Fat Monks

[poliphilo]

According to Pip Patrick (article in Current Archaeology 198) the stereotype of the fat, jolly monk has some basis in fact.

Pip did a study of skeletons from a number of medieval cemetries in London and found that monks "were five times as likely to develop some form of obesity-related joint disease as their secular counterparts."

Nice to find science (for once) confirming rather that debunking myth.

Comments

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

That must have been some fine dining!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"Monastery accounts show that at Westminster Abbey the monks were consuming in excess of the modern calorific RDA (recommended daily intake) even when supposed to be fasting."

Pip Patrick

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha! For shame!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Seems like the medieval satirists were right.