What is the point of being a monk?

[Blue_Lou]

The Free Beer.

Then you get drunk and horny but you can only bang each other. Except you can’t even do that

 

[Deleted member 220895]

To get away from nagging, and just shut up for a decade.

 

[minute bull]

The key? The key to being a monk ... is monkey.

 

[Alphaboy]

You liberate yourself from the stress of everyday life. Every single day of the year will be scheduled around the same routine with few surprises. You try to shake free of desires and focus on spirituality. All the vanities of ordinary life - how to dress, working out, trying to impress people, jockying for promotion - all of that disappears.

If you've ever spent a month without television/computer/phone etc. you'll know how after some initial restlessness you sort of slow down and start feeling clear and at ease.

I'm not very religious, but I see the appeal

I know exactly what you mean.

If anyone's never unplugged for a little while. Try it. Go camping for a week and get rid of Facebook and crap.

 

[JabToucher]

 

[Son of Werdum]

You learn to levitate and throw orbs of death at people and do one finger handstands and shit.

 

[riitzni]

Yes, that book is a bit overzealous in it's claims lol. But the Irish did play an important role within the monastic cultural networks of early modern europe. Particularly in the Carolingian/Frankish court, helping spark what some have called the Carolingian Renaissance.

That is another good example too about elite families, in Ireland one of the most famous saints is St. Columba/Colm Cille, who founded Iona (one of the most important sites in the Britain and Ireland, it had several 'daughter houses' which it presided over). He was a member of the royal Uí Néill dynasty of Cenél Conaill. All of his succesors as Abbot of Iona were members of the same dynasty.

Read it for the title, clearly a work. Better title would have been "How The Irish Saved Pieces Of Civilization And TBH I'm Overselling This".

I recently read a biography of Martin Luther and that's an excellent look into late medieval/early modern monastic life.