Page "Lay brother" Paragraph 3

No such distinction existed in early Western monasticism.

The majority of St. Benedict's monks were not clerics, and all performed manual labour, the word conversi being used only to designate those who had received the habit late in life, to distinguish them from the oblati and nutriti.

But, by the beginning of the 11th century, the time devoted to study had greatly increased, thus a larger proportion of the monks were in Holy Orders, even though great numbers of illiterate persons had embraced the religious life.

At the same time, it was found necessary to regulate the position of the famuli, the hired servants of the monastery, and to include some of these in the monastic family.

So in Italy the lay Brothers were instituted ; and we find similar attempts at organization at the Abbey of St. Benignus at Dijon, under William of Dijon ( d. 1031 ) and Richard of Verdun ( d. 1046 ), while at Hirschau, Abbot William ( d. 1091 ) gave a special rule to the fratres barbati and exteriores.