Monasteries of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland - lost grandeur and power. Conversation room

Elizabeth ZOTOVA
Monastery complexes

Initial Gregor and Moralia at work. 12th century Bavarian State Library, Munich

In the Middle Ages, monasteries were the most important centers of spiritual and cultural life. In the Romanesque time, many monasteries appeared on the territory of Europe, monastic orders were formed, new monastic complexes were built and old ones were rebuilt.

The emergence of monasticism

The first monastic communities appeared as early as the 3rd century in Syria, Palestine and Egypt. But these were not yet monasteries in the medieval sense of the word, but rather associations of hermit monks (Eremits). Hermitage is the earliest form of monasticism. The word “monk” itself comes from the Greek “hermit”. Monasticism appeared in Europe in the second half of the 4th century. The emergence of the first Western monasteries is associated with the name of St. Martin of Tours. But until the VI century. there was no single set of rules designed to regulate the life of the monastic community. The authorship of the first charter belongs to St. Benedict of Nursia.

In 530 St. Benedict founded a monastery on Mount Cassino near Naples. It was in Monte Cassino that he created his famous “Rite”, which enjoyed unquestioned authority over the following centuries, until the appearance of other monastic orders. (However, the Benedictine monasteries continued to exist quite successfully throughout the Middle Ages and exist to this day.)

The main means of achieving the holiness of life, according to St. Benedict, was the principle of monastic community, based on the virtues of humility and obedience. The charter establishes the principle of unity of command of the abbot of the monastery (abbot). The abbot is responsible for his decisions only before God, although the removal of bad abbots by the authority of the local bishop is provided. A strict daily routine of the monk was established, the daily circle of services was scheduled, the order of reading prayers, time was allotted for classes and for physical labor.

The main feature of monastic life is that the monk does not have a single free minute that he could devote to idleness harmful to the soul or sinful thoughts. The daily routine of a monk is subject to the course of the Liturgy of the Hours (a strictly defined divine service is held at a strictly defined time). The statute also contains provisions regarding food, clothing, footwear and other things, and the need for common possession of property is especially emphasized. Entering the monastic community, the monk took a vow of obedience, settled life (he did not have the right to leave the walls of the monastery without special permission from the abbot) and, of course, celibacy, thus renouncing everything worldly.

The ideal plan of the monastery

In the Middle Ages, not only attempts were made to regulate the life of the monastic community, but also to create the monastic complexes themselves according to uniform rules. For these purposes, during the reign of Charlemagne, a plan of an “ideal monastery” was developed, approved by a church council (c. 820), it was kept in the library of the monastery of St. Gallen (Switzerland). It was assumed that during the construction of this monastery complex they would clearly follow this plan.

This plan, designed for an area measuring 500 by 700 feet (154.2 by 213.4 m), included more than fifty buildings for various purposes. Undoubtedly, the cathedral was the center of the monastery complex - a three-aisled basilica with a transept. In the eastern part there were choirs for monks. The main nave traditionally ended with an altar. Several small altars were located in the side aisles and in the western part, but they did not form a single space with the main nave. The cathedral was planned taking into account the course of the monastic worship, which differed from masses served for the laity. The western facade of the church was framed by two round towers dedicated to the archangels Gabriel and Michael. As the archangels were the guardians of the City of Heaven, so these towers were the stone guardians of the abbey. The first thing that appeared before the eyes of those who entered the territory of the monastery was precisely this facade of the cathedral with towers.

Abbey of Fontevraud. Scheme

The buildings of the library and sacristy (treasury) adjoin the cathedral. To the right of the cathedral there was a closed courtyard for monks to walk (in later times, just such a courtyard - the cloister would become the center of the composition of the monastery complex). The plan shows monastic cells, the abbot's house, a hospital, kitchens, hotels for pilgrims and many outbuildings: a bakery, a brewery, barns, barns, etc. There is also a cemetery combined with an orchard (such a decision should have found a philosophical interpretation among the inhabitants of the monastery).

It is doubtful that there were monastic complexes built exactly according to this plan. Even St. Gallen, in whose library the plan was kept, only approximately corresponded to the original plan (unfortunately, the Carolingian buildings of this abbey have not survived to this day). But approximately according to this principle, monasteries were built throughout the entire Middle Ages.

Fortified monasteries

At first glance, many medieval monasteries look more like the well-fortified castles of warlike feudal lords than the abode of humble monks. This was due to many reasons, including the fact that such monasteries could really play the role of a fortress. During enemy attacks, the inhabitants of the city or surrounding villages hid within the walls of the monastery. One way or another, hard-to-reach areas were often chosen as a place for the construction of the monastery. Probably, the original idea was to reduce the access of the laity to the monastery as much as possible.

The famous abbey founded by St. Benedict, Monte Cassino. The real fortress is the abbey of Mont Saint Michel. Founded in the 8th century, the abbey is dedicated to Archangel Michael and built on a rocky island, which made it impregnable.

Cluniacs and Cistercians

In the 11th-12th centuries, the monastic culture reached an unprecedented flourishing. Many new monasteries are being built, the prosperity of which sometimes allows the construction of such architectural masterpieces as, for example, the famous cathedral in the abbey of Cluny. Founded at the beginning of the X century. the Benedictine abbey of Cluny occupied a special position, formally reporting directly to the pope. Cluny had a huge impact on the spiritual and political life of medieval Europe. Its main cathedral, before the advent of Gothic cathedrals, was the largest church building in Christendom. This outstanding work of architecture was decorated with truly stunning stone carvings (portal, capitals of columns). The luxurious interiors of the Cluny III church were designed to amaze the imagination.

The complete opposite of the Cluniacs were the abbeys of the new monastic congregation - the Cistercians (from the name of the first monastery of the order - the Cistercium). The Cistercians sharply rejected even any hint of luxury, their charter was particularly strict. They considered physical labor to be the basis of monastic service, therefore in Cistercian manuscripts we often find images of monks at work. The architecture of the Cistercian monasteries was also laconic. Carved stone decor, for example, was virtually banned. But the severity of monastic life did not at all prevent the Cistercian monasteries, along with the Benedictine ones, from actively participating in the spiritual and political life of Europe. The monasteries of both orders were real centers of culture: scientific treatises were written here, ancient and often Arabic authors were translated and copied, real masterpieces of book art were created in their scriptoria. The monasteries also had schools for the laity.

Plan of an ideal monastery. OK. 820

1. house for the retinue of distinguished guests
2. outbuilding
3. house for distinguished guests
4. external school
5. abbot's house
6. outbuilding
7. room for bloodletting
8. doctor's house and pharmacy
9. herbalist
10. bell tower
11. gatekeeper
12. school mentor
13. scriptorium, library
14. bath and kitchen
15. hospital
16. covered gallery
17. entrance to the monastery
18. reception room
19. choir
20. cathedral
21. house for servants
22. sheepfold
23. pigsty
24. goat shed
25. stable for mares
26. barn
27. kitchen
28. pilgrims' quarters
29. cellar, pantry
30. garden for monks walks, covered gallery
31. rooms for heating, bedroom (dormitory)
32. sacristy
33. a room for the preparation of a host and oil
34. covered gallery
35. kitchen
36. school for novices
37. stable
38. bullpen
39. cooperage
40. lathe
41. barn
42. malt dryer
43. kitchen
44. refectory
45. bath
46. cemetery, orchard
47. brewery
48. bakery
49. thresher
50. mill
51. various workshops
52. threshing floor
53. granary
54. gardener's house
55. vegetable garden
56. chicken coop, goose house

Joseph Anton von Koch (1768-1839) "The Monastery of San Francesco di Civitella in the Sabine Mountains". Italy, 1812
Wood, oil. 34 x 46 cm.
State Hermitage. The building of the General Staff. Room 352.

Sounds of time

The fine tuning of monastic life would not have been possible without a multitude of sound signals, primarily the ringing of large and small bells. They called the monks to the services of the hours and to mass, informed them that it was time to go to the refectory, and regulated physical labor.

Guillaume Durant, Bishop of Menda, in the 13th century distinguished six types of bells: squilla in the refectory, cimballum in the cloister, nola in church choirs, nolula or dupla in the clock, campana in the bell tower, signum in the tower.

Miniature from the manuscript "Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung". Germany, around 1425. Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg

Depending on the tasks, the bells were rung in different ways. For example, when calling monks to the service of the first hour and to Compline, they struck once, and to the services of the third, sixth and ninth hours - three times. In addition, a wooden board (tabula) was used in the monasteries - for example, they beat it to announce to the brethren that one of the monks was dying.

Schedule

Different abbeys had their own daily routine - depending on the day of the week, simple or holidays, etc. For example, in Cluny during the spring equinox, closer to Easter, the schedule could look like this (all references to astronomical hours are approximate):

Near 00:30 First awakening; the monks gather for the vigil.
02:30 The brethren go back to sleep.
04:00 Matins.
04:30 They fall asleep again.
05:45-06:00 They rise again at dawn.
06:30 First canonical hour; after him, the monks from the church go to the chapter hall (readings from the charter or the Gospel; discussion of administrative issues; accusatory chapter: the monks confess their own violations and blame other brothers for them).
07:30 Morning mass.
08:15-09:00 Individual prayers.
09:00-10:30 Service of the third hour, followed by the main mass.
10:45-11:30 Physical work.
11:30 Sixth hour service.
12:00 Meal.
12:45-13:45 Afternoon rest.
14:00-14:30 Ninth hour service.
14:30-16:15 Work in the garden or in the scriptorium.
16:30-17:15 Vespers.
17:30-17:50 Light dinner (except fasting days).
18:00 Compline.
18:45 The brethren go to sleep.

IV. Monastery architecture

Benedict of Nursia, in his charter, prescribed that the monastery should be built as a closed and isolated space, allowing you to isolate yourself from the world and its temptations as much as possible:

“The monastery, if this is possible, should be arranged in such a way that everything necessary, that is, water, a mill, a fish tank, a vegetable garden and various crafts, are inside the monastery, so that there is no need for monks to go outside the walls, which does not at all serve the benefit of souls them".

If the architecture of the Romanesque and even more so the Gothic temple, with their high windows and vaults directed to heaven, was often likened to a prayer in stone, then the layout of the monastery, with its premises intended only for monks, novices and converse, can be called a discipline embodied in the walls. and galleries. A monastery is a closed world where dozens, and sometimes hundreds of men or women, must go together to salvation. This is a sacred space (the church was likened to Heavenly Jerusalem, the cloister was likened to the Garden of Eden, etc.) and at the same time a complex economic mechanism with barns, kitchens and workshops.

Of course, medieval abbeys were not built according to the same plan at all and were completely different from each other. An early medieval Irish monastery, where a dozen hermit brothers who practiced extreme asceticism lived in tiny stone cells, can hardly be compared with the huge Cluny abbey of its heyday. There were several cloister courtyards (for monks, novices and the sick), separate chambers for the abbot and a giant basilica - the so-called. Church of Cluny III (1088-1130), which until the construction of the current St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome (1506-1626) was the largest church in the Catholic world. The monasteries of the mendicant orders (primarily the Franciscans and Dominicans, which were usually built in the middle of the cities where the brothers went to preach) are not at all like the Benedictine cloisters. The latter were often erected in forests or on mountain cliffs, like Mont Saint-Michel on a rocky islet off the coast of Normandy or Sacra di San Michele in Piedmont (this abbey became the prototype of the Alpine monastery described in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose).

The architecture of the monastery churches and the organization of the entire abbey, of course, depended on local traditions, available building materials, the size of the brethren and their financial capabilities. However, it was also important how open the monastery was to the world. For example, if a monastery, thanks to the relics or miraculous images stored there, attracted a lot of pilgrims (like the Abbey of Sainte-Foy in Conques, France), it was necessary to equip the infrastructure for their reception: for example, to expand and rebuild the temple so that pilgrims could access the desired shrines and did not pass each other, to build hospitable houses.

The oldest and best known of the medieval monastic plans was drawn up in the first half of the ninth century in the German abbey of Reichenau for Gosbert, abbot of St. Gallen (in modern Switzerland). Five sheets of parchment (with a total size of 112 × 77.5 cm) depict not a real, but an ideal monastery. This is a huge complex with dozens of buildings and 333 inscriptions that indicate the names and purpose of various buildings: churches, scriptorium, dormitory, refectory, kitchens, bakery, brewery, abbot's residence, hospital, houses for guest monks, etc.

We will choose a simpler plan, which shows how a typical Cistercian monastery, similar to the abbey of Fontenay, founded in Burgundy in 1118, could be arranged in the 12th century. Since the structure of the Cistercian abbeys largely followed older models, this plan has much to say about life in the monasteries and other Benedictine "families".

Model monastery

1. Church
2. Cloister
3. Washbasin
4. Sacristy
5. Library
6. Chapter Hall
7. Room for conversations
8. Bedroom
9. Warm room
10. Refectory
11. Kitchen
12. Refectory for converse
13. Entrance to the monastery
14. Hospital
15. Other buildings
16. Large pantry
17. Converse corridor
18. Cemetery

1. Church

Unlike the Cluniacs, the Cistercians strove for maximum simplicity and asceticism of form. They abandoned the crowns of chapels in favor of a flat apse and almost completely expelled figurative decor from the interiors (statues of saints, stained-glass windows, scenes carved on capitals). In their churches, which were supposed to conform to the ideal of severe asceticism, geometry triumphed.

Like the vast majority of Catholic churches of that time, the Cistercian churches were built in the form of a Latin cross (where the elongated nave was crossed at right angles by a transept), and their interior space was divided into several important zones.

At the eastern end was the presbytery (A), where the main altar stood, on which the priest celebrated Mass, and nearby in the chapels arranged in the arms of the transept, additional altars were placed.

The gate arranged on the north side of the transept (B), usually led to the monastery cemetery (18) . From the south side, which adjoined other monastic buildings, it was possible to (C) go up to the monastery bedroom - dormitory (8) , and next to it was a door (D) through which the monks entered and exited the cloister (2) .

Further, at the intersection of the nave with the transept, there were choirs (E). There the monks gathered for the services of the hours and for masses. In the choirs, opposite each other, there were two rows of benches or chairs (English stalls, French stalles) in parallel. In the late Middle Ages, reclining seats were most often made in them, so that monks during tedious services could either sit or stand, leaning on small consoles - misericords (remember the French word misericorde - "compassion", "mercy" - such shelves, indeed, were a mercy to the weary or infirm brothers).

Benches were placed behind the choir. (F) where, during the service, the sick brothers, temporarily separated from the healthy ones, as well as novices, were located. Next came the partition (English rood screen, French jubé), on which a large crucifix was installed (G). In parish churches, cathedrals and monastery churches, where pilgrims were admitted, it separated the choir and presbytery, where worship was held and the clergy were located, from the nave, where the laity had access. The laity could not go beyond this border and in fact did not see the priest, who, in addition, stood with his back to them. In modern times, most of these partitions were demolished, so when we enter some medieval temple, we need to imagine that earlier its space was not at all uniform and accessible to everyone.

In Cistercian churches in the nave there could be a choir for converse (H) worldly brothers. From their cloister they entered the temple through a special entrance (I). It was located near the western portal (J) through which the laity could enter the church.

2. Cloister

A quadrangular (more rarely, polygonal or even round) gallery, which adjoined the church from the south and connected the main monastic buildings together. A garden was often laid out in the center. In the monastic tradition, the cloister was likened to Eden surrounded by a wall, Noah's ark, where the family of the righteous was saved from the waters sent to sinners as punishment, Solomon's temple or Heavenly Jerusalem. The name of the galleries comes from the Latin claustrum - "enclosed, enclosed space." Therefore, in the Middle Ages, both the central courtyard and the entire monastery could be called that.

The cloister served as the center of monastic life: along its galleries, the monks moved from the bedroom to the church, from the church to the refectory, and from the refectory, for example, to the scriptorium. There was a well and a place for washing - lavatorium (3) .

Solemn processions were also held in the cloister: for example, in Cluny every Sunday between the third hour and the main mass, the brothers, led by one of the priests, marched through the monastery, sprinkling all the rooms with holy water.

In many Benedictine monasteries, such as the abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos (Spain) or Saint-Pierre-de-Moissac (France), many scenes from the Bible, lives of saints, allegorical images (as a confrontation between vices and virtues), as well as frightening figures of demons and various monsters, animals intertwined with each other, etc. The Cistercians, who sought to get away from excessive luxury and any images that could distract the monks from prayer and contemplation, expelled such decor from their monasteries.

3. Washbasin

On Pure Thursday in Holy Week - in memory of how Christ washed the feet of his disciples before the Last Supper (John 13:5-11) - the monks, led by the abbot, humbly washed and kissed the feet of the poor, who were brought to the monastery.

In the gallery that adjoined the church, every day before Compline, the brethren gathered to listen to the reading of some pious text - collatio. This name arose from the fact that Saint Benedict recommended for this “Conversation” (“Collationes”) by John Cassian (about 360 - about 435), an ascetic who was one of the first to transfer the principles of monastic life from Egypt to the West. Then the word collatio began to be called a snack or a glass of wine, which on fast days was given to the monks at this evening hour (hence the French word collation - “snack”, “light dinner”).

4. Sacristy

The room in which liturgical vessels, liturgical vestments and books were kept under the castle (if the monastery did not have a special treasury, then relics), as well as the most important documents: historical chronicles and collections of charters, which listed purchases, donations and other acts from which depended on the material well-being of the monastery.

5. Library

There was a library next to the sacristy. In small communities, it looked more like a small closet with books, in huge abbeys it looked like a majestic vault in which the characters of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose are looking for the forbidden volume of Aristotle.

In Carolingian times, the richest monasteries - such as St. Gallen and Lorsch in the German lands or Bobbio in Italy - possessed 400-600 volumes. The catalog of the library of the monastery of Saint-Riquier in northern France, compiled in 831, consisted of 243 volumes. A chronicle written in the 12th century at the monastery of Saint-Pierre-le-Vief in Sens, lists the manuscripts ordered to be rewritten or restored by the abbe Arnaud. In addition to biblical and liturgical books, it included commentaries and theological writings by Origen, Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the Great, the passion of the martyr Tiburtius, a description of the transfer of the relics of St. Benedict to the monastery of Fleury, the History of the Lombards by Paul the Deacon, etc.

In many monasteries, the library functioned as scriptoria, where the brothers copied and decorated new books. Until the 13th century, when workshops for lay scribes began to multiply in cities, monasteries remained the main producers of books, and monks their main readers.

6. Chapter Hall

The administrative and disciplinary center of the monastery. It was there that every morning (after the service of the first hour in summer; after the third hour and morning mass in winter) the monks gathered to read one of the chapters (capitulum) of the Benedictine Rule. Hence the name of the hall. In addition to the charter, they read out a fragment from the martyrology (a list of saints whose memory was celebrated on each day) and an obituary (a list of the deceased brothers, patrons of the monastery and members of his “family”, for whom the monks should offer prayers on this day).

In the same hall, the abbot instructed the brethren and sometimes consulted with selected monks. There, the novices who passed the probationary period again asked to be tonsured as monks. There the abbot received the mighty of this world and resolved conflicts between the monastery and church authorities or secular lords. The “accusatory chapter” also took place there - after reading the charter, the abbot said: “If someone has something to say, let him speak.” And then those monks who knew for someone or for themselves some kind of violation (for example, they were late for the service or left the found thing with them at least for one day), they had to confess to the rest of the brethren in it and suffer the punishment, which appointed by the pastor.

The frescoes that adorned the capitular halls of many Benedictine abbeys reflected their disciplinary vocation. For example, in the St. Emmeram Monastery in Regensburg, paintings were made on the theme of the “angelic life” of monks struggling with temptations, following the model of St. Benedict, their father and legislator. In the monastery of Saint-Georges-de-Bocherville in Normandy, on the arcades of the capitular hall, images of corporal punishment were carved, to which the guilty monks were sentenced.

Granet Francois-Marius (1775-1849) "Meeting of the monastery chapter". France, 1833
Canvas, oil. 97 x 134.5 cm.
State Hermitage.

7. Room for conversations

The Rule of St. Benedict ordered the brethren to remain silent most of the time. Silence was considered the mother of virtues, and a closed mouth was considered “a condition for the rest of the heart.” Collections of the customs of various monasteries sharply limited those places and moments of the day when the brothers could communicate with each other, and the lives described heavy punishments that fall on the heads of talkers. In some abbeys, a distinction was made between "great silence" (when it is forbidden to speak at all) and "little silence" (when one could speak in an undertone). In separate rooms - churches, dormitories, a refectory, etc. - idle conversations were completely prohibited. After Compline, there was to be absolute silence in the entire monastery.

In case of emergency, it was possible to talk in special rooms (auditorium). In Cistercian monasteries there could be two of them: one for the prior and monks (next to the chapter hall), the second, primarily for the cellar and convers (between their refectory and kitchen).

To facilitate communication, some abbeys developed special sign languages that made it possible to transmit the simplest messages without formally violating the charter. Such gestures did not mean sounds or syllables, but whole words: the names of various premises, everyday objects, elements of worship, liturgical books, etc. Lists of such signs were preserved in many monasteries. For example, in Cluny there were 35 gestures for describing food, 22 for items of clothing, 20 for worship, etc. To “say” the word “bread”, one had to make a circle with two little fingers and two forefingers, since bread was usually baked round. In different abbeys, the gestures were completely different, and the gesticulating monks of Cluny and Hirsau would not have understood each other.

8. Bedroom, or dormitorium

Most often, this room was located on the second floor, above the chapter hall or next to it, and it could be accessed not only from the cloister, but also through the passage from the church. The 22nd chapter of the Benedictine charter prescribed that each monk should sleep on a separate bed, preferably in the same room:

«<…>... but if their numbers do not allow this to be arranged, let them sleep by ten or twenty, with the elders, on whom lies the care of them. Let the lamp in the bedroom burn until morning.

They should sleep in their clothes, girded with belts or ropes. When they sleep, let them not have their little knives with which they work, cut off branches and the like, so as not to injure themselves during sleep. The monks must always be ready and, as soon as the sign is given, get up without delay, hasten, preempting one another, to the work of God, decorously, but modestly. The youngest brethren should not have beds next to each other, but let them be mixed with the elders. Standing up for the cause of God, let them fraternally encourage each other, dispelling the excuses invented by the drowsy.

Benedict of Nursia instructed that a monk should sleep on a simple mat, covered with a blanket. However, his charter was intended for a monastery located in southern Italy. In northern lands—say, Germany or Scandinavia—observance of this directive required much greater (often almost impossible) selflessness and contempt for the flesh. In various monasteries and orders, depending on their severity, different measures of comfort were allowed. For example, Franciscans were required to sleep on bare ground or planks, and mats were only allowed for those who were physically weak.

9. Warm room, or calefactorium

Since almost all the premises of the monastery were not heated, a special warm room was arranged in the northern lands, where the fire was maintained. There the monks could warm up a little, melt the frozen ink or wax their shoes.

10. Refectory, or refectorium

In large monasteries, the refectories, which were supposed to accommodate the entire brethren, were very impressive. For example, in the Parisian abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the refectory was 40 meters long and 20 meters wide. Long tables with benches were placed in the shape of the letter "P", and all the brethren were seated behind them in order of seniority - just like in the choir of the church.
In the Benedictine monasteries, where, unlike the Cistercian ones, there were many cult and didactic images, frescoes depicting the Last Supper were often painted in the refectories. The monks had to identify themselves with the apostles gathered around Christ.

11. Kitchen

The Cistercian diet was mostly vegetarian, with the addition of fish. There were no special cooks - the brothers worked in the kitchen for a week, on Saturday evening the brigade on duty gave way to the next one.

For most of the year, the monks received only one meal a day, in the late afternoon. From mid-September until Lent (beginning around mid-February), they could eat for the first time after the ninth hour, and in Lent after supper. Only after Easter did the monks get the right to have another meal around noon.

Most often, the monastic dinner consisted of beans (beans, lentils, etc.), designed to satisfy hunger, after which they served the main course, which included fish or eggs and cheese. On Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, each usually received a whole portion, and on the days of fasting, Monday, Wednesday and Friday - one portion for two.

In addition, to support the strength of the monks, every day they were given a portion of bread and a glass of wine or beer.

12. Refectory for converse

In the Cistercian monasteries, lay brothers were separated from full-fledged monks: they had their own dormitory, their own refectory, their own entrance to the church, etc.

13. Entrance to the monastery

The Cistercians strove to build their abbeys as far as possible from towns and villages in order to overcome the secularization in which the “black monks”, primarily the Clunians, had been mired in the centuries since the time of St. Benedict. Nevertheless, the “white monks” also could not completely fence themselves off from the world. Lay people came to them, members of the monastic "family", connected with the brothers by ties of kinship or who decided to serve the monastery. The gatekeeper, who watched over the entrance to the monastery, periodically welcomed the poor, who were given bread and leftover food left uneaten by the brothers.

14. Hospital

In large monasteries, a hospital has always been set up - with a chapel, a refectory, and sometimes with its own kitchen. Unlike healthy counterparts, patients could count on increased nutrition and other benefits: for example, they were allowed to exchange a few words during meals and not attend all the long services.

All the brothers were periodically sent to the hospital, where they underwent bloodletting (minutio), a procedure that was considered extremely useful and even necessary to maintain the correct balance of humors (blood, mucus, black bile and yellow bile) in the body. After this procedure, the weakened monks received temporary relief for several days in order to restore their strength: exemption from the all-night service, evening rations and a glass of wine, and sometimes delicacies like fried chicken or goose.

15. Other buildings

In addition to the church, the cloister and the main buildings where the life of monks, novices and converse passed, the monasteries had many other buildings: the personal apartments of the abbot; a hospice for poor wanderers and a hotel for important guests; various outbuildings: barns, cellars, mills and bakeries; stables, dovecotes, etc. Medieval monks were engaged in many crafts (made wine, brewed beer, dressed leather, processed metals, worked on glass, produced tiles and bricks) and actively mastered natural resources: they uprooted and felled forests, mined stone, coal , iron and peat, mastered salt mines, erected water mills on rivers, etc. As we would say today, monasteries were one of the main centers of technical innovation.

Klodt, Mikhail Petrovich (1835-1914) "The Laundry in the Catholic Franciscan Monastery". 1865
Canvas, oil. 79 x 119cm.
Ulyanovsk Regional Art Museum.

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. D'Eberbach C. Le Grand Exorde de Cîteaux. Berlioz J. (ed.). Turnout, 1998.
. Davril A., Palazzo E. La vie des moines au temps des grandes abbayes, Xe-XIIIe siècles. Paris, 2010.
. Dohrn-van Rossum G. L'histoire de l'heure. L'horlogerie et l'organization moderne du temps. Paris, 1997.
. Dubois J. Les moines dans la société du MoyenÂge (950-1350). Revue d'histoire de l "Église de France. Vol. 164. 1974.
. Greene P. J. Medieval Monasteries. London; New York, 2005.
. Kinder T. N. Cistercian Europe: Architecture of Contemplation. Cambridge, 2002.
. Miccoli G. Les moines. L'homme mediéval. Le Goff J. (dir.). Paris, 1989.
. Schmitt J.-C. Les rythmes au MoyenÂge. Paris, 2016.
. Vauchez A. La Spiritualité du Moyen Âge occidental, VIIIe-XIIIe siècle. Paris, 1994.
. cluny. Roux-Périno J. (ed.). Vic-en-Bigorre, 2008.
. Elisabeth of Schonau. The Complete Works. Clark A. L. (ed.). New York, 2000.
. Raoul Glaber: les cinq livres de ses histoires (900-1044). Prou M. (ed.). Paris, 1886.

Cuvier Armand (active c. 1846) "The Monastery of the Dominicans at Voltri". France, Paris, first half of the 19th century.
Chinese paper, lithograph. 30 x 43 cm.
State Hermitage.

Hanisch Alois (b. 1866) "Melk Monastery". Austria, late 19th - early 20th century.
Paper, lithography. 564 x 458 mm (sheet)
State Hermitage.

J. Howe "The Procession of the Monks". UK, 19th century
Paper, steel engraving. 25.8 x 16 cm.
State Hermitage.

This is Louis (1858-1919) "Thistle flower with a view of the monastery in the background." Album "Golden Book of Lorraine". France, 1893 (?)
Paper, ink pen, watercolor. 37 x 25 cm.
State Hermitage.

Stefano della Bella (1610-1664) View of the Monastery of Villambrosa. Sheets from the suite of illustrations for the biography of St. John Gualbert "Views of the Monastery of Villambroso". Italy, 17th century
Paper, etching. 17.4 x 13.2 cm.
State Hermitage.

Bronnikov Fedor Andreevich (1827-1902) "Capuchin". 1881
Wood, oil. 40.5 x 28 cm.
Kherson Regional Art Museum named after A.A. Shovkunenko.

Eduard von Grützner (1846-1925) Monk with a Newspaper. Germany, third quarter of the 19th century.
Canvas, oil. 36 x 27 cm.
State Hermitage.

Callot Jacques (1592-1635) Pogrom of the monastery. Sheets from the suite "The Great Disasters of War (Les grandes miseres de la guerre)". France, 17th century
Paper, etching. 9 x 19.4 cm
State Hermitage.

Unknown Flemish artist, con. 17th century "The Hermit Monks". Flanders, 17th century
Wood, oil. 56 x 65.5 cm.
State Hermitage.

Magnificent paintings, frescoes, records of historical chronicles - all this is a medieval monastery. Those who want to touch the past and learn about the events of bygone days should start their journey precisely with the study, since they remember much more than the pages of annals.

Cultural and economic centers of the Middle Ages

During the Dark Ages, monastic communes begin to gain strength. For the first time they appear on the territory. Benedict of Nursia can be considered the progenitor of this movement. The largest medieval period is the monastery in Montecassino. This is a world with its own rules, in which each member of the commune had to contribute to the development of a common cause.

At that time, the medieval monastery was a huge complex of buildings. It included cells, libraries, refectories, cathedrals and outbuildings. The latter included barns, warehouses, animal pens.

Over time, the monasteries turned into the main centers of concentration of culture and economy of the Middle Ages. Here they kept a chronology of events, held debates, and evaluated the achievements of science. Such teachings as philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine developed and improved.

All physically hard work was provided to novices, peasants and ordinary monastic workers. Such settlements were of great importance in the field of storage and accumulation of information. Libraries were replenished with new books, and old editions were constantly rewritten. Also, the monks themselves kept historical chronicles.

History of Russian Orthodox monasteries

Russian medieval monasteries appeared much later than European ones. Initially, hermit monks lived apart in deserted places. But Christianity quickly spread among the masses, so stationary churches became necessary. From the 15th century until the reign of Peter I, there was a widespread construction of temples. They were in almost every village, and large monasteries were built near cities or in holy places.

Peter I carried out a number of church reforms, which were continued by his successors. The common people reacted negatively to the new fashion for the Western tradition. Therefore, already under Catherine II, the construction of Orthodox monasteries was resumed.

Most of these religious buildings did not become a place of pilgrimage for believers, but some Orthodox churches are known all over the world.

Miracles of myrrh-streaming

The banks of the Velikaya River and the Mirozhka River flowing into it. It was here many centuries ago that the Pskov Spaso-Preobrazhensky Mirozhsky Monastery appeared.

The location of the church made it vulnerable to frequent raids. She took all the blows first of all on herself. Constant robberies, fires haunted the monastery for many centuries. And with all this, fortress walls were never built around it. It is surprising that, despite all the troubles, he preserved the frescoes, which still amaze with their beauty.

For many centuries, the Mirozh Monastery kept a priceless miraculous icon of the Mother of God. In the 16th century, she became famous for the miracle of myrrh-streaming. Later, miracles of healing were attributed to her.

An entry was found in a collection kept in the library of the monastery. It is dated 1595 according to the modern calendar. It contained the story of the miraculous. As the record says: "Tears flowed like jets from the eyes of the Most Pure One."

Spiritual legacy

A few years ago, the monastery of Giurgevi Stupovi celebrated its birthday. And he was born neither more nor less, but eight centuries ago. This church became one of the first Orthodox in Montenegrin land.

The monastery survived many tragic days. During its centuries-old history, it was destroyed by fire 5 times. Eventually the monks left this place.

For a long period, the medieval monastery was in ruins. And only at the end of the 19th century, a project began to recreate this historical object. Not only architectural structures have been restored, but also monastic life.

There is a museum on the territory of the monastery. In it you can see fragments of surviving buildings and artifacts. Now the monastery of Giurgevi Stupovi lives a real life. Constant charity events and collections are held for the development of this monument of spirituality.

Past in the present

Today, Orthodox monasteries continue their active work. Despite the fact that the history of some has exceeded a thousand years, they continue to live according to the old way and do not seek to change anything.

The main occupations are farming and serving the Lord. The monks try to comprehend the world in accordance with the Bible and teach this to others. In their experience, they show that money and power are transitory. Even without them, you can live and be completely happy at the same time.

Unlike churches, monasteries do not have a parish; nevertheless, people willingly visit monks. Renouncing everything worldly, many of them receive a gift - the ability to heal diseases or help with a word.

We have all heard about monasteries in France, Spain, Italy, Greece... but almost nothing is known about German monasteries, and all because due to the Reformation of the Church in the 16th century, most of them were abolished and have not survived to this day. . However, in the south of Germany near Tübingen, one very interesting monastery has been preserved.

Bebenhausen was founded in 1183 by the count palatine of Tübingen and the monks of the Cistercian Order settled there, although the monks of another Order, the Premonsians, built the monastery, but for some reason they left the monastery a couple of years after its construction. The monastery was quite rich and owned good allotments, on which the monks were engaged in agriculture, including the cultivation of vineyards. The independence of the monastery was ensured by the charter of Emperor Henry VI and the bull of Pope Innocent III. In addition, the monastery owned a large area of forest where it was possible to hunt. In 1534, the monastery was abolished due to the fact that Protestantism came to these lands and Catholic monasteries were no longer needed here, but the monks continued to live here until 1648. Since then, the monastery has been used as a Protestant school, at one time was the residence of the Württemberg kings, who hunted in the same forest, and was also used as a place where the regional parliament met. Now it is just a museum, but the monastery is unique in that it has been preserved much better than others. The architecture of the monastery is an excellent example of the German Gothic of the late 15th century. The original Romanesque buildings of the 12th and 13th centuries were simply rebuilt.

Monastery plan

There is no more than a kilometer from the northern outskirts of Tübingen, so you can do without a car. In addition, there are buses between and Tübingen with a stop at the monastery - 826 (828) and 754, plying between Sinterfingen and Tübingen.

For those who drive, just turn off the L1208 road and almost immediately you will see free parking right at the very walls of the monastery.

Just right in front of the red bus goes

The monastery itself is more like a medieval, fortified village. There are powerful walls and towers here, but there are also cozy private houses, as well as vegetable gardens. Go beyond the walls is not difficult - it's free. You can see most of the monastery in this way.

First you go up the stairs and fall behind the first walls

Then we rise even higher

One of the two fortification towers

parade ground

Green tower. Apparently named after the color of the tiles.

Between the walls

Village behind the walls

This is the former House of Abbots, now the directorate of the museum is located here.

House of Abbots

This, as I understand it, is the castle of the kings of Württemberg. It consists of several halls and a kitchen and is connected by a corridor with the main building of the monastery.

Corridor connecting the castle and monastery

Hall under the main building of the castle

Beyond the walls

The main building of the monastery on the right

In the depths of the courtyard, against the back walls, there is a monastery church, but there is no entrance to it.

In this part of the monastery, near the walls, there is a monastery cemetery.

Here on the corner of the walls is the second fortification tower - the Recording Tower (Schreibturm). Below it is another entrance to the monastery, obviously the main one.

Houses outside the walls of the monastery. There is another public car park here.

South wall of the monastery

Western wall of the monastery

record tower

Abbots' house

medicinal garden

And finally, having gone around the entire territory of the monastery, we approached the main building

Here you can buy a ticket and see the main building of the monastery and its church. At the checkout, do not forget to ask for a description of the monastery in Russian, then you will be given a pack of files that will tell you about all the premises of the monastery

At first glance, this is just a souvenir shop with cash desks, in fact there was a monastery kitchen, as evidenced by the preserved stove. According to the monastery charter, the monks ate here 2 times a day, and in winter, due to the shortened daylight hours - only 1 time. The diet consisted of 410 grams of bread, vegetables, fruits and eggs. Sick brothers were allowed to eat meat. On holidays they gave white bread, fish, wine.

Inside the monastery, traditional galleries around the garden await us.

The first hall in this part of the monastery will be the refectory, it was located right next to the kitchen, but until the end of the 15th century, laymen, not monks, ate here. In 1513, a refectory was built on this site - that is, a warm heated room for winter time (the room was heated by stoves located in the basement). This is the winter dining hall.

There are many interesting patterns on the carved columns that support the ceiling, including pretzel and crayfish.

The fresco depicts the visit of Abbe Humbert von Sieto in 1471

The walls and ceilings of the hall are decorated with coats of arms of the founders of the monastery, monks, abbots and German princes.

From 1946 to 1952, the local Landtag met here

From the winter refectory we find ourselves in the refectory of novices, which until 1513 was a pantry. This room, like the next one, was heated. The painting on the ceiling is original and dates back to 1530. A door in the far right corner led to the novices' bedrooms.

As for the number of novices, there is information that at the end of the 13th century there were 130 people at the monastery at once. The novices ate the same as the monks.

Now there is a small museum of the treasures of the monastery.

Pay attention to the arrow of St. Sebastian, this is how they tried to kill him. The relic is very important, since Saint Sebastian was believed to protect against the plague, and because of it, many people died in the monastery at one time.

From the part of the monastery intended for novices, we find ourselves in the northern wing of the gallery. Here the monks read, and also some rituals took place here, for example, washing the feet. In addition, dead brothers were often buried in this wing. On the other side of the gallery is the entrance to the monastery church, where marks on the wall are carved on the size of the burial places of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, which were brought from the holy land by Count Eberhard in 1492

West gallery, novices wing

Here on the walls after the Reformation, many left information about themselves

From the northern wing of the gallery we get to the monastery church in honor of the Virgin Mary. It was built in 1228. This is a three-nave Romanesque basilica, very austere, as befits the architecture of the Cistercians. Indeed, before the Reformation
the church was decorated much richer, in particular, it contained as many as 20 altars.

According to the monastic daily routine, services were held here 7 times during the day and 1 time at night.

The most noteworthy detail here is the office (pulpit) of 1565, decorated with stucco

Immediately at the entrance to the church there is a staircase that leads to the cells of the monks - the dormitorium. This is the only place in the monastery where the second floor is available to visitors. Until 1516 there was a common bedroom, then separate rooms (cells) appeared. The walls and ceiling are decorated with floral motifs. In addition, at the entrance, inscriptions from the monastery charter have been preserved. The tiles here are also ancient, dating back to the 13th century. In the middle of the 20th century, when the Landtag was located in the monastery building, parliamentarians slept here

One of the rooms is available for viewing.

Washbasins

At the stairs to the floor there are a number of rooms, for example, there was a library and archive of the monastery.

The first room on the ground floor of this part of the building is the chapter house, the place where the monks used to gather. Every day it happened at 6 am. There were benches along the walls, and the abbot sat opposite the entrance. The most worthy were also buried here, as evidenced by the large number of tombstones. This is the oldest part of the monastery, it dates back to 1220. The vaults were painted in 1528.

To the left at the far end of the chapter house is a small room, here in 1526 Archduke Ferdinand of Austria lived, preparing for confession

The next room in the east wing is the parlatorium. The fact is that according to the charter, the Cistercian monks were forbidden to speak, the only room where this could be done was the parlatorium. Moreover, it was possible to come here only for a short conversation on the case. Initially, a staircase led up to the bedrooms, but in the 19th century it was destroyed.

Under the floor of the hall was a heating installation, which was older than the monastery itself.

Some of the exhibits are now on display.

On the color scheme of the monastery, you can see which eras certain parts of the building belong to.

In the southern wing of the building there is one of the largest and most beautiful premises of the monastery - the Summer Refectory. It was built in 1335 in the Gothic style to replace a similar Romanesque building.

The walls here are decorated with coats of arms

And the original ceiling painting tells about the plant world and depicts fantastic animals.

And only here, in the southern wing of the galleries, I discovered that their vaults were decorated no less exquisitely. Each intersection is crowned with 130 relief decorations and none of them is repeated. Initially, a calofactory (a heated room) was located in this part, but after it was built to the west, the one located here was destroyed.

And the last room of the monastery, accessible to visitors, is the source, a kind of gazebo, located opposite the entrance to the refectory. In the center of this room was a fountain with drinking water, in addition, the brothers washed their hands here before eating. Unfortunately, the room itself and the fountain were destroyed and were only restored in 1879.

Above the entrance to the room with the source, two interesting images have been preserved.

The man in the fur hat appears to be a builder himself

And this is the legendary jester and joker, the hero of fairy tales - Til Ulenspiegel

And after exploring all the halls of the monastery, we finally go out into the garden with a fountain

The 19th century fountain

As you can see, all the galleries had a second floor, unfortunately, only the dormitorium in the east wing is available to tourists.

In the warm season, the monastery is open every day from 9 am to 6 pm, and only on Mondays there is lunch from 12 pm to 1 pm. In winter, the monastery is closed on Mondays, and on other days it is open from 10 am to 12 pm and from 1 pm to 5 pm. The ticket costs 5 euros. True, shooting on the territory is paid. In addition, separately, but only with a guide, on the territory of the monastery you can see the palace of the Württemberg kings of the 19th century, as well as the castle kitchen.

If you are in these parts, then do not forget to see Tübingen itself - a very interesting city. You can also stay there for the night, I recommend the hotel for this

Introduction
The inhabitants of the monastery
Time and discipline
Architecture

Christian monasticism originated in the Egyptian and Syrian deserts. In the III century, some believers, in order to hide from the world with its temptations and devote themselves entirely to prayer, began to leave pagan cities for deserted places. The first monks who practiced extreme austerity lived either alone or with several students. In the 4th century, one of them, Pachomius from the Egyptian city of Thebes, founded the first cenobitic (coenobitic) monastery and wrote a charter that described how monks should live and pray.

In the same century, monasteries began to appear in the west of the Roman world - in Gaul and Italy. After 361, the former Roman soldier Martin founded a community of hermits near Poitiers, and after 371, the monastery of Marmoutier near Tours. Around the year 410, Saint Honoratus of Arles built the Lérins Abbey on one of the islands in the Gulf of Cannes, and Saint John Cassian around the year 415 created the monastery of Saint-Victor in Marseilles. Later, thanks to the efforts of St. Patrick and his followers, a very severe and ascetic tradition of monasticism appeared in Ireland.

Unlike hermits, the monks of cenobitic monasteries united under the authority of an abbot and lived according to a charter created by one of the fathers. In the Eastern and Western Christian world, there were many monastic rules Pachomius the Great, Basil the Great, Augustine of Hippo, Columban and others., but the most influential was the charter drawn up around 530 by Benedict of Nursia for the abbey of Montecassino, which he founded between Naples and Rome.

Page of the charter of Benedict of Nursia. 1495 Biblioteca Europea di Informazione e Cultura

Benedict did not demand radical asceticism and constant battle with his own flesh from his monks, as in many Egyptian or Irish monasteries. His charter was sustained in the spirit of moderation and was intended rather for "beginners". The brothers had to unquestioningly obey the abbot and not leave the walls of the monastery (unlike the Irish monks, who actively wandered).

His charter formulated the ideal of monastic life and described how to organize it. In the Benedictine monasteries, time was distributed between worship, solitary prayer, soul-saving reading, and physical labor. However, in different abbeys, this was done in completely different ways, and the principles formulated in the charter always needed to be clarified and adapted to local realities - the way of life of monks in southern Italy and in the north of England could not but differ.

Benedict of Nursia conveys his charter to Saint Maurus and other monks of his order. Miniature from a French manuscript. 1129 Wikimedia Commons

Gradually, from a radical choice for a few ascetics, ready for abstinence, poverty and obedience, monasticism turned into a mass institution closely connected with the world. Even a moderate ideal began to be forgotten more and more often, and morals began to become loose. Therefore, the history of monasticism is full of calls for reform, which was supposed to return the monks to their original austerity. As a result of such reforms, "sub-families" arose in the Benedictine "family" - congregations of monasteries, reformed from one center and often subordinate to the "mother" abbey.

Cluniacs

The most influential of these "sub-families" was the Cluniac Order. The Abbey of Cluny was founded in 910 in Burgundy: the monks from there were invited to reform other monasteries, they founded new monasteries, and as a result, by the 11th-12th centuries, a huge network arose that covered not only France, but also England, Spain, Germany and other lands. The Cluniacs achieved immunity from interference in their affairs by secular authorities and local bishops: the order was accountable only to Rome. Although the rule of Saint Benedict ordered the brothers to work and cultivate their own lands, this principle was forgotten in Cluny. Thanks to the flow of donations (including the fact that the Cluniacs tirelessly served funeral masses for their benefactors), the order turned into the largest landowner. The monasteries received taxes and food from the peasants who cultivated the land. Now, for monks of noble blood, physical labor was considered shameful and distracting from the main task - worship (on ordinary days it took seven hours, and even more on holidays).

Cistercians

The secularization that triumphed among the Cluniacs and in other congenial monasteries reawakened dreams of a return to the original severity. In 1098, the abbot of the Burgundian monastery of Molem named Robert, having despaired of leading the brothers to strictness, left with 20 monks and founded the abbey of Sieto. It became the core of the new, Cistercian (from Cistercium- the Latin name of Sieve) of the order, and soon hundreds of "daughter" abbeys appeared in Europe. The Cistercians (unlike the Bene-Dictines) wore not black, but white (from undyed wool) robes - therefore they began to be called "white monks". They also followed the rule of St. Benedict, but they tried to follow it literally in order to return to their original severity. To do this, it was necessary to retire to distant "deserts", shorten the duration of worship services and devote more time to work.

Hermits and Knight Monks

In addition to the “classical” Benedictines, there were monastic communities in the West that lived according to different charters or retained the charter of St. Benedict, but applied it in a fundamentally different way - for example, hermits who practiced extreme asceticism in small communities, such as Camaldules (their order was founded by St. Romuald), the Carthusians (followers of St. Bruno) or the Grandmontens (students of St. Stephen of Muret).

Further, at the intersection of the nave with the transept, there were choirs (E). There, the monks gathered for the services of the hours and for masses. In the choirs, opposite each other, there were two rows of benches or chairs in parallel. English stalls, fr. stalles.. In the late Middle Ages, reclining seats were most often made in them, so that the monks during tedious services could either sit or stand, leaning on small consoles - misericords. Let's remember the French word misericorde("compassion", "mercy") - such shelves, indeed, were a mercy for tired or infirm brothers..

Benches were placed behind the choir. (F) where, during the service, the sick brothers, temporarily separated from the healthy ones, as well as novices, were located. Next came the barrier English rood screen, fr. jube. on which a large crucifix was placed (G). In parish churches, cathedrals and monastery churches, where pilgrims were admitted, it separated the choir and presbytery, where worship was held and the clergy were located, from the nave, where the laity had access. The laity could not go beyond this border and in fact did not see the priest, who, in addition, stood with his back to them. In modern times, most of these partitions were demolished, so when we enter some kind of medieval temple, we need to imagine that earlier its space was not at all uniform and accessible to everyone.

2. Cloister

A quadrangular (more rarely, polygonal or even round) gallery, which adjoined the church from the south and connected the main monastic buildings together. A garden was often laid out in the center. In the monastic tradition, the cloister was likened to Eden surrounded by a wall, Noah's ark, where the family of the righteous man was saved from the waters sent to sinners as punishment, Solomon's temple or Heavenly Jerusalem. The name of the galleries comes from the Latin claustrum- "enclosed, enclosed space." Therefore, in the Middle Ages, both the central courtyard and the entire monastery could be called that.

In many Benedictine monasteries, such as the abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos (Spain) or Saint-Pierre-de-Moissac (France), many scenes from the Bible, the lives of saints were carved on the capitals of the columns on which the galleries rested. , allegorical images (as a confrontation between vices and virtues), as well as frightening figures of demons and various monsters, animals intertwined with each other, etc. The Cistercians, who sought to get away from excessive luxury and any images that could distract the monks from prayer and contemplation, banished such decor from their monasteries.

3. Washbasin

On Pure Thursday in Holy Week - in memory of how Christ washed the feet of his disciples before the Last Supper In. 13:5-11.- the monks, led by the abbot, there humbly washed and kissed the feet of the poor, who were brought to the monastery.

In the gallery that adjoined the church, every day before Compline, the brethren gathered to listen to the reading of some pious text - collatio This name arose from the fact that Saint Benedict recommended for this "Conversation" ("Collationes") John Cassian (about 360 - about 435) - an ascetic who was one of the first to transfer the principles of monastic life from Egypt to the West. Then with a word collatio They also began to call a snack or a glass of wine, which on fast days was given out to monks at this evening hour (hence the French word collation- "snack", "light dinner")..

4. Sacristy

A room in which liturgical vessels, liturgical vestments and books were kept under the castle (if the monastery did not have a special treasury, then relics), as well as the most important documents: historical chronicles and collections of charters, which listed purchases, donations and other acts on which the material well-being of the monastery depended.

5. Library

There was a library next to the sacristy. In small communities, it looked more like a closet with books, in huge abbeys it looked like a majestic vault in which the characters of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose are looking for the forbidden volume of Aristotle.

What the monks read at different times and in different parts of Europe, we can imagine thanks to the inventories of medieval monastic libraries. These are lists of the Bible or individual biblical books, commentaries on them, liturgical manuscripts, writings of the Church Fathers and authoritative theologians. Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome of Stridon, Gregory the Great, Isidore of Seville and others., lives of saints, collections of miracles, historical chronicles, treatises on canon law, geography, astronomy, medicine, botany, Latin grammars, works of ancient Greek and ancient Roman authors ... It is well known that many ancient texts have come down to of our days only because, despite their suspicious attitude towards pagan wisdom, they were preserved by medieval monks In Carolingian times, the richest monasteries - such as St. Gallen and Lorsch in the German lands or Bobbio in Italy - possessed 400-600 volumes. The catalog of the library of the monastery of Saint-Riquier in the north of France, compiled in 831, consisted of 243 volumes. A chronicle written in the twelfth century at the monastery of Saint-Pierre-le-Vief in Sens gives a list of manuscripts ordered to be rewritten or restored by the abbe Arnaud. In addition to biblical and liturgical books, it included commentaries and theological writings by Origen, Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the Great, the passion of the martyr Tiburtius, a description of the transfer of the relics of St. Benedict to the monastery of Fleury, the History of the Lombards by Paul the Deacon, etc..

6. Chapter Hall

The administrative and disciplinary center of the monastery. It was there that every morning (after the service of the first hour in summer; after the third hour and morning mass in winter) the monks gathered to read one of the chapters ( capitulum) of the Benedictine Rule. Hence the name of the hall. In addition to the charter, they read out a fragment from the martyrology (a list of saints whose memory was celebrated on each day) and an obituary (a list of the deceased brothers, patrons of the monastery and members of his “family”, for whom the monks should offer prayers on this day).

The frescoes that adorned the capitular halls of many Benedictine abbeys reflected their disciplinary vocation. For example, in the St. Emmeram Monastery in Regensburg, paintings were made on the theme of the “angelic life” of monks struggling with temptations, following the model of St. Benedict, their father and legislator. In the monastery of Saint-Georges-de-Bocherville in Normandy, on the arches of the capitular hall, images of corporal punishment were carved, to which the guilty monks were sentenced.

7. Room for conversations

The Rule of St. Benedict ordered the brethren to remain silent most of the time. Silence was considered the mother of virtues, and a closed mouth was considered “a condition for the rest of the heart.” The collections of the customs of various monasteries sharply limited those places and moments of the day when the brothers could communicate with each other, and the lives described the heavy punishments that fall on the heads of the talkers. In some abbeys, a distinction was made between "great silence" (when it is forbidden to speak at all) and "little silence" (when one could speak in an undertone). In separate rooms - churches, dormitories, a refectory, etc. - idle conversations were completely prohibited. After Compline, there was to be absolute silence in the entire monastery.

In case of emergency, it was possible to talk in special rooms ( auditorium). In Cistercian monasteries there could be two of them: one for the prior and monks (next to the chapter hall), the second, primarily for the cellar and convers (between their refectory and kitchen).

To facilitate communication, some abbeys developed special sign languages that made it possible to transmit the simplest messages without formally violating the charter. Such gestures did not mean sounds or syllables, but whole words: the names of various premises, everyday objects, elements of worship, liturgical books, etc. Lists of such signs were preserved in many monasteries. For example, in Cluny there were 35 gestures for describing food, 22 for items of clothing, 20 for worship, etc. To “say” the word “bread”, one had to make a circle with two little fingers and two forefingers, so how bread was usually baked round. In different abbeys, the gestures were completely different, and the gesticulating monks of Cluny and Hirsau would not have understood each other.

8. Bedroom, or dormitorium

Most often, this room was located on the second floor, above the chapter hall or next to it, and it was possible to get into it not only from the cloister, but also through the passage from the church. The 22nd chapter of the Benedictine charter prescribed that each monk should sleep on a separate bed, preferably in the same room:

«<…>... but if their numbers do not allow this to be arranged, let them sleep by ten or twenty, with the elders, on whom lies the care of them. Let the lamp in the bedroom burn until morning.
They should sleep in their clothes, girded with belts or ropes. When they sleep, let them not have their little knives with which they work, cut off branches and the like, so as not to injure themselves during sleep. The monks must always be ready and, as soon as the sign is given, get up without delay, hasten, preempting one another, to the work of God, decorously, but modestly. The youngest brethren should not have beds next to each other, but let them be mixed with the elders. Standing up for the cause of God, let them fraternally encourage each other, dispelling the excuses invented by the drowsy.

Benedict of Nursia instructed that a monk should sleep on a simple mat, covered with a blanket. However, his charter was intended for a monastery located in southern Italy. In the northern lands - say, in Germany or Scandinavia - the observance of this directive required much greater (often almost impossible) selflessness and contempt for the flesh. In various monasteries and orders, depending on their severity, different measures of comfort were allowed. For example, Franciscans were required to sleep on bare ground or planks, and mats were only allowed for those who were physically weak.

9. Warm room, or calefactorium

10. Refectory, or refectorium

In the Benedictine monasteries, where, unlike the Cistercian ones, there were many cult and didactic images, frescoes depicting the Last Supper were often painted in the refectories. The monks had to identify themselves with the apostles gathered around Christ.

11. Kitchen

The Cistercian diet was mostly vegetarian, with the addition of fish. There were no special cooks - the brothers worked in the kitchen for a week, on Saturday evening the crew on duty gave way to the next one.

In addition, in order to support the strength of the monks, every day they were given a serving of bread and a glass of wine or beer.

12. Refectory for converse

In the Cistercian monasteries, lay brothers were separated from full-fledged monks: they had their own dormitory, their own refectory, their own entrance to the church, etc.

13. Entrance to the monastery

The Cistercians strove to build their abbeys as far as possible from towns and villages in order to overcome the secularization in which the “black monks”, primarily the Cluneans, had been mired in the centuries that had passed since the time of St. Benedict. Nevertheless, the “white monks” also could not completely fence themselves off from the world. Lay people came to them, members of the monastic "family", connected with the brothers by ties of kinship or who decided to serve the monastery. The gatekeeper, who watched over the entrance to the monastery, periodically welcomed the poor, who were given bread and leftover food that the brothers had not eaten.

14. Hospital

All the brothers periodically went to the hospital, where they were bloodletted ( minutio) is a procedure that is even necessary to maintain the correct balance of humors (blood, mucus, black bile and yellow bile) in the body. After this procedure, the weakened monks received temporary relief for several days in order to restore their strength: exemption from the all-night service, evening rations and a glass of wine, and sometimes delicacies like fried chicken or goose.

15. Other buildings

In addition to the church, the cloister and the main buildings where the life of monks, novices and converse passed, the monasteries had many other buildings: the personal apartments of the abbot; a hospice for poor wanderers and a hotel for important guests; various outbuildings: barns, cellars, mills and bakeries; stables, dovecotes, etc. Medieval monks were engaged in many crafts (made wine, brewed beer, tanned leather, processed metals, worked on glass, produced tiles and bricks) and actively mastered natural resources: they uprooted and felled forests, mined stone , coal, iron and peat, mastered salt mines, erected water mills on rivers, etc. As they would say today, monasteries were one of the main centers of technical innovation.

Sources