By Ellen BUCKLEY

The Medieval monastery was established during the Middle Ages. The first

type of Medieval monastery adhered to the Benedictine Rule, established by St.

Benedict in 529AD. Different orders of monks were also established during the

Middle Ages. The major orders of Medieval monks were the Benedictines,

the Cistercians and the Carthusians. These monastic orders differed mainly in

the details of their religious observation and how strictly they applied their

rules. In the twelfth century four hundred and eighteen monasteries were

founded in England; in the next century, only about a third as many. In the

fourteenth, only twenty-three monasteries were founded in England.

Medieval monks

Medieval monastery life consisted of a regular round of worship, reading, and

manual labor. Every day was divided into eight sacred offices, beginning and

ending with services in the monastery church. The first service came usually

about two o'clock in the morning; the last, just as evening set in, before

the monks retired. In addition to their attendance at church, the monks spent

several hours in reading from the Bible, private prayer, and meditation. For

most of the day, however, they worked hard with their hands, doing the

necessary washing and cooking for the monastery, raising the necessary supplies

of vegetables and grain, and performing all the other tasks required to maintain

a large establishment like the monastery A Medieval monastery was a farm, an

inn, a hospital, a school and a library.

Medieval Monastery Life

Orders of Medieval Monks in the Middle Ages

The first Medieval monks adhered to the Benedictine Rule which was established by St.

Benedict in 529AD. Different orders of Medieval monks were also established during

the Middle Ages. The major orders of Medieval monks were:

The Benedictine Monks - the Black Monk

The Cistercian Monks - the White monk

The Carthusian Monks - the silent monks

The Dominican Monks

The Franciscan Monks

Augustine Monks, including the Gilbertines

Types of medieval monks

Washing and cooking for the monastery

Raising the necessary supplies of vegetables and grain

Reaping, Sowing, Ploughing, Binding and Thatching, Haymaking and

Threshing

Producing wine, ale and honey

Providing medical care for the community

Providing education for boys and novices

Copying the manuscripts of classical authors

Providing hospitality for pilgrims

Daily life of a monk

The Three Vows of the Medieval Monks

Different orders had different vows. The three vows of the Benedictine monks were:

The Vow of Poverty

The Vow of Chastity

The Vow of Obedience

Medieval Monks chose to renounce all worldly life and goods and spend their lives working under

the strict routine and discipline of life in a medieval monastery The reasons for becoming a monk,

their clothes and the different orders are detailed in medieval monks This section specifically applies

to the daily life of the monks.

the Vows monks took

§A tunic, tied around the waist with a cloth or leather belt

§Over the tunic was a scapula. A scapula was a garment consisting of a long wide piece

of woolen cloth worn over the shoulders with an opening for the head;

§A cowl was attached to the scapula ( the cowl is the hood worn especially by a monk )

§The front of the scapula was secured with a small piece of rectangular cloth that

snapped the sides together

§Hair shirts - some monks imposed suffering on themselves by wearing hair shirts under

their habits

§Some monks would also wear a cross upon a chain

around their necks

What did monks wear?