For the reception of the sacraments, and for other religious offices, the abbot and his monks were commanded to attend the nearest church.

When abbots dined in their own private hall, the Rule of St Benedict charged them to invite their monks to their table, provided there was room, on which occasions the guests were to abstain from quarrels, slanderous talk and idle gossiping.

Sometimes the monks were directly subject to the lay abbot ; sometimes he appointed a substitute to perform the spiritual functions, known usually as dean ( decanus ), but also as abbot ( abbas legitimas, monasticus, regularis ).

Eight others were founded in the region during his lifetime, numbering 3, 000 monks.

The Abbey's monks were allowed to run a market and build a harbour.

The Life of Ceolfrith, written in about 710, records that only two surviving monks were capable of singing the full offices ; one was Ceolfrith and the other a young boy, who according to the anonymous writer had been taught by Ceolfrith and was " now a priest of the same monastery ".

Thus in 1880 and 1882, Benedictine teaching monks were effectively exiled ; this was not completed until 1901.

In the mid-Tang Buddhism reached its peak, and reportedly there were 4, 600 monasteries, 40, 000 hermitages and 260, 500 monks and nuns.

The monks were using the trash to start fires, Tischendorf horrified, asked if he could have them.

None but Irish monks were to accompany him.

The captain would have nothing more to do with the monks ; they were thus free to go where they pleased.

In the only creation of cardinals promoted by him, among the twelve raised to the purple, there were two monks of his order.

Even the Church and hereditary clergy had become highly hierarchical, and the holders of benefices, the canons and the monks were under scandalous aspersions and mutual repulsion.

However, the monks were not satisfied, and one of them, Ammonius, threw a stone and hit Orestes in the head, and so much blood flowed out that he was covered in it.

By the 12th to 13th centuries A. D., monks were preparing illuminated manuscripts on vellum and parchment in monasteries throughout Europe and were using lead styli to draw lines for their writings and for the outlines for their illuminations.

Though present and allowed to speak before the council, members of the Imperial Roman / Byzantine court, abbots, priests, monks and laymen were not allowed to vote.

In the late 7th century to early 8th century the islands were visited by monks from Ireland, possibly looking for converts or solitude.

As these monks were celibate and lived in all-male communities, their populations were not self-sustaining.

According to this, the first settlers in the Faroe Islands were Irish monks, who introduced sheep and oats to the Faroe Isles.

At the same time, the gardens in the monasteries were a place to grow flowers and medicinal herbs but they were also a space where the monks could enjoy nature and relax.

In Japan, Samurai and Zen monks were often required to build decorative gardens or practice related skills like flower arrangement known as ikebana.

A more dedicated ascetical lifestyle is associated particularly with monks, yogis or priests, but any individual may choose to lead an ascetic life.

While many tulkus are monks, some tulkus choose to lead lay lives with families of their own.

Hindu ascetics and wandering monks ( sanyasis ), observe this day by offering puja to the Guru, during the Chaturmas, a four month period during the rainy season, when they choose seclusion, and halt at one selected place ; some also give discourses to the local public.

It teaches some basics of sexual education to monks, but as the singers are too ashamed to sing aloud the explicit words, they choose some filler sounds instead so the chant ends up having meaning only for an experienced sinner.

An abbot ( from Old English abbod, abbad, from Latin abbas (“ father ”), from Ancient Greek ἀββᾶς ( abbas ), from Aramaic ܐܒܐ / אבא (’ abbā, “ father ”); confer German Abt ; French abbé ) is the head and chief governor of a community of monks, called also in the East hegumen or archimandrite.

Saint John Cassian speaks of an abbot of the Thebaid who had 500 monks under him.

When a vacancy occurred, the bishop of the diocese chose the abbot out of the monks of the convent, but the right of election was transferred by jurisdiction to the monks themselves, reserving to the bishop the confirmation of the election and the benediction of the new abbot.

The monks, then kneeling, gave him the kiss of peace on the hand, and rising, on the mouth, the abbot holding his staff of office.

This permission opening the door to luxurious living, the council of Aachen, AD 817, decreed that the abbot should dine in the refectory, and be content with the ordinary fare of the monks, unless he had to entertain a guest.

The ordinary attire of the abbot was according to rule to be the same as that of the monks.

The abbot is chosen by the monks from among the fully professed monks.

Once he has received this blessing, the abbot not only becomes father of his monks in a spiritual sense, but their major superior under canon law, and has the additional authority to confer the ministries of acolyte and lector ( formerly, he could confer the minor orders, which are not sacraments, that these ministries have replaced ).

The abbot wears the same habit as his fellow monks, though by tradition he adds to it a pectoral cross.

" This title hails back to England's separation from the See of Rome, when King Henry, as supreme head of the newly independent church, took over all of the monasteries, mainly for their possessions, except for St. Benet, which he spared because the abbot and his monks possessed no wealth, and lived like simple beggars, disposing the incumbent Bishop of Norwich and seating the abbot in his place, thus the dual title still held to this day.

Here the abbot and his monks led the simplest of lives, their food often consisting of nothing but forest herbs, berries, and the bark of young trees.

The chief theological opponents of iconoclasm were the monks Mansur ( John of Damascus ), who, living in Muslim territory as advisor to the Caliph of Damascus, was far enough away from the Byzantine emperor to evade retribution, and Theodore the Studite, abbot of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople.

Oderisio fortified the monastery, as the people of the town of Cassino forcibly entered the monastery, and after an armed struggle forced the monks to declare Oderisio deposed and to elect another abbot in his place.

Determined to bring the Benedictines to heel, Honorius insisted that the election of Niccolo was uncanonical, and demanded that Seniorectus, the provost of the monastery at Capua, be elected as abbot, to the fury of the Monte Cassino monks.

He reassured the monks of his intentions, and in September 1127, he personally installed Seniorectus as abbot.

Aside from the Benedictines at Monte Cassino, Honorius was also determined to deal with the monks at Cluny Abbey under their ambitious and worldly abbot, Pons of Melgueil.