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A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, or , whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an oratory, or in the case of Cenobium anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, and Hospital and outlying Monastic grange. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may also include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community. These may include a hospice, a Monastic school, and a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge, or a brewery.
In English usage, the term monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics (nuns), particularly communities of teaching or nursing Nun. Historically, a convent denoted a house of (reflecting the Latin), now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in more specific ways.
In England, the word monastery was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, which were communal but not monastic. However, some were run by monasteries orders, such as Durham Cathedral. Westminster Abbey was for a short time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation, and its Chapter preserves elements of the Benedictine tradition. See the entry cathedral. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St George's Chapel, Windsor.
Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara (Pali language el). Viharas may be occupied by men or women, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple. In Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, a monastery is called a wat. In Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung.
A Christian monastery may be an abbey (i.e., under the rule of an abbot), or a priory (under the rule of a prior), or conceivably a hermitage (the dwelling of a hermit). It may be a community of men () or of women (). A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order. In Eastern Christianity, a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra.
The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the anchorite (or anchoritic) life of an anchorite and the eremitical life of a hermit. There has also been, mostly under the Osmanli occupation of Greece and Cyprus, an "idiorrhythmic" lifestyle where monks come together but being able to own things individually and not being obliged to work for the common good.
In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram.
Jainism use the Buddhist term vihara.
Life within the walls of a monastery may be supported in several ways: by manufacturing and selling goods, often agricultural products; by donations or alms; by rental or investment incomes; and by funds from other organizations within the religion, which in the past formed the traditional support of monasteries. There has been a long tradition of Christian monasteries providing hospitable, charitable and hospital services. Monasteries have often been associated with the provision of education and the encouragement of scholarship and research, which has led to the establishment of schools and colleges and the association with universities. Monastic life has adapted to modern society by offering computer services, accounting services and management as well as modern hospital and educational administration.
These early fixed vassa retreats took place in pavilions and parks that wealthy supporters had donated to the sangha. Over the years, the custom of staying on property held in common by the sangha as a whole during the vassa retreat evolved into cenobitic monasticism, in which monks and nuns resided year-round in monasteries.
In India, Buddhist monasteries gradually developed into centres of learning where philosophical principles were developed and debated; this tradition continues in the monastic universities of Vajrayana, as well as in religious schools and universities founded by religious orders across the Buddhist world. In modern times, living a settled life in a monastery setting has become the most common lifestyle for Buddhist monks and nuns across the globe.
Whereas early monasteries are considered to have been held in common by the entire sangha, in later years this tradition diverged in a number of countries. Despite vinaya prohibitions on possessing wealth, many monasteries became large landowners, much like monasteries in medieval Christian Europe. In Chinese Buddhism, peasant families worked monastic-owned land in exchange for paying a portion of their yearly crop to the resident monks in the monastery, just as they would to a feudal landlord. In Sri Lanka and in Tibetan Buddhism, the ownership of a monastery often became vested in a single monk, who would often keep the property within the family by passing it on to a nephew ordained as a monk. In Japan, where civil authorities permitted Buddhist monks to marry, the position of head of a temple or monastery sometimes became hereditary, passed from father to son over many generations.
Forest monasteries – most commonly found in the Theravada traditions of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka – are monasteries dedicated primarily to the study and cultivation of Buddhist meditation, rather than to scholarship or ceremonial duties. Forest monasteries often function like early Christian monasteries, with small groups of monks living an essentially hermit-like life gathered loosely around a respected elder teacher. While the Dhutanga practised by Gautama Buddha and by his disciples continues to be the ideal model for forest-tradition monks in Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and elsewhere, practical concerns—including shrinking wilderness areas, lack of access to lay supporters, dangerous wildlife, and dangerous border conflicts—dictate that increasing numbers of "meditation" monks live in monasteries, rather than wandering.
Tibetan Buddhist monasteries or are sometimes known as lamaseries, with their monks sometimes (mistakenly) known as . Helena Blavatsky's Theosophical Society named its initial New York City meeting-place "the Lamasery".
Famous Buddhist monasteries include:
A transitional form of monasticism was later created by Saint Amun in which "solitary" monks lived close enough to one another to offer mutual support as well as gathering together on Sundays for common services.
It was Pachomius the Great who developed the idea of cenobitic monasticism: having renunciates live together and worship together under the same roof. Some attribute his mode of communal living to the barracks of the Roman Army in which Pachomios served as a young man.Dunn, Marilyn. The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2000. p. 29. Soon the Egyptian desert blossomed with monasteries, especially around Nitria (Wadi El Natrun), which was called the "Holy City". Estimates are that upwards of 50,000 monks lived in this area at any one time. Eremetism never died out though, but was reserved only for those advanced monks who had worked out their problems within a cenobitic monastery.
The idea caught on, and other places followed:
The main meal of the day took place around noon, often taken at a refectory table, and consisted of the most simple and bland foods e.g., poached fish, boiled oats. While they ate, scripture would be read from a pulpit above them. Since no other words were allowed to be spoken, monks developed communicative gestures. Abbots and notable guests were honoured with a seat at the high table, while everyone else sat perpendicular to that in the order of seniority. This practice remained when some monasteries became universities after the first millennium, and can still be seen at Oxford University and Cambridge University.
Monasteries were important contributors to the surrounding community. They were centres of intellectual progression and education. They welcomed aspiring priests to come and study and learn, allowing them even to challenge doctrine in dialogue with superiors. The earliest forms of musical notation are attributed to a monk named Notker of St Gall, and was spread to musicians throughout Europe by way of the interconnected monasteries. Since monasteries offered respite for weary pilgrim travellers, monks were obligated also to care for their injuries or emotional needs. Over time, lay people started to make pilgrimages to monasteries instead of just using them as a stopover. By this time, they had sizeable libraries that attracted learned tourists. Families would donate a son in return for blessings. During the plagues, monks helped to till the fields and provide food for the sick.
A Warming House is a common part of a medieval monastery, where monks went to warm themselves. It was often the only room in the monastery where a fire was lit.
While in English most use the monastic terms of monastery or priory, in the Latin languages, the term used by the for their houses is convent, from the Latin language conventus, e.g., () or (), meaning "gathering place". The Franciscans rarely use the term "monastery" at present, preferring to call their house a "friary".
In 1947 Mother Basilea Schlink and Mother Martyria founded the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, in Darmstadt, Germany.
In 1948, Lutheran priest Walter Hümmer and his wife Hanna founded the Communität Christusbruderschaft Selbitz.
In 1958, Arthur Kreinheder established The Congregation of the Servants of Christ at St. Augustine's House in Oxford, Michigan. It is a Lutheran monastery in the Benedictine tradition. Strong ties remain with this community and their brothers in Sweden (Östanbäck Monastery) and in Germany the (Priory of St. Wigbert). Östanbäck monastery
In Germany, Communität Casteller Ring is a Benedictine Lutheran community for women. Communität Casteller Ring
Monasteries vary from the very large to the very small. There are three types of monastic houses in the Eastern Orthodox Church:
One of the great centres of Eastern Orthodox monasticism is Mount Athos in Greece, which, like Vatican City, is self-governing. It is located on an isolated peninsula approximately long and wide, and is administered by the heads of the 20 monasteries. Today the population of the Holy Mountain is around 2,200 men only and can only be visited by men with special permission granted by both the Greek government and the government of the Holy Mountain itself.
The monasteries of St. Macarius ( Deir Abu Makaria) and St. Anthony ( Deir Mar Antonios) are the oldest monasteries in the world and under the patronage of the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Among Conservative Anabaptists are the Bruderhof Communities, which have experienced extensive growth around the world.
Other Protestant Christian denominations also engage in monasticism, including other Reformed (Continental Reformed, Presbyterian and Congregationalist) denominations. In the 1960s, experimental monastic groups were formed in which both men and women were members of the same house and also were permitted to be married and have childrenthese were operated on a communal form.
In the 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was inspired by real-life accounts of Orthodox monasticism. Parts of the novel focus in particular on the controversy surrounding the institution of "elderhood" in Orthodox monasticism. Dostoyevsky's understanding of the tradition of elderhood is taken largely from Life of Elder Leonid of Optina by Father Kliment Zeder-gol'm, from which he quotes directly in chapter 5, book 1 of the Brother's Karamazov.
The 1980 historical novel The Name of the Rose, by Italian author, philosopher, and Semiotics Umberto Eco, is set in a monastery in Italy in the year 1327, and the book creates a tableau of monastic life in the 14th century. It is an intellectual murder mystery; said to be a postmodernist work, combining metanarrative and semiotics with biblical analysis and medieval studies. The narrative itself takes place at a Benedictine abbey during the controversy regarding the doctrines about the absolute poverty of Christ and apostolic poverty between branches of the Franciscans and Dominican Order orders. The setting was inspired by the monumental Saint Michael's Abbey in Susa Valley, Piedmont.
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