ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to establish the theoretical framework of the study, starting with the definition of the object, which is the monastery, from a sociological point of view, and then focusing on the main points of the history of the economy and work in monastic life. The integration of work and economy in Catholic monasticism is the subject of a long path of tension which has never really been resolved and which begins with the first forms of pre-monastic life in the desert. The tradition of monastic work thus begins with the desert fathers, who engaged in manual labour that left the mind free to meditate and repeat the verses of psalms or sing praises. From a direct subsistence economy in the early centuries of monasticism, the monastic economy in Europe gradually became an expansive economy, based on a large patrimony and deploying commercial networks throughout Europe.
