Skip to main content

Exploring Monastic Life: A Knowledge Quiz

Test your knowledge about monasteries and monastic life with this engaging quiz that covers significant facts and historical insights.

#monasticism #quiz #monasteries #education #history

1 In Thailand, Laos and ________, a monastery is called a wat.

2 A monastery may be an abbey (i.e., under the rule of an ________), or a priory (under the rule of a prior), or conceivably a hermitage (the dwelling of a hermit).

3 Benedictine monks ('The Black Monks'), founded by ________, stresses manual labour in a self-subsistent monastery.

4 What does the following picture show?  Abbey of Monte Cassino, originally built by Saint Benedict, shown here as rebuilt after World War II.   St. Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai, early 6th century AD   Abbey of Monte Cassino, originally built by Saint Benedict, shown here as rebuilt after World War II.   Abbey of Monte Cassino, originally built by Saint Benedict, shown here as rebuilt after World War II.

5 What does the following picture show?  Abbey of Monte Cassino, originally built by Saint Benedict, shown here as rebuilt after World War II.   The Svirsky monasteries are an example of twin monasteries that face each other.   At the monastery gate (Am Klostertor) by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller.   At the monastery gate (Am Klostertor) by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller.

6 Saint Saba organized the monks of the Judean Desert in a monastery close to ________ (483), and this is considered the mother of all monasteries of the Eastern Orthodox churches.

7 For a discussion of the history and development of the life inside hermit cottages see monasticism and ________.

8 ________ was for a short time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation, and its Chapter preserves elements of the Benedictine tradition.

9 In the ________, both monks and nuns follow a similar ascetic discipline, and even their religious habit is the same (though nuns wear an extra veil, called the apostolnik).

10 Unlike ________ monasticism, the Orthodox do not have separate religious orders, but there is one form of monasticism throughout the Orthodox Church.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the Erdene Zuu monastery, one of the oldest monasteries in Mongolia, was built in 1585 using stones from the ruins of Genghis Khan's capital, Karakorum.
  • the National Interventions Museum in Mexico City is located at the site of the 1847 Battle of Churubusco of the Mexican–American War, in a former Franciscan monastery built on top of an Aztec shrine.
  • the Claregalway Friary (pictured), one of the first Franciscan monasteries in Ireland, housed only two friars when it was finally forced to close in 1847.
  • the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Constanţa, Romania, which twice served as a parish church and twice as a cathedral, was made a monastery as well in 2001.
  • the monastery of Nea Moni on the island of Chios, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, contains some of the finest surviving mosaics (example pictured) from the Macedonian Renaissance.
  • the Abbey of Condat, founded in the 420s in the Jura Mountains by Romanus and Lupicinus, predated even Montecassino as one of the earliest monasteries in the West.
  • the Pechenga Monastery, founded in 1533, was for many centuries the northernmost monastery in the world.
  • the Preobrazhenka Cemetery in Moscow originated in 1771 as an Old Believer monastery under the guise of a plague quarantine.
  • the capital city Chang'an during the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) had 111 Buddhist monasteries and 41 Daoist abbeys within its walls.
  • three Byzantine emperors ended their lives as monks of the Studion, the largest monastery of Constantinople.
  • the building in Mexico City currently housing the Museo de Charrería, a museum for Mexican rodeo, was originally a 16th-century monastery dedicated to the Virgin of Montserrat.
  • the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat is a manuscript of medieval music made in a Catalan monastery for pilgrims to sing.
  • the Sviatohirsk Lavra (pictured), an Orthodox Christian monastery in eastern Ukraine that dates back to the 1500s, was recently rebuilt anew after being destroyed by the Soviets in the 1930s.
  • the monastery of Champmol was founded in 1383 as the dynastic burial-place of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy, but only ever contained two monumental tombs.
  • in the year 1214, the Scot Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill, Lord of Kintyre, stole the treasures of Derry from its monastery.
  • La Merced Cloister, a monastery complex in Mexico City, is known for its Baroque and Moorish architectural elements.
  • Sancaktar Hayrettin Mosque had been an Eastern Orthodox monastery until it was converted after the Fall of Constantinople.
  • Jeronima de la Asuncion (pictured) was the foundress of the first Catholic monastery in Manila and the Far East.
  • Ince Manor and Saighton Grange Gatehouse are the only two surviving monastic manorial buildings in Cheshire, UK.
  • Hinba, an island in Scotland of unknown location (possible location pictured), was the site of a small monastery associated with the church of St Columba on Iona.
  • St. Trudpert's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Münstertal in the southern Black Forest, was plundered during the Peasants' War and destroyed by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War.
  • Weingarten Abbey, a Benedictine monastery near Ravensburg, Germany, which was founded in 1056, was once one of the richest monasteries in Southern Germany.
  • in July 1905, during the Theriso revolt, three insurgent leaders met the consuls of the European Great Powers at a monastery surrounded by rebels, and that martial law was declared after the talks failed.
  • in his 1933 essay In Praise of Shadows, Junichirō Tanizaki includes monastery toilets in his reflections on Japanese aesthetics.
  • in 1298, three brothers established the Myinsaing Kingdom after inviting King Kyawswa of Pagan to lead the dedication of a monastery, only to dethrone him and force him to become a monk.
  • as a teenager, Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhaylovich Reshetnikov (pictured) was convicted of stealing mail and sentenced to three months in a monastery.
  • a Vihara is an Indian Buddhist cave monastery that takes its name from the Sanskrit word for "a secluded place in which to walk".
  • legendary Łysa Góra is the site of an ancient pagan temple, a ruined monastery (pictured) that gave its name to the local mountain range and province and the tallest TV tower in Poland.
    • Previous Quiz Next Quiz

    Related Quizzes

    Key Events and Figures of the 13th Century: A Quiz

    #13th century #history #Mongol Empire #Crusades #European culture #Franciscan order #Cambridge #Boyana Church

    Discovering the 14th Century: A Historical Quiz

    #14th Century #History #Renaissance #Ming Dynasty #Hundred Years' War #Petrarch #Military History

    Exploring the 16th Century: Events, Figures, and Discoveries

    #history #16th century #exploration #Renaissance #Conquistadores #art #politics #religion

    Exploring the 17th Century: Key Events and Figures

    #17th century #history #empires #Mughal Empire #Ottoman Empire #Persian Empire #Taiwan #Hudson's Bay Company #Kara Mustafa #French history

    Exploring the 18th Century: A Historical Quiz

    #18th century #history #quiz #education #literature #philosophy #politics

    Significant Events of 1904

    #1904 #history #events #quiz #education

    Significant Events and Figures of 1906

    #1906 #history #chess #astronomy #civil rights #swimming #biochemistry

    Significant Events and Figures of 1911

    #1911 #history #events #figures #Nobel Prize #aviation #fire incidents #education #composers