Daily Life
Given the differences between monks, friars, and hermits, it is no surprise to learn that their daily routines varied significantly. Hermits, who were mostly affiliated with a particular monastery, remember, would conduct devotions alone and have minimal contact with others, but might attend mass on special occasions. The routine of a friar would be varied, according to the specific location to which they were posted. Chiefly, a friar would spend part of their day helping others or preaching, a certain amount of time on reading and prayer according to their order’s mandate, and all would hear mass at set times.
The monk’s life was far more rigidly-structured. The Rule of St Benedict, followed by Benedictine and Cistercian monks, prescribed a communal daily routine mixing devotion and manual labour. The monastic day was organised around eight periods of communal psalm-chanting and prayer known as Vigils/ Nocturns, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. In between, monks would read, pray, and carry out tasks such as cultivating the monastic gardens, repairing buildings, or tending animals. Most went to bed at 7pm. Although there was some variation on important days of the year, Benedict had specific prescriptions for these days’ routines, too.
The Carthusians followed the same timetable of eight daily sessions of prayers/chanting (The Office), as the Benedictines and Cistercians, but said all except Vigils and Vespers alone in their cells, apart from on Sundays. They also ate alone except on Sundays, special occasions, and funeral days, with the lay brothers passing them their food through a hatch beside the cell door like modern prison guards. Their cells, however, were appropriately lavish to maintain such an existence. A Carthusian cell contained several rooms for sleep, study, prayer, contemplation, and eating, and were organised across two floors. They even had private gardens.
