Martin Luther . Monk's Life . Work

Publish date: 2024-05-04
Monk Writing
Monk translating scriptures
Work

Times: 7-8am, 9.15-11.45am, 3-5.45pm

It was St Benedict who composed the original Rulefor living in monastic communities. He envisioned the monastery as areclusive and self-sufficient community, directed by an elected abbot.To lessen dependence on the secular word, the Rule decreed thateverything essential for life, such as water, mills, gardens, andworkshops, be found within the monastery walls.

Aside from prayer a monk needed to be industrious to help the monasterysurvive. During the day, Monks worked in the monastery garden, helpedwith the cooking, cleaning, and laundry, and did other jobs that theabbot - the chief monk - gave them to do.

Growing crops such as wheat and barley and vegetables was the coreoccupation. Monks became so sophisticated at providing forthemselves that many monasteries became well-known commercialoperations. They also invented ground-breaking methods of agriculturethat are still used today.

Because supplies of clean water were rare in the Medieval world,monasteries also specialised in beer and wine production. - a skillwhich many have continued into the modern world. In England somemonasteries became enormously wealthy by raising sheep and sellingthe wool.

And then there was the maintenance of the monastery itself; openingand shutting the gates, winding the clocks, sweeping and polishing thechurch and cleaning out the cells.

But the chief occupation of many monasteries was creating books in thescriptorium. In the days before printing, books were written out b handusing colors combined with egg whites, even real gold and silver topainstakingly illustrate and enhance their handiwork.

Writing out long books by hand was hard, slow work. An expert monk mightcopy out two or three books in a year - working fulltime. But it wasthrough the work of these mediaeval monks that many of the great works ofancient literature were preserved through the dark ages and into themodern era.

The life of a monk was on the whole, a hard one.

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