Saint Benedict

Benedictine monasticism was the dominant form of monasticism in the Middle Ages.  But who was Benedict and why did he get a whole lot of monasteries following his Rule?

As I discussed earlier, monasticism began in the third century in Egypt, as first Saint Anthony, then men following him, then ultimately women began retreating from the ordinary life of the comfortable cities of late antiquity to try to lead a more austere life, in conscious imitation of the lives of the Apostles.  Monasticism reached western Europe at the end of the fourth century when Martin, bishop of Tours, founded the monastery of Marmoutier (the name means "Martin's monastery"--he didn't name it, but others named it in his honor).

Any group of people living together need some sort of agreement on what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to behave, ideally put in writing.  Monks were no different, so rules for monastic life began to be written almost as soon as there were monasteries.  From the fifth through the eighth centuries there were multiple different rules in use in western Europe, some more detailed than others, some harsher than others, but the one that eventually came to dominate was that written by Saint Benedict (d. 547).

Benedict was Italian, usually called "of Nursia" for his hometown (in the Umbria region).  His name means "well spoken" or "blessed."  He is supposed to have had a twin sister, Scholastica.  (You can figure out her name yourself.)

He wasn't a saint yet when he wrote his famous Rule.  He was abbot of the monastery of Montecassino, in Italy.  (Montecassino was bombed by the Americans during World War II.  They thought, mistakenly, that Nazis and munitions were there.  Let's not talk about it.)  He wanted a Rule for his monks that would be clear, fair, and firm, not too harsh but also not too easy going.  He was inspired in part by the slightly earlier so-called Rule of the Master.

Benedict's Rule laid out the daily round of prayers and work (he assumed his monks would be growing much of their own crops), specified appropriate food and clothing, and told what should happen when a monk strayed or even ran away--he would be treated with both justice and mercy.  A good deal of the Rule covers the responsibilities of the abbot, who was a father to the brothers (monks), and throughout there is a strong emphasis on humility.

Although there was no effort to make this rule official, it gradually became adopted at a number of monasteries over the following centuries.  Every monastery made additions to it to suit their own circumstances, but the original was often read aloud to the monks on a regular basis.  Both Charlemagne and his son, Louis the Pious, urged Frankish monasteries to adopt it.  They were influenced by the abbot Benedict of Aniane, who strongly identified with his namesake from four centuries earlier.

The main monastic orders of the twelfth century, the Cistercians and Cluniacs, were Benedictine, in that they tried to follow Benedict's Rule--and got into disagreements over what Benedict would really have meant.  Some monasteries in the thirteenth century called themselves members of the Benedictine Order, because they followed Benedictine Rule without belonging to a larger organization, but there wasn't really much of an order, nothing like the Cistercian and Cluniac Orders.

This image is the twelfth-century monastery of Paray-le-Monial, of the Cluniac order.

© C. Dale Brittain 2022

For more on medieval religion, see my new ebook, Positively Medieval:  Life and Society in the Middle Ages.  Also available in paperback.