Episode 6: Early Western
Monasticism
Music: Gregorian Chant and/or St.
Patrick’s Hymn
1
TIMELINE
• Theme: two monastic developments that
evangelized Europe and preserved ancient
education after fall of Roman Empire in the
West
2
Religious and Educational Light in the
Darkness: European Monasteries
• Irish Monasticism
• Benedictines
3
Waypoint: Iona Scotland
• Iona is an island off west coast of
Scotland
• Early expansion of Irish
monasticism
– Founded by St. Columba c. 563
• Iona quickly became leading
center of Irish monasticism
– Center of learning
– Important scriptorium
– Missionary activities to England and
Northern Europe
4
Irish Church
• Ireland never part of Roman Empire;
– not affected by 5th, 6th C barbarian invasions
•
St. Patrick (d. 490) returned to Ireland from
England after having been a slave in Ireland to
preach Christianity
– Organizes parishes around monasteries
– Makes Latin the scholarly language in Ireland
– Feast day, March 17
•
Irish monasteries are cutoff from Roman world
due to barbarian invasions, develop different
customs
– Different calculation for Easter
– Discipline (penance, private confession)
– Organization: abbots rather than bishops
•
In early Sixth Century Irish monks led by St.
Columba establish a monastery at Iona,
Scotland
5
6th C Italian Monastic
Developments
• St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547)
– Greatly influenced by St.
Pachomius
– Established an order of
Monks, now known as
Benedictines, governed by his
Rule
– Feast Day July 11
• Sister, Scholastica, founded an
order of nuns to follow the Rule
– Feast Day February 10
• Most popular religious order in
West until 13th C
6
Waypoint: Monte Cassino
• Monastery established by St,
Benedict c. 530
– High mountain outside of Rome
to try to remove monks from
war between Justinian and
German barbarians
– Benedict died at Monte Cassino
in 543
• Monks lived by Benedict’s Rule
• Benedictines and various offshoots dominated Western
monasticism
7
Development of Christian Monasticism:
Egyptian Monasticism Early 4th C
• Desert Monks (from Greek for solitary),
primarily in Egypt: anchorites withdrawn
from society
– Most famous: Anthony (251-356),
– St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria,
wrote a very influential life of Anthony,
example: Augustine Confessions Book VIII
• Communal monasticism
– Many attracted to this way of life, come
together in groups
– Rule of St. Pachomius (286 – 346)
– Pachomius’ sister, Mary, established an
Egyptian monastery for women with their
own Rule
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What’s a Rule
• Prescribes the way of life for the
community
• Includes what prayers are said when
• Defines balance between work, study,
prayer
• Community organization (abbot,
monks, novices) and how leaders are
selected
• Process for acceptance into
community
• How new communities are created
• Relation between community and
diocese
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Key Historical Events 5th Century
• Increasingly West was under
pressure from northern tribes
(Goths, Visigoths, Vandals)
• Goths sacked Rome in 410
– St. Augustine dies in 430 as Hippos is
besieged by Vandals
• Center of power in Roman Empire
is only in Constantinople
• Attila the Hun reaches Rome in
452, persuaded by Pope St. Leo
the Great not to sack Rome
• Last Roman emperor in West
abdicated in 476
• Europe enters a period ruled by
warring Germanic tribes
– Tremendous social and cultural
disruption
10
6th and 7th Century Monastic Missionary
Activities in Western Europe
•
•
•
•
Parallel, independent missionary activities from
Rome and Ireland (Iona)
Irish monks in 6th Century travel far beyond Ireland
as missionaries to preach Christianity
– St. Columban(us) travels extensively through
Europe establishing Irish style monasteries,
including one in Northern Italy (d. 615)
– St. Brendan the Navigator may have reached
Iceland, Greenland and perhaps North
America
Meanwhile, missionaries from Rome are also trying
to convert Pagan Germanic tribes
– Conversion of Chlodwech (Clovis), King of the
Franks, 496
– Pope St. Gregory the Great sends St. Augustine
of Canterbury (a Benedictine) to England 597
Differences between Irish and Roman Churches
resolved at Synod of Whitby, 664, in favor or
Roman customs
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Map of Early Monasteries
12
The Pope Who Brought the Two Monastic
Movements Together: Pope St. Gregory the
Great
• Pope St. Gregory Great (546-604)
– Benedictine
– Wrote a life of Benedict
• Reformed Roman clergy around
monastic model
• Reformed the liturgy and Church
music
• Encouraged Irish monks, St.
Columbanus, to found monasteries
in northern Italy
• Earliest extant life of Gregory
written by an English nun, 8th C
• Feast Day is September 3
13
Later Monastic Developments
• Revitalization of Benedictine
monasticism during the Middle
Ages
– Cluniac Reforms of 10th C
– Cistercian Reforms of 11th C
• Monasteries were primary locus of
education for boys and girls until
later Middle Ages
• Monastic orders continue to live a
life of Christian witness
– Benedictines
– Cistercians
– Trappists
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Later History of Iona and
Monte Cassino
• Both destroyed by
warfare
• Iona destroyed by
Vikings in 9th C
– Recent excavations and a
popular tourist site
• Monte Cassino
destroyed by Allied
forces in 1943
– Rebuilt after WWII,
reconsecrated by Pope
Paul VI in 1964
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Next Waypoint: Aachen Cathedral
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