How is the seeming affluence of some Benedictines compatible with the vow of poverty?
Actually, Benedictines don’t technically make a vow of poverty (though it is certainly encompassed in the vows they do make) – they actually promise stability, conversion of life, and obedience, in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict. And there is an interesting difference between Benedictines and Franciscans. St Francis wanted his friars to both be poor and look poor – to wear patched habits and so forth. St Benedict by contrast instructed his monks to wear the patched habits within the monastery – but when going outside on a journey, to be given a nicer outfit stored up for the purpose. Similarly, Benedictines generally wear choir cowls over their normal habit in Church to present a nicer face to the outside world. Benedictine poverty and austerity, in other words, was to be practiced in secret within the monastery, but not to be made obvious to the outside world. So don’t make assumptions about how the monks or nuns are living based on the little glimpses you get to see! Secondl
