Monks and Vikings

Research on the history and archaeology of the ninth and tenth century monastery at Lyminge in Kent has drawn the conclusion that the community was better placed to survive attacks by Viking raider than has often been thought and taught. 

The monks were more resilient than might be the modern perception, garnering support from their ecclesiastical and lay neighbours and carried on with their community life as best as challenging circumstances would allow. The implication is that this applied elsewhere for similar foundations. Given what we know of the durability of monastic communities in later centuries in the face of violence and persecution we should perhaps not be surprised. Even if the monastery did not survive in situ its property was still deemed to belong to the church, passing into the control of the Archbishops of Canterbury. This in itself can be seen as part of the growth of the administrative competence of diocesan bishops as society once more stabilised.

Heritage Daily summarises the research in an article at Anglo-Saxon monastic communities were resilient to Viking raids

Medievalists.net gives a similar summary with additional detail and comment in their article about the study, and, very helpfully, an online link to the full article about the excavations at Lyminge in Archaeologia at Medieval English monasteries found ways to survive Viking attacks, archaeologists find