The Rule of St. Benedict · 63 of 69

Chapter 67: Concerning brothers sent upon a journey

Brothers who are to be sent upon a journey shall commend themselves to the prayers of all the brethren and of the abbot. And always, at the last prayer of the Divine Service, there shall be a calling to mind of all the absent ones. Having returned, moreover, from the journey—on the very day on which they return,—at all the canonical hours when the Divine Service is being carried on, prostrated on the floor of the oratory, they shall seek the prayers of all, on account of their excesses: lest perchance the sight of some evil thing, or the hearing of some idle discourse, may have met or happened to them on the journey. Let not any one presume to tell another what he has seen or heard outside of the monastery; for, very often, it means ruin. And if any one presume to, he shall be subject to the punishment of the Rule. Even so he who presumes to go beyond the confines of the monastery, or to go anywhere, or to do anything however trivial without the order of the abbot.