Academic literature on the topic 'St. Gall (Benedictine Abbey)'

In the twelfth century, the scriptorium of the Benedictine abbey in Lambach, Austria, was a flourishing centre of manuscript production. Surviving manuscripts of many genres testify to the quality and breadth of the artistic output of the monastery during this period. For a long time, no examples of chant manuscripts were known; recently, however, a number of fragmentary chant manuscripts have been identified, and more recently still a noted Missal preserved at Melk has been attributed to Lambach. The study of the fragments has led to the discovery of an innovative method of indicating mode and final at the monastery, using the tonary-letter system attributed to the St Gall monk Hartker.

Purpose Management literature often neglects the business model developed by a monastic institution, as it does not fit the usual categorizations of an enterprise. Nevertheless, monastic institutions founded on Benedictine principles have proven to be economically viable and sustainable over centuries. This paper aims to examine, with the adoption of a single case study, the components of a Benedictine business model, their interrelationship and the role of sustainability. Design/methodology/approach This case study combines in-depth data collection from multiple sources such as field research, archival documents and publicly available information to examine the dynamic business operations of a Benedictine abbey. Findings The analysis suggests that the Rule of St Benedict and the Benedictine values, and a commitment to them, are important for the success of the Benedictine abbey concept and that the business model is both place-based and sustainable. Research limitations/implications A single case study has its limitations compared to the use of multiple examples. Business model concepts are not simply applicable to a monastic institution and vice versa; the Benedictine model is not easily transferable to conventional enterprises. Practical implications Generalizations from a single case study are limited; nevertheless this paper offers practical implications through the study of a monastic institution, showing place-based and sustainable business practices from which management scholars can make assumptions. Originality/value This paper describes and analyses the inception, development and stabilization of a sustainable place-based business model of a Benedictine abbey according to three stages over a period of 35 years while evaluating the sustainable business model from its inception.

Between 1233 and 1258, Franciscan friars attempted to establish themselves in the town of Bury St Edmunds, which was jealously guarded by the Benedictine monks of St Edmunds abbey. In the ensuing conflict (which sometimes spilled over into acts of violence), the monks invoked St Edmund as the protector of the abbey. Although the monks eventually managed to eject the friars from the town in 1263, they were forced to grant the friars a friary site just outside Bury. This article examines how the monks deployed the figure of St Edmund in their battle with the friars, while also exploring the friars’ less well-documented responses. By calling on the saints, both sides elevated the clash between new and old religious orders to the heavenly plane, but the popularity of the new saint, Francis, complicated the monks’ efforts and produced a nuanced response from the Benedictines that eventually accommodated the friars.

In the twelfth or thirteenth century the monks of Evesham Abbey, an ancient Benedictine foundation in Worcester diocese, seem to have altered their domestic chronicle so as to conceal the decisive role of Oswald, bishop of Worcester, in the tenth-century reform of their house; after c. 1100 the abbey was anxious to suppress evidence of Evesham's early dependence on the church of Worcester lest the post-Conquest bishops should use it in the papal courts to refute Evesham's current case for exemption. Privately, however, the monks continued to honour St Oswald and their relic of his arm; he had become a political embarrassment, but in heaven he remained their spiritual friend.

The recent discovery of three leaves of the Choir Psalter broken by Otto Ege (HL 42) establishes that the manuscript was copied by Matthias Hartung at (and for) the Benedictine Abbey of St. Stephens, Würzburg, in 1499. The manuscript counted among its previous owners Sir Thomas Phillipps and Leander van Ess.

Purpose – Benedictine abbeys are highly stable organisations that have existed for almost 1,500 years. The extant literature ascribes this stability in part to the notion of Benedictine governance, which centres on the Rule of St Benedict (RB). An integral part of Benedictine governance is the cellarer, who plays a role comparable to that of a chief financial officer (CFO) in a traditional corporation. Unlike corporations, however, in which the CFO has emerged into a more important role over the past few decades, the cellarer has been an official position in Benedictine abbeys since the introduction of the RB in the sixth century. The present paper aims to explore the cellarer's role and assesses which parts of it could be reasonably transferred to the corporate world. Design/methodology/approach – Informed by organisational role theory, the authors conducted a single case study in an Austrian Benedictine abbey. The authors used group discussions and semi-structured interviews as the main research instruments. Findings – The authors find that the cellarer's behaviour shows strong signs of stewardship, which could serve as a role model for corporate CFOs. However, because of the studied abbey's situation of financial distress, the cellarer also experienced severe role conflicts rooted in his obedience to the abbot, the high involvement of the abbey in the local economy, and the cellarer's conscience as a Christian monk. From these findings, the authors describe those aspects of the cellarer's role that should thus be avoided for corporate CFOs. Research limitations/implications – The presented findings are based on a single case study. Therefore, because of the contextual factors idiosyncratic to the abbey under investigation, the results must be interpreted with care. Nevertheless, the findings explain the cellarer's role and depict its potential benefits for the corporate world, which should induce further research. Originality/value – This is the first paper to explore in-depth the cellarer's role as well as one of the first to transfer the potential benefits of single roles rooted in Benedictine governance to the corporate world.

Early in the fifteenth century, Thomas of Elmham, who grew up in Norfolk and became a monk of St Augustine’s abbey, Canterbury, began to write and illustrate an ambitious history of his monastery. It may be that his interest in history arose from his early years at Elmham, site of the see of East Anglia in late Anglo-Saxon times. This could explain why he became a monk at the oldest monastic establishment in England instead of at the local Benedictine houses, such as Bury St Edmunds, Ely, or Norwich. Clearly he developed his historical interests at St Augustine’s with its ancient books and relics, even though, apart from the chapel of St Pancras and St Martin’s church nearby, pre-Conquest buildings were no longer to be seen.

St Mary's Abbey, York was one of the richest Benedictine monasteries in the country and its buildings reflected its wealth and status. The quality of its architectural remains is of the highest order, and the collection of medieval sculpture from the site is outstanding. Indeed, the set of life-size column-figures brought to light in 1829 must count as one of the most exciting discoveries ever made in the field of the history of sculpture in this country. Nor is the later history of the site any less interesting. At the Dissolution it became the seat of the King's Council in the North and acquired the name of King's Manor, which part of the complex retains to this day. The principal monastic buildings came down within a few years, and their demolition can be followed in considerable detail, as we shall see; but the centuries of Crown ownership prevented the division of the property until the nineteenth century, and it remains one of the best-preserved urban (albeit extra-mural) monastic precincts in Britain.

Summary This work is an overview on those medieval canon law manuscripts which still testify the literary culture of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Germain des Prés. For the reconstruction of its original collection, have been used the material of two important libraries, i.e. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale and the National Library of St. Petersburg. This description can give an outline on the original medieval library, focusing on its canon law material. The analyzed manuscripts testify not only the ownership by this very abbey, but a flourishing canon law activity in several fields of the ecclesiastical institutionalized life wherein they were used on the day-to-day basis. The several hands and many supplements or inscriptions show well the application of canonical norms for instruction, for cases at the ecclesiastical tribunal, for the interpretation of administration sacraments and sacramentals, particularly regarding the matrimonial and penitential service of the faithful.

How much was a medieval monastery reminiscent of a modern prison? Or insane asylum? And if it was in the least - what can such a metaphor tell us about power relations structuring the life of medieval monks? The purpose of this compilation thesis (sammanläggningsavhandling) is to render explicit and analyze relations of power and modes of control comprising the social tissue of early medieval Benedictine monasteries. By bringing up the examples of tenth- and eleventh-century monasteries of St Gall, Fulda, and Bury St Edmunds, this thesis seeks to understand what power was in medieval monasteries, how and between whom it was exercised, what and how it affected in terms of collective and individual identity. The thesis consists of three introductory chapters, four previously published empirical articles, and a concluding remarks section. Article 1 investigates the problem of surveillance and patterns of social control dispersed in the monastery of St Gall. Article 2 studies the early and high medieval institutional expectations and means of enforcement of the monk’s role. Article 3 scrutinizes an example of a persecution process and a set of defense measures in the hands of the St Gall community warding off an unwanted visitor. Article 4 examines a number of internal monastic conflicts from several monasteries and strategies, both political and cognitive, guiding them. In investigating these problems, the thesis proceeds in a manner of deliberate anachronism. It asks questions about how human subjectivity was manufactured in early medieval St Gall, what were a medieval monastery’s ‘conditions of possibility’ to operate as a social regime, or oral and literary means of conflict management etc. The crucial modern social theories on which the thesis hinges are: Erving Goffman’s notion of ‘total institution’, and Michel Foucault’s analysis of power, as well as Pierre Bourdieu’s logic of action.

Parmi les réformes du concile de Trente, figure celle des ordres religieux incités à s'organiser en congrégations. Y figure aussi l'invitation à traduire dans l'architecture et le décor des églises, l'expression de la foi catholique réaffirmée. Tout cela induit de nouvelles formes architecturales ou de nouveaux aménagements liturgiques qui s'accompagnent dans le cas des ordres religieux, d'une réorganisation spatiale des monastères. Dans ce que le professeur Taveneaux a défini comme une dorsale catholique, la Lorraine tient une place particulière, par son histoire déjà, par son emplacement dans l'échiquier européen d'alors et par la forte présence d'une Eglise soutenue par les souverains. Par l'engagement d'évêques réformateurs, parties prenantes du concile de Trente, puis celui de la famille ducale de Lorraine, le pays voit éclore en quelques années trois fortes congrégations : l'Antique Observance dans l'ordre de Prémontré à partir de Pont-à-Mousson alors que la personnalité de Pierre Fourier cristallise la réforme des chanoines réguliers de Saint-Augustin. Pour les bénédictins, c'est la congrégation de Saint-Vanne et Saint-Hydulphe de dom Didier de La Cour. Par les choix et habitudes architecturaux, par le choix des décors des églises et des bâtiments claustraux, par la vie quotidienne et ses objets, il est possible d'avoir une nouvelle vision de cette congrégation particulièrement active et présente sur le sol lorrain.Les vannistes qui essaiment en France ne sont pas sans influence sur les populations. Il apparaît alors naturel de chercher à comprendre ce que leur architecture et leurs choix décoratifs disent d'eux, de la manière dont ils relaient la doctrine de l'Eglise et dont ils se perçoivent eux-mêmes avec le corollaire de l'image contrôlée ou non qu'ils veulent donner d'eux. Leur architecture, témoin d'un pouvoir, d'un état d'esprit, est aussi sûrement la traduction de leurs principes religieux. Le niveau provincial retenu est celui où se décident les noviciats, où se réfléchissent les suppressions éventuelles ou créations de maisons, où un visiteur fait le lien entre le gouvernement central de la congrégation et chacune de ses maisons. Les religieux vivent aussi cette réalité géographique car ils ne sont que fort peu nombreux à passer d'une province à l'autre et il apparait des spécificités provinciales dans l'organisation même de la congrégation, sans négliger pour autant les choix politiques ou l'évolution de la pensée qui varie différemment selon la province. Car au-delà même des aspects liés à l'organisation de la congrégation, la province de Lorraine offre une singularité supplémentaire, celle d'être alors dans un pays indépendant, même si cela est, à l'époque moderne, tout relatif. Bien que d'une étendue géographique assez limitée, elle offre tous les cas de figures pouvant se rencontrer dans la variété de statuts et d'histoire des maisons vannistes. Toutes ces situations constituent un excellent échantillon de la perception que des religieux cloîtrés des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles peuvent avoir de leur cadre de vie et de la manière dont ils le concrétisent. Tous ces éléments doivent concourir à définir ou non un éventuel style vanniste, montrant sous un jour particulier le quotidien des religieux qui composent cette grande congrégation d'une cinquantaine de maisons en Lorraine et en France, mère de congrégations réformées en France et en Belgique et sœur d'autres réformes monastiques nées en Lorraine dans les premières années du XVIIe siècle
Among the reforms of Trent, is that religious orders are encouraged to organize themselves into congregations. It shall include the invitation to translate the architecture and decorations of the church, the expression of the catholic faith, are reaffirmed. All this leads to new architectural forms and new liturgical developments, are also accompanied in the case of religious orders, by a spatial reorganization of monasteries. In what Professor Taveneaux defined as a Catholic back, Lorraine holds a special place in history, by its location in the european stage and then by the strong presence of a church supported by the sovereigns. By reformers bishops stakeholders the Council of Trent and that of the ducal family of Lorraine commitment, the country sees hatch within a few years three congregations : Ancient Observance in the norbertine order from Pont-à-Mousson while the personality of Pierre Fourier crystallizes the reform of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. For Benedictine, is the congregation of Saint-Vanne and St. Hydulphe by dom Didier de La Cour. The choices and architectural patterns, the choice of sets of churches and abbey buildings themselves, by everyday life and objects, it is possible to have a new vision of this congregation which is particularly active on the Lorraine ground. The vannistes swarming in France are not without influence on populations. It appears natural to try understanding in what their architecture and decorative choices say about them, how they relay the doctrine of the Church and how they perceive themselves with the corollary of the controlled image they want to give of them. Their architecture, witness the power of a state of mind, as surely is the translation of their religious principles. The provincial level used is where decisions novitiates, which reflect any deletions or creations of houses, where a visitor made the connection between the central government of the congregation and every house. Religious also live this geographic reality because they are just very few of them move from one province to another and it seems provincial specificities in the very organization of the congregation without neglecting the political choices or changes' thinking that evolves differently in each province. For even beyond the aspects related to the organization of the congregation, the province of Lorraine offers additional singularity, whereas that of being in an independent country, even if it is in modern times, all relative. Although a fairly limited geographical scope, it offers all the scenarios that can be found in the variety of status and history of vannistes houses. All these situations are an excellent sample of the perception that religious cloistered seventeenth and eighteenth centuries may have their living and how they materialize. All these elements must contribute to define whether a possible style vanniste showing in a particular light daily religious that make up this great congregation of about fifty houses in Lorraine and France, mother of reformed congregations in France and Belgium other monastic reforms sister born in Lorraine in the early seventeenth century

The English Benedictine monk Matthew Paris (c.1200–1259) was one of the most prolific writers of history in medieval Europe. The chapter focuses on Matthew’s Lives of the Two Offas, a semi-fictional account of the Anglo-Saxon kings Offa I and Offa II, the first promising to found, the second actually founding what was to become St Albans Abbey. Matthew reveals much about the practice and limitations of historical research, the relationship between the sacred and the secular, and the role of the past in medieval monastic culture. Particular attention is paid to Matthew’s handling of sources, the role of the public and the varied uses of historical narratives.