What was life like for a medieval monk? Why would someone want to be one?
Basically the same for Orthodox monks today, depending on the technology permitted (many monasteries prohibit electricity except in the visitor area).
> Why would someone want to be one?
In the Middle Ages? Well for one thing, it's the major occupation if you want to be an academic, plus the reason of today, which is that you are called to be one; if you just want to devote your life to contemplating God, full-time, it's really the best way to go.
>>1179258
>work on farm, die tired with a broken body
>read book and get fat
pick one
>>1179271
I don't think most monks could get fat, at least if Middles Ages Catholic monasteries are anything like the Orthodox ones (which involve regular fasting and meager portions except on feast days). I know Aquinas was fat, but I would imagine he was the exception, unless the RCC really went down the toilet after the schism.
That's a difficult question, because people find purpose in life via various interests and "callings". The most obvious answer, to us modernly, would seem to be a religious affiliation, but that's not entirely what a medieval monastery represented. You'd need to remember very few people in that era were educated, in any respect but practical application of every day life, and if one were curious about the deeper meanings and essence of life, as some are today, that is where he'd go to learn language, writing, early science, mind discipline and the like.
Most noble families would send male children to be educated in this manner in monasteries, whether the young men were particularly interested or not. Some would later move on with their lives, returning home to run the family business, some would simply remain because they found comfort and solace in the environment.
>>1179258
What time period are we talking?
High? Middle? Late
>>1179282
medieval
>>1179268
>Basically the same for Orthodox monks today
That depends on where you live. In Ireland they held political power and had wives, sometimes more than one.
Depends. Usually, monasteries work like a sort of commune. They're just a bunch of like-minded religious bros who make beer, cheese, and honey, sell it at market, write books and philosophize, and ask for donations.
Some monasteries were super brutal and people died as a twisted wreck of a human being. Others weren't so much, and mostly just expected people to actually work hard. There's two monasteries on the outskirts of my town. One is Christian, of some stripe, and makes cheese. The other is Buddhist, and I've never actually talked to them, though I've seen them around.
2bh aside from being barebones poor, it would be a pretty decent life, provided it wasn't a brutal anti-science Christian group running the show.
>>1179283
That period covers 1000 years. What century did you have in mind specifically?
>>1179289
>2bh
hold on, testing the filter
desu
>>1179287
Well, in that case, clearly not the same at all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JnCO0OlhlE
>>1179291
You might be on the verge of beginning a pedantic rant. Any time, from the 5th to the 15th centuries, monasteries were religious learning institutions. In fact, their very existence makes the term "dark ages" a sort of misnomer, because records were kept and (what passed for) modern science prevailed.
>>1179307
Well, no, I'm not trying to be pedantic. A monk in the 5th century would have lived an almost completely different life than a monk in the 15th century
>>1179289
It sounds pretty comfy when you describe it like that
>>1179315
how so?
>>1179315
>read about god and transcribe works by candlelight.
>read about god and transcribe works by candlelight.
pick one
Monks where those who where useless in the society and couldnt fit in. Also they where bicurious. Today they would be called cock-fashinated betas
Cushy compared to the fields, and they still drank and fucked
>>1179331
A lot of quiet (monks are not supposed to talk hardly at all) and prayer too, as well as very frequent worship services. Plus all the labor required for upkeep, including producing food.
>>1179331
They did more than this, though. There was philosophy, math, agriculture, literature, history, social sciences, remedial chemistry... basically all the stuff you'd expect today's student before "secondary school" ( high school ) to know, and maybe a little more in specific studies as humanities and theology.
>>1179316
There are worse ways to live. Of course it means giving up a lot of your modern comforts, but it's better than living in a literal ditch.
>>1179345
Except they (monks) actually knew and understood the material.
>>1179297
Yeah, I think Ireland was a pretty unique place in that regard.
>>1179345
There's a reason for that. The university is actually designed after monasteries, and their bigger brothers, abbeys. In the medieval sense, a university is an abbey minus god.
And, really, universities haven't changed in hundreds of years. It's only recently that the "university as a business" idea has really begun to take off.
I read in a textbook that many medieval monks had daily caloric intakes upwards of 4000 calories, so there were definitely some portly ones. Ate a lot of carbs and butter
You know what's a great movie depicting this? Name of the Rose with Sean Connery. It does a good job depicting not only monastery life, but also the fundamental differences between sects, their various views on the importance of education, deductive reasoning, understanding of history and humanities and functionality with the surrounding population.
Some monks were, admittedly, stubbornly devout to the specific particulars of religious philosophy, some were more liberal and allowed for the study of outside influence. It just kinda depended on where you were and who was in charge.
>>1179356
Medieval people in general(including peasants) ate that much, work was hard back then.
>>1179364
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUUB96c6EpY
>>1179322
Well, for starters, paganism reigned supreme in a portions of Europe during the 5th century. Germanic tribes were tearing Constantine's empire apart. Rome would soon be looted by barbarians. A European monk in the 5th century would be trying to convert the local populations. They might be missionaries. Regular men, with no formal training, were being sent to convert the populations. The concepts of most European nations hadn't even be fathomed. The collapse of Rome was imminent. A monk would most certainly be a poor man.
After several centuries, most of Europe was thoroughly Christianized. The monks as a social class emerged in the 11th century. From the 11th to the 14th century is the time period most people think about when they think of the Middle Ages. Mainly, they collected religious taxes, they traveled to other monasteries, acted as local agents, preached etc. For hobbies, they produced wine. There was lots of writing of various manuscripts. A priory would be a place of education or rest. Monasteries were sacred places. A bishop held immense power over his diocese, and would undoubtedly be in correspondence with his local baron at all times, and would help him in his religious duties.
By the 15th century, a monk's role would have evolved into one of the liberal arts. Local clergy might act as barons or judges. Some might be military commanders. For some, their allegiance was to their kingdom, rather than Rome.
A rich man might send his second born son to become a member of the clergy. A high ranking clergy man held immense power, and wealth. While not a member of the aristocracy, a Cardinal or an ArchBishop would sometimes rule over their own land. Joining the Church was a lucrative career, if you knew the right people
>>1179307
>>1179401
got any more?
>>1179474
>bandits and vikings everywhere!
I doubt this.
>>1181061
I don't understand the question. Do you mean movie depictions of medieval monasteries or specifically clips of that movie?
>>1179258
Irish monks had it pretty good so long as you were willing to do the work, you could have secular power and marry, sometimes you could even have multiple wives.
Other places? Better then starving to death in a ditch, and it was one of the few outlets for an intellectual man in the middle ages.
They draw memes all day long
>>1179258
/r9k/
>>1181172
>>1181172
This.
>>1181202
> literally a life of contemplation and memeing
The monk life sounds super comfy to me honestly, but the no sex deal is too much, i just couldn't live without sex. And videogames.
>>1179271
Thats a meme. Monks were thin af, they ate almost exclusively vegetables.
>>1179258
Burning scientists at the stake and shitting on science textbooks, obviously.
In reality though, life for a medieval monk varied pretty considerably depending on the order to which they belonged and which country they were in. If you were a member of the based Cistercian order then you would spend most of the day farming, brewing beer, developing the surrounding land, praying and reading and writing; this is basically the average for most monks during the early Middle Ages in France/England/Germany. Of course, there are various meme orders like ones where you can't speak and shit like that but they're the screeching autists of the monastic world.
>you will never be a monk in the heydey of abbeys in England
>>1179424
Be careful senpai, your post is acceptable but it also implies that you don't know that clergy =! monks.
Weren't medieval monks notoriously a bunch of lazy drunks?
