Monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience

Monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience are the three commitments that define the monastic life in Goldmund’s account, but he does not accept them as a package. He is willing to embrace poverty; chastity and obedience, he says, do not suit him. His exchange with Narcissus distinguishes a cloister’s welcome from a religious vocation, while the vows themselves mark the lasting difference between the two friends’ paths.

The Three Commitments

The rule is named by Goldmund as the three main vows. When Narcissus invites him back to Mariabronn, Goldmund warns that he is no monk and does not wish to become one: he accepts poverty, but not chastity or obedience. He also says that he has ceased to practice the ordinary observances of religious life, including confession, prayer, and communion. His response makes the vows a practical threshold, not simply an abstract ideal: he can accept material simplicity, but not the sexual restraint or submission to authority that he associates with monastic membership.

The Vows and Goldmund’s Life

Goldmund’s distinction reflects the life he has led outside the cloister. In his wandering years he has pursued relationships with women, and his indifference to money and ownership has also become a source of tension during his time with Master Niklaus. Niklaus sees Goldmund’s lack of concern for property, his desire to spend freely, and his unsettled habits as difficult qualities in a pupil, even as he recognizes the exceptional work taking shape in the carving of Saint John. Goldmund’s willingness to accept poverty therefore does not mean that he accepts the whole discipline of the monastery: his relation to possessions differs from his refusal of chastity and obedience.

Narcissus’s Invitation

Narcissus does not demand that Goldmund take the vows. He acknowledges that Goldmund would make a poor monk, but clarifies that he is inviting him to be a guest and to establish a workshop in the cloister. That distinction allows Goldmund to return without promising religious conformity. Narcissus also accepts a share of responsibility for the life Goldmund has made, recalling that he awakened him from his cloister years and let him go into the world; he wants to see what Goldmund has become through his words, life, and works.

Goldmund’s eventual place in Mariabronn is thus that of an artist and guest, not a professed monk. His return brings him into contact with the monastery’s order without erasing the difference between his commitments and Narcissus’s. The vows define a boundary between them, while their friendship makes room for Goldmund’s work on the other side of it.