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Between Man and Nature: The Making of Benedictine Settlements in...
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Between Man and Nature: The Making of Benedictine Settlements in Medieval Iceland

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2024) | Viewed by 9197

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Archaeology, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland
Interests: medieval monasticism; medieval church history; Christianity; gender archaeology; feminism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to publish results from ongoing research on two Benedictine communities in Iceland: the male monastery at Þingeyrar (1133–1551) and the female monastery of Kirkjubær (1186–1543). The overarching aim of the research is to elucidate the ways in which these religious houses and their natural environments concurrently shaped each other. The articles will focus on topics such as 1) the role of bishops in the governance of monasteries in Iceland; 2) the extensive production of ecclesiastical textiles and settlements requiring ample natural resources; 3) the role of the landscape in everyday life and in engagement with monastic liturgy and prayer; and 4) the diet of the religious and lay inhabitants in the monastic houses and their associated land use. Some recurring themes in the articles will allude to the diverse ways in which the religious houses in question become synchronized with their surrounding environment, while faithfully keeping their dedication to the Benedictine customs. With contributions from archaeology, history, literary studies, natural sciences, and environmental studies, the Special Issue should provide new insight into the current debates about human–nature coexistence due to epidemies such as COVID-19 or climate change.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Benedictines
  • monastery
  • Kirkjubæjarklaustur
  • Þingeyraklaustur
  • manuscript making
  • textile making
  • Medieval Iceland

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 4229 KiB  
Article
The Constitutive Science of Benedictine Literacy: The Archive of Þingeyrar Abbey in Iceland
by Gottskálk Jensson
Religions 2023, 14(7), 862; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070862 - 01 Jul 2023
Viewed by 788
Abstract
The monastic archives of Iceland have rarely been made the subject of specific studies. This article is intended to survey the history of one such archive, belonging to the Benedictine Abbey of Þingeyrar in Northern Iceland, which was founded 1133 and dissolved 1551. [...] Read more.
The monastic archives of Iceland have rarely been made the subject of specific studies. This article is intended to survey the history of one such archive, belonging to the Benedictine Abbey of Þingeyrar in Northern Iceland, which was founded 1133 and dissolved 1551. Through its extraordinarily rich literary production this monastery left an indelible mark on the Northern-European cultural heritage. After the Reformation Þingeyrar Cloister remained a state-owned and ecclesiastical institution until modern times. Its archive, which is partly preserved to this day, is both the most extensive of its kind to survive in Iceland and uniquely remained in place for almost eight centuries, making it possibly the longest operated archive in the Nordic countries. The Icelanders may be better known for their sagas and mythological poetry, but their industrious literacy certainly extended to creating bureaucratic documents in accordance with the Roman tradition. French Benedictines were among the first in the world to turn the art of archival management into an academic discipline, and the Icelandic Professor Árni Magnússon (d. 1730), who is best known for his great collection of Old Icelandic manuscripts, was the first Nordic scholar to employ their methods effectively, which he used to investigate the Archive of Þingeyrar. Surveying the history of this Icelandic archive gives us insight into a constitutive science fundamental for our access to the past. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Between Man and Nature: The Making of Benedictine Settlements in Medieval Iceland)
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26 pages, 423 KiB  
Article
The Benedictine Culture of Medieval Iceland
by James G. Clark
Religions 2023, 14(7), 851; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070851 - 28 Jun 2023
Viewed by 933
Abstract
The monastic tradition of St Benedict of Nursia inspired and influenced Iceland’s medieval monasteries. Four communities, two each of men and women, which were identified in contemporary records as ‘under the rule of Saint Benedict’, endured for four hundred years, until the Protestant [...] Read more.
The monastic tradition of St Benedict of Nursia inspired and influenced Iceland’s medieval monasteries. Four communities, two each of men and women, which were identified in contemporary records as ‘under the rule of Saint Benedict’, endured for four hundred years, until the Protestant suppressions of the mid-sixteenth century. The monasteries of men emerged as Iceland’s most important centres of literary production; each of the churches was the focus of public worship and popular cults, and at times in their history, they may also have maintained the largest monastic populations seen in the island. With no visible trace of their physical environment, material evidence only now being revealed in excavations and very few documentary records describing their form of Benedictinism, their observant customs and broader Benedictine culture remain elusive. Drawing on the inventories (máldagar) of their property made at intervals between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, together with the representation of their regular life in contemporary biskupa sögur, this paper reveals a monastic practice that did diverge from that of Benedictines elsewhere in northern Europe but that nonetheless expressed a powerful attachment to some of the principal ideals of the Benedictine Rule: abbacy, conventual fraternity and the interplay of contemplative and active occupation. Above all, these communities appear to have propagated a cult interest in the figure of Benedict himself, placing him at the centre of their worship life long after Benedictines elsewhere in Europe had allowed him to be eclipsed by national and regional cults of more recent creation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Between Man and Nature: The Making of Benedictine Settlements in Medieval Iceland)
17 pages, 2161 KiB  
Article
Þingeyrar after the Dissolution
by Jakob Orri Jónsson
Religions 2023, 14(6), 778; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060778 - 12 Jun 2023
Viewed by 787
Abstract
After the Reformation, many monasteries in Scandinavia were provided new purposes or maintained parts of their former functions, serving as everything from hospitals to city halls. In Iceland, however, this did not happen; the monasteries were abandoned, and their functions in society, both [...] Read more.
After the Reformation, many monasteries in Scandinavia were provided new purposes or maintained parts of their former functions, serving as everything from hospitals to city halls. In Iceland, however, this did not happen; the monasteries were abandoned, and their functions in society, both ecclesiastical and secular, were, in time, forgotten. This was despite attempts to open schools in some of the former monasteries. While the reasons for the failure of these institutions to transition from being run by ecclesiastical to secular authorities in Iceland remain unknown, the common perception is that these sites remained centers of some influence, power and wealth. This paper will use the monastery site of Þingeyrar, Northern Iceland, as a case study, discussing ceramic data from ongoing excavations there as well as historical data on landholdings to examine the continuity of influence and wealth at monastery sites in Iceland following their dissolution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Between Man and Nature: The Making of Benedictine Settlements in Medieval Iceland)
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11 pages, 2084 KiB  
Article
The Burden of History: Kirkjubæjarklaustur and the Biography of Landscape
by Sigrún Hannesdóttir
Religions 2023, 14(5), 665; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050665 - 16 May 2023
Viewed by 1062
Abstract
The importance of landscape has long been recognized within monastic studies, both as an economic and spiritual resource. This paper focuses on the surrounding landscape of a single monastic site, that is Kirkjubæjarklaustur on Síða (south Iceland), one of the two female monasteries [...] Read more.
The importance of landscape has long been recognized within monastic studies, both as an economic and spiritual resource. This paper focuses on the surrounding landscape of a single monastic site, that is Kirkjubæjarklaustur on Síða (south Iceland), one of the two female monasteries established in Medieval Iceland. Through written sources, legends, and placenames, the aim of this paper is to reconstruct the biography of the landscape from before the founding of the monastery to after the Reformation. In particular, the paper considers how the perceived sacredness of the site of Kirkjubæjarklaustur may have been shaped by stories of Christian settlers prior to the monastic foundation and how the monastic memory informed the way in which the landscape was experienced after the Reformation and beyond. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Between Man and Nature: The Making of Benedictine Settlements in Medieval Iceland)
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16 pages, 1828 KiB  
Article
The Potential of Palynology with Regard to the Archaeology of Medieval Monastery Sites in Iceland
by Scott J. Riddell, Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir, Guðrún Gísladóttir and Egill Erlendsson
Religions 2023, 14(5), 586; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050586 - 29 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1228
Abstract
In 2014, as part of the Kortlagning klaustur á Íslandi (Mapping Monasticism in Iceland) archaeological project, bulk samples retrieved from various archaeological sites associated with Icelandic monasticism were subsampled for pollen analysis. The objective was to discern something about the character of the [...] Read more.
In 2014, as part of the Kortlagning klaustur á Íslandi (Mapping Monasticism in Iceland) archaeological project, bulk samples retrieved from various archaeological sites associated with Icelandic monasticism were subsampled for pollen analysis. The objective was to discern something about the character of the past vegetation that surrounded the sites under archaeological investigation as well as to detect the presence of exotic pollen derived from plant species with medicinal, culinary, and other utilities. Two methods were applied: a standard pollen count (up to 300 pollen grains) and rapid scanning (where all pollen were examined but only exotics were recorded). The pollen surveys showed mixed results in achieving the intended insights, mostly due to taphonomic processes (wind and depositional environments), exacerbated by poor chronological resolution. However, there was sufficient data to suggest that careful selection and analysis of subsamples from archaeological contexts can allow some reconstruction of past vegetation communities and land use practices. The presence of cereal type pollen might suggest cultivation and/or storage of grain in association with medieval archaeological contexts. Furthermore, palynology was able to discern some evidence of the importation of plants for medicinal purposes to Iceland. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Between Man and Nature: The Making of Benedictine Settlements in Medieval Iceland)
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10 pages, 1639 KiB  
Article
Female Apostle(s) at the Roots of Christianity
by Runar M. Thorsteinsson
Religions 2023, 14(5), 584; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050584 - 28 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1563
Abstract
There is an increasing demand for the ordination of women as priests within the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican’s primary argument against priestly ordination of women is biblical, appealing to certain historical events, specifically Jesus’ (alleged) choice of male apostles only. This article [...] Read more.
There is an increasing demand for the ordination of women as priests within the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican’s primary argument against priestly ordination of women is biblical, appealing to certain historical events, specifically Jesus’ (alleged) choice of male apostles only. This article calls for a rethinking and rephrasing of such appeal to history. Due to the nature of our sources, the historically responsible question should not be whom Jesus appointed as apostles, but who were apostles in first-century Christianity. The article points out flaws in the Vatican’s reasoning in this respect and brings attention to evidence from earliest Christianity that does indeed speak in favor of women as priests, if an appeal is to be made to history in the first place. The evidence is Junia, a first-century female apostle, described as “prominent among the apostles” by the apostle Paul in his Letter to the Romans. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Between Man and Nature: The Making of Benedictine Settlements in Medieval Iceland)
14 pages, 2339 KiB  
Article
The Abbesses of Iceland
by Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir
Religions 2023, 14(4), 533; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040533 - 16 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1843
Abstract
The female monasteries that operated in Iceland during medieval times, Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Reynistaðarklaustur, are the largest- and longest-operating institutions run by women to ever exist in the country. The names of the abbesses—the leaders of the female monasteries, some of which led the [...] Read more.
The female monasteries that operated in Iceland during medieval times, Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Reynistaðarklaustur, are the largest- and longest-operating institutions run by women to ever exist in the country. The names of the abbesses—the leaders of the female monasteries, some of which led the monasteries for up to half a century—are known from written documents and material remains that describe the abbesses’ diverse tasks and obligations while in office. In the article, the stories of the Icelandic abbesses will be told not only in order to highlight their contributions to the overall development of medieval Icelandic society but also to show their influence on the lives of people, lay and religious, in the country. Moreover, the abbesses’ stories demonstrate how each of them managed to synchronize with their natural and social surroundings while faithfully keeping their dedication to the Benedictine Order. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Between Man and Nature: The Making of Benedictine Settlements in Medieval Iceland)
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