THE TWELVE DEGREES OF HUMILITY According to St. Benedict

St. Benedict’s Preface on Humility

St. Benedict begins by noting that "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted" (literally Luke 14:11, fragment of Luke 18:14) and that those who want to reach the highest summit of humility must shun pride and exaltation, and just as well that our actions will be like a ladder to heaven which Jacob saw in his dream in Genesis 28 where the angels ascended and descended. St. Benedict writes that to ascend the ladder of humility to Heaven one must lower himself and to descend the ladder away from Heaven one would have to exalt himself. This is the principle figure then in regarding for St. Benedict that to ascend the ladder of humility the soul must travel through different
stages and levels of humility

THE TWELVE DEGREES OF HUMILITY According to St. Benedict

1. FIRST DEGREE - The fear of God

The first degree is that a person keep the fear of God before his eyes and beware of ever forgetting it. Let him be ever mindful of all that God has commanded; let his thoughts constantly recur to the hell-fire which will burn for their sins those who despise God, and to the life everlasting which is prepared for those who fear him. […] Let a man consider that God is always looking at him from heaven, that his actions are everywhere visible to the divine eyes and are constantly being reported to God by the Angels.

2. SECOND DEGREE - Not my will, But Yours O Lord

The second degree of humility is that a person love not his own will nor take pleasure in satisfying his desires, but model his actions on the saying of the Lord, "I have come not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38)...Consent merits punishment; constraint wins a crown” meaning that to consent to temptation is to deserve a punishment and to restrict yourself from giving in to a constraint we can win a crown. 

3. THIRD DEGREE - Obedience even unto death

The third degree of humility is that a person for love of God submit himself to his Superior in all obedience, imitating the Lord, of whom the Apostle says, "He became obedient even unto death" (Philippians 2:8).

4. FOURTH DEGREE - Embrace Suffering Patiently and Obediently

The fourth degree of humility is that he hold fast to patience with a silent mind when in this obedience he meets with difficulties and contradictions and even any kind of injustice, enduring all without growing weary or running away.

5. FIFTH DEGREE - Confess thy Sins and Faults

The fifth degree of humility is that he hide from his Abbot none of the evil thoughts that enter his heart or the sins committed in secret, but that he humbly confess them.

6. SIXTH DEGREE - Content Yourself with Lowliness

The sixth degree of humility is that a monk be content with the poorest and worst of everything, and that in every occupation assigned him, he consider himself a bad and worthless workman.

7. SEVENTH DEGREE - Interior Mediocrity

The seventh degree of humility is that he consider himself lower and of less account than anyone else, and this not only in verbal protestation but also with the most heartfelt inner conviction.

8. EIGHTH DEGREE - To Keep the Rule

The eighth degree of humility is that a monk do nothing except what is commended by the common Rule of the monastery and the example of the elders.

9. NINTH DEGREE - Silence and Solitude

The ninth degree of humility is that a monk restrain his tongue and keep silence, not speaking until he is questioned.

10. TENTH DEGREE - Keep Your Peace in Times of Laughter

The tenth degree of humility is that he be not ready and quick to laugh.

11. ELEVENTH DEGREE - Speak Calmly and Modestly

The eleventh degree of humility is that when a monk speaks he do so gently and without laughter, humbly and seriously, in few and sensible words, and that he be not noisy in his speech.

12. TWELFTH DEGREE - Everlasting Humility and Meekness

The twelfth degree of humility is that a monk not only have humility in his heart but also by his very appearance make it always manifest to those who see him. That is to say that whether he is at the Work of God, in the oratory, in the monastery, in the garden, on the road, in the fields or anywhere else, and whether sitting, walking or standing, he should always have his head bowed and his eyes toward the ground.

Having climbed all these steps of humility, therefore, the monk will presently come to that perfect love of God which casts out fear. And all those precepts which formerly he had not observed without fear, he will now begin to keep by reason of that love, without any effort, as though naturally and by habit. 

No longer will his motive be the fear of hell, but rather the love of Christ, good habit and delight in the virtues which the Lord will deign to show forth by the Holy Spirit in his servant now cleansed from vice and sin.

From the Holy Rule of St. Benedict, chapter VII. 

On Humility