The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 58

On the Manner of Receiving Brothers

When he is to be received
he promises before all in the oratory
stability,
fidelity to monastic life
and obedience.
This promise he shall make before God and His Saints,
so that if he should ever act otherwise,
he may know that he will be condemned by Him whom he mocks.
Of this promise of his let him draw up a document
in the name of the Saints whose relics are there
and of the Abbot who is present.
Let him write this document with his own hand;
or if he is illiterate, let another write it at his request,
and let the novice put his mark to it.
Then let him place it with his own hand upon the altar;
and when he has placed it there,
let the novice at once intone this verse:
"Receive me, O Lord, according to Your word, and I shall live:
and let me not be confounded in my hope" (Ps. 118[119]:116).
Let the whole community answer this verse three times
and add the "Glory be to the Father."
Then let the novice prostrate himself at each one's feet,
that they may pray for him.
And from that day forward
let him be counted as one of the community.

If he has any property,
let him either give it beforehand to the poor
or by solemn donation bestow it on the monastery,
reserving nothing at all for himself,
as indeed he knows that from that day forward
he will no longer have power even over his own body.
At once, therefore, in the oratory,
let him be divested of his own clothes which he is wearing
and dressed in the clothes of the monastery.
But let the clothes of which he was divested
be put aside in the wardrobe and kept there.
Then if he should ever listen to the persuasions of the devil
and decide to leave the monastery (which God forbid),
he may be divested of the monastic clothes and cast out.
His document, however,
which the Abbot has taken from the altar,
shall not be returned to him, but shall be kept in the monastery.