420 BC Order of Buddhist monks
Buddha introduces a vigorous tradition of monasticism, in the order of Buddhist monks known as Sangha

320 First Christian monastery
Pachomius organizes in Egypt the first community of Christian monks, at Dandara on the Nile

500 Celtic monks in beehive cells
Monks in Ireland live in stone beehive cells on rocky islands, to achieve maximum discomfort

525 St Benedict at Subiaco
St Benedict gathers fellow hermits at Subiaco into a series of small monasteries

530 St Benedict at Monte Cassino
St Benedict founds a monastery at Monte Cassino and writes a Rule for the monks which becomes the basis of the Benedictine order

597 Augustine's warm welcome in Canterbury
Augustine, arriving with a party of monks from Rome, reaches Canterbury and is well received by the pagan king of Kent

620 Monastery on Lindisfarne
The Irish monk St Aidan moves from Iona to establish a monastery on Lindisfarne

698 Lindisfarne Gospels
The Lindisfarne Gospels are written and illuminated by Celtic monks on the Scottish island of Lindisfarne

845 T'ang emperor persecutes Buddhists
On the orders of the T'ang emperor, 4000 Buddhist monasteries are destroyed in China and 250,000 monks and nuns are forced into secular life

909 Reform at Cluny
Monastic reform, begun at Cluny, is so successful that more than 1000 Benedictine houses eventually follow the Cluniac example

1084 St Bruno founds Carthusians
St Bruno and six companions retire to Chartreuse, in the French Alps, and establish the Carthusian order

1096 Peter the Hermit
Peter the Hermit, an old monk on a donkey, leads the largest of the popular groups from Germany on the first crusade

1098 Cistercian order founded
Benedictine monks, wishing to return to the early ideals of the order, form a community at Cîteaux which becomes the Cistercian order

1115 Bernard at Clairvaux
St Bernard establishes a new monastery at Clairvaux, from which he presides over the rapid expansion of the Cistercian order

1210 St Francis visits the pope
St Francis and eleven companions tell Innocent III of their wish for a life of holy poverty in the bustle of the towns

1215 St Dominic visits the pope
St Dominic and his companions tell Innocent III of their wish to teach and preach in the bustle of the towns

1216 Dominican friars - official
The Dominicans are formally established by Pope Honorius III as Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum, the Order of the Friars Preachers

1219 St Francis in Egypt
St Francis of Assisi joins a crusading army in Egypt and attempts to convert the sultan Melek-el-Kamel and his followers to Christianity

1223 Franciscan friars - official
The Franciscans are formally established by Honorius III as Ordo Fratrum Minorum, the Order of the Friars Minor

1233 Inquisition begins work
Gregory IX sends Dominican friars to root out the remains of the Catharist heresy in France, thus launching the Inquisition

1256 Augustinian friars established
Pope Alexander IV establishes a third order of preaching friars, the Augustinians

1517 Luther outraged by sale of indulgences
The local sale of indulgences by Johann Tetzel outrages a friar teaching in Wittenberg, Martin Luther

1521 Ignatius inspired to be a saint
Ignatius of Loyola, recovering from a wound received as a soldier at Pamplona, is inspired by reading the lives of the saints

1525 Friar marries nun
Luther, a former friar, marries Catherine von Bora, a former nun who has just emerged from her convent

1540 Jesuits are official
Pope Paul III establishes Ignatius Loyola and his followers as the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits

1541 Francis Xavier sets sail
Francis Xavier, companion of Ignatius Loyola and the first missionary of the Counter-Reformation, sets sail from Lisbon

1542 Francis Xavier in Goa
Francis Xavier reaches Goa, at the start of the great mission to the east that will last the nine years until his death

1580 Jesuits target England
The first Jesuit missionaries arrive in England, with Edmund Campion among their number

1583 Ricci arrives in China
The Jesuit Matteo Ricci arrives in China, and becomes the first western student of Chinese civilization

1614 Christianity banned in Japan
An edict is passed expelling Jesuit missionaries from Japan, and ordering their converts to revert to Buddhism

1668 French press south from Great Lakes
The Jesuits establish a mission at Sault Sainte Marie which becomes the starting point for French exploration south of the Great Lakes

1759 Jesuits an endangered species
The Portuguese expel the Jesuits from Brazil, beginning a widespread reaction against the order in Catholic Europe

1769 Serra establishes mission
Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra begins work at San Diego de Cala, the first of his nine California missions

1773 Pope closes down Jesuits
Responding to pressure from the Catholic monarchs of Europe, Clement XIV abolishes the Jesuit Order

1814 Jesuit order restored
The Jesuit Order is restored by Pius VII on his return to Rome