Community Life and the Rule of St. Benedict

Course Description: Roughly two hundred years after Jesus of Nazareth's death, a movement began among select followers of the Christian religion that sought to pattern their lives more perfectly on the teachings and ministry of their Lord and his apostles. Throughout the Mediterranean basin, but especially in the eastern half of the Roman Empire, hundreds of men and women, as solitaries (hermits) or as members of a community (cenobites) took to the " desert, " either literal or figurative, to free themselves from the temptations of idolatry, lust, envy, wealth, wrath, and, worst of all, pride, all of which they believed to be lurking in cities. Only voluntary poverty, prodigal charity, strict chastity, mortification of the flesh, obedience to spiritual elders, and, most important of all, humility, the complete death to self, were proven bulwarks against such temptations, as the recorded sayings and deeds of the desert fathers and mothers attest.

Sometime around the year 529 in Monte Cassino, Italy, this radical movement of Christoformic living found a unique expression in a rule, which was created to guide the practices of a group of Christian laymen, who wished to pray, work, and live together. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-550) is most often credited with the composition of this rule, though this claim cannot be proven definitively. Questions of authorship aside, the lives of earlier desert fathers and mothers, and the guides for cenobites that they sometimes left behind, undoubtedly shaped the rule's construction, but in sharp contrast to previous guides, this new rule was not crafted to provide a definitive way to perfection, but to articulate a more moderate path for beginners to monasticism. Arguably the rule's commitment to moderation in all of its precepts is what made it the most popular guide to monastic practice for men and women in Western Christianity.

In this course, we will explore the rich tradition of thought and practice that the Benedictine rule established. First, we will read the rule itself and heed the opening words of its prologue, to " listen to the precepts of the Master " and discover what values are essential to the corporate prayer and work (or ora et labora) of the monastic way of life (or conversatio). Then we will explore these values in greater depth by reading, watching, and listening to the works of some of the most influential Benedictine monks, nuns, oblates, and admirers. We will remain attentive to how these thinkers and practitioners of the rule adapted it to meet the concerns of their present context. The rule itself permits the modification of certain precepts according to the needs of particular communities and, more significantly, leaves certain details and potential issues related to the monastics' daily routine unaddressed, thus necessitating further elaboration by later adherents. Ultimately in this class we seek to answer the question of whether the rule provides any guidance for the way we non-monastics should live today.

Archaeological research of monasteries primarily focuses on reconstructing the monastic architecture and the use of space, often referring to historical sources. During such research projects, food consumption by the monastics is often neglected in archaeobotanical and -zoological research. This paper presents the results of research carried out on plant and animal remains which were recovered during the 2017 excavation of the former convent of Yesse at Haren, which functioned from 1215 until 1594. This interdisciplinary research shows that it is possible to nuance what was eaten by the convent’s residents, which contributes to a better understanding of the products that were consumed in medieval monastic institutions in the Netherlands.