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Rule
St Columbanus, tr. Metlake, 1914; abridged
Chapter 3
The food of the monks shall be coarse, consisting of cabbage, vegetables, flour mixed with water, and a biscuit, and taken toward evening.1 Surfeiting must be guarded against in eating, and drunkenness in drinking, so that what is partaken may sustain, not injure, the body, for by overloading the stomach the mind becomes stupid. Those who look out for the eternal reward should satisfy only their real needs in this life. True discretion requires that food and work shall be duly proportioned. It is reasonable to promote spiritual progress by bringing the flesh into subjection by abstinence, but if abstinence is practised to excess, it ceases to be a virtue and becomes a vice. Hence the monk must fast daily, but also daily refresh his body with food; since he must indulge his body, he must do so sparingly and by means of the coarsest food; for only to this end does he eat daily that he may be able to make daily progress in virtue, pray daily, work daily, and read daily.
Notes
- The monks of St. Martin of Tours also took their modest meal toward evening. From the Reg. Coenobialis we know that the ordinary beverage of the monks was beer. The ancient Irish monks lived most frugally. “Cum sedent ad mensam adferantur herbae sive radices aqua lotae in mundis scutellis; item pomacervisia et ex alveario mellis ad latitudinem pollicis, id est aliquot favi.” (Colgan, Acta Sanct. Hib., I, 328, note 7, ex regula S. Ailbei.)