Saints and Sinners: A Millennium of Monasteries

Skellig St Michael, off the east coast of Ireland, is home to the oldest surviving monastery in the British Isles. Janina Ramirez visits this desolate rock and investigates the harsh lives led by these early monks. These monasteries soon became beacons of civilization, Christianity and literature in the barbaric Anglo-Saxon world, creating some of the most wondrous works of art in history.

The golden age of the British monastery was during the medieval period, when monks transformed British society and rose to positions of immense power. Far from the inward-looking recluses of legend, monks were exceptionally creative and became pioneers in the fields of medicine, science, art and music. They didn't turn their back on the medieval world but helped transform it.

In the 15th century, 800 monasteries in England owned one-third of the nation's land. Many monks lived in luxury and were patrons of the finest art and architecture. Dr Janina Ramirez discovers how the immensely rich and powerful monasteries that had dominated British history and society were annihilated in less than five years with the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.