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Manual Labor: The Twelfth-Century Cistercian Ideal, Dennis R. Overman

Masters Theses

Throughout the history of western monasticism three principal occupations were repeatedly emphasized for the monk: prayer, lectio divina (spiritual reading/ meditation), and manual labor. Periodically, cultural mindsets, social structure, or even geography have produced in a variation in the practice of these occupations, resulting in the dominance of one or the other, or even the disappearance of one altogether.

The emergence of the Cistercian Order at the end of the eleventh century was characterized by a spirit of simplicity and austerity with a renewed emphasis on manual labor which had been a neglected element in the monastic regime in the …