Was medieval living secular or religious?

[Renarax]

What can we learn from those who lived in medieval/ renaissance times? How were they SO devout back then?
What did the Catholic/orthodox church do to engage the people in those social events on those holy days?
What can our communities do?

 

[Barzillai]

Saint Benedict wrote his famous Rule for monks in about 530 AD at the beginning of the medieval period.

Benedictine monasticism helped create a new European civilization, preserved ancient books, and produced some of best wine and cheese we still enjoy today.

Regarding the perceived rigor, austerity and oddness by which some see such monasticism today, an abbot of Downside Abbey wrote,

"But when it came to write his Rule and to legislate for the life of his own monastery of Monte Cassino [in Italy] … he intended to establish ‘nothing harsh or burdensome.’ These words have very commonly been interpreted as a pious exaggeration or device to encourage his disciples, and as not really meaning what they say; but it is easy to show that they do mean exactly what they say. They are borne out by other passages of the Rule. The forty-ninth chapter opens:

“Though we read that a monk’s life should at all times have the Lenten observance, yet as few have this courage, we urge them in these days of Lent to wash away the negligences of other times.”

Similarly in the fortieth chapter:
“Though we read that wine is not for monks at all, yet as in our days monks cannot be persuaded of this, at any rate let us agree to use it sparingly.”
"In this St Benedict is not using the language of feigned humility, but is speaking the very truth, as appears from a comparison of his Rule with the records of the monachism of Egypt or of Western Europe in his day.

**However austere may seem in the twentieth century a life according to the letter of St Benedict’s Rule, in his own day it can have appeared but as an easy form of monastic life, when compared either with the existing monastic rules and accepted traditions on the one hand, or with the ordinary discipline of the Church for the faithful, as in the matter of fasting and penitential code, on the other.

“Indeed, Dom Morin declares that in these matters St Benedict’s regime was no more than was often imposed on Christians living in the world”**.

Quote from: Cuthbert Butler, Abbot of Downside Abbey,
Longmans, Green and Co., 39 Paternoster Row, London, New York,
Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras 1919
​

 

[Lourdes16]

Wow, loaded question. I look upon the Medieval period as the most Catholic point of history. I think this was so because there was a great integration of faith into every aspect of life. I could go on for ages, but some specific things I think Catholics today can model:

Manifest public prayer, reference to and revival of feast days, devotion to patron saints
Keeping holy the Sabbath
Forming communities of Catholics - culture must not be overlooked in importance to the knowledge and preservation of the faith. (I.e. Monasteries, guilds)
Simpler lives relying more on providence than technology
Not living superficially (?) - I have a great respect for the worldview of these ages. They saw creation imbued with opportunities for holiness, with meaning, with vigor. Do not live with eyes for just mundane things, but see everything in light of eternity.

Great topic! Might need to narrow things, because the medieval/renaissance is a heck of a lot of territory.

 

[Kaninchen]

What can we learn from those who lived in medieval/ renaissance times? How were they SO devout back then?
What did the Catholic/orthodox church do to engage the people in those social events on those holy days?
What can our communities do?

Some years ago I read Keith Thomas’ “Religion and the Decline of Magic” which is an academic history of popular beliefs and was quite enlightening. He argues that it all really did seem to depend on just who you were in society - there were people who ‘mattered’ and people who didn’t matter so much (the poor, generally) and what we tend to picture as normal medieval beliefs were the views of those who mattered. Indeed, the Church authorities sometime got rather worried about the fact that many of the underclass had little clue at all as to what it was they were supposed to believe.