Christianity emerged as an urban phenomenon, yet monasticism is more often than not presented as an escape from the sinful town into the wilderness, and as more concerned with the soul than with the body. Ascetics, however, have always had a vested interest in the city, and not only symbolically. Monasticism has been an important urban presence since Late Antiquity up to the Late Middle Ages, even if they were sometimes in competition with newer religious orders.

Argument

This interdisciplinary conference aims to explore the influence of monasticism in the city from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages as well as in shaping attitudes to the body. What was the social status of the “monastic family” in the towns (including the vassals who held the monastic lands on loan)? How did monasteries integrate into the social fabric of cities? What role did they play in care for the sick? What was the relation between consecrated persons and laity? What economic role did monasteries play in towns? How did monastic art, schools and scriptoria contribute to the life of the city? To what extent did monasteries, abbots and abbesses get involved in urban politics? How did urban monasteries shape urban identity?

Programme

June 30

CESCM, Salle Crozet

24, rue de la Chaîne, Poitiers

• 3:30 pm: registration and welcome
• 4 pm: Lucien-JeanBord O.S.B. (Ligugé), Penser le moine et la ville dans l’Antiquité tardive et le haut Moyen Âge
• 4:30pm: Marianne Sághy (Budapest), Practicing and prescribing  asceticism in fourth-century Rome
• 5pm: Vincent Debiais (Poitiers), Epigraphic evidences from urban monastic communities: the example of Saint-André-le-Bas (Vienne)

5:30 pm Cocktail

• 6pm: Keynote lecture Constant Mews (Melbourne), The monastic body and the city from the early middle ages to high scholasticism: Saint-Denis, theology and song

8 pm dinner

July 1

Société des Antiquaires de l’Ouest

Hotel de l’Échevinage et des Grandes Écoles

7, rue Paul Guillon, Poitiers

• 10:30 am: Carol Williams (Monash), Educating St Denis monks in Paris around 1300: the music pedagogy of MS Harley 281
• 11 am:John Crossley (Monash), Dancing in the streets, chanting in the choir: Educating St-Denis monks in Paris around 1300
• 11:30 am:Riccardo Saccenti (Bologna), Cistercians in Thirteenth-Century Paris: the Collège des Bernardins

12-2:30 pm lunch break

• 2:30 pm:Emilie Kurdziel (Poitiers), Monastères et chapitres de chanoines dans les villes italiennes des IXe-XIe siècles: partage des fonctions ou concurrence?
• 3 pm:Kyly Walker (Monash), Westminster Abbey in the Early Twelfth Century
• 3:30 pm: Teemu Immonen (Turku), Monastic Influences on Romanesque Art in Twelfth-Century Rome

4 pm coffeebreak

4:30 pm Keynote lecture Cécile Treffort (Poitiers), Hommes et femmes de Dieu en ville : l'exemple des établissements bénédictins de Poitiers au XIIe siècle

Organizers

• Marianne Sághy (CEU Budapest) saghym@ceu.edu
• Teemu Immonen (Turku University) teemu.immonen@utu.fi

in cooperation with Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale (CEMS) Poitiers (France), Central European University, Budapest (Hungary), University of Turku (Finland), Monash University (Australia)