The atlas dedicated to one of the main currents of the religious experience in history. The illustrated testimony of the most original Christian paradox: the "live in the world without being in the world” incarnated by the monks actually changed the world, its cultural and natural landscape. Starting from pre-Christian and biblical monasticism, the volume analyzes the period of gestation and the monasticism of the desert, to then follow in parallel the Eastern and Western currents, studying their mutual contributions. It reaches our own times, understanding the contributions of monasticism to ecumenism and to the dialogue between religions. The monks decisively collaborated in the evangelization of Europe and played a fundamental role not only for the salvation of classical culture but also for the plowing of the lands and the development of agriculture, in the horizon of a constant conjugation of prayer and work. Liturgy, life values, cultural enviroment, memory and comtemplation: from the Monk/World relation, the fundamental lesson of integrated beauty for a better humanity.