Development of monasticism from just prior to St. Anthony the Great (of Egypt) to St Benedict of Nur

The word “monastic” from Greek: μοναχός, (monachos) means “solitary”; and in many ways this was continuation of tendencies which was already established in many Christian communities. From Acts of the Apostles, we know that first Christian communities lived in common, sharing everything. We know that Baptism is entrance upon a life marked by renunciation but monachos manifested in resurrection of Christ.

The monastic life first emerged as a definite institution in Egypt and Syria during the fourth century, and from there it spread rapidly across Christendom. It is no coincidence that monasticism should have developed immediately after Constantine's conversion, at the very time when the persecutions ceased and Christianity became fashionable. The monks with their austerities were martyrs in an age when martyrdom of blood no longer existed; they formed the counterbalance to an established Christendom. People in Byzantine society were in danger of forgetting that Byzantium was an image and symbol, not the reality; they ran the risk of identifying the kingdom of God with an earthly kingdom. The monks by their withdrawal from society into the desert fulfilled a prophetic and eschatological ministry in the life of the Church. They reminded Christians that the kingdom of God is not of this world.

Monasticism has taken three chief forms, all of which had appeared in Egypt by the year 350, and all of which are still to be found in the Orthodox Church today.

There are first the hermits, ascetics leading the solitary life in huts or caves, and even in tombs, among the branches of trees, or on the tops of pillars. The great model of the eremitic life is the father of monasticism himself, St Antony of Egypt (25l-356) who spent twenty years in the solitude of a ruined fort near the coast of the Red Sea. St. Anthony died in 356 and by that time there were thousands of ascetics practicing the following of Christ in desert.

Secondly there is the community life, where monks dwell together under a common rule and in a regularly constituted monastery. Here the great pioneer was St. Pachomius of Egypt (286-346); who took life of hermit under the supervision of an elder ascetic named Palamon; (author of a rule later used by St Benedict in the west). Around 320 St. Pachomius established monastic community at the village of Tabbenisi. This was koinos bios – “cenobite” or “cenobite” a community who lived a strict common life and by rule which St. Pachomius gradually developed. Furthermore, he is the first who constituted the monastic “order”.

Basil the Great, whose ascetic writings have exercised a formative influence on eastern monasticism, was a strong advocate of the community life, although he was probably influenced more by Syria than by the Pachomius houses that he visited. Giving a social emphasis to monasticism, he urged that religious houses should care for the sick and poor, maintaining hospitals and orphanages, and working directly for the benefit of society at large. But in general eastern monasticism has been far less concerned than western with active work; in Orthodoxy a monk's primary task is the life of prayer, and it is through this that he serves others. It is not so much what a monk does that matters, as what he is. The first communities appeared in desert of Nitria, southwest of Alexandria and the Nile Delta as numbers increased farther out in the desert of Scete in opening of the fourth century.

Finally there is a form of the monastic life intermediate between the first two, the semi-eremitic life, a 'middle way' where instead of a single highly organized community there is a loosely knit group of small settlements, each settlement containing perhaps between two and six members living together under the guidance of an elder.

The great centers of the semi-eremitic life in Egypt were Nitria and Scetis, which by the end of the fourth century had produced many outstanding monks: Ammon the founder of Nitria, Macarius of Egypt and Macarius of Alexandria, Evagrius of Pontus, and Arsenius the Great. (This semi-eremitic system is found not only in the east but in the far west, in Celtic Christianity.) From its very beginnings the monastic life was seen, in both east and west, as a vocation for women as well as men, and throughout the Byzantine world there were numerous communities of nuns.

There are no 'Orders' in Orthodox monasticism. In the west a monk belongs to the Carthusian, the Cistercian, or some other Order; in the Orthodoxy he is simply a member of the one great fellowship which includes all monks and nuns, although of course he is attached to a particular monastic house. Western writers sometimes refer to Orthodox monks as 'Basilian monks' or 'monks of the Basilian Order', but this is not correct. St Basil is an important figure in Orthodox monasticism, but he founded no Order, and although two of his works are known as the Longer Rules and the Shorter Rules, these are in no sense comparable to the Rule of St Benedict.

A characteristic figure in Orthodox monasticism is the 'elder' or 'old man' (Greek: geron; Serbian: starets, старац, plural startsy, старци). The elder is a monk of spiritual discernment and wisdom, whom others - either monks or people in the world - adopt as their guide and spiritual director. He is sometimes a priest, but often a lay monk; he receives no special ordination or appointment to the work of eldership, but is guided to it by the direct inspiration of the Spirit. A woman as well as a man may be called to this ministry, for Orthodoxy has its 'spiritual mothers' as well as its 'spiritual fathers'. The elder sees in a concrete and practical way what the will of God is in relation to each person who comes to consult him: this is the elder's special gift or charisma.

Now then, how was the monastic life communicated to the West?

Athanasius of Alexandria (Ἀθανάσιος) (in West known as Athanasius Contra Mundum) who was Bishop for 45 years (c. 8 June 328 - 2 May 373), of which over 17 years were spent in five exiles ordered by four different Roman emperors; the chief defender of Orthodoxy against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century; translated the “Life of Anthony” in Latin (ca.360).

The first West monastic life can be traced /associated with “Martin of Tours” (ca.335-397). Martin of Tours (Latin: Sanctus Martinus Turonensis;) was a Bishop of Tours, and He is considered a spiritual bridge across Europe, given his association with both France and Hungary. In 361, Martin established a monastery, at the site that developed into the Benedictine Ligugé Abbey, the first in Gaul; it became a center for the evangelization of the country districts. He traveled and preached through western Gaul. In 371, Martin was acclaimed bishop of Tours, where he impressed the city with his demeanor, and by the enthusiasm with which he had pagan temples, altars and sculptures destroyed. Suspicious affirms that he withdrew from the press of attention in the city to live in Marmoutier (Majus Monasterium), the monastery he founded, which faces Tours from the opposite shore of the Loire (river). Martin introduced a rudimentary parish system.

At the same time Eusebius Bishop of Vercelli introduced a new form of monastic community by organizing the clergy of his church under ascetical rule, which later was followed by Augustine of Hippo. Born in Sardinia, he was a lector in Rome before he became the first bishop in Vercelli (in northern Italy), probably sometime in the early- to mid-340s.

In 380’s Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose (c. between 337 and 340 – 4 April 397), was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was one of the four original doctors of the Church who supervised and sponsored a monastery outside the city of Milan. Interestingly saying this was very popularized by Jerome, during his stay at Rome, between 381 and 384.

Not to go so much in detail about western monastics, we can say that last decades of the fourth century monastic communities multiplied in Italy and Spain; and by fifth and sixth century there was a concern for interior regulation which led to multiplication of formal rules for individual monasteries. Jerome’s translation of the “Rule of Pachomius”, in Latin, which I mentioned earlier, of these rules, one became the “Rule of Benedict”, which became the norm for western monasticism. This rule can be accredited to Benedict of Nursia.

According to Western Church encyclopedia Saint Benedict of Nursia (Italian: San Benedetto da Norcia) (c.480–547) is a Christian saint, honored by the Roman Catholic Church as the patron saint of Europe and students.

Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, about 40 miles (64 km) to the east of Rome, before moving to Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy. There is no evidence that he intended to found a religious order. The Order of St Benedict is of later origin and, moreover, not an "order" as commonly understood but merely a confederation of autonomous congregations.

Benedict's main achievement is his "Rule", containing precepts for his monks. It is heavily influenced by the writings of John Cassian (who introduced Irish monasticism), and shows strong affinity with the Rule of the Master. But it also has a unique spirit of balance, moderation and reasonableness (ἐπιείκεια, epieikeia), and this persuaded most religious communities founded throughout the middle Ages to adopt it. As a result, the Rule of Benedict became one of the most influential religious rules in Western Christendom. For this reason, Benedict is often called the founder of western Christian monasticism.

We can say that his Rule was strict but not severe and Rule spread very slowly.

At the end, because of its monasteries, fourth-century Egypt was regarded as a second Holy Land, and travelers to Jerusalem felt their pilgrimage to be incomplete unless it included the ascetic houses of the Nile.

In the fifth and sixth century’s leadership in the monastic movement shifted to Palestine, with St Euthymius the Great (died 473) and his disciple St Sabas (died 532). The monastery founded by St Sabas in the Jordan valley can claim an unbroken history to the present day; it was to this community that John of Damascus belonged. Almost as old is another important house with an unbroken history - the monastery of St Catherine at Mount Sinai, founded by the Emperor Justinian (reigned 527-565);

With Palestine and Sinai in Arab hands, monastic pre-eminence in the Byzantine Empire passed in the ninth century to the monastery of Stoudios in Constantinople. St Theodore, who became Abbot here in 799, reactivated the community and revised its rule, attracting vast numbers of monks.

Since the tenth century the chief center of Orthodox monasticism has been Athos, a rocky peninsula in North Greece jutting out into the Aegean and culminating at its tip in a peak 6,670 feet high. Known as 'the Holy Mountain', Athos contains twenty 'ruling' monasteries and a large number of smaller houses, as well as hermits' cells; the whole peninsula is given up entirely to monastic settlements, and in the days of its greatest expansion it is said to have contained nearly forty thousand monks. The Great Lavra, the oldest of the twenty ruling monasteries, has by itself produced 6 Patriarchs and more than 44 bishops: this gives some idea of the importance of Athos in Orthodox history.