28. Pantokrator - Dumbarton Oaks

28. PANTOKRATOR
[18. Entry Forbidden to Women]
Women will not enter the monastery and the monastery will be a forbidden area for them,
even if they are distinguished ladies and are adorned by a devout life and a noble birth. But if
some must enter, perhaps for the burial of their relations or their commemoration, they will not
enter by the monastery gate but by the gate of the church of the Eleousa.
[19. Number and Responsibilities of the Monks]
Since it is appropriate to discuss the number of the monks, the total of the monks will not be
less than eighty. Moreover those who are active in the church will come to as many as fifty and
will devote themselves to the praise of God and be concerned with the divine hymns without
interruption. The rest will be divided up among the menial duties. However those who are active
in the church will be men who are reverent in manner, adorned with virtue, zealous in the duties
entrusted to them, of venerable wisdom, and will take care that none of the monastery’s possessions
are destroyed through carelessness. There will not only be bakers, gardeners, and cooks
among the servants but also helpers for the ecclesiarch and assistants to the steward and other
such people. However the ecclesiarch, the sacristans, the archivists, the infirmarian, and the guestmaster
must be from those assigned to the church, also the treasurers, [p. 63] the provisioners, two
choir leaders, six priests, six deacons—as to whether there can be more priests and deacons there
will be nothing in this document to hinder the superior—two precentors, two assistant choir leaders,
and an official responsible for summoning the brothers to church.
From the category of servants there will be four together serving all the brothers in the
lowliest tasks, or rather the most important and godlike ones, if the saying is true which says
“whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matt. 23:12). So these men will wash their tunics and
outer garments, bathe those who are dirty, minister eagerly to the sick, and will clean the jugs,
plates, and pots. The superior will control all these men from the most important to the lowest and
will keep an account of the tasks they are all employed on and will consider worthy of the appropriate
respect and honor those who carry out their duties well but those who conduct themselves
in the opposite way he will move completely to something useful.
However none of the monks will be entrusted with the supervision of property or any of the
tasks that require the spending of time outside the monastery lest they incur a harm to their souls
greater than the expected benefit to the running of the monastery. For not even the whole world
itself is equal to one soul. But the monks will carry out all the tasks inside the monastery and no
lay person will live inside the monastery but they themselves will dwell alone in their own paradise
and will cultivate this carefully and plant it, one for a yield of thirtyfold, another of sixtyfold,
and another of an hundredfold (cf. Matt. 13:23), having attained the full measure of perfection,
and so no secular darnel will grow among them. On the other hand lay people will carry out the
duties in the properties of the monastery and each one will be liable for the appropriate accounts.
None of the monks serving in the church will be permitted to leave the monastery to sing
psalms, whatever festival is being celebrated by anyone, whether it is another monastery that is
celebrating it or some lay people. For such an undertaking will be in every way dangerous and
harmful to the monks in the monastery as well as bringing shame on the monastery and its superior
because those who are subject to him are not watched over and supervised.
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