Medieval Monastery
A medieval monastery was an enclosed and sometimes remote community of monks led by an abbot who shunned worldly goods to live a simple life of prayer and devotion. Christian monasteries first developed in the 4th century in Egypt and Syria and by the 5th century the idea had spread to Western Europe.
Such figures as Saint Benedict of Nursia (d. c. 543), the founder of the Benedictine order, established rules by which the monks should live and these were, to various degrees, imitated and followed in subsequent centuries, including in those monasteries which survive today. Although their members were poor, the monasteries themselves were rich and powerful institutions, gathering wealth from land and property donated to them. Monasteries were also important centres of learning which educated the young, and, perhaps most significantly for today's historians, laboriously produced books and preserved ancient texts which have greatly enhanced our knowledge of not only the medieval world but also classical antiquity.
Origins & Development
From the 3rd century CE there developed a trend in Egypt and Syria which saw some Christians decide to live the life of a solitary hermit or ascetic. They did this because they thought that without any material or worldly distractions they would achieve a greater understanding of and closeness to God. In addition, whenever early Christians were persecuted they were sometimes forced by necessity to live in remote mountain areas where the essentials of life were lacking. As these individualists grew in number some of them began to live together in communities, continuing, though, to cut themselves off from the rest of society and devoting themselves entirely to prayer and the study of scriptures. Initially, members of these communities lived together in a place known as a lavra where they continued their solitary lives and only gathered together for religious services. Their leader, an abba (hence the later 'abbot') presided over these individualists – they were called monachos in Greek for that reason, which derived from mono meaning 'one', and which is the origin of the word 'monk'.
One of the earliest ascetics to begin organising monasteries where monks lived more communally was Pachomios (c. 290-346), an Egyptian and former soldier who, perhaps inspired by the efficiency of Roman army camps, founded nine monasteries for men and two for women at Tabennisi in Egypt. These first communal (cenobitic) monasteries were administered following a list of rules compiled by Pachomios, and this style of communal living (koinobion), where monks lived, worked, and worshipped together in a daily routine, with all property held in common, and an abbot administering them, became the common model in the Byzantine period.
The next step on the road to the type of monastery that became standard during the Middle Ages was made by Basil of Caesarea (aka Saint Basil or Basil the Great, c. 330-c. 379) in the 4th century. Basil had seen for himself the monasteries in Egypt and Syria and he sought to reproduce them across the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire. Basil added an extra dimension with his belief that monks should not only work together for common goals but also contribute to the wider community. Byzantine monasteries were independent organisations with their own set of rules and regulations for brother monks.
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