I hope you enjoyed the first lecture and tutorial and feel ready to face the material of week 2 focussing on the forms of Christian life in the Early Medieval World. One of the figures we'll be looking at is St Benedict of Nursia.
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| Saint Benedict: detail from a fresco by Fra Angelico |
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| The restored Monte Cassino Abbey |
From the reading for this week, Cruz and Gerberding propose that "living alone in constant prayer and contemplation is seen as the best way to renounce the world, battle its temptations, and purify oneself for God." (p.124). For many reasons this solitary life was not always practical and as a result monasteries were formed, though the aim always was, in some way, to be living alone. How does Benedict's Rule enable monks to "live alone together"?
Good evening,
ReplyDeleteHere is what I could think about to try to answer the question :
- A monastery is a closed community where anyone cannot enter freely. This way the community of monks is still apart from the world/society.
- The Rule advocates an austere lifestyle that ressemble hermit lifestyle to a certain extend. For example, a very quiet environment favourable for meditation and prayer and a very light diet.
- The Rule regulates very precisely the daily routine and all the imaginable situations. This way the monks don’t have to care about earthly concerns and can focus on religion. In the meantime, this precise organisation ensures that monastic life goes smoothly.
- The Rule orders a routine centered around religion. The day is regulated by prayers or religious duties. Consequently a monk’s mind is always brought back to religion. The routine itself is hallowed in a way (making the necessary ‘earthly’ tasks less ‘sinfull’).
- The Rule creates the Abbot, who is responsible of the smoothness of the daily life. This way monks don’t have to care about logistical concerns. The Abbot is also in charge of managing the community, he ensures that every monk is on the ‘right path’. This way the community remains focused on religious concerns. In addition, as the Abbot is supposed to have an examplary behaviour, he can be a model for the other monks. This way the monks can more easily concentrate on God.
=> To summarize, the Rule organises a life in a community withdrawn from society (alone). It also plans a very organised and austere community life revolving around religion. The Rule creates an Abbot who ensures that the community is working out and that the monks are living/moving together closer to God (so monks can live together without moving away from their religious target).
I hope you will manage to make sense of what I wrote,
Amandine
Good Morning Carol,
ReplyDeleteIt was not practically possible for Monks to live alone for many reasons. Generally the hermit monks (Anchorites) found themselves with followers so living alone in meditation and prayer literally wasn't possible.
Secondly though the Monks would try and make up for this time not being spent alone by extreme self punishment and harm or starvation. This was not looked upon positively by the Church and it was also not safe.
To counter these problems, Benedict of Nursia put together the 'Benedictine Rule' which outlined just about every aspect of a Monk's day to day life. They were to rise silently in the middle of the night and walk to mass where the only words out of their mouths were that of beautiful chants and prayers.
They were directed and taught by the monastery Abbot. Humility and obedience were instilled in to the Monks. They still lived an ascetic life because they owned nothing of their own, ate only two small cooked meals a day, performed labor or theological study and remained celibate.
thanks kindly
Michele
student number 23108940
The structured lifestyle that is depicted in the readings and created by the Rule of St Benedict enabled the Monks to “live alone together”. Following their rising at 2am and “without a word… they… filed into the Church” they were expected to participate in prayer times at seven nominated moments in the day amongst their own private contemplation and reading of the sacred text. If they were not doing so, they were contributing through manual labour. Sleeping arrangements is just another example of how the Rule of St Benedict allowed them to “live alone together”.
ReplyDeleteThe Rule of St Benedict had not only addressed the very circumstances of the life of the Monks including their food, drinks and routine, but the very values that they were expected to reflect in their behaviour and actions. Apart from silence and obedience, humility was emphasised, addressed in twelve different aspects. Aspect number 9, being that “a monk restrain his tongue from speaking; and, keeping silence, do not speak until he is spoken to” which was not only a major part of their lifestyle but also a large factor in how they were able to lead a such a solitary life, despite being surrounded by others.
As Clare said in the lecture today, the reason for the creation of such monasteries was due to the very unstable life in the Western Empire. To lead such a solitary Christian life was virtually impossible, and through the very routine, the structure that was created through St Benedict’s rule, it allowed them to “live alone together”.
As Cruz and Gerberding state "the most advanced form of the monastic life for the Christian is to live absolutely alone". These anchorites or hermits would seek complete isolation in order to resist the temptations of the world. However, achieving this isolation wasn't possible as hermits would often attract followers, and although not encouraged by the church, anchorites would show their dedication through self-mutilation.
ReplyDeleteBenedictine Rule established a set of rules that enabled monks to live a life of solitude without the dangers of life in the wilderness, and additionally it allowed them to live this form of spiritual isolation together, in a community.
Benedictine Rule focused on the daily routine of the monks living in a monastery. It dictated when they would rise, pray, eat, work and study, making sure they never were distracted from the spiritual side of their lives. The rule helped shape a monk's attitude as well, instilling in him a sense of obedience and humility and an understanding that personal material possessions are not allowed. Finally, the Benedictine Rule established a leader of this community of solitary monks, the Abbot. He was the spiritual leader of the monks and the one who, after consulting with the monks, had the final decision on all important matters.
Felix
Benedict's rule laid down the guidelines of life within a monastery, enabling monks to reside together, with the protection of numbers, whilst living in accordance with the ultimate monastic way of life (a life of constant solitude, prayer, and contemplation)
ReplyDeleteThis is achieved through the strict guidelines regarding daily routine and acceptable behaviour. By dictating when a monk should rise, eat, pray, perform manual labour, study the sacred readings, how much he should drink and how he should behave towards others; Benedict mapped out a day for the monks that was so rigid and full; that little time was left for the distractions presented by the world outside and by the other monks. Similarly, the nature of a monk's daily activity generally forced 'solitude' despite the presence of other beings.
Whilst participating in prayer and psalm recital, sacred studying and manual labour; there was little time for socialising or group discussion. whilst the monks intoned the psalms in one voice; they were each conducting a personal connection with God, as they studied the sacred readings they were contemplating the meaning of the teachings and drawing individual conclusions. Therefore, whilst actions may have been performed in groups; the goals of each monk was the pursuit of personal humility, individual contemplation and connection with God/Christ.
Thus, the solitary life a monk might live as a hermit/anchorite is mimicked within the safety of the monastery. It is maintained; along with the principles of a Christian existence by other rules scribed by St Benedict. Stating that those who forgot or erred in their recitals be punished encouraged diligent perusal of the word of God. Ruling that only 2 meals should be received per person per day; discouraged greed. By enforcing the need for obedience, humility and tolerance was taught. By railing each monk with the task of ensuring their neighbours rise in time for each prayer session, laziness was disapproved of.
Thus, St Benedict gave monks the tools to successfully "live alone in constant prayer and contemplation...renounce the world, battle its temptations and purify oneself for god" without experiencing the challenges of living alone; which included the dangers of the medieval society at the time, the challenge of the wilderness and the common issue of solitary-seeking monks generating followers; making their quest for retirement from the world null and void.
He furthermore ensured this lifestyle be diligently followed by the application of disciplinary measures, with an Abbot appointed to ensure the Rule was followed and that disciplinary measures were carried out. Living in a community also proved useful for the monks, as submersion in like-minded individuals encouraged their individual learning.
It cannot be claimed that the monks living within a monastery were truly solitary; however Benedict's Rule enabled them to pursue the concept; to 'live alone together'.
Caitlin Graham
Benedict's Rule, and the concept of living life in a monastery allowed monks to 'live alone together' in the sense that they were removed from the outside world to pursue a life based around the worship of Christ. Rather than having to follow the living conventions put forth by society, they were able to isolate themselves from the rest of the world, thus 'live alone'. Benedict's rulings stripped the monks of much choice and individuality, distancing the monks from each other (again, creating a sense of aloneness, and bringing them closer to god through the life they are taught to lead
ReplyDeleteI think Benedict’s Rule enabled monks to “live alone together”, since these monks live in a community that’s main focus is to teach and guide, though a strict schedule of pray and sleep. This enables them to become closer to god, denying pleasure that taint the world, therefore they reject the worlds and all its sins, resulting in the need to self sufficiently heal and cleanse themselves, of sin. (Such as eating to much, resulting in starvation and self-mutilations) These monks share a common purpose, rejection of the world and finding the path to heaven, which make them figuratively ‘together’. While on the other hand they are still “living alone in constant prayer”. These monks share a community, but each “live in the wilderness”, they are arriving to the same destination but choosing different road, (pardon the analogy) which is self purification. So these monks “live alone” though their single path to a spiritual high, but also “live together” from learning teachings and guidance.
ReplyDeleteI think that Benedict’s Rule enables the monks to ‘live alone together’ in several ways. In living under a strict timetable and remaining secluded from the outside world to prevent themselves from being tainted, the monks are ‘living alone’. However, the monks all live in the monastery ‘together’. They can each go about their routine, find their inner peace and purify themselves for God comfortably, knowing that although they lead a solitary life, they all do so ‘together’ with others who are also seeking to achieve a similar goal and are devoted to God. From a more practical approach, the monks living together prevents them from the complete isolation of human company, in order to prevent extremities such as self mutilation that occurred to some of the earlier hermits; it also enables a simple and sustainable communal lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Benedict’s concept of monks "living alone together" is flawed. To begin with the very notion that a monk could ever be alone would go against one of Christianities main concepts which is the idea that god is everywhere, therefore someone is never alone least of all a monk whose sole purpose is to get closer to god through prayer. I do not think the purpose of Benedict’s rule was designed to enable the monks to live alone together, I think that the purpose of the rule was to segregate the monks from the outside world which would allow them to create a state of power over the common people. What I mean by state of power is the idea that the monks are incredibly important powerful men because they are closer to god due to their rituals. They live inside monasteries and I am sure that this gave them (the church) a great deal of power over the common people purely because the common people did not know what was happening inside the churches walls. It can be argued that Benedict did create a nice peaceful environment for monks to be alone with their thoughts, however I do not think this was the purpose of his rules. I think Benedict was smart enough to realise the type of power that can be harnessed through blind belief and did what he could to help build on that power.
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