Monastic Sign Languages - Uses

Uses

The purposes for which these sign lexicons were used were varied. Travelling Franciscan monks used finger alphabets, possibly as memory aids for preaching, and in Benedictine monasteries, signs representing words were used for limited communication when silence was required. Rather than the popularly imagined total "Vows of Silence," the Rule of St. Benedict actually dictates that conversation is only not allowed in certain areas of the monastery and during certain hours of the day. It was only much later, in the 17th century, that certain Cistercian and Trappist orders came to see absolute silence as a penance to endure along with the other deprivations of their austere lives.