Chapter 38 of the Rule of St. Benedict mandates that the monks keep complete silence during meals. The text of the Rule states:
And let absolute silence be kept at table, so that no whispering may be heard nor any voice except the reader’s. As to the things they need while they eat and drink, let the brethren pass them to one another so that no one need ask for anything.
Nevertheless, organizing a communal meal is a complicated affair, even with relatively simple fare. When monks found it necessary to communicate at meal time, they had recourse a system of hand gestures to get what they needed without speaking. These gestures were not a proper “language,” inasmuch as they lacked grammatical rules and other aspects of a proper language, but they were an effective means of communication nonetheless. They no doubt started simply enough, probably pointing and using very basic movements to denote what was needed. In time, however, they became quite complex, especially in monastic establishments that had enjoyed a relatively stable existence over many centuries.
Monastic sign language gradually expanded beyond meal time to encompass all aspects of religious life: places, objects, ecclesiastical persons, abbatial officials, religious services, types of work, and everything imaginable was designated by some kind of hand gesture. The gestures were not uniform; they varied from order to order. The Trappists, Cistercians, and Franciscans each had their own systems. (1) But even within a specific order, the language might develop over time. In addition, particularly influential houses might have their own unique versions of their order’s language, called a “dialect.” For example, the Augustinians of Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire had their own particular dialect of the Augustinian system.
The Cluny Dialect
The Benedictines, too, had their own sign system that was used widely by the high Middle Ages. The only medieval Benedictine “dialect” about which much is known is that of the great abbey of Cluny, which at its peak in the mid-11th century counted around a thousand dependent monasteries (daughter houses). Our knowledge of Cluny’s language of signs comes from the abbacy of Hugh of Cluny (1049-1109). The details of Cluny’s unique dialect at the time were recorded by the monk Bernhard in a text called De notitia signorum, which represents the earliest extant monastic hand gesture system of which we know anything with certainty. Composed around 1083, De notitia signorum gives detailed descriptions of the Cluniac sign system.
Before discussing the signs, however, it is necessary to understand the discipline of silence in Cluny. On ordinary weekdays speech was only permitted for a half hour in the morning after the Chapter, and for a shorter period after Sext. On special occasions (such as great feasts, Holy Week, Easter week, and all Sundays) even these small indulgences were forbidden and total silence was mandated the entire day. This affected how work was allocated, as certain tasks could only be performed when speech was allowed—for example, washing wine cups, knife sharpening, and laundering clothes. But for all other occasions, the Cluniacs used their unique dialect of hand signals.
Now let us review some of the more common signs used at 11th century Cluny as detailed in De notitia signorum, with illustrations of how the signs probably looked. While the Cluniacs used well over one hundred signs, we have chosen to feature the signs associated with common foods, both because they were among the most ubiquitous, and there is the least amount of conjecture about how they looked. These signs are described in detail in Joan Evans’ 1931 book Monastic Life at Cluny.
Bread
For bread, since it is round, the thumbs and first fingers of both hands were bent in a circle.
Beans
The sign for beans was the tip of the first finger put beneath the first joint of the bent thumb.
Eggs
The gesture for eggs was a movement, one finger knocked against another as one knocks against an egg shell to break it.
Vegetables
The sign for vegetables was also a motion, one finger knocked against another as if cutting up a vegetable.
Fish
The sign for fish was to move the hand in emulation of the movement of a fish’s tail.
Pancakes
The sign for pancakes was unique and apparently consisted in the ruffling of the hair. It is uncertain how this “ruffling” looked or how it came to signify a pancake (also, I lack the necessary hair to demonstrate the movement even if we knew what it looked like).
Cheese
For cheese, the two hands were pressed together in front of the monk, similar to the praying hands posture.
Cheese Tart
Signs could also be combined to create new meanings. For example, the sign for cheese tart was made up of three movements—the sign for bread, the sign for cheese, then one hand hollowed out to signify a tart.
Waffle
For a waffle, the sign for bread was given, then a finger waved to signify the indentations in the waffle.
The Complexity of the Cluniac Dialect
In her book Monastic Life at Cluny, Joan Evans notes the complexity of the Cluniac dialect, which was capable of expressing tenses, making value judgments (good and bad), and expressing abstract verbs like understanding. Evans says:
There were special signs for every kind of fish, fruit, vegetable, and drink; for all the vessels used in the kitchen and refectory; for all garments and bed-clothes, for needles, combs, and knives, for all the church services and their parts, for the different kinds of service-books, for monks, clerks, and laymen, and all the officers of the abbey; for speaking, hearing, knowing and not knowing, understanding, dressing, undressing, and washing; for good and bad; for past and present; for fast and slow; a strange monastic language in which all the necessities of monastic life could be expressed. (3)
Bernhard’s De notitia signorum contains well over a hundred signs for Cluny, but we must assume that there were likely even more gestures in use beyond those specifically noted by Bernhard. It is hard to say how many specific signs were used by the Cluniacs. Vocabulary lists in the medieval monastic texts ranged from 52 signs to 472, with the average at around 178 distinct signs. (4)
For Further Study
A full lexicon of the Clunianc dialect can be found in Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition by Scott Bruce (Cambridge University Press, 2009). For more on monastic hand gestures in general, see the Fisheaters article “Monastic Sign Language,” which also has considerable exceprts from another text, the Monasteriales Indicia, which describes the hand signals used in the Benedictine abbeys of Anglo-Saxon England.
(1) “Monastic Sign Language,” Fisheaters, accessed Dec. 20, 2025. Available online at https://www.fisheaters.com/monastichandsigns.html
(2) Joan Evans, Monastic Life at Cluny: 910-1157 (Oxford University Press: London, 1931), 88-89
(3) Evans, 89
(4) Lois Bragg, “Visual-Kinetic Communication in Europe Before 1600: A Survey of Sign Lexicons and Finger Alphabets Prior to the Rise of Deaf Education” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2:1 Winter 1997
Phillip Campbell, The Monastic Sign Language of Medieval Cluny, Unam Sanctam Catholicam, Dec. 20, 2025. Available online at https://unamsanctamcatholicam.com/2025/12/the-monastic-sign-language-of-medieval-cluny