternal beatitude.

Recapitulation of the Rule

48.  Although, with God's favor, at the beginning of the foundation of the monastery we framed a rule for you, nevertheless afterwards through many changes in it we added and deleted things. After examining and testing what you can carry out, we have now settled upon what is in harmony with reason and possibility and sanctity. In so far as we have been able to determine by diligent experiment, the rule has been so moderated under God's inspiration that with the help of God you can keep it in entirety. I beseech you then that nothing in it be subjected to further change nor be taken away.
49.   For this reason we wish that whatever we wrote previously be void; this rule, in which I have written the recapitulation with my own hand, I beg and counsel you to fulfill, with the help of God, faithfully and fruitfully without any relaxation, incessantly imploring the help of God, lest the old enemy, who is wont to drag his followers down to himself from the heights of heaven to the depths of hell, ensnare you with his poisonous wiles. Hence I warn you, holy and venerated daughters, to strive zealously to drive away his suggestions with all your strength and with most vigilant attention. And, with the help of God, so run as to obtain, because, not he who begins, but . . he that perseveres unto the end, he shall be saved " [Matt. 10: 22; 24:13]. Although I trust that you in your holy piety will always remember those things which have been written above and that with Christ supporting you, you will strive not only faithfully but fruitfully to fulfill them, nevertheless, in order that those things which we have established may be imprinted in your hearts more firmly, we have wished to make this little recapitulation, which I have written with my own hand. I ask that, with God inspiring you, you receive it gladly, and that you strive constantly with the help of God to keep it.
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Conclusion to the entire Rule

72. I beseech and supplicate you before our Lord God, 0 most dutiful sisters, in order for you to be perpetually grateful in this wise to my humble self and your holy mothers, that is, the founders of the monastery and the authors of the Rule; that you, by your charitable intercession keep watch for us day and night; and in public prayer through your holy supplication, obtain, in solemnities by day or vigils by night, that your petition, ascending in the sight of the Lord may make and grant me to be a worthy bishop over his Church, and them to be worthy superiors in the service of holy virgins; and when before His tribunal we begin to render an account of the talents entrusted to us, if there are faults and negli­gences, either concerning the care of my church, or of the mothers in regard to those committed to them, that the Lord will deign to pardon us, and to heal the wounds of sin with the medicine of forgiveness. For faults are not amended unless He remits them through the prayers of the saints, nor does He remit them unless they have been amended.
73. And because for the sake of guarding the monastery, I have closed and forbidden the use of some doors, in the old baptistery, in the scola and in the weaving room, and in the tower next to the pomerium, let no one ever presume under any pretext of utility whatsoever to open them: but it shall be allowed to the holy con­gregation to offer resistance, and they are not to permit that to be done which they know to be against their good reputation or peace.

I, Caesarius, a sinner, have read and signed this rule for nuns. I have dated it under June 22, in the consulship of Paulinus.
I,  Simplicius, a sinner, have approved and signed.
I,  Severus, a bishop, have approved and signed.
I,  Lupercianus, a bishop, have approved and signed.
I,  John, have approved and signed.
I,  Cyprianos, a bishop, have approved and signed.
I,  Montanus, have approved and signed.
I,  Firminus, a sinner, have approved and signed.

Original letter:

INCIPIVNT STATVTA SANCTARVM VIRGINVM.

Sanctis et plurimum in Christo venerandis sororibus in monasterio, quod deo inspirante et iuvante condidimus, constitutis Caesarius episcopus.
Quia nobis dominus pro sua misericordia inspirare et adiuvare dignatus est, ut vobis monasterium conderemus, quomodo in ipso monasterio vivere debeatis secundum statuta antiquorum patrum, monita vobis spiritalia ac sancta condidimus; quae ut deo adiuvante custodire possitis, iugiter in monasterii cellula residentes visitationem Filii dei assiduis orationibus implorate, ut postea cum fiducia possitis dicere: INVENIMUS QUEM QVAESIVIT ANIMA NOSTRA. Et ideo vos sacras virgines et deo deditas animas rogo, quae incensis lampadibus cum secura conscientia domini praestolatis adventum, ut quia me pro construendo vobis monasterio laborasse cognoscitis, vestri me itineris  socium fieri sanctis orationibus postuletis; ut cum in regno cum sanctis ac sapientibus virginibus feliciter introibitis, me cum stultis non remanere foris vestro suffragio obtineatis. Orantem pro me sanctimoniam vestram, et inter pretiosissimas ecclesiae gemmas micantem, favor divinus et praesentibus repleat bonis, et dignam reddat  aeternis.
2. Et quia multa in monasteriis puellarum a monachorum institutis distare videntur, elegimus pauca de pluribus, quibus seniores cum iunioribus regulariter vivant, et spiritaliter implere contendant, quod specialiter suo sexui aptum esse prospexerint.
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47.  Te vero sanctam ac venerabilem monasterii matrem, et te praepositam sanctae congregationis, coram deo et angelis eius ammoneo et contestor, ut nullius umquam vel minae vel oblocutiones vel blandimenta molliant animum vestrum, ut aliquid de sanctae ac spiritalis regulae institutione minuatis.  Credo tamen de dei misericordia, quod non pro aliqua neglegentia reatum incurrere, sed pro sancta et deo placita oboedientia ad aeternam beatitudinem possitis feliciter pervenire.  Heic suum adposuit Caesarius monogramma.

Incipit recapitulatio huius regulae

48.  Cum deo propitio in exordio institutionis monasterii vobis regulam fecerimus, multis tamen postea vicibus ibi aliquid addidimus vel minuimus:  pertractantes enim et probantes quid inplere possitis, hoc nunc definivimus, quod et rationi et possibilitati et sanctitati conveniebat.  Quantum enim diligenti experimento capere potuimus, ita deo inspirante temperata est regula ipsa, ut eam cum dei adiutorio ad integrum custodire possitis.  Et ideo coram deo et angelis eius contestamur, ut nihil ibi ultra mutetur aut minuatur.
49.  Pro qua re quascumque scedas prius fecimus, vacuas esse volumus; hanc vero, in qua manu mea recapitulationem scripsi, sine ulla diminutione rogo et moneo ut deo adiutore fideliter ac feliciter inpleatis:  incessanter dei adiutorium inplorantes, ne vos venenoso consilio suo antiquus hostis inpediat, qui de ipso caeli fastigio sibi consentientes ad inverni profunda consuevit abstrahere.  Unde, sanctae ac venerabiles filiae, moneo, ut omni virtute et vigilantissima sollicitudine suggestiones illius repellere studeatis; et sic cum dei adiutorio currite, ut adprehendere valeatis:  quia, non qui coeperit, sed QUI PERSEVERAVERIT VSQUE IN FINEM, HIC SALVVS ERIT.  Et licet credam quod ea quae superius scripta sunt sancta pietas vestra et semper memoriter teneat, et Christo auxiliante non solum fideliter, sed etiam feliciter inplere contendat, tamen, ut ea quae constituimus sancto cordi vestro tenacius valeant inhaerere, istam parvulam recapitulationem, quam manu mea scripsi, fieri voluimus:  quam rogo, ut deo inspirante et libenter accipere, et iugiter studeatis cum dei adiutorio custodire.
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72.    Vos tamen, piissimae sorores, coram domino deo nostro obtestor  et deprecor, ut humilitati meae, vel sanctarum matrum vestrarum, id  est, institutoribus monasterii et regulae conditoribus hanc in perpetuum gratiam referatis, ut pro nobis diebus ac noctibus intercessio vestrae caritatis invigilet, et publica oratione vel in diurnis sollemnitatibus vel in nocturnis excubiis deprecatio vestrae sanctitatis obtineat, ut ascendens ad conspectum domini petitio vestra dignum vel me ecclesiae suae pontificem, vel illas servitio sanctarum virginum constituat et concedat esse praepositas; et cum ante tribunal illius coeperimus creditorum talentorum reddere rationem, si quae sunt culpae vel neglegentiae, sive meae circa curam ecclesiae, sive matrum  vestrarum erga sibi creditarum, intercessu vestro dominus nobis  remittere, et culparum vulnera remissionis medicina sanare dignetur. Quia nec emendantur culpae, nisi sanctorum orationibus ille remiserit; nec remittit, nisi fuerint emendatae.
73. Et quia propter custodiam monasterii aliqua ostia sive in veteri baptisterio, sive in scola vel in textrino, aut in turre iuxta pomerium clausi atque damnavi, nullus illa umquam sub qualibet utilitatis specie aperire praesumat: sed Iiceat sanctae congregationi resistere, et, quod famae vel quieti suae incongruum esse cognoscunt, fieri non permittant.

Caesarius peccator regulam hanc sanctarum virginum relegi ac subscripsi: notavi sub die X kl. iul. Paulino consule tempore.
Simplicius peccator consensi et signavi.
Severus episcopus consensi et signavi.
Lupercianus episcopus consensi et signavi.
Iohannes consensi et signavi.
Cyprianus consensi et signavi.
Montanus consensi et signavi.
Firminius peccator consensi et signavi.

Historical context:

Caesarius wrote the Rule originally for his sister Caesaria, whom he had installed as abbess in the monastery he founded in 512.  After she died c. 534, she was succeeded by a second Caesaria, for whom Caesarius revised the Rule and added to it.  The translator, Maria McCarthy, provides a study of the Rule and an analysis of its sources with her complete translation.

Printed source:

The translation is from The Rule for Nuns of St. Caesarius of Arles:  A Translation with a critical Introduction, by Mother Maria Caritas McCarthy (Washington, D.C.:  The Catholic University of America, 1960), 170-71, 187-88, 204.
The text is from S. Caesarii Arelatensis Episcopi, Regula Sanctarum Virginum, ed. Germanus Morin OSB (Bonn: Petrus Hanstein, 1933), 5, 17-18, 26-27.

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