A Monastic Life

A Monastic Life

Religious communities lived in monasteries or abbeys and these were the chief centers of art and leaning in Europe between the tenth and twelfth centuries. A single community often included several hundred men called monks, or women, called nuns, who lived in a walled settlement. The monks and nuns divided each day between worship, study and work. Monasteries were often located in the frontier areas of Europe among various nomadic tribes.

Monks built churches that looked like fortress because they were seen as strongholds of God in an evil world. People came there seeking peace from the violence and wars around them. Living areas of a monastery opened off a cloister – a covered walkway built around a square garden. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, many building techniques were forgotten. Stone,masons had to rediscover how to build arched stone vaults so the churches had fireproof roofs. These vaults were like those built by the Romans, so the style is called Romanesque.

People liked living near a monastery. It often provided the only hospital or school in an area and travelers stayed at guest houses located within the monastery.

Sleeping Quarters

Dormitories in the abbey at the cathedral in Durham, England, has a trussed roof built from thick, roughly cut timbers. Light from large windows allowed the monks to read during their afternoon rest period. In the winter, the monks sat by a fire in the warming room then went to bed in the unheated dormitory upstairs. A door in the dormitory led into the church because the monks worshiped in the middle of the night.

Feeding the community

On feast days, the monks roasted a wild boar over a fire in the center of the floor of the kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset, England. They cooked other dishes for the large community over the four fireplaces in the corners of the room.

Refectory

Twice a day, monks sat down in the refectory to eat their simple meals.

Monastic Life. Photo by Elena.

Cellar

The monks made cheese and candles, cured hams and brewed ale to stock their cellar with all the things the community needed.

Maria Laach Abbey

The twelfth-century Romanesque abbey west of Koblenz, Germany, has six towers decorated with dark stone. This scene reconstructs a typical monastery cloister next to the abbey church.

Growing food

The monks worked in the fields of the farm outside the monastery walls. They also cultivated a small herb garden where they grew the plants used to make medicines.

Make pilgrimages

People rarely traveled in these times, but the did make a trip, or pilgrimage, to pray at the burial place of a Christian saint. Some pilgrims walked hundreds of miles to reach their goal, such as Santiago de Compostela in Spain. They slept in monastic guest houses and prayed at churches along the way. Pilgrims brought home new ideas from their travels, including new ways to build churches.