Monks endured hardships and homesickness by means of letter collection

Medieval monastic life has been idealized as a type of retreat for a long time. However, letter collections from the 12th century show that in reality, life at the monastery was a mental challenge. This is the conclusion drawn by Theo Lap in his PhD research. Monks suffered from unwanted emotions like homesickness and nostalgia in their solitude. For the monks, the letter collection functioned as a type of self-help book, through which the monks could redirect their homesickness for worldly affairs (their previous lives, loved ones, or a home) towards the hereafter.

Our understanding of medieval monasteries sways between two unrealistic extremes. Either the monastery is a place of religious and sexual repression or it is idealized as a form of retreat. The latter view is tempting in light of the popularity of contemporary silent retreats, which are regarded as beneficial for self-discovery, introspection, or therapy. Theo Lap's study demonstrates that the reality of the monastic life was more nuanced. It was, in fact, a difficult way of life to commit to yet solutions were sought to remedy this.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, letter collections, rather than saints’ lives or collections of examples, fulfilled an important psychological function. This extraordinary and widely read genre functioned as a consolatory self-help book for those who had withdrawn themselves from the world. Letter collections helped monks and nuns come to terms with the hardship and the homesickness of a life of seclusion, having said farewell to their former ways of life, loved ones, and homes.

Anonymous scribes produced letter collections on the basis of the letters of eminent leaders of the church (like St. Anselm of Canterbury, Arnulf of Lisieux, and Peter of Celle). Their contents were arranged in such a way to represent exemplars that targeted the needs and wants of their religious community. Readers learned how to transform their undesirable emotions, such as homesickness, into more advantageous desires for the monastic life and God. Therefore, this study has also broadened our understanding of how cultures deal with processes of attachment and dislocation, which are relevant at times of refugee crises.