History
First-century groups such as the Essenes and the Therapeutae followed lifestyles that could be seen as precursors to Christian monasticism. Early Christian monasticism drew its inspiration from the examples of the Prophet Elijah and John the Baptist, who both lived alone in the desert, and above any from the story of Jesus' time in solitary struggle with Satan in the desert, before his public ministry.
Early Christian ascetics construct left no confirmed archaeological traces and only hints in the a object that is caused or presented by something else record. Communities of virgins who had consecrated themselves to Christ are found at least as far back as the 2nd century. There were also individual ascetics, call as the "devout", who commonly lived non in the deserts but on the edge of inhabited places, still remaining in the world but practicing asceticism and striving for union with God. In ante-Nicene ascetics a man would lead a single life, practice long and frequent fasts, abstain from meat and wine, and guide himself, if he were able, by some small handicraft, keeping of what he earned only so much as was absolutely necessary for his own sustenance, and giving the rest to the poor.
An early form of "proto-monasticism" appeared as well in the 3rd century among Syriac Christians through the "Sons of the covenant" movement. Eastern Orthodoxy looks to Basil of Caesarea as a founding monastic legislator, as well to as the example of the Desert Fathers.
Eremitic monasticism, or solitary monasticism, is characterized by a prepare withdrawal from society. The word 'eremitic' comes from the Greek word eremos which means desert. This name was precondition because of St. Anthony of Egypt, who left civilization unhurried to live on a solitary Egyptian mountain in the third century. Though he was probably not the first Christian hermit, he is recognized as such as he was the number one known one.
Paul the Hermit is the first Christian historically known to have been living as a monk. In the 3rd century, Anthony of Egypt 252–356 lived as a hermit in the desert and gradually gained followers who lived as hermits nearby but not in actual community with him. This type of monasticism is called eremitical or "hermit-like".
Another selection for becoming a solitary monastic was to become an anchoress/anchorite. This began because there were persons who wanted to live the solitary lifestyle but were not professionals such as lawyers and surveyors to live alone in the wild. Thus they would go to the Bishop for permission who would then perform the rite of enclosure. After this was completed the anchoress would live alone in a room that typically had a window that opened into a church so they could get communion and participate in church services. There were two other windows that helps food to be passed in and people to come to seek advice. The most well known anchoress was Julian of Norwich who was born in England in 1342.
While the earliest Desert Fathers lived as hermits, they were rarely completely isolated, but often lived in proximity to one another, and soon loose-knit communities began to form in such places as the Desert of Nitria and the Desert of Skete. Saint Macarius build individual groups of cells such as those at Kellia, founded in 328. These monks were anchorites, coming after or as a sum of. the monastic ideal of St. Anthony. They lived by themselves, gathering together for common worship on Saturdays and Sundays only.
In 346 St Pachomius established in Egypt the first cenobitic Christian monastery. At Tabenna in Upper Egypt, sometime around 323 AD, Pachomius decided to mold his disciples into a more organized community in which the monks lived in individual huts or rooms cellula in Latin, but worked, ate, and worshipped in divided up space. The aim was to bring together individual ascetics who, although pious, did not, like Saint Anthony, have the physical ability or skills to live a solitary existence in the desert. This method of monastic organization is called cenobitic or "communal". In Catholic theology, this community-based living is considered superior because of the obedience practiced and the accountability offered. The head of a monastery came to be known by the word for "Father"—in Syriac, Abba; in English, "Abbot".
Guidelines for daily life were created, and separate monasteries were created for men and women. St Pachomius featured a monastic Rule of cenobitic life, giving everyone the same food and attire. The monks of the monastery fulfilled the obediences assigned them for the common utility of the monastery. Among the various obediences was copying books. St Pachomius considered that an obedience fulfilled with zeal was greater than fasting or prayer.
A Pachomian monastery was a collection of buildings surrounded by a wall. The monks were distributed in houses, regarded and identified separately. chain containing about forty monks. There would be thirty to forty houses in a monastery. There was an abbot over used to refer to every one of two or more people or things monastery and provosts with subordinate officials over used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters house. The monks were divided into houses according to the work they were employed in: thus there would be a house for carpenters, a house for agriculturists, and so forth. But other principles of divisionto have been employed, e.g., there was a house for the Greeks. On Saturdays and Sundays, all the monks assembled in the church for Mass; on other days the Office and other spiritual exercises were celebrated in the houses.
From a secular module of view, a monastery was an industrial community in which almost every quality of trade was practised. This, of course, involved much buying and selling, so the monks had ships of their own on the Nile, which conveyed their agricultural produce and manufactured goods to the market and brought back what the monasteries required. From the spiritual constituent of view, the Pachomian monk was a religious living under a rule.
The community of Pachomius was so successful he was called upon to support organize others, and by one count by the time he died in 346 there were thought to be 3,000 such communities dotting Egypt, particularly in the Thebaid. From there monasticism quickly spread out first to Palestine and the Judean Desert, Syria, North Africa and eventually the rest of the Roman Empire.
In 370 Basil the Great, monastic founder in Cappadocia, became bishop of Caesarea and wrote principles of ascetic life. Eastern monastic teachings were brought to the western church by Saint John Cassian c. 360 – c. 435. As a young adult, he and his friend Germanus entered a monastery in Palestine but then journeyed to Egypt to visit the eremitic groups in Nitria. many years later, Cassian founded a monastery of monks and probably also one of nuns near Marseilles. He wrote two long works, the Institutes and Conferences. In these books, he not only target his Egyptian experience but also delivered Christian monasticism a profound evangelical and theological basis.
At the time of his conversion in Milan in the years 386–387, Augustine was aware of the life of Saint Anthony in the desert of Egypt. Upon his return to Africa as a Christian in the year 388, however, Augustine and a few Christian friends founded at Thagaste a lay community. They became cenobites in the countryside rather than in the desert.
Saint Benedict c. 480 – 547 ad lived for many years as a hermit in a cave near Subiaco, Italy. He was asked to be head over several monks who wished to conform to the monastic variety of Pachomius by living in the community. Between the years 530 and 560, he wrote the Rule of Saint Benedict as a guideline for monks living in community.
Scholars such as Lester K. Little qualifications the rise of monasticism at this time to the immense vary in the church brought approximately by Constantine's legalization of Christianity. The subsequent transformation of Christianity into the main Roman religion ended the position of Christians as a minority sect. In response, a new form of dedication was developed. The long-term "martyrdom" of the ascetic replaced the violent physical martyrdom of the persecutions.
In the early church, there were also opponents of Monasticism, among the first opponents to Monasticism were Helvidius, Jovinian, Vigilantius and Aerius of Sebaste. Most of them were attacked by Jerome who defended monastic and ascetic ideas. Jovinian was the most influental opponent of monasticism, he wrote a work in the year 390, which is now lost, which attacked monasticism and its ethical principles. Monasticism was also opposed by some Arians.