Monasteries and the care of the vulnerable in the Frankish world (8th - 10th centuries)

• Grant number: 23/12089-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: May 16, 2024
• End date: May 15, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Cândido da Silva
• Grantee: José Francisco Sanches Fonseca
• Supervisor: Alexis Wilkin
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/13956-1 - Monasteries and the care of the vulnerable in the Frankish world (8th - 10th centuries), BP.DD

Abstract

The care of individuals in situations of vulnerability (the poor, sick, famished, orphans, widows, etc.) was one of the main elements of the discourse of monastic communities during the Early Middle Ages. In the same period, assistance to the vulnerable also became one of the main prerogatives of the Christian public authority that emerged in the Regnum Francorum, especially after the Carolingian dynasty's rise to power in the mid-eighth century. The aim of this research is to understand, through the comparative analysis of textual and archaeological sources, the role played by Carolingian monastic communities, between the 8th and 10th centuries, in caring for individuals in situations of vulnerability. In particular, I will seek to understand how the role of monasteries in caring for the vulnerable was related to the prerogatives of Carolingian public authority and how the Monastic Reforms of the early ninth century impacted the role and organization of monastic communities and their role in caring for the vulnerable. To this end, I will make use of written sources, such as the Capitulare Monasticum, the Regula Benedicti and the Statutes of Adalhard of Corbie, and archaeological sources, such as the excavation reports from the abbeys of Hamage and San Vincenzo al Volturno, as well as other supporting sources. Finally, I intend to build an interactive map containing the location of the abbeys studied and their respective information, as well as the location and information relating to the famine crises that afflicted the Carolingian Empire during the research period.