To navigate the timeline, click and drag it with your mouse, or click on the timeline overview on the bottom.
300 CE
400 CE
500 CE
600 CE
700 CE
800 CE
900 CE
1000 CE
1100 CE
1200 CE
1300 CE
1400 CE
1500 CE
330 CE - 379 CE: Life of Basil Great, one of the founding fathers of the Eastern Christian Church and Byzantine Monasteries.
480 CE - 543 CE: Life of Saint Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictine order and European monasticism.
635 CE: Lindisfarne monastery in Northumbria is founded by the Irish missionary Aidan.
700 CE - 715 CE: Lindisfarne Gospels created in Britain.
708 CE: Traditional founding date of Mont-Saint-Michel, France.
800 CE: The Book of Kells is produced in Ireland.
883 CE: A decree by Byzantine emperor Basil I is the first recorded evidence of a monastery on Mount Athos.
910 CE: The Benedictine monastery of Cluny Abbey in Burgundy France is founded.
963 CE: The Great Lavra monastery on Mount Athos is founded by Saint Athanasios.
1036 CE: The Benedictine Vallombrosa Abbey near Florence is founded.
1098 CE: The Cistercian order is founded.
1164 CE - 1170 CE: Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, lives in exile in a monastery in France.
1536 CE: Henry VIII of England and Thomas Cromwell push a bill through Parliament which begins the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England and Wales.
1539 CE: Parliament passes an act to close all monasteries in England and Wales regardless of size.
1540 CE: Waltham Abbey in Essex is the last monastery to close in England.