Publication
John Murray (2004), 96 p.
Original publication date
1957
Collections
Description
Patrick Leigh Fermor set off as a teenager to make his way across Europe, as recorded in his classic memoirs, A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water. Later he fought with local partisans against the Nazi occupiers of Crete. A Time to Keep Silence stands out among Leigh Fermor s various tales of travel and adventure because it is more an inward than an outward voyage. Here Leigh Fermor chronicles his several sojourns in some of Europe s oldest and most celebrated monasteries. He stays at the Abbey of Wandrille, a great repository of art and learning; at Solesmes, famous for its revival of Gregorian chant; and at the deeply ascetic Trappist monastery of La Grande Trappe, where monks take a vow of silence. Finally, he visits the rock monasteries of Cappadocia, hewn from the stony spires of a moonlike landscape, where he seeks some trace of the life of the earliest Christian anchorites. This beautiful short book is a meditation on the meaning of silence and solitude for modern life. Leigh Fermor writes, In the seclusion of a cell--an existence whose quietness is only varied by the silent meals, the solemnity of ritual, and long solitary walks in the woods--the troubled waters of the mind grow still and clear, and much that is hidden away and all that clouds it floats to the surface and can be skimmed away; and after a time one reaches a state of peace that is unthought of in the ordinary world.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member JDHomrighausen
I picked this up in NYC's Westside Books on my layover Monday. Fermor, a British travel writer, spent some time in French monasteries during the 1940's for a period of sojourn and writing. This short book describes Fermor's descent into the silence of the Benedictine and more-arduous Cistercian
This was a good book to read coming out of retreat. Fermor at first feels the strict schedule and silence of the Benedictines are confining, gets furious at it, and wants to run away. Silence in community is tough, as I found on my not-so-silent retreat! Yet Fermor then finds it liberating, and notices that the Benedictine monks, at first so prohibiting and hooded, were a jovial, luminous, and well-read bunch. Somehow without speaking they had a closer bond than the secular world of idle chatter.
Despite being so used to the Benedictine silence that returning to the outside world was painful, Fermor balks at the almost pathological strictness of the Cistercians. He describes their life as one long atonement, with almost the entire day taken up by arduous farm labor and hours of communal prayer. How could such an order exist? Are they repressing deep, deviant desires or truly integrated in their asceticism? Fermor writes:
"The psychological conundrum might be solved by an encounter of the champions of either side. A great mandarin of psychoanalysis should enter the arena with a cardinal expert in theology, dialectics, and mysticism, who had graduated to the Sacred College from fifty years in a Cistercian monastery. Alas, the terms of reference of the antagonists would be so different irreconcilable, so incapable of engaging, that the match might turn into a double exhibition of shadow-boxing: the psycho-analyst aiming murderous strokes with the repression of the libido, followed through by the Id, while the cardinal parried with the Action of Grace and the Paraclete, and drove his advantage home with Pseudo-Dionysios the Araeopagite; leaving the opponents panting, unharming and unharmed, and crowd and umpire more bewildered than before." (71)
There is much truth in this, and Fermor admits that he is not capable of understanding, and therefore judging, the Cistercian penances. He admits he would never have the capability to join it himself. While I wished for more personal reflections on the life of the monastery, Fermor gives enough to have interest. His reluctance to speak of his own religious views, preferring instead to give personal reflections on silence and contempation rather than the theology behind it, gives the book a broader appeal. In fact I plan to give this to a nonreligious uncle when finished. Not everyone's cup of tea, but a good short read.
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monasteries he lived in.This was a good book to read coming out of retreat. Fermor at first feels the strict schedule and silence of the Benedictines are confining, gets furious at it, and wants to run away. Silence in community is tough, as I found on my not-so-silent retreat! Yet Fermor then finds it liberating, and notices that the Benedictine monks, at first so prohibiting and hooded, were a jovial, luminous, and well-read bunch. Somehow without speaking they had a closer bond than the secular world of idle chatter.
Despite being so used to the Benedictine silence that returning to the outside world was painful, Fermor balks at the almost pathological strictness of the Cistercians. He describes their life as one long atonement, with almost the entire day taken up by arduous farm labor and hours of communal prayer. How could such an order exist? Are they repressing deep, deviant desires or truly integrated in their asceticism? Fermor writes:
"The psychological conundrum might be solved by an encounter of the champions of either side. A great mandarin of psychoanalysis should enter the arena with a cardinal expert in theology, dialectics, and mysticism, who had graduated to the Sacred College from fifty years in a Cistercian monastery. Alas, the terms of reference of the antagonists would be so different irreconcilable, so incapable of engaging, that the match might turn into a double exhibition of shadow-boxing: the psycho-analyst aiming murderous strokes with the repression of the libido, followed through by the Id, while the cardinal parried with the Action of Grace and the Paraclete, and drove his advantage home with Pseudo-Dionysios the Araeopagite; leaving the opponents panting, unharming and unharmed, and crowd and umpire more bewildered than before." (71)
There is much truth in this, and Fermor admits that he is not capable of understanding, and therefore judging, the Cistercian penances. He admits he would never have the capability to join it himself. While I wished for more personal reflections on the life of the monastery, Fermor gives enough to have interest. His reluctance to speak of his own religious views, preferring instead to give personal reflections on silence and contempation rather than the theology behind it, gives the book a broader appeal. In fact I plan to give this to a nonreligious uncle when finished. Not everyone's cup of tea, but a good short read.
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LibraryThing member ossicones
Watching Fermor's transformation from an urban secular to someone with a great interest and respect for monasticism is especially interesting in light of the importance that he places on belief in the lives of monastics. Although he says several times that the monks with whom he stayed were praying
This opens a distance between him and his hosts, although one that may only be felt by Fermor himself -- a distance that he tries to bridge by universalizing the message of monasticism. No longer is monasticism about belief, but it's about peace and lightness of spirit. On the one hand, this makes the monasteries understandable to him, but on the other, it essentially empties them of content. (I had the same complaint with the movie "Into Great Silence," which I felt offered an exclusively aesthetic view of monasticism, thus making its subject far too easy to romanticize.)
Into this void of content, Fermor interjects such a lengthy string of metaphors that its hard not to sense a crisis of faith even in the style of writing that he carries out. In all his abstractions -- in his attempts to shunt attention away from the realities of monastic life -- I read a feeling of abjectness. Fermor is lost between two worlds in which he has lost faith: the belief in the supernatural and the belief in powerful, life-changing, romantic modes of writing; his intellect won't allow him to reconcile with the former, while his experience in the monasteries shake his faith in the latter as anything other than a cheap imitation of what life-changing events look like.
This vulnerability and rootlessness is where I found I was able to latch onto "A Time to Keep Silence." Fermor's sincerity in the midst of his obvious confusion made this book a pleasure to read for me.
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or making penance for the secular world, this point lies in contrast to his own inability to believe in Christianity. This opens a distance between him and his hosts, although one that may only be felt by Fermor himself -- a distance that he tries to bridge by universalizing the message of monasticism. No longer is monasticism about belief, but it's about peace and lightness of spirit. On the one hand, this makes the monasteries understandable to him, but on the other, it essentially empties them of content. (I had the same complaint with the movie "Into Great Silence," which I felt offered an exclusively aesthetic view of monasticism, thus making its subject far too easy to romanticize.)
Into this void of content, Fermor interjects such a lengthy string of metaphors that its hard not to sense a crisis of faith even in the style of writing that he carries out. In all his abstractions -- in his attempts to shunt attention away from the realities of monastic life -- I read a feeling of abjectness. Fermor is lost between two worlds in which he has lost faith: the belief in the supernatural and the belief in powerful, life-changing, romantic modes of writing; his intellect won't allow him to reconcile with the former, while his experience in the monasteries shake his faith in the latter as anything other than a cheap imitation of what life-changing events look like.
This vulnerability and rootlessness is where I found I was able to latch onto "A Time to Keep Silence." Fermor's sincerity in the midst of his obvious confusion made this book a pleasure to read for me.
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LibraryThing member Y2Ash
A Time to Keep Silence is about Patrick Leigh Fermor's travels to four monasteries: three in France and one in ruins in Turkey. At the first one, Abbey of St. Wandrille de Fontanelle, Fermor, at first, finds it difficult to cope with the startling silence. He feels loneliness and depression. He is
The second monastery, Solesmes, Fermor learns more of the Gregorian chant. The third, La Grande Trappe, where he learned more about the isolated and highly repentive Trappist community. The fourth, the rock monasteries of Cappadocia, Fermor seeks to find traces of the beginnings of Christian monasteries.
Thank Goodness for my art history class and my semester of French I or else I would be totally lost. My only complaint would be that it would have been nice if Fermor provided translations for the near paragraphs in French. Besides from that, I really enjoyed this book.
Most of all, I loved learning about the Trappist community in La Grande Trappe. It was the most interesting. The book was a history lesson. I learned an immense amount about Christian monasteries. I was surprised that they have such interesting and colorful backstories.
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self-medicating with alcohol. However, Fermor grows used to it, so much so, that when he leaves and returns to the outside world, he generalizes it as a world full of debauchary, crooks, sluts.The second monastery, Solesmes, Fermor learns more of the Gregorian chant. The third, La Grande Trappe, where he learned more about the isolated and highly repentive Trappist community. The fourth, the rock monasteries of Cappadocia, Fermor seeks to find traces of the beginnings of Christian monasteries.
Thank Goodness for my art history class and my semester of French I or else I would be totally lost. My only complaint would be that it would have been nice if Fermor provided translations for the near paragraphs in French. Besides from that, I really enjoyed this book.
Most of all, I loved learning about the Trappist community in La Grande Trappe. It was the most interesting. The book was a history lesson. I learned an immense amount about Christian monasteries. I was surprised that they have such interesting and colorful backstories.
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LibraryThing member isolde100
A beautiful memoir of the time he spent in various monasteries (as a visitor); speaks to the human need for silence and meditation
LibraryThing member JaneAnneShaw
First edition. I have all Paddy Leigh Fermor's books, but this one is special, so I've listed it ahead of 'A Time of Gifts', 'Roumeli', 'Mani' Etc., tho' I do love those titles as well.
LibraryThing member Laura400
This is an easy book to read, but somewhat hard to describe. It's part travelogue, part history and part meditation on the monastic life. Look elsewhere if you want a religious book: this is not a religious book, and Leigh Fermor does not appear to be a religious person. But Leigh Fermor is a great
Leigh Fermor spent time, over the years, in three Benedictine and Trappist monasteries in France, and travelled to abandoned rock monasteries in ancient Cappodica (present day Turkey). Out of these journeys he weaves a description of the rhythms and routines of the monastic life, with the centrality of prayer and of silence creating a sense of time and peace different from the everyday world.
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observer whose sensitivity, perception and honesty make this book a quiet gem.Leigh Fermor spent time, over the years, in three Benedictine and Trappist monasteries in France, and travelled to abandoned rock monasteries in ancient Cappodica (present day Turkey). Out of these journeys he weaves a description of the rhythms and routines of the monastic life, with the centrality of prayer and of silence creating a sense of time and peace different from the everyday world.
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LibraryThing member jillmwo
One third travelogue, one third a history of monasticism, and one-third meditation on the need for silence. this is a set of three separate essays. The language is erudite but lyrical. If you know little or nothing about the monastic life (as the author himself did not when he began), this is a
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nice glimpse into that environment. This is a very slim read at only 96 pages, including a wonderful introduction by NY Times best selling author and scholar, Karen Armstrong. Show Less
LibraryThing member MyopicBookworm
A slight collection of three essays. The first two describe the author's stays in French monasteries in the 1950s, in which he commends the silence and daily routine, but as an unbeliever obviously felt like a fish out of water in many respects. The historical outlines are interesting (I had not
MB 25-vii-2012
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realized that the French government was suppressing monasteries as recently as 1901-2). I am not entirely sure that anyone can gain very much from merely staying with a Trappist community, as the bleakness of the physical life can surely be borne only in parallel with some commitment to a corresponding spiritual life (whether the Trappists' own Catholic observance or some other meditative practice). No doubt the author gained more from his continuing acquaintance with Benedictine houses.The third essay, although about monasteries, felt a little out of place, since the Cappadocian ruins are of merely aesthetic and archaeological interest. This travel essay would have read better in a glossy in-flught magazine with some good illustrations; it was perhaps more arresting in the days when Cappadocia was not on the regular tourist trail, but although the author's historical speculations are intriguing, his description added little to my own holiday snaps of Ihlara and environs.MB 25-vii-2012
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LibraryThing member Osbaldistone
Beautifully written and insightful memoir of time spent in as a visitor in monastic communities. Fermor's descriptive language is from an earlier age (even earlier than his own), and a pleasure to read. Fermor lived and workd in near silence for much longer most of us ever will, and his adjustment
Os.
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to this condition, and the benefits harvested from it gives the reader reason to consider following in this path.Os.
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LibraryThing member Y2Ash
A Time to Keep Silence is about Patrick Leigh Fermor's travels to four monasteries: three in France and one in ruins in Turkey. At the first one, Abbey of St. Wandrille de Fontanelle, Fermor, at first, finds it difficult to cope with the startling silence. He feels loneliness and depression. He is
The second monastery, Solesmes, Fermor learns more of the Gregorian chant. The third, La Grande Trappe, where he learned more about the isolated and highly repentive Trappist community. The fourth, the rock monasteries of Cappadocia, Fermor seeks to find traces of the beginnings of Christian monasteries.
Thank Goodness for my art history class and my semester of French I or else I would be totally lost. My only complaint would be that it would have been nice if Fermor provided translations for the near paragraphs in French. Besides from that, I really enjoyed this book.
Most of all, I loved learning about the Trappist community in La Grande Trappe. It was the most interesting. The book was a history lesson. I learned an immense amount about Christian monasteries. I was surprised that they have such interesting and colorful backstories.
Show More
self-medicating with alcohol. However, Fermor grows used to it, so much so, that when he leaves and returns to the outside world, he generalizes it as a world full of debauchary, crooks, sluts.The second monastery, Solesmes, Fermor learns more of the Gregorian chant. The third, La Grande Trappe, where he learned more about the isolated and highly repentive Trappist community. The fourth, the rock monasteries of Cappadocia, Fermor seeks to find traces of the beginnings of Christian monasteries.
Thank Goodness for my art history class and my semester of French I or else I would be totally lost. My only complaint would be that it would have been nice if Fermor provided translations for the near paragraphs in French. Besides from that, I really enjoyed this book.
Most of all, I loved learning about the Trappist community in La Grande Trappe. It was the most interesting. The book was a history lesson. I learned an immense amount about Christian monasteries. I was surprised that they have such interesting and colorful backstories.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RTS1942
A slender, interesting book written in a somewhat florid style, which sparkles in Fermor's usual travel stories, but results in rather dusty and uninteresting prose when applied to the subject of this book, which is a description of the monastic life. I found the most interesting parts those that
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covered the history of the various monasteries visited. Show Less
LibraryThing member 4cebwu
I read this book after hearing a recommendation on NPR. The forward is written by Karen Armstrong a writer I admire so I figured I was in for an enjoyable read and it was. This book is a journey into monastic living and history in Europe. I remember when I was younger, that I seriously considered a
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convent as a way to get closer to God, but not being Catholic never took that step. This book takes the reader inside the life of a monk, the discipline and stamina required together with the sacrifice and hardship is remarkable and convinced me that I'm glad I pursued another path. This is a good book for those who are curious and interested in monastic history. Show Less
LibraryThing member Dr_Doom
This is a truly beautiful book. I was saddened when I reached the end, as I could easily have read many more pages. This volume has a different feel to some of Patrick Leigh Fermor's other books, but you would tend to expect that, given the subject matter.
I was impressed by his respect for the
If you haven't read this book, I would recommend it, though if you are coming to this author for the first time, I would suggest "A time of gifts" as a better introduction.
Whatever you do, please do read Fermor. My life is richer for his writing, and I hope that yours will be too.
I was impressed by his respect for the
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people that he was staying amongst, and his description of the history of these places and people left me with a feeling of sadness for a way of life that has largely diminished.If you haven't read this book, I would recommend it, though if you are coming to this author for the first time, I would suggest "A time of gifts" as a better introduction.
Whatever you do, please do read Fermor. My life is richer for his writing, and I hope that yours will be too.
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LibraryThing member thorold
An engaging little book describing Paddy Leigh Fermor's visits to several French monasteries in the 1950s. He describes what he saw and heard, puts it into a historical context, and discusses his own reaction, as someone without religious convictions, to the way of life he encounters there. As a
Not PLF at the very top of his form, and not the last word on monasticism either, but still definitely worth a read.
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kind of pendant, he tacks on a chapter about visiting abandoned cave monasteries in Cappadocia. Not PLF at the very top of his form, and not the last word on monasticism either, but still definitely worth a read.
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LibraryThing member ponsonby
The prose in this book is good but not perhaps as wonderful as some people think. Really, it is a slim volume which records PLF's visits to three West European monasteries plus some abandoned sites in Turkey. As travel writing it is not remarkable; perhaps more valuable are the reflections on
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monastic life, especially the section on the Trappists. It has to be remembered that this was written soon after WW2 and comes from a sensibility very different from that of the early 21st century. Show Less
LibraryThing member Y2Ash
A Time to Keep Silence is about Patrick Leigh Fermor's travels to four monasteries: three in France and one in ruins in Turkey. At the first one, Abbey of St. Wandrille de Fontanelle, Fermor, at first, finds it difficult to cope with the startling silence. He feels loneliness and depression. He is
The second monastery, Solesmes, Fermor learns more of the Gregorian chant. The third, La Grande Trappe, where he learned more about the isolated and highly repentive Trappist community. The fourth, the rock monasteries of Cappadocia, Fermor seeks to find traces of the beginnings of Christian monasteries.
Thank Goodness for my art history class and my semester of French I or else I would be totally lost. My only complaint would be that it would have been nice if Fermor provided translations for the near paragraphs in French. Besides from that, I really enjoyed this book.
Most of all, I loved learning about the Trappist community in La Grande Trappe. It was the most interesting. The book was a history lesson. I learned an immense amount about Christian monasteries. I was surprised that they have such interesting and colorful backstories.
Show More
self-medicating with alcohol. However, Fermor grows used to it, so much so, that when he leaves and returns to the outside world, he generalizes it as a world full of debauchary, crooks, sluts.The second monastery, Solesmes, Fermor learns more of the Gregorian chant. The third, La Grande Trappe, where he learned more about the isolated and highly repentive Trappist community. The fourth, the rock monasteries of Cappadocia, Fermor seeks to find traces of the beginnings of Christian monasteries.
Thank Goodness for my art history class and my semester of French I or else I would be totally lost. My only complaint would be that it would have been nice if Fermor provided translations for the near paragraphs in French. Besides from that, I really enjoyed this book.
Most of all, I loved learning about the Trappist community in La Grande Trappe. It was the most interesting. The book was a history lesson. I learned an immense amount about Christian monasteries. I was surprised that they have such interesting and colorful backstories.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nmele
A lovely little reflection on monasticism and monastery architecture, culture, life and liturgy.
LibraryThing member PDCRead
Patrick Leigh Fermor is a man of action and adventure. He walked across Europe at the age of 17 and captured a Nazi General in an audacious operation in the Second World War. He was a person who enjoyed his food and drink and was frequently the life and soul of the party. He is the last person that
In the days that he was there, he grew to appreciate the routines and timelessness of the days. A lot of the monks day is spent in silence, particularly over meals, difficult for someone who has spent much time enjoying the social aspects of sharing food and wine. The monks that he could speak to gave him an insight to the lives that they led there, and how they lived before. In the one monastery, the librarian provided him with the key so he could enter as and when suited him, and he spent time reading his way through some of the books there. As tough as it was settling in to the monastic way of life, it was almost as difficult leaving and reverting to normal life, which surprised him somewhat. The third monastery he visited was an abandoned one in Turkey. The Rock Monasteries of Cappadocia are carved from the mountain itself, and the organic form brought calmness and the solitude that the monks required.
This is very different to the other books of his that I have read before; gone is the bravado and adventure, instead there is quiet observation and sensitive, respective prose. He brings alive the history of the places he stays too, they had been founded and built way back in time. He explores his feelings too, losing the sense of death and foreboding and restriction to enjoying the solitude and peace that being there bought. It also shows is his capacity to mix with all types of people, from the abbots whose word was law, to the lowliest monk and bring their characters out in his books. Well worth reading. 3.5 stars overall.
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you would expect to venture into a monastery to spend time with the monks. He visited two monasteries in this study of religious life; a Trappist one, La Grande Trappe and a Cistercian one in France, Abbey of St Wandrille. The transition to monastery life for Fermor was quite tough, even though he took a discrete flash of brandy.In the days that he was there, he grew to appreciate the routines and timelessness of the days. A lot of the monks day is spent in silence, particularly over meals, difficult for someone who has spent much time enjoying the social aspects of sharing food and wine. The monks that he could speak to gave him an insight to the lives that they led there, and how they lived before. In the one monastery, the librarian provided him with the key so he could enter as and when suited him, and he spent time reading his way through some of the books there. As tough as it was settling in to the monastic way of life, it was almost as difficult leaving and reverting to normal life, which surprised him somewhat. The third monastery he visited was an abandoned one in Turkey. The Rock Monasteries of Cappadocia are carved from the mountain itself, and the organic form brought calmness and the solitude that the monks required.
This is very different to the other books of his that I have read before; gone is the bravado and adventure, instead there is quiet observation and sensitive, respective prose. He brings alive the history of the places he stays too, they had been founded and built way back in time. He explores his feelings too, losing the sense of death and foreboding and restriction to enjoying the solitude and peace that being there bought. It also shows is his capacity to mix with all types of people, from the abbots whose word was law, to the lowliest monk and bring their characters out in his books. Well worth reading. 3.5 stars overall.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
A few quick little bits about monasteries, one Benedictine, one Trappist, and some monasteries carved out of stone in Cappadocia. This may not seem like much, and it's not, but it's also perfectly done; Fermor's prose (this is my first encounter) is wonderful and wonderfully English (syntax!
Just as importantly, Fermor treats the monks with respect but not unquestioning awe. He's obviously a little uncomfortable at La Trappe, which seems reasonable--whereas the Benedictines offer splendor, an obvious path back to the history of Christianity and, indeed, Western Civilization, the Trappists seem to offer little of anything other than suffering. But even then he's willing to see that there could be some attraction.
Karen Armstrong's preface is solid, too--she avoids the vaguely new-agey 'let's all just love one another' stuff that sometimes ruins her writing.
I only wish there'd been some pictures, particularly of Cappadocia, which is on the cover.
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clauses! subordination!). You get a bit of local color, a bit of the history of monasticism, and of the individual monasteries in question, and a bit of meditation on what a monastery could mean to a twentieth century visitor. Just as importantly, Fermor treats the monks with respect but not unquestioning awe. He's obviously a little uncomfortable at La Trappe, which seems reasonable--whereas the Benedictines offer splendor, an obvious path back to the history of Christianity and, indeed, Western Civilization, the Trappists seem to offer little of anything other than suffering. But even then he's willing to see that there could be some attraction.
Karen Armstrong's preface is solid, too--she avoids the vaguely new-agey 'let's all just love one another' stuff that sometimes ruins her writing.
I only wish there'd been some pictures, particularly of Cappadocia, which is on the cover.
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LibraryThing member nmele
A very lovely set of three essays on monasteries the author spent time at. Reading it again inspires me to go visit a monastery somewhere reachable.
LibraryThing member camelama
Beautiful, contemplative, descriptive writing. I had thought it might be too religious for me, but it's just enough. Read this when you want to think deep thoughts, or feel removed from the hurly burly modern world.
LibraryThing member classyhomemaker
I enjoyed reading about Fermor's visits to the various monasteries, having first become enamored with the idea of living the monastic life after reading Geoffrey Moorhouse's Sun Dancing, the history of Skellig Michael. I had the opportunity to tour Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire in 2015, and
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would love the chance to spend time at a functioning monastery today! While I'm sure that's not an option, one can dream! Show Less
Media reviews
More than a history or travel journal, however, this beautiful short book is a meditation on the meaning of silence and solitude for modern life.
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9780719555275
Physical description
7.76 inches