Les moines d'Occident depuis Saint Benoit jusqu'a Saint Bernard

Published in the mid-19th century, Les moines d'Occident was the magnum opus of Charles de Montalembert, a prominent French historian and liberal Catholic politician. The work was conceived as a multi-volume historical survey intended to rehabilitate the image of monasticism, which Montalembert believed had been unfairly maligned by Enlightenment thinkers. Writing in the context of the French Catholic revival, he sought to document the influence of monastic orders on the development of European civilization from the era of Saint Benedict to the age of Saint Bernard.

Montalembert’s writing style is characterized by a romanticized, lyrical prose that emphasizes the spiritual and cultural contributions of monks to the medieval landscape. While his approach was often criticized by professional historians of his time for being overly hagiographic and lacking critical academic rigor, the work was immensely popular among his contemporaries. It served as a significant intellectual touchstone for the ultramontane movement, reflecting the author's deeply held belief that religious tradition was the foundational bedrock of Western social and moral order.