Liturgical prayer was the monk's chief activity, and in most monasteries it brought the brothers together nine times a day—for the eight Divine Offices prescribed by the Rule of St. Benedict, plus one Mass. However, each order adapted this program to its own purposes. The Cluniac order, a 10th Century outgrowth of the Benedictines, dedicated itself almost exclusively to communal prayer;
Its services went on day and night, sustained by three shifts of monks. In the 11th Century, monks who felt that this was excessive founded the Cistercian order, which returned to the brief, simple services described in the Rule. Even more austere was the Carthusian order, formed in 1084. The Carthusians assembled for only three offices a day; they completed their devotions alone in their cells.
Deliberations in the Chapter Hall
Each day, in every monastery following the Rule of St. Benedict, the monks met in the chapter hall (above) to conduct the spiritual affairs of the community. The abbot, their elected leader, sat in the most prominent place (the big chair at rear); the brothers flanked him in an order determined by seniority.
After a prayer, one monk (foreground) read a chapter (hence the name "chapter hall") from the Rule, whose full text was read aloud three times a year "so that none of the brethren may excuse himself on the ground of ignorance." Then the abbot might hold a remedial session in which each monk admitted his shortcomings. In meetings held strictly for business, the abbot often asked the brothers for advice on any special problem—as, for example, whether to accept an offer for an unused tract of monastery land. With all things put in order, a prayer concluded the meeting, and the day's work could begin.
TOILING AS FARMERS, mou/cs break the soii to plant vegetables. The monks of some orders were not obliged to do manual labor; monasteries which
Owned vast estates sometimes delegated all the field work to peasants.
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