MONK

A monk is a member of a religious community of men living apart from the world, vowed according to a definite rule to a celibate life of poverty and obedience, and dedicated primarily to the performance of religious duties and to the contemplative life. The Latin word monachus, from which monk is derived, is a transliteration of the Greek μοναχός—one who lives alone. The Greek word was borrowed by Christians from the Greek Old Testament [Ps 101 (102).8] and applied not only to anchorites but—from the beginning of monasticism —to the individual members of monastic communities; and monachus with this meaning was in common use among the Latin Christians of the 4th century. In the 5th and 6th centuries the Latin and Greek words were applied not only to the worthy cenobites and hermits of that age but also to the various types of the monastic degeneration—the gyrovagi and sarabaitae mentioned by St. Benedict. With the popularization of the Rule of St. Benedict in the West, monachus was for a time, especially in monastic contexts, often used to refer precisely to individuals living under that rule; but in general, before the Cluniac reform, monachus was used broadly and with great imprecision. The early medieval monastic reforms tended to fix the meaning of monachus and its already current derivatives in the European languages, so that through the following centuries up to the Reformation, monachus was applied to Benedictines, Cistercians, and Carthusians, but not usually to canons, friars, and members of the other new medieval institutions. With the Reformation, this precision was lost, except among a few writers of ecclesiastical Latin, and has been restored in the modern languages only among the most knowledgeable of historians. In practice, the modern English word monk is seldom used with such precision and is made to refer not only to all male religious of the Catholic and Orthodox churches but also to members of non–Christian religious bodies, e.g., the Buddhist monks of Vietnam.

See Also: monasticism.

Bibliography: j. leclercq, Études sur le vocabulaire monastique du moyen âge in Studia anselmiana, 48; 1961) 1–38. h. leclercq, Dictgionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq, and h. i. marrou, 15 v. (Paris 1907–53) 2.1:3047–3248. j. olphe–galliard, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire, ed. m. viller et al. (Paris 1932–) 2:404–416.

[a. donahue]

monk / məngk/ • n. a member of a religious community of men typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.DERIVATIVES: monk·ish adj.monk·ish·ly adv.monk·ish·ness n.

monk a member of a religious community of men typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; the earliest such communities were groups of hermits living in the desert. In England, the term was not applied before the Reformation to members of the mendicant orders, who were always called friars, but since that period the usage has widened to include members of those orders.

Recorded from Old English (in form munuc), the word is based on Greek monakhos ‘solitary’, from monos ‘alone’.

See also the cowl does not make the monk.

monk OE. munuc = OS. munik (Du. monnik), OHG. munih (G. mönch), ON. múnkr; Gmc. — popL. *monicus, for late L. monachus — late Gr. mónakhos, sb. use of adj. ‘single, solitary’ (early transf. to coenobites), f. mónos alone.
Hence monkery, monkish XVI, monkshood Aconitum napellus, etc., having hood-shaped flowers. XVI.

monk Member of a monastic community living under vows of religious observance such as poverty, chastity and obedience. See also monasticism