What is an Abbey

An abbey in the contemporary sense is a group of buildings found in the same area or place surrounding a church. These kind of buildings serve as the monk's community housing and also are inhabited by nuns and other pious people.

• Abbeys would be the earliest recognized Christian monastic communities consisted of groups connected with cells or maybe huts collected about a common centre, which has been usually the house of some hermit or maybe anchorite popular for holiness or maybe singular asceticism, but with virtually no attempt on orderly layout. This layout probably put into practice the example placed in part through the Essenes in Judea.

• An abbey is a Monastery or convent, the home of monks or nuns, headed by an abbot or abbess. During the middle ages many abbeys were built all over Europe. Some of them had beautiful churches attached to them. Westminster Abbey in London, for example, is part of an abbey begun by Edward the Confessor, thought most of the other abbey buildings have been destroyed.

• The abbey often included an open space, or great court: cloisters where the monks walked, studied and thought: and a dormitory where they slept. The were also kitchens, stables, storehouses, a guest-house and vegetable gardens within the abbey walls. The monks ate their meals in refectory, or dining hall.

• Abbeys were not just out of the blue created. Throughout ancient Egypt, people could build their own dwellings around someone known intended for holiness. These persons would have a home in this solitary person's life-style. These online communities grew straight into organized communities that may minister to others.

• They did all the work in the abbey, including cleaning, cooking, carpentry, farming and beekeeping. Some abbeys became famous for making wine and spirits. Other were well known for their honey, their medicines and their cheeses. Monks were one of the few groups of educated people then, and their beautiful handwritten and illustrated books were very valuable.

• Between 1524 and 1540 all the abbeys in England were closed down by Henry VIII and their lands and possessions taken away.

• An abbey was a little world on its own. The church was the most important building. the monks made their way from the dormitories to the church long before dawn each morning. While the monks ate their meals in silence in the refectory. a monk would read to them from a special pulpit. In the chapter house, the monks gathered to discuss the business of the abbey. In the cloisters they walked and studied the abbot had his own house. There were also guest houses and an infirmary.

• Abbeys were cold, draughty places. It must have been very hard for the monks to keep warm in winter. Fires were not allowed, except in the infirmary, where the monks went when they were ill, in the kitchen, and in the calefactory or warming room. The monks were allowed to stay in the warming room for only a few minutes at a time.

• A good abbey will frequently appear like a fortified faith based city. Fairly for an abbey to help contain home gardens, mills, stables, and workshops. Abbeys are designed to present segregation involving monks as well as nuns and brothers as well as sisters. As abbeys became very popular, they would likely contain infirmaries, eating halls, as well as libraries.

• Seeing that various orders of monks been with us, each has their very own architectural type of abbey. These could have been Carthusian, Cistercian, Baroque, or a other kinds of any other style. Many instances older constructions are rebuilt leading to abbeys undertake a variety associated with architectural types. Some well-known abbeys are Clairvaux, Fossanuova, Fountains, Cluny, along with Westminster.

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Sénanque Abbey, Provence

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The cloister of Sénanque Abbey

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Jumièges Abbey, Normandy

What are the most famous Abbey Gardens in London?

What kind of flowers and herbs are grown in an abbey garden.. I think it was caused by: I would like to grow an authentic English abbey herb and flower garden full of healing plants.

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