Caput XIX. De cibi et potus qualitate et quantitate.
The Rule of Bread and Drink
A measured allowance of bread, drink, and simple fare is set for the recluse, calibrated to necessity rather than appetite.
Now, regarding the quality and quantity of food and drink — I realize I'm imposing a rule on you, sister, who from infancy right up to old age, which now weakens your body, can barely sustain yourself on the most sparing nourishment — yet since I believe this will be helpful to others as well, I will try to set down a fixed rule on these matters. The blessed Benedict allows a monk one pound of bread and half a pint of drink — something we do not deny to our more delicate recluses; yet for young men who are physically robust, it is most beneficial to abstain from everything that can intoxicate. Let them avoid fine bread and delicate foods as they would the poison of unchastity. In this way let her provide for necessity — so as to drive back hunger, but not to satisfy appetite. Therefore, those who are not strong enough to advance to stricter abstinence should be content with a pound of bread and half a pint of a more generous drink — whether they eat twice a day or only once. Let them have one dish of vegetables or legumes, or at least of things made from flour. Adding a little oil or butter or milk, let her use this seasoning to drive away disgust. And let this be enough for her on a day when she is to have supper.
Supper and Seasonal Fasting
The chapter moves to lighter suppers and a detailed calendar of fasting and eating times through the liturgical year.
For supper, however, let her serve herself a small amount of milk, or a little fish, or something of that kind — if it's available. Content with one kind of food — with fruit and raw herbs, if she has them — these things can be served to her, if she has eaten only once in the day, after a relish has been tasted beforehand.1 On the vigils of the saints, however, and on the fasts of the Four Seasons, and also on every Wednesday and Friday — except during the week before Lent — let her observe the Lenten fast in her food.2 In Lent, let one relish a day suffice for her.3 And unless illness prevents it, let her fast on Friday with bread and water. From the Exaltation of the Holy Cross up to Lent, let her take food once a day at the ninth hour. In Lent, after vespers has been said, let her break her fast. From Easter to Pentecost, let her dine at the sixth hour and observe silence at the meal — which she will also do throughout the whole summer, except on Wednesdays and Fridays and on solemn fast days.
Bodily Rest in Place of Fasting
On fasting days in summer, a brief bodily rest is permitted as a merciful substitution for a midday nap.
On the days she fasts, though, let her be given a little bodily rest during the summer — in place of a midday nap, and between the morning prayers and the first hour.45
Read the original Latin
Jam de cibi et potus qualitate vel quantitate, ex abundanti quidem tibi legem imponere, soror, quae ab ipsa infantia usque ad senectutem, quae nunc tua membra debilitat, parcissimo cibo vix corpus sustentas: pro aliis cum quibus id utile futurum arbitrans, certam de his praescribere regulam tentabo. Beatus Benedictus libram panis et heminam potus concedit monacho: quod nos inclusis delicatioribus non negamus; adolescentibus tamen in corpore robustis, ab omni quod inebriare potest, abstinere utilissimum est. Panem nitidum et cibos delicatos, quasi impudicitiae venenum evitet. Sic necessitati consulat, ut et famem repellat, et appetitum non satiet. Itaque quae ad perfectiorem abstinentiam progredi non valent, libra panis et hemina lautioris potus contentae sint: sive bis comedant, sive semel. Unum habeant de oleribus vel leguminibus pulmentum, vel certe de farinaceis. Cui modicum olei, vel butyri vel lactis injiciens, hoc condimento fastidium repellat. Et hoc ei, si ea die coenatura est, sufficiat.
Ad coenam vero parum lactis sibi vel piscis modicum, vel aliquid hujusmodi si praesto fuerit, apponat. Uno genere cibi contenta cum pomis et herbis crudis, si quas habuerit, haec ipsa si semel comederit in die, praelibato pulmento possunt apponi. In vigiliis sanctorum tamen et Quatuor Temporum jejuniis, omnium etiam feriarum quarta et sexta, extra Quinquagesimam in cibo quadragesimali jejunet. In Quadragesima voro unum quotidie ei sufficiat pulmentum. Et nisi infirmitas impediat, feria sexta in pane et aqua jejunet. Ab Exaltatione sanctae Crucis usque ad Quadragesimam semel in die hora nona reficiat. In Quadragesima, dicta vespera, jejunium solvat. A Pascha usque ad Pentecosten ad sextam prandeat, et ad prandium silentium teneat: quod etiam tota aestate faciet, praeter ferias quarta et sexta, et solemnibus jejuniis.
Diebus autem quibus jejunat, liceat ei in aestate pro somno meridiano et inter matutinas et primam modicum quietis indulgere corpusculo.
Notes
- 1 ↩praelibato: 'having been tasted beforehand' — the sense is that a small relish or condiment is tasted first, after which the simple fare may follow.
- 2 ↩extra Quinquagesimam: 'except during Quinquagesima' — the week immediately before Lent is exempted from the otherwise universal Wednesday/Friday fasting rule.
- 3 ↩voro: the gloss marks this as possibly a variant or error (confidence 0.7). The normalized text reads 'voro' which appears to be a corruption. The most plausible intended sense is a temporal or transitional marker, rendered here as simply continuing the Lenten regulation. The sentence is short and the meaning — one dish per day in Lent — is clear from context.
- 4 ↩corpusculo is rendered 'her body' (literally 'little body') as a dative with indulgere; the diminutive softens the permission without weakening the ascetical frame.
- 5 ↩et inter matutinas et primam: the second et is likely temporal ('and the [first] hour'), not a second set of prayers; taken as a span of time rather than a second office.
De institutione inclusarum (A Rule of Life for a Recluse) companion
A rule only lives if you keep it daily
Chosen Portion gives your new rule its anchor: one free devotional portion every day.
Aelred built his sister's day around fixed times of prayer and meditation; Chosen Portion supplies the fixed daily portion that makes a modern rule of life keepable.
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