CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Moore, Emily |
|---|---|
| Title | Timely Prayers: The Schedule of the Hours in Eleventh Century Benedictine Practice |
| Summary | This thesis considers the interplay between planned, scheduled “quantitative” time and “qualitative” determinations for “the right time” in Benedictine practice. Taking Lanfranc of Canterbury’s Monastic Constitutions as a case study, it seeks to flesh out the theological significance of the daily horarium by reference to classic texts a late eleventh and twelfth century monk might have reference to, as well as contemporary monastic literature. It considers the congruence between theory and practice, and finds that the Benedictine schedule at times intentionally scheduled “the right time” in alignment with cosmological events such as the sunrise and the night. However, as a schedule, its primary aim was to cultivate a prayerful discipline, which could (and should) be affirmed as right more intentionally by, for example, reflections upon Biblical concordances with this hour, and through the exercise of the virtue of obedience. The Rule of Benedict and Lanfranc’s customary give moral value to the quantitative rule of time by integrating it as a central tenet of the monastery’s social order. This monastic discipline hopes that praying regularly, in a human order, proactively and not spontaneously, will allow, sometimes, alignment with God’s “qualitative” time. |
| Supervisor | Gereby, Gyorgy |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/moore_emily.pdf |
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