No, really, monks don’t take a vow of silence
Today’s Guardian Unlimited published a travel story in which reporter William Little visited the six Trappist abbeys in Belgium where beer is brewed.
And the headline read: “With beer this good, no wonder they keep silent.”
To Mr. Little’s credit he didn’t write that monks take a vow of silence. We just have a clever headline writer playing on an old misconception.
The notion that Trappists take a vow of total silence is incorrect. Such a vow never existed, although there were strict rules about speaking. While those rules have eased, at some times and in some places silence still is expected. The purpose of silence is to give one space in which to pray, meditate, and read, and to allow others to do the same.
I won’t guarantee how much you’ll learn from the story, though I sure wish Little had elaborated on how Brother Jules makes beer with a wrench.
