Monks who live in monasteries have higher life expectancies than average men

A German-Austrian Monastery Study found that men in religious orders die, on average, much later than men outside of monasteries due to a variety of factors, including structured community life.

(LifeSiteNews) — A new study concluded that monks who live in monasteries have higher-than-average life expectancy, proving the health benefits of monastic life. The lifestyle in a religious community measurably increases men’s life expectancy and almost completely closes the existing “gender gap” between men and women.

According to Statistik Austria, boys born in 2025 will have a life expectancy 4.45 years shorter than that of girls — specifically, 80.15 years for boys compared with 84.6 years for girls. But according to the longtime “German-Austrian Monastery Study” led by demographer Marc Luy, men in religious orders die, on average, much later than men outside of monasteries. “There is no simple recipe for a long life, like eating an apple or three tomatoes every day.

It’s a combination of many different factors,” Luy said in an interview with the joint editorial team of the Austrian church newspapers. “The fact that men generally die younger than women is due more to lifestyle than to genetic factors,” Luy explained. According to the demographer, religious orders combine several life-extending factors.

The study identifies life in a community, a structured daily routine of work and prayer, and a clear spiritual mission as key pillars of longevity among members of religious orders. The community provides a stabilizing influence similar to that of marriage: a structured diet and social oversight within the monastery lead, on average, to a healthier lifestyle with significantly fewer smoking or addiction problems. Furthermore, Luy of the Institute of Demography at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) said that it becomes apparent sooner within a community if a member is “slipping” physically or mentally.

The structured daily routine with set times for prayer and meditation has also been shown to reduce stress, which has a positive effect on mental and physical health. “Even though not everything runs perfectly in monastic life, it is, roughly speaking, more peaceful. Faith provides fundamental stability and security.

A clear purpose is motivating.” According to the longevity researcher, similar patterns can also be observed in the world’s “Blue Zones” — those regions where an above-average number of people reach the age of 100. One remarkable finding of the monastery study concerns social status: In the general population, more highly educated groups have a significantly higher life expectancy than less-educated groups.

“These differences disappear entirely among members of religious orders,” Luy said. Monks in particular, even those with lower formal education, “benefit” enormously from monastic life in terms of health because the standard of living, medical care, and daily routine are the same for all members. Luy noted that monastic life differs from the modern and often costly “longevity” trend in one key respect: “Monks do not adopt their lifestyle to live longer.

That’s more of a side effect.” The “German-Austrian Monastery Study” has its roots in Luy’s master’s thesis. He conducted the research from 1996 to 1998 in Bamberg on the topic “Mortality in Bavarian Women’s and Men’s Monasteries from 1910 to 1985.”

Since 2010, the monastery study’s research on longevity has been expanded to encompass overall health.