Medieval Monastery
Medieval Monastery





Interesting Facts and information about
Medieval Monastery in the Middle Ages
The Monastic community
The Medieval Monastery layout and buildings
Medieval Monastery Life
Uses of the Medieval monastery
Medieval Monastery
Interesting facts and information about life and the lives of men and women in the
Medieval period of the Middle Ages
Medieval Monastery
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.
Benedictine Monks
The Monastic community
Each monastery endeavoured to form an independent, self-supporting community whose monks had no
need of going beyond its limits for anything. In course of time, as a monastery increased in wealth and
number of inmates, it might come to form an enormous establishment, covering many acres and
presenting within its massive walls the appearance of a fortified town.
Medieval Monastery Hierarchy - Another Feudal Pyramid of Power
The pyramid of power which was prevalent in the Medieval feudalism of the Middle Ages also applied to
the monasteries. The Medieval Monastery hierarchy. Men who entered a Medieval monastery could
become both wealthy and successful. The abbey, the term used for a monastery, was under the authority of
an abbot. Abbeys often owed some form of feudal obligation to a lord or higher organization. They are
normally self-contained. The prior ran the monastery in the absence of the abbot. Monks could rise to
different positions within a monastery, tutors, archivists, cellarers and doctors. The pyramid of power
within the Medieval Church was a follows:








The Pope
Bishop
Arch Bishop
Arch Deacon
Abbot
Prior
Dean
Monks
Claustral Prior - the abbot's second-in-command, responsible for the internal life of the monastery
Dean - in early monastic use, a monk appointed by the abbot to supervise a group of ten brethren; in
general ecclesastical use, the head of a cathedral chapter; also the senior priest and supervisor of a rural
deanery.
An abbot could be a landless noble, who used the church as a means of social advancement. Many 'second
sons' of nobles were destined to life in the church. Other monks could advance in a monastery. there were
a range of occupations for monks.
Daily Life of a Monk in the Middle Ages
Medieval Monks
The Medieval Monastery layout and buildings
The principal buildings of a Benedictine monastery of the larger sort were grouped around an inner court,
called a cloister. These included a church, a refectory, or dining room, with the kitchen and buttery near
it, a dormitory, where the monks slept, and a chapter house, where they transacted business. There was
also a library, a school, a hospital, and a guest house for the reception of strangers, besides barns,
bakeries, laundries, workshops, and storerooms for provisions. Beyond these buildings lay vegetable
gardens, orchards, grain fields, and often a mill, if the monastery was built on a stream. The high wall and
ditch, usually surrounding a monastery, shut it off from outsiders and in time of danger protected it
against attack.
Buildings and Rooms in a Medieval Monastery
The following rooms would be included in a plan of a Medieval monastery. The descriptions of the rooms
are as follows:








Cellarium - store-house of a monastery
Chapter-house - The chapter house was a room in which monks met daily, to discuss business and
to hear a chapter of the monastic rule
Cloister - the cloister was a covered walkway in a monastery often situated around an quadrangle
A cloister often comprised of a plain wall or colonnade on the outer side and a series of windows on
the inner side
Dorter - a dorter was a monastic dormitory. Sometimes the monks slept in isolated rooms called
cells
Frater - a frater was another term for a refectory (dining room)
Garderobe - a garderobe was a lavatory in a medieval building
Granary - A monastery storehouse for threshed grain
Infirmary - the infirmary was the part of a monastery which housed the monks who were too sick








or old to take part in the normal monastic life
Kitchen - The monastery kitchen where food was prepared and cooked
Lavatorium - the lavatorium was a room which contained a trough with running water where
monks washed their hands before meals
Misericord - a misericord was the part of a monastery where monks were disciplined
Night Stair - A staircase used by the monks to enter a church directly from their dormitory in
order to attend late night and early morning services
Refectory - the refectory was dining hall of a monastery
Sacristy - the sacristy was a small building, usually attached to the chancel in which vestments and
sacred vessels were kept
Scriptorium - the scriptorium was the room in a monastery used by clerics or scribes copying
manuscripts
Warming-house - the warming house was the only room in a monastery, apart from the infirmary
and kitchen, where a fire was allowed. Also called a Calefactory
Medieval Monastery Life
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.
Uses of the Medieval monastery
A Medieval monastery was a farm, an inn, a hospital, a school and a library. The uses of a Medieval
monastery included the following:





A Medieval monastery received pilgrims and travellers, at a period when western Europe was
almost destitute of inns
A Medieval monastery performed many works of charity, feeding the hungry, healing the sick who
were brought to their doors, and distributing their medicines
A Medieval monastery provided education for boys who wished to become priests and those who
intended to lead active lives in the world
A Medieval monastery copied the manuscripts of classical authors preserving valuable books that
would otherwise have been lost
A Medieval monastery kept records of the most striking events of their time and acted as
chroniclers of the medieval history of the Middle Ages