I must admit that I really like the idea of building a monastery in Germany. When I was reading the articles and rules of Saint Benedict it remainded me about “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco. One of our projects in high school was to actually draw a plan of a monastery based on descriptions from the book. When looking at the St. Gall Monastery’s plan, I see that the plan I drew from Umberto Eco’s book looks similar. It was really a small self sufficient residency/city. It had school, hospital, farm with animals, mill etc., basically it produced everything that was needed to live. An it was planned it detail. I like the idea of putting the medical herb garden by the “hospital”. Monks living in such a monastery followed a steady pattern of living. Their day usually started very early, followed by a mass, prayers, breakfast, labor outside with the animals and plants, or inside in library-studying, writing books. It was interesting to read that there were different kinds of monks. I like that they rules of living were based on moderation. Two meals per day was all right, with addition of a third one made of veggies and fruits from their orchard (organic, locally growned:)) Building a monastery in modern times is a great way of educating people about the medieval times and culture. And actually they had more people ready to build it than they needed. That is a sign of people in history and architecture. It is very positive and I would love to see it myself.
