^“If any brother is found to be contumacious, or disobedient, or proud, or a murmurer, or in any way has contempt for the Holy Rule and the precepts of his seniors, let him, according to Our Lord’s precept, be admonished once or twice in private by his seniors (cf. Matt 18:15-16).  If he does not amend, he should be publicly rebuked in the presence of all.  If he still refuses to be corrected, he should (provided he understands what this penalty signifies) be subjected to excommunication….

It is with all solicitude that the abbot should care for delinquent brothers, for it is not the healthy who have need of a physician, but those who are sick (Matt 9:12). And thus he should in every way act as a wise physician, sending senpectae, that is older and wise brothers, who can, as it were in secret, console the wavering brother and convince him to make humble satisfaction, thus comforting him, lest he be devoured by excessive sorrow (2 Cor 2:7); rather, as the apostle also says, Let love towards him be intensified (2 Cor 2:8) and let all pray for him. 

With the greatest possible solicitude, the abbot should hasten to employ all wisdom and diligence so as not to lose any one of the sheep entrusted to him. For he should know that he has undertaken to care for weak souls, not to exercise tyranny over the strong; and he ought to fear the threat of the prophet in which God says:  What you saw to be fat you took for yourselves, and what was injured you cast away (Ezek 34:10,4-6). And he should imitate the loving example of the good shepherd, who, leaving the ninety-nine sheep on the mountains, went to seek the one which had lost its way: its weakness inspired such compassion that He deigned to place it on His own sacred shoulders and thus carry it back to the flock (Luke 15:5).

If a brother who is frequently corrected for some fault, or even excommunicated, does not amend, he should receive a more severe correction: that is, let the punishment of beatings be administered to him.  If he then does not correct himself, or even (may it never happen!), inflamed with pride, he wishes to defend his actions, then the abbot should act as a wise physician: if he has applied compresses and the ointment of his admonitions, the medicine of the Sacred Scriptures, and ultimately the cautery of excommunication or strokes of the rod; and if he still sees that his labors are unavailing, he should add what is even greater – his prayers and those of all the brothers for him, that the Lord who is can do all things may affect the healing of the sick brother.

But if even by this means he is not healed, then the abbot may use the knife for amputation, as the apostle says:  Banish the evil one from you (1 Cor 5:13), and again: If the unfaithful one departs, let him depart (1 Cor 7:15), lest one diseased sheep infect the whole flock.”

— The Rule of St. Benedict, Ch 23, 27, 28 — 

“Caritas interdum leniter tolerat,

interdum severe corrigit;

set semper salutem fratris quaerit.”

—

“Love sometimes bears gently,

sometimes corrects firmly;

yet always seeks the salvation of the brother.”