"Please explain how monasticism can be said to be vibrant when it spiritually benefited only the few while keeping the people in ignorance and superstition."
Well, monasticism is the crown jewel of The Church. It may very well be that the monastics of the Church today as well as in the past, in their unending prayer, are exactly what keeps sin from totally destroying the world, but that's another discussion. In any event, it wasn't the monks who kept the people ignorant and superstitious, at least in the East. And out there, as I said, things were different than in the West. For starters more people could read...and did. It may well be that The Church in the West kept people ignorant. That simply isn't true for the East. try not to be so Western Christianity arose in the East and spread to the West. You think about it with the mind of the "Enlightenment", but that isn't where it came from at all.
"It may very well be that the monastics of the Church today as well as in the past, in their unending prayer, are exactly what keeps sin from totally destroying the world,"
Second Thessalonians says it is the Holy Spirit who is the restrainer of evil and He will be removed from the earth just before the Lord comes again. It is the effectuial fervant prayer of righteous man that availeth much. That's your and my responsibility, not just the professionals. We both need support to prevail in prayer.