Monasticism
(1) Pop culture says monasticism was BAD!
(2) Pop culture’s specific accusations
(3) Barbarians destroyed culture, monks saved it
(4) Literacy and Education
(5) Agriculture
(6) Industrial skills and technology
(7) Monastic beauty
Monasticism Misrepresented
Catholic monasticism is presented in our pop
culture as a prison-like existence.
Monks, we are told, did not want to be monks nor
do the work of monks. Monasteries were places of
ugly, barren stone. No one was happy. No one
smiled. No one was creative or innovative.
I came across this picture on the web.
Someone had posted it with the caption
“You are sad and have no life.”
Monasticism Misrepresented
This re-writing of the history of monasticism began
with Voltaire.
Voltaire called Catholic cathedrals “gothic” meaning
uncivilized, like the Goth barbarians who plundered
the crumbling Roman Empire.
Real Goths→
←Fake Goth
Monasticism Misrepresented
Voltaire despised art itself, and believed that
beautiful art brings cultures down.
“Gosh, I hate the Church. I hate
her so much that I hate all art too.
How can I keep Catholic art from
inspiring people? I know! I’ll say
it’s GOTHIC.”
(2) Pop culture’s specific accusations
Catholic Monasticism is accused of keeping Europe
in a “Dark Age” from 500 to 1500 A.D. by:
--fleeing from society into seclusion.
--obstructing the advance of the physical sciences.
--suppressing pagan cultural treasures
(pre-Christian literature).
--suppressing art
--keeping people ignorant (uneducated) and
powerless.
--sponging off of real working people, like parasites.
(2) Pop culture’s specific accusations
--Monks are often portrayed as self-serving, fat
slobs who just want to eat, drink and let everyone
else do the work.
(3) Barbarians destroyed culture, monks saved it
--There was indeed little original writing in the years
500 to 700 A.D. The barbarian invasions destroyed
cities, monasteries, libraries, schools, and
institutions of law and government.
--During this time, the monasteries were BUSY
trying to save and collect as much culture as they
could. They did not have the safety and leisure
necessary for original writing.
(3) Barbarians destroyed culture, monks saved it
--As a result of the barbarian invasions, the classics
were generally scattered. Very little was gathered in
one place.
--Most pre-Christian classical literature would not
exist today if it had not been painstakingly
preserved by Catholic monks.
--The monasteries copied and collected the classics
again until Western culture regathered. This made
the Renaissance possible.
(3) Barbarians destroyed culture, monks saved it
--The cathedrals Voltaire called “gothic” are in fact
incredibly complex, beautiful and enlightened.
This is not
the work
of barbarians!
(4) Literacy and Education
--If one limits the idea of “education” to mean
literacy, reading and writing, then YES, the monks
did not focus on teaching literature.
--But the education the peasants wanted and most
urgently needed was practical. The barbarian
invasions disrupted the passing on of basic
professional skills.
--The monasteries functioned as community
technical colleges. Daily, they taught people how to
grow and make things.
(4) Literacy and Education
--Literacy and book-based education in monasteries
was generally for religious. Other people did not
have the time nor the compelling need for it.
As odd as that may sound, there is a present-day parallel. Schools today are
discouraged from teaching theory and encouraged to teach only productive skills!
Any knowledge that doesn’t make money is often regarded as worthless.
--The religious served an important function in this
way, too. At least someone was reading!
--Nobles would also come to monasteries for
scholarly learning.
(4) Literacy and Education
--The monumental contribution of Monasticism to
education and to cultural survival was the copying
ancient manuscripts.
--It began in the 6th Century, when a retired Roman
senator, Cassiodorus, established a monastery in
southern Italy and gave it a fine library. From then
on, monasteries had scriptoria, places in their
libraries dedicated to the mental and manual labor
of copying texts.
(4) Literacy and Education
--Copying was also done at the schools which
sprang up in association with cathedrals.
--The cathedral schools gave rise to the invention of
the university. The first university was founded in
the 11th Century at Bologna in Italy.
(4) Literacy and Education
--Monks founded MANY schools! Many abbots
always started a school along with a new
monastery.
--Though at first the education monks provided to
the public emphasized productive skills, literacy and
scholarship grew out of the Monastic schools too.
(5) Agriculture
--The monks literally saved agriculture in Europe.
--The monks pioneered the skill of draining
swamps. This eliminated a source of disease and
providing new arable land.
--As much as one fifth of the arable land in Europe
was cleared and made useful by monks.
(5) Agriculture
--The monks pioneered the skill of irrigation.
--They transformed the whole landscape of
Germany and Lombardy by teaching people how to
irrigate and cultivate land.
(5) Agriculture
--People learned from monks how to:
rear and breed cattle and horses
brew beer
grow fruit
raise bees
grow corn (especially in Sweden)
farm salmon (especially in Ireland)
make cheese (especially in Parma)
(6) Industrial skills and technology
Monks also taught people industrial technologies:
metallurgy
quarrying marble
making glass
forging plate metal
mining salt and other minerals
clock making (both for time and for astronomy)
painting and engraving
(6) Industrial skills and technology
--The monasteries far exceeded the Romans in
applying mechanical engineering to production.
--For example, monks used water-power to crush
wheat, sift flour, make cloth and tan leather.
(6) Industrial skills and technology
--From the mid-13th Century to the 17th Century, the
Cistercian monks were the leading producers of
iron.
--They also used the phosphate-rich byproduct of
their foundries to fertilize crops. Monks pioneered
the use of chemical fertilizers.
(6) Industrial skills and technology
--Monks also built up the infrastructure of Europe.
--For example, they redirected fresh water to Paris.
--And they built and repaired roads and bridges.
--Some monks lived near shores where they could
warn sailors of hidden hazardous rocks, and care for
sailors surviving shipwrecks.
(6) Industrial skills and technology
--During and after the barbarian invasions, Europe
was the “Third World” of those times.
--The monks were the skillful and unpaid technical
advisers who nursed Europe back to life.
(7) Monastic beauty
--Monasticism started long before musical theory
was developed. And they are connected.
--In the monasteries, the communal life of prayer
provided the conditions in which musical theory
began to develop. In the monasteries, music could
become complex and structured like never before.
--One has only to listen to an early chant in a mode
of Fifths, then to any example of polyphony, to see
how music matured in the monasteries.
(7) Monastic beauty
--Monasteries produced or commissioned art when
no one else could. Without the Church, ordinary
people had no access to art.
--Wherever a monastery was founded, a village
would spring up. People clung to the monasteries
for survival. But they also clung to the monasteries
for BEAUTY, in the art and architecture of the place
of worship and the music of the liturgy.
(7) Monastic beauty
--When they could, people gathered at the
monastery daily for beautiful prayer (Mass and the
Liturgy of the Hours).
--When people were at home and work, they did
not have books with the Psalms. So they took their
basic prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be) and
prayed them in the pattern of the monastic prayers
(the Hours). This is how the rosary was invented!
(7) Monastic beauty
--Imagine the challenge of evangelizing after the
barbarians wrecked civilization.
Christopher Dawson: “The Church had to undertake the
task of introducing the law of the Gospel and the ethics of
the Sermon on the Mount among peoples who regarded
homicide as the most honorable occupation and
vengeance as synonymous with justice.”
--The artwork in the monasteries taught the people
theology despite the unavailability books.
What ideas define Monasticism?
Live the Gospel through poverty, chastity and obedience.
Evangelize.
Pray and work together.
Love others and serve their needs.
Enjoy the goodness and beauty of all Creation.
Praise God and comfort others by making beauty.
Thank you, Monks
past, present and future !!!