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Sign language

Artist's impression of a monk signing at dinner

To preserve silence in the cloister monks communicated using signs, which were made with the hands and fingers. The codification of signs began at the reformed Benedictine house of Cluny in the tenth century, and was soon taken on by other orders. A surviving Clairvaux manuscript contains a list of 227 signs which were made using the fingers and hands. Signing was intended to convey essential information; it was not meant for conversation or as an excuse for frivolity. At Lent the Cistercians did not simply follow an abstemious diet but were also urged to minimise speech and signing, thus fasting with the tongue and hands as much as the stomach.