Medieval monks especially enjoyed seasonings that weren ... meal a communal experience with specific rituals. The different foods eaten at special occasions were called pittances.

One Theodosius, a Palestinian monk, scolded a follower, who was to accompany him on his annual Lenten wandering around the Dead Sea, for bringing a pot and pan: ‘If he needed to eat cooked food, he ...

Augustine continued this philosophical tradition, meeting with his fellow monks in a garden given to him by his friend Valerius. St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism, planted a rose garden ...