The Plan of St. Gall :: :: University of Virginia Library

The reception and care of guests, wealthy and poor, was
one of the primary duties of a monastic community. About
the proper performance of this service St. Benedict spoke
in emphatic terms: "Let all guests that come be received
like Christ, for he will say I was a stranger and ye took me
in."[278] He asks that "fitting honors be shown to all," but
especially to churchmen and pilgrims[279] and demands that
special care be given to the reception of the poor "because
in them is Christ more truly welcomed; for the fear which
the rich inspire is enough in itself to secure them honor."[280]
He rules that the guests be served from a separate kitchen,
"so that the brethren may not be disturbed when guests
arrive at irregular hours,"[281] and he places the responsibility
for the reception of the visitors in the hands of the Porter.[282]

[ILLUSTRATION]

390. LUTTRELL PSALTER

LONDON, BRITISH MUSEUM. ADD. MS. 42130, fol. 207

[after Millar, 1932, pl. 166]

The open kettles in this margin illumination appear to be supported on stands,
with open fires below them. The arcuated ranges of the Plan were considerably
more sophisticated; the Luttrell Psalter illuminations date to 1340.

The protection of paupers and pilgrims was also a concern
of the secular ruler—a responsibility that the emperor
had taken upon himself through his coronation in Rome,
as the holder of a universal power that obliged him to
protect and promote the Christian faith. It is defined as
such in a capitulary issued by Charlemagne in 802: "That
no one shall presume to rob or do any injury fraudulently
to the churches of God or widows or orphans or pilgrims;
for the lord emperor himself, after God and His saints, has
constituted himself their protector and defender."[283]

On the Plan of St. Gall there are no fewer than seven
separate installations devoted to monastic hospitality and
its administration. Listed in the order of prominence with
which they were associated in the thinking of St. Benedict
they are:

1 The Lodging for Visiting Monks
2 The Hospice for Pilgrims and Paupers, with an annex
containing the Kitchen, the Bake and Brew House for the
Pilgrims and Paupers
3 The Lodging of the Master of the Hospice for Pilgrims
and Paupers
4 The Porter's Lodging
5 The House for Distinguished Guests, with annex
containing the Kitchen, Bake and Brew House for the Distinguished
Guests
6 The House for Servants of Outlying Estates and for
Servants Traveling with the Emperor's Court
7 The House for the Vassals and Knights who travel in
the Emperor's Following

140

[ILLUSTRATION]

391. PLAN OF ST. GALL

LODGING FOR VISITING MONKS

Like the Monks' Dormitory lying on the opposite side of the Church (I, 260, fig. 208), the quarters for visiting monks communicate directly with
the transept and are accessible only from within the Church. The six beds in the lodging accord in number with the seats available in the
Refectory (I, 263, fig. 211) at a table in front of the reader's lectern reserved for visitors. The visiting monks have available for recreation an
outdoor space, probably gardened, 7½ feet wide and 80 feet long, which serves as a buffer between their quarters and the adjacent enclosure of the
Outer School (fig. 409, p. 174).

In order to attend religious services, students and teachers in the Outer School would have crossed this outdoor area for visiting monks, thence
passing through the eastern end of their living room. Like the nearby quarters of the Master of the Outer School and the Porter, the Lodging of
Visiting Monks must have been at ground-floor level, doubtless a lean-to the roof of which could not have risen above the sills of the north aisle
windows of the Church (I, 165-66, figs 111-112). The visitors' living room and dormitory were equipped with corner fireplaces.

Also intrinsically geared to the reception of visitors is the
atrium in front of the western end of the Church, and in a
very specific sense: the three porches attached to it in the
west, the south, and the north are where the guests are
formally received, screened, and distributed to their
respective quarters.

[278]

"Omnes superuenientes hospites tamquam Christus suscipiantur, quia
ipse dicturus est: Hospis fui et suscepistis me." Benedicti Regula, chap. 53,
ed. Hanslik, 1960, 123; McCann, 1952, 118; Steidel, 1952, 257. The
prototypical biblical hospitality is that which Abraham extended to the
Trinity in Genesis XVIII which as Charles W. Jones reminds me, had
a lasting effect on the Palestinian hosts Jerome, Rufinus and others and
through them on the West.

[279]

"Et omnibus congruus honor exhibeatur, maxime domesticis fidei et
peregrinis", ed. Hanslik, loc. cit; McCann, loc. cit.; Steidel, loc. cit.

[280]

"Pauperum et peregrinorum maxime susceptioni cura sollicite exhibeatur,
quia in ipsis magis Christus suscipitur; nam diuitum terror ipse sibi exigit
honorum" (ibid.). ed. Hanslik, op. cit., 124; McCann, op. cit., 120;
Steidle, op. cit., 258.

[281]

"Coquina abbatis et hospitum super se sit, ut incertis horis superuenientes
hospites, qui numquam desunt monasterio, non inquietentur fratres"
(ibid.).

[282]

Cf. below, p. 153.

[283]

Capitulare missorum generale, 802, chap. 5, Mon. Germ., Legum II,
Capit. I, ed. Boretius, 1883, 93: "Ut sanctis ecclesiis Dei neque viduis
neque orphanis neque peregrinis fraude vel rapinam vel aliquit iniuriae quis
facere presumat: quia ipse domnus imperator, post Domini et sanctis eius,
eorum et protector et defensor esse constitutus est." Cf. Ganshof, 1963, 64,
74, 96. The case for the poor is re-emphasized in a special capitulary of
the same year, see Boretius, op. cit., 99-102, and Eckhardt, 1956. For a
complete English translation of the general capitulary of 802 see "Selections
from the Laws of Charles the Great," ed. Munro, 1900, 16-33.