The Rule of Taizé

By Brother Roger

For more than fifty years, the international ecumenical community at Taizé has had an enduring and unparalleled attraction for young adults, whether Christian or not. Its roots go back to wartime France, when a young man, who was to become Brother Roger, settled in the impoverished and largely abandoned village of Taizé. He dreamed of beginning a community life of work and prayer among the poor, and quickly found himself looking after Jewish refugees. Later, he and his companions tended German prisoners of war and orphaned children. The Community became more visible in 1949, when the first seven Taizé brothers made a lifelong commitment to monastic life. The Rule of Taizé, was written by Brother Roger a few years later and has been a reference point for the Community ever since. After Brother Roger's untimely death on 16th August 2005 - when he was attacked and killed while praying with more than 2,000 young people - the Community republished The Rule in French and later prepared a fresh translation into English. Though written with the Community in mind, this work of deep insight and broad vision is a mine of wisdom for all those seeking to live in harmony with others and with God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SPCK
• Release date: Oct 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9780281068289

Book preview

Preface

Roger Schutz was born in 1915 in Provence, a small village in French-speaking Switzerland. As a 16-year-old he developed tuberculosis and was seriously ill for several years. He began studying theology at Lausanne when he was 21.

Four years later, in 1940, feeling Switzerland too comfortable a place to be during the war, he went to live alone in eastern France. In the small village of Taizé, where he settled, he began a life of prayer while sheltering refugees, including Jewish fugitives.

Over the next years, others who shared his vision joined him, culminating in the lifelong commitment of the first seven brothers at Easter 1949 to constitute the ecumenical and monastic Taizé Community.

In the solitude of a long retreat, during the winter of 1952–3, Brother Roger wrote the Rule of Taizé to underpin their vocation to live out a ‘parable of community’. It is a life which both waits on God in prayer and is turned towards the needs of the world; it contains a passion for the visible unity of Christians.

Nowadays the Taizé Community comprises around 100 brothers, Catholics and of different Protestant backgrounds, from 30 different countries. Most of them live at Taizé itself, while some live in small groups in poor neighbourhoods in Asia, Africa and South America.

In the 1960s young adults began visiting in large numbers, and tens of thousands now come to Taizé each year to meet and pray with the community. Usually the young people stay for one week, but some prolong their stay for a period