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

The synod of 817 prescribed that each monastery should be
provided with special quarters for the reception of the
visiting monks: "Ut dormitorium iuxta oratorium constituatur
ubi superuenientes monachi dormiant."[284] Hildemar, in
his commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict (written between
845 and 850 at the monastery of Civate in Italy),
furnishes us with some further detail on this subject.[285] The
brothers, he tells us, should never be quartered with any
laymen (not even with the vassalli by whom they may be
accompanied) as the latter often stay awake until midnight,
passing their time in idle talking and jesting, while the
monks should spend it in silence and prayer.[286] For this
reason their Dormitory should be next to the church, so
that they can enter the sanctuary at any time of the day and
night.[287]

In compliance with these stipulations a Lodging for
Visiting Monks is established on the Plan of St. Gall, in the
corner between the northern transept arm and the northern
aisle of the Church (fig. 391). It consists of a long and narrow
apartment, 10 feet wide and 50 feet long, which is internally
divided into a living room (susceptio fr̄m̄ supuenientium) and
a dormitory (dormitoriū eorum), both of equal dimensions. The
living room is furnished with two wall benches and from
it direct access is gained to the Church through a door
which leads into the northern transept arm. The dormitory
has a privy attached to it (necessarium); and the number of
beds that it contains suggests that the maximum number of
daily visitors who could be expected from other convents
was six.

141

[ILLUSTRATION]

PLAN OF ST. GALL

392.

391.X

HOSPICE FOR PILGRIMS AND PAUPERS

Installation of auxiliary services in annexes to
the main houses characterizes all facilities of
the Plan of St. Gall associated with potential
fire hazards: the tasks of baking, brewing,
cooking, blacksmithing, and goldsmithing (figs
292, 396, 419-421, and 462, below).

The narrow shape of the Lodging for Visiting Monks—
like that of the Lodging of the Master of the Outer School,
which lies next to it, and that of the Porter's Lodging which
follows—suggests that all of these apartments are installed
in a narrow lean-to, built against the northern aisle of the
Church (figs. 108, 112 and 191).

The visiting monks take their meal in the Refectory for
the regular monks, where a table for guests is set aside for
that special purpose.[288] If one among the visiting brothers
decides to stay longer, or is a familiaris, Hildemar tell us,
he will join into the life of the regular monks, sleep and eat
with them, read in the claustrum, and attend the chapter
meetings in the morning and evening.[289] The Lodging for
Visiting Monks may also on occasion have been used by
one or the other of the regular monks when, after a long
absence, he returned from a journey or from some other
task that took him away from the mother house.[290]

142

[ILLUSTRATION]

PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOSPICE FOR PILGRIMS AND PAUPERS

393.B LONGITUDINAL SECTION

The presumption in these reconstructions is
that the roof was supported by a frame of
freestanding inner posts connected lengthwise
by roof plates and crosswise by tie beams
(cf. fig. 393.D). The rafters rise in two tiers,
the lower from wall plates to roof plate, the
upper, at a slightly steeper angle, from the
roof plates to the ridge.

393.A PLAN

For historical justification of the
reconstructions shown in this series of
illustrations we refer to pages 72-82 above,
where it has been shown that the guest and
service buildings of the Plan of St. Gall
belong to a vernacular building tradition
traceable in the Germanic territories of the
Lowlands to the 14th century B.C. The
traditional material for this building type
was timber.

All the guest and service buildings of the Plan
were freestanding; in reconstructing
their plans and elevations, we have used the
simple lines of the Plan as indicating their
interior dimensions. The elevations shown
here are purely conjectural but based on the
assumption of comfortable minimum heights
required by the functions of each component
of the building. Carpentry details derive
from later medieval buildings (see above,
pages 88ff).

AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION

143

[ILLUSTRATION]

PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOSPICE FOR PILGRIMS AND PAUPERS

393.C EAST ELEVATION

The roof lines might have been straight. We
have chosen to show them broken, because
they thus reflect more clearly in the exterior
appearance of the building the composition
and boundary lines of its inner spaces. To
hip the roof over the narrow ends of the
building is a sound constructional assumption,
since it steadies the roof in the longitudinal
orientation and is a feature archaeologically
well attested as early as the Iron Age.

393.D TRANSVERSE SECTION

393.E NORTH ELEVATION

AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION

144

[ILLUSTRATION]

PLAN OF ST. GALL. LODGING OF THE MASTER OF THE HOSPICE FOR PILGRIMS & PAUPERS

394.A

394.B

The nature of his duties required that the caretaker of the poor have his own lodging, a
simple rectangular room with corner fireplace installed as a lean-to abutting the south aisle
of the church and about 15 feet from the Hospice for Pilgrims and Paupers. The porch
through which pilgrims and paupers entered was an access to be shared by them with the
monastery's workmen and tradesmen, and by other lay visitors such as relatives of the
brothers, who might enter through that porch and then converse with their kin in the Monks'
Parlor next to and east of the Hospice. No outsider went beyond this Parlor without
escort.

The Master of the Hospice was assisted by servants lodged in the eastern aisle of the
Hospice for Pilgrims and Paupers. The suggested circulation patterns show with what
relative ease the congress of the monastery with the world might be controlled. Confined on
the east by the Cellar wall and on the south by a (presumptive) fence, travelers could
enter the areas around the Hospice, dine in the house provided for their needs, rest,
exchange news and gossip of the day, and move on, all without disturbing the more orderly
life going forward in the calm heart of the monastery.

1. Church- Ig. Porch of Reception- WP western paradise- I1. Tower of St. Gabriel- Ih.
Porch to Hospice- Ii. Lodging, Master of Hospice for Pilgrims & Paupers- 31. Hospice
for Pilgrims & Paupers- 32. Kitchen, Bake & Brewhouse for Pilgrims & Paupers.

[284]

Synodi Secundae Decr. Auth., chap. 24, ed. Semmler, in Corp. Cons.
Mon., I, 1963, 478.

[285]

As pointed out by Hafner, in Studien, 1962, 177ff.

[286]

Expositio Hildemari, ed. Mittermüller, 1880, 611: quia dormitorium,
ubi monachi suscipi debent, habetur separatum a laicorum cubiculo, i.e. ubi
laici jacent, eo quod laici possunt stare usque mediam noctem et loqui et
jocari, et monachi non debent, sed magis silentium habere et orare.

[287]

Ibid., 612: Ideo juxta oratorium illorum monachorum hospitum est
dormitorium, ubi ipsi jaceant soli reverenter, et possint nocte surgere, qua
hora velint, et ire in ecclesiam.

[288]

Cf. I, 268.

[289]

Expositio Hildemari, ed. cit., 582: Si est familiaris monachus, in
dormitorio monachorum dormit et in claustra cum aliis monachis legit et in
refectorio manducat et mane et ad capitulum venit fratrum.

On Irish monks and abbots who, on their way back from Rome decided
to stay in St. Gall, see Meyer von Knonau's commentary on Ekkeharti
(IV). Casus sancti Galli, chap. 2, pp. 9-10, notes 33 and 34. They are
recorded as Scotti or Scotigenae in the death lists. The most famous of
these is Moengal-Marcellus, (Notker's teacher) who visited the monastery
"of his compatriot St. Gall" (Gallum compatriotam suum) together with
his uncle, and stayed behind when the latter left, to become one of the
monastery's most illustrious teachers.

[290]

Ibid., 612.2.