CHAPTER VI

THE NOVITIATE

I. Of the Purpose of the Novitiate

In order to enter Religion a period of probation is required. The purpose of this period is (1) to give the individual and the community mutual opportunity of testing whether the applicant has a vocation to Religion in general and to the community in particular, and (2) to secure the proper training of those who are looking forward to the Religious Life.

II. Of the Period of Probation

The period of probation consists of the postulancy and the novitiate.

Before being admitted to probation, the aspirant should be required to present to the Superior certificates of his birth and parentage; of his baptism and confirmation; a declaration from a competent medical man that he is free from serious bodily disease, and a certificate or other evidence of general

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1 It seems, however, that one may be admitted to probation, but not to profession, before Confirmation and First Communion.

good character. If any of these be not obtainable general information on good authority may be accepted as an equivalent.

There is a distinction between the postulancy and the novitiate that should be kept in mind. During the postulancy the aspirant is admitted in a limited measure to the discipline of the community in order to decide with proper guidance the question of his vocation. When he is admitted to the novitiate, however, he is supposed to have definitely concluded that he has a vocation, and, in becoming a novice, is giving himself to the community to be trained. In the novitiate he is in the position of a man who, for example, enters upon his course of study in a medical school. He is not entering upon his course to see how he will like it, the decision to be made later; but he has already made up his mind to follow this profession, and is giving himself to be trained accordingly. It may indeed prove that he is not suited for it, but so far as he can judge at the time, there is no longer any question.

The period of probation varies in length according to the Constitutions of various communities. Amongst us, as a general rule, the postulancy is six months, and the novitiate two years.

Among the cenobites of the desert in the early days of monasticism the novitiate was one year, according to Cassian,1 and Sozomen records that under the rule of Pachomius on the island of Tabenna in the Nile, novices underwent a training of three years. In the

1 Cassian, Institutes, iv, 7. Migne, P. L., Tom. xlix, col. 160. 2 Sozomen, Hist. Eccl., iii, 14. Migne, P. G., Tom. lxvii, col. 1072.

time of St. Gregory the Great the period in the West had been set at two years.1

For many centuries in the greater part of the Western Church the noviatiate has been one year. A constitution of Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1281, prescribed this period of time for novices in the English Church, and since the Council of Trent this has been the general rule in the Latin Church, although not universal.

All authorities agree that the novitiate should run its full time as provided in the Constitutions, that is to say, it should run from the hour of taking the habit to the same hour on the day on which the period ends. No difference is made because of leap years.

The constitutional period of the novitiate is set as a minimum. The aspirant has no right to demand profession immediately on the expiration of his novitiate, and it is within the right of the Superior to defer it according to convenience, or for further testing, or training.

The novitiate, in most communities, may be extended if the novice does not seem to have been sufficiently tested; if he is uncertain of his vocation, or for any other cause. It would be better to resort to this expedient than to dismiss at once a person of whom there is some hope; but there must be some probability of success in this extension." authorities agree, however, that an extension amounting to more than half the time of the regular novitiate is not to be advised.

1 Reichel, Manual of Canon Law, Vol. ii, 101. 2 Gautrelet, op. cit., Vol. i, pp. 75-6.

The

If one passes from one Order to another, whether before or after profession, his period of novitiate in the first does not ordinarily suffice for the second. He does not know the Order, nor does the Order know him, and therefore one important object of the novitiate is not attained.

By a common custom, if a novice appear to be dying, he is allowed to take his vows. If he recovers, however, he is bound to continue his training until the end of the period set for his novitiate, for this is not a profession in the strict sense, since it was not a" public, legal, and authentic engagement." After such a profession, however, the community cannot send away the novice without sound cause. novice, even more than the community, is strictly bound to ratify these vows, and cannot refuse to do so without the gravest reasons based on causes arising after the vows were made.a

III. Of Entrance upon Probation

The

One wishing to make trial of his vocation ordinarily applies to the Superior of the community he desires to enter, and is required to make a visit of some duration to a house of the Order. This is required that he may see something of the Life as lived in this particular Order, and that the authorities may learn to know him and judge somewhat of his character and fitness to go forward.

At this point one of the chief opportunities of testing lies. An aspirant should not be too readily

1 Gautrelet, op. cit., Vol. i, p. 88. 2 Ibid., Vol. i, p. 89.

received. The Rule of St. Benedict sets forth the

principle which should be enforced. To him that newly cometh to change his life,"1 it says, "let not an easy entrance be granted, but as the Apostle saith, 'Try the spirits if they be of God.' If, therefore, he that cometh persevereth in knocking, and after four or five days seem patiently to endure the injuries done to him, and to persist in his petition, let entrance be granted him."

Cassian tells us that in the days of the Fathers of the desert, aspirants were kept thus waiting for ten days, or even longer, as a test of their " perseverance and desire, as well as of humility and patience."

According to the rough manners of ancient times this testing at the gate of the monastery was of a rude character well suited to try the humility and determination of an applicant. At the present day the method commonly is to receive the applicant in the guest-house for a sufficient time to learn something of his character and of the spirit that actuates him. This period often depends on how well known he is to the authorities of the Order.

Such visitors should be treated with courtesy and charity, but should be made to feel that they are on trial, and that they may at any time be sent away if their conduct and attitude are not such as to indicate humble and earnest desire to know God's will concerning them.

An applicant for admission to a Religious commun

1 In ancient times entrance into Religion was generally spoken of as Conversion." 2 St. Benedict, Regula, cap. 58.

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3 Cassian, Institutes, iv, 3. Migne, P. L., Tom. xlix, col. 155.