Hamlet to Ophelia: Get thee to a nunnery, why woulds’t thou be a breeder of sinners?
Men might well dread, and very reasonably,
This life on earth to lose, my own dear brother,
If this alone were living, and no other.
“But there’s a better life in other place,
That never shall be lost, nay, fear you naught,
Whereof God’s Son has told us, through His grace;
That Father’s Son all things that He has wrought,
And all that is has made with reasoned thought,
The Spirit which from Father did proceed
Has given a soul to each, fear not indeed.
“By word and miracle God’s only Son,
When He was in this world, declared us here
There was another life that could be won.
— The Nun’s Tale from Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
When we read of someone being sent to a monastery as part of their discipline, we often think horrible things about what will happen with that person’s life. Even among us Orthodox, we tend to shudder and think ill of that “punishment.” But, I might suggest that you rethink that way of thinking. Why do I say so?
Well, first of all, the people who tended to get sent to monasteries were high-ranking clergymen. Frankly, that meant that they were most often celibate, and technically monks. Thus, it was not that they were being sent off to a lifestyle which they did not know. They may not have lived a monastery lifestyle for many years but they were not unacquainted with what that meant, in terms of lifestyle and requirements.
Second, we often think of going to a monastery as purely a punitive measure. But, that is where we make our biggest mistake. When we think that we are thinking like a typical modern America. You see, we look at a monastery as a loss of freedom and as a loss of privileges and access to the world. But, is that what a monastery is? Particularly, if the person being sent there has already felt a monastic call, then they should not be having that sort of opinion.
But, more than that, sending someone to a monastery is certainly better than the Western alternative, of burning someone alive in an auto da fe for heresy or some other serious violation of canon. You see, the Orthodox approach to clerical discipline was to give as much mercy as possible. A heretical bishop or priest who repented might certainly have their authority to celebrate services removed, but by sending them to a monastery, the Orthodox Church was giving them the opportunity to spend the rest of their life in quiet prayer, service, community, etc. That is, the Church was giving them the opportunity to grow in holiness. By taking them “out of the world” the Church was actually rescuing them from further temptation and placing them in a supportive community. The “punishment” was thus not much of a punishment, it was actually a large amount of mercy.
And, in that mercy, the Church was giving those disciplined a fantastic gift. As the nun says in Canterbury Tales:
There was another life that could be won.
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