International audience The question of the relationship is a theme of current researches. Nevertheless, the spiritual relationship is very often viewed only under the theological angle of the divine affiliation or the relationship created around the fosterage. Yet, an essential relationship to the medieval Christian society is forgotten: those created around the holy abbot and his disciples, in the monastic world. The birth of this new family is established by a rite of oblation, described in written sources and represented in the Benedictine iconography, privileged medium for the understanding of this social phenomenon. The understanding grows rich by a crossed methodology, between study of texts and analysis of the pictorial images.