How important were monks and nuns in Medieval Society?

Answer 1

Monks and nuns could be recognized by their habits. Habits were special clothes, like uniforms. They often wore plain clothing, and a cross upon a chain around their necks. Some monks wore hair shirts as undershirts, to purposely scratch their skin and constantly remind them of the suffering that Jesus had done. Monks only had hair at the sides of there heads because when they went into the monastery it showed that they had nothing to hide from God.

Answer 2

In England, at Milton Abbey in Dorset around 1200, the Abbot was called Eustace. He had previously been sacrist at Middleton. Monks at that time included Thurstan, Ralph de Henecumb, William de Stokes, Richard, Robert, Adam, John the precentor and William the sacristan.

Most monks were known only by their first name (brother Adam, for example); some changed their name when they took their vows.

The heads of the Augustionian priory of Crabhouse in Norfolk included Catherine, Cecilia, Christine de Tilney, Agnes de Methelwold, Margaret Costayn, Olive de Swaffham and Matilda Talbot.

Nuns at the same nunnery included Joan, Agnes, Margaret and Cicely. There were likely never more than 10 nuns at any one time at Crabhouse.

Answer 3

Nuns and Monks were very important in medieval Society because they were healers physically and spiritually to pretty much anybody who needed it. They lived in large Church type buildings, but they were also partly hospitals. Sometimes they even taught kids.

Answer 4

Same as it is today to see to the religious education and souls of man. Monks often copied books by hand and wrote books. They were one of the few groups that could read and write. Some nuns and monks gave medical help when they could or took in children who had been left at their door/gate.