3. Lights in the Middle Ages: The Monastic Movement (500 – 1300)
In 530, Benedict of Nursia created a template for monastic life centered around prayer, work, and communal living, that served as the basis for over 37,000 Benedictine monasteries across Europe and inspired many other monastic orders. Throughout the “dark ages,” these monastic communities preserved and advanced the faith. Monks evangelized Europe and meticulously copied the Bible. In addition, Monasteries built culture: they were centers of education, agriculture, trade, and technological innovation.
Scripture: Mark 12:30-31; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
People: Benedict of Nursia (480-547), Alciun of York (735-804), Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)
Benedict of Nursia
“The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love.[1] – From The Rule of St. Benedict
“The love of Christ must come before all else.”[2] – From The Rule of St. Benedict
“O Lord our God,
grant us grace to desire you with our whole heart,
that so desiring we may seek and find you;
and so finding you we may love you;
and loving you we may hate those sins
from which you have redeemed us;
for the sake of Jesus Christ.”[3]
– Anselm of Canterbury
Monks at work
“Monks for more than a thousand years sustained what was most noble and most Christ-centered in the church.”[4] – Mark Noll
Application:
How can our church be an outpost of the gospel in our own “dark ages” of loneliness, addiction, despair, and spiritual poverty?
[1] Timothy Fry, Ed. The Rule of St. Benedict in English (Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN, 1980), 18.
[2] Ibid, 12.
[3] https://acollectionofprayers.com/tag/anselm/page/2/
[4] Mark A. Noll, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity (Baker, Grand Rapids, 1997), 104.