To become a monk one had to first become an oblate. To become an oblate, one had to be given to the monastery by one’s father. When one was old enough, one could take their first vows and become a novice. After several years of being a novice, with the abbot’s (the head of the monastery) approval, one was able to take their final vows and become a monk.

Monasteries consisted of several different buildings, and some larger communities were like small towns. Each monastery had an abbey church and next to it a cloister. A cloister is a covered walkway around a courtyard where monks could get exercise and sometimes sit at desks to illuminate manuscripts. The refectory (dining room), the dormitory, the scriptorium, the chapter house (used for meetings of church leaders), all opened onto the cloister.

In the dining room, monks were not allowed to talk; instead they made sign

Monasteries also ran schools that taught reading, writing, and Latin to those students who wanted to enter the church or work in government. In the Middle Ages monasteries were important centers of medical knowledge: they owned copies of herbal books as well as herb gardens, and many contained hospitals. They provided housing for weary travelers and gave food to the needy.

Monasteries were also centers of learning. During the Middle Ages monasteries were the principal centers of learning and education in western Europe. Most monasteries contained a scriptorium (a room where manuscripts were kept, read, and copied). Until the growth of universities in the 12th century they were the only libraries, and monks were the only scribes. Monks were by far the educated members of society and often they were often the only educated members of society.

Pope Gregory I was so impressed with the Benedictine Rule that he adopted it to spread Christianity of Europe. He sent monks to England, where they converted the Anglo-Saxons to Catholicism. This engagement led to many more conversions throughout most of Europe.

Monks created illuminate manuscripts. These were beautifully illustrated Bibles and prayer books with painstaking created images on most pages. Illuminated manuscripts are among the most precious remnants of early Christianity.

Women took part in monastic life by living in a convent under the direction of an abbess. These women were known as nuns. They wore simple clothes and wrapped a white cloth called a wimple around their face and neck. Nuns alternated prayer with spinning, weaving, and embroidering items such as tapestries and banners. They also taught needlework and the medicinal use of herbs to the daughters of nobles.

They failed to obey the moderate rules so a monk named Benedict of Nursia set up a monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy in about A.D. 529 and wrote a slightly stricter rule, which became the basis of the Roman Catholic Monasticism, the “Benedictine Rule”. The vision of St. Benedict was of a community of people living and working in prayer and isolation from the outside world. He drew a list of rules that provided for manual work, meditation, and prayer. According to the Benedictine rule, monks could not own goods, must never marry, and were bound to obey monastic laws. Their life was o

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