Who is the founder of monasticism

Pre-eminent among them is St Columba, responsible for two foundations on the mainland - at Derry and Durrow - before setting sail Christ-like with twelve companions to take the faith to Scotland. In he and his party make their base on the island of Iona, from which offshoots are later established as far afield as Lindisfarne known for this reason as Holy Island off the coast of Northumberland.

By the end of the 6th century Irish monks are carrying their Celtic version of Christianity even further afield. In St Columban sets sail for France again with twelve companions , where he founds a monastery at Luxeuil. But by now Celtic Christianity is controversial. In he is criticized by a synod of French bishops for keeping Easter according to the Celtic rather than the Roman rite.

He moves to Switzerland where one of his companions, St Gall, settles as a hermit in the place now named after him , and then on into Italy. By the time of his death in Columban has founded another famous monastery, at Bobbio - the extreme outpost, under the pope's own nose, of Celtic Christianity. St Benedict and the Benedictines: 6th - 8th century AD. At exactly the moment in the late 6th century when Celtic monks from Ireland are bringing their version of Christianity into continental Europe, Italian monks are travelling in the opposite direction - under the leadership of Augustine - on a papal mission to England.

There is no evidence that Augustine and his companions are Benedictines. But gradually, over the next two centuries, the Benedictine pattern prevails. Benedictine monasteries, as great centres of learning, provide the framework within which the barbarians of northern Europe evolve a Christian civilization.

St Benedict, founding his first monasteries at Subiaco early in the 6th century, would be surprised at the wide results of his initiative. The only source of information about Benedict is a brief account written some fifty years after his death by Gregory I - the pope who does much to spread the influence of the Benedictine order. He says that Benedict, a rich young Roman, is so shocked by the licentious city of his birth that he retires to a hermit's life in a cave above Subiaco c.

Disciples gather about him, and he forms them into twelve monasteries of twelve monks each. Later he moves south to establish a new monastery at Monte Cassino c. The 'rule' which Benedict writes for his monks at Monte Cassino becomes the basis, after his death, of the Benedictine order. In writing his Rule, Benedict makes use of several earlier forms of monastic regime.

The great success of his version, which eventually prevails throughout Roman Catholic Europe, derives mainly from its clarity and its good sense as a practical basis for communal life.

Part of its appeal, too, is that its demands are not extreme. In this it differs from the ascetic traditions of Egypt or Ireland. Benedictine monks are Not expected to suffer unduly. This option does not keep the best of them from tireless and dangerous exertions to convert the pagans of northern Europe - a commitment seen above all in the life of St Boniface.

Within a century of St Benedict's death there are nuns following his rule, and tradition even dates the female order from his own time - seeing its founder as his sister, St Scholastica, who under his instruction lives a life of holy virginity. The strong tradition of nuns in the western church goes back even earlier to include, for example, the Roman matrons accompanying St Jerome , and almost every religious order in Roman Catholicism has soon acquired a sisterhood.

The order stressed a return to the Benedictine rule in its original strictness, and as a result, they were in tension with Peter the Venerable at Cluny. They stressed manual, agricultural work, located themselves in wilderness self-contained retreats, and refused gifts from the wealthy. Bernard of Clarivaux, one of the most famous monks of the medieval period, took the order from 30 to houses. In the 13th century, Cistercian wool industry called for the creation of an order of lay brothers, relatively uneducated field workers and herdsmen, associated with the houses.

The Cistercians adopted a polity half-way between the centralization of the Cluniacs and the complete independence of Benedictine houses. Cistercian abbots, elected by each house, were then subject to the yearly meeting of the chapter, the association of houses presided over by the Citeaux abbot.

In the 11th century, a number of independent monastic houses sprung up, ordering themselves under the Rule of St.

Inspired by the ideal of "modesty and service," the OSA Order of Saint Augustine has operated schools, hospitals, retirement centers, and music foundations. The Spiritual Franciscans, along with strong mystical and apocalyptic beliefs, held to the doctrine of apostolic poverty, believing that Christ and the apostles owned nothing.

This position was declared heretical in The Franciscan order in the following centuries spun off a number of separate sects and other orders. Dominicans: The Order of Preachers Ordo Praedicatorum was founded by Dominiac in the 13 th century as a medicant, or preaching, order.

Dominiac stressed vacility with vernacular languages, a strong academic education, especially in theology, and a life of simplicity and poverty so as to avoid hypocrisy. Two of its most famous members were the philosophers Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas.

The order grew quickly in its first centuries of existence and its influence expanded as its members were chosen for church offices. Eventually, the order was charged with running the Roman Inquisition. Existing for about two centuries , the Knights Templar was the most well-known of the military orders.

They were constituted as a monastic order after the First Crusade as an inspiration of Bernard of Clarivaux. The order was made-up of celibate lifetime members and temporary members, often married, from the knightly class who were mostly uneducated. The order also pioneered modern banking methods, such as credit and checking, to raise funds for the crusades, as well as to assist pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The Order of Christ, begun in , succeeded the Knights Templar and absorbed many of its knights.

It settled in Portugal. Over the centuries, it was reformed as both a religious order answerable to the pope and a civil order answerable to the king. The Knights Hospitaller, a 12 th century order working with the sick, after the First Crusade divided itself into two parts, the newer one pledged to protecting pilgrimages to the Holy Land. They also fought with distinction in the Holy Land. Eventually, they absorbed much of the property of the Knights Templar, and its branches became military enclaves in later centuries, such as the Knights of Malta.

Timeline Life of Anthony. Pachomius begins one of the first communal monasteries Tabennisi, Egypt. Augustine of Hippo, On the Works of Monks , a work stressing value of manual labor. Patrick commissioned as missionary to Ireland. Synod of Whitby resolves differences between Celtic and Roman Christianity.

Bede, History of the English Church and People. Abbot Laffredus of Farfa poisoned by two monks for trying for enforcing the Benedictine rule. Bruno founds the Carthusians. First Crusade captures Jerusalem. Bernard begins Cistercian abbey at Clairvaux. Knights Templar adopt that Cistercian rule. Life of Francis of Assisi. Death of St. Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order. Dominicans to staff the Roman Inquisition.

William of Ockham excommunicated for Spiritual Franciscan views. Eliot, Little Gidding. Overview of Medieval Monasticism Let a man consider that God is always looking at him from heaven, that his actions are everywhere visible to the divine eyes and are constantly being reported to God by the Angels.

Introduction Christian monasticism is a structured, ascetic pursuit of the Christian life. Christian monasticism, while primarily concerned with the individual pursuit of the "spiritual life," that is an ascetic pursuit of God, has also arguably been responsible for: the survival of education and culture during the period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire; the perpetuation of important Greco-Roman and early Christian manuscripts in monastery scriptoriums; the development of important early medicines in rudimentary pharmacies; the beginnings of Western capitalism with early advances in agricultural production, manufacturing, corporation law, and labor division; important advances in art, music, and cooking; social stability in Western and Eastern Europe, often serving as an outlet for the second sons and daughters of wealthy aristocratic families; and for important reform movements within Christendom.

Possible Predecessors. Nazirites Numbers : Nazirites were of two types: those who were dedicated from birth to be a Nazirite e.

Francis of Assisi founded the order of the Franciscans, who were known for their charitable work. The Dominicans, founded by Saint Dominic, focused on teaching, preaching, and suppressing heresy.

The Dominican Order came into being in the Middle Ages at a time when religion was starting to be contemplated in a new way. Men of God were no longer expected to stay behind the walls of a cloister. Instead, they traveled among the people, taking as their examples the apostles of the primitive Church. Like his contemporary, Francis, Dominic saw the need for a new type of organization, and the quick growth of the Dominicans and Franciscans during their first century of existence confirms that the orders of mendicant friars met a need.

The inspiration for the Franciscan Order came in when Francis heard a sermon on Matthew that made such an impression on him that he decided to devote himself wholly to a life of apostolic poverty. Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Evangelical precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance.

Francis was soon joined by a prominent fellow townsman, Bernard of Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work, and by other companions, who are said to have reached eleven within a year.

The brothers lived in the deserted leper colony of Rivo Torto near Assisi, but they spent much of their time traveling through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression on their hearers by their earnest exhortations.

Their life was extremely ascetic, though such practices were apparently not prescribed by the first rule that Francis gave them probably as early as , which seems to have been nothing more than a collection of Scriptural passages emphasizing the duty of poverty. Similar to Francis, Dominic sought to establish a new kind of order, one that would bring the dedication and systematic education of the older monastic orders like the Benedictines to bear on the religious problems of the burgeoning population of cities, but with more organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy.

Dominic inspired his followers with loyalty to learning and virtue, a deep recognition of the spiritual power of worldly deprivation and the religious state, and a highly developed governmental structure.

They were both active in preaching and contemplative in study, prayer, and meditation. The brethren of the Dominican Order were urban and learned, as well as contemplative and mystical in their spirituality. While these traits had an impact on the women of the order, the nuns especially absorbed the latter characteristics and made them their own.

In England, the Dominican nuns blended these elements with their own defining characteristics and created a spirituality and collective personality that set them apart. Skip to main content. Search for:. The Rise of the Monasteries Learning Objective Compare and contrast some of the monastic orders that were formed during the Middle Ages.