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Longer Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 51: In What Manner the Offence of the Sinner Must Be Corrected

Let the Superior employ corrective methods on the afflicted after the example of doctors, not being angry with the sick but fighting the disease. Let him face the illness and by more laborious regime, if necessary, cure the soul’s sickness. For example, he will cure vainglory by ordering practices of humility¹; idle speech, by silence; excessive sleep, by watchings with prayer; bodily idleness, by labours; unseemly eating, by deprivation of food; murmuring, by separation, so that none of the brethren chooses to work with the offender, nor to let his work go in with that of the rest, as we said above, unless he appears to be cured of his vice by unreserved penitence. Then the work done in a spirit of murmuring may be received, but not even so may it be used to serve the purposes of the brethren, but they must find some other use for it. And the principles ruling this matter have been sufficiently discussed above.²

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