What Nights Were Like Inside a Medieval Monastery | History for Sleep
Quiet Past
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Tonight, fall asleep inside Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire, in the winter of 1250, and keep one whole night with the white monks. From 1 November until Good Friday, one fire burned in the cloister, in a warming house with a double fireplace, and the monks were given no other. Their dormitory ran more than 75 meters, with room for about 140 monks, and they slept in their habits, girdled, with their knives laid aside. At the eighth hour of the night, about 2 in the morning, a bell sent them down a covered night stair to sing 12 psalms in the dark. So who went back to bed afterward, and who stayed awake until dawn?
Subscribe to the channel: @thequietpasst
In this video, we talk about one winter night in a Cistercian abbey including the one meal of the day in a pink painted refectory, the sign language of the silent table, the calefactory and its single fire, Ailred's house a century on, the seasonal hours and the water clock at Bury, the evening collation, Compline and the Salve Regina, the Great Silence and the circator's rounds, the lay brothers of the west range, the price of wax, fuel and wool, the straw mattresses of the long dormitory, sleeping clothed under wool and under hides, the Durham cressets, the infirmary lamp, the porter at the gate, the sacrist's bell, the night stair, the winter night office, the lay brothers' second sleep, the long watch until Lauds, and the brothers at the one fire at first light.
🔔 Subscribe so the next long night of history finds you on its own.
💬 Tell me where in the world you are listening from, and whether you would rather have been a choir monk awake until dawn or a lay brother back under his hide.
📢 Share this with anyone who loves old abbeys and quiet history, on Facebook, Reddit, or a family group chat. You are the reason these nights keep getting made.
Chapters:
00:00 Opening
15:06 The door to the one warm room
35:40 The reading that named a supper
55:17 The other household in the west range
1:15:03 Going to bed in your clothes
1:35:14 Who watches while the house sleeps
1:54:39 The one fire in the dark
2:15:29 Twelve psalms in the dark
2:35:38 Lauds at the first gray
Sources:
St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, trans. Leonard J. Doyle, Project Gutenberg The Project Gutenberg eBook of St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries
The warming house (calefactory), Rievaulx, The Cistercians in Yorkshire Home page of the Cistercians in Yorkshire Project
Rievaulx Abbey: the monks' dormitory, The Cistercians in Yorkshire Home page of the Cistercians in Yorkshire Project
History of Rievaulx Abbey, English Heritage
History of Rievaulx Abbey
Lay brothers: Lifestyle, The Cistercians in Yorkshire Lifestyle
How medieval monks tried to stay warm in the winter, Durham University https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/cur...
The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond (1903), Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/thechroni...
DISCLAIMER:
This video is based on real historical events and figures, drawn from the sources listed above alongside primary archives, biographies, court records, period press, and leading historical scholarship. While every video is heavily researched, occasional minor inaccuracies in dates, quotes, or specific details may occur — historical sources sometimes disagree, and interpretation is sometimes required where the historical record is silent. Any errors are unintentional.
#HistoryForSleep #SleepHistory #BedtimeHistory #MedievalHistory #Medieval #MedievalEngland #13thCentury #Monastery #Monks #MonasticLife #RievaulxAbbey #Cistercian #Yorkshire #NorthYorkshire #EnglishHistory #SocialHistory #FallAsleep #SleepStory #RelaxingHistory #HistoricalBedtimeStories #QuietHistory #SleepAid
4 Comments
What Nights Were Like Inside a Medieval Monastery | History for Sleep
Quiet Past
861 views
Hey guys! We're now on Spotify 🎧
Join us here: https://open.spotify.com/show/7gCS2wc...
Tonight, fall asleep inside Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire, in the winter of 1250, and keep one whole night with the white monks. From 1 November until Good Friday, one fire burned in the cloister, in a warming house with a double fireplace, and the monks were given no other. Their dormitory ran more than 75 meters, with room for about 140 monks, and they slept in their habits, girdled, with their knives laid aside. At the eighth hour of the night, about 2 in the morning, a bell sent them down a covered night stair to sing 12 psalms in the dark. So who went back to bed afterward, and who stayed awake until dawn?
Subscribe to the channel: @thequietpasst
In this video, we talk about one winter night in a Cistercian abbey including the one meal of the day in a pink painted refectory, the sign language of the silent table, the calefactory and its single fire, Ailred's house a century on, the seasonal hours and the water clock at Bury, the evening collation, Compline and the Salve Regina, the Great Silence and the circator's rounds, the lay brothers of the west range, the price of wax, fuel and wool, the straw mattresses of the long dormitory, sleeping clothed under wool and under hides, the Durham cressets, the infirmary lamp, the porter at the gate, the sacrist's bell, the night stair, the winter night office, the lay brothers' second sleep, the long watch until Lauds, and the brothers at the one fire at first light.
🔔 Subscribe so the next long night of history finds you on its own.
💬 Tell me where in the world you are listening from, and whether you would rather have been a choir monk awake until dawn or a lay brother back under his hide.
📢 Share this with anyone who loves old abbeys and quiet history, on Facebook, Reddit, or a family group chat. You are the reason these nights keep getting made.
Chapters:
00:00 Opening
15:06 The door to the one warm room
35:40 The reading that named a supper
55:17 The other household in the west range
1:15:03 Going to bed in your clothes
1:35:14 Who watches while the house sleeps
1:54:39 The one fire in the dark
2:15:29 Twelve psalms in the dark
2:35:38 Lauds at the first gray
Sources:
St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, trans. Leonard J. Doyle, Project Gutenberg The Project Gutenberg eBook of St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries
The warming house (calefactory), Rievaulx, The Cistercians in Yorkshire Home page of the Cistercians in Yorkshire Project
Rievaulx Abbey: the monks' dormitory, The Cistercians in Yorkshire Home page of the Cistercians in Yorkshire Project
History of Rievaulx Abbey, English Heritage
History of Rievaulx Abbey
Lay brothers: Lifestyle, The Cistercians in Yorkshire Lifestyle
How medieval monks tried to stay warm in the winter, Durham University https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/cur...
The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond (1903), Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/thechroni...
DISCLAIMER:
This video is based on real historical events and figures, drawn from the sources listed above alongside primary archives, biographies, court records, period press, and leading historical scholarship. While every video is heavily researched, occasional minor inaccuracies in dates, quotes, or specific details may occur — historical sources sometimes disagree, and interpretation is sometimes required where the historical record is silent. Any errors are unintentional.
#HistoryForSleep #SleepHistory #BedtimeHistory #MedievalHistory #Medieval #MedievalEngland #13thCentury #Monastery #Monks #MonasticLife #RievaulxAbbey #Cistercian #Yorkshire #NorthYorkshire #EnglishHistory #SocialHistory #FallAsleep #SleepStory #RelaxingHistory #HistoricalBedtimeStories #QuietHistory #SleepAid