Running away from society has long been a pastime. Who was the first monk? How did monasteries begin?

ASCETICS AND MONKS

St. Anthony the Great of Egypt, considered the Father of Christian Monasticism

Josephus, John the Baptist, and Qumran

John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness by Anton Raphael Mengs, 1760

In New Testament times there were both individual and communal ascetics in Palestine.  Josephus, the Jewish historian, mentions that he received some of his teaching from a hermit called Banus.  John the Baptist, living a solitary ascetic life in the Judean desert, also represents this tradition.  On the communal side, the best-known are the Essenes, of whom the group at Qumran who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls were the most prominent.  But some Essenes lived ascetic lives in their community, as did some of the Pharisees.

James, the Lord's brother, and moral laxity

Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai, early 6th century

None of the earliest Christians appears to have lived as a hermit or in an ascetic community.  Individuals, however, were noted for their rigour of life and devotion to God.  James, the Lord's brother, for example, was admired by many non-Christian Jews for his constant fasting and prayer.  Also, in the early period, any consistent Christian life was likely to be viewed as extremely ascetic by a morally lax society.  Some noble Roman ladies, who may have been Christians, are reported by pagan sources to have lived in mourning and seclusion for years, presumably because they had no time for the pagan social life surrounding them.

Martyrdom, Syriac-speaking churches, the spiritual elite, widows, virgins, Jewish-Christian groups, Marcionites, Montanists, Encratites, Clement and Origen

Clement from Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et payens (1584) by André Thévet. Origen reportedly studied under Clement of Alexandria and was influenced by his thought.

While Christianity was under threat of persecution, congregations tended to be small, and to keep very high moral standards (even if there were some lapses, which were severely punished).  Martyrdom was valued as the supreme example of devotion to God.  Although some churches may have had church membership requirements that were ascetic (for instance, some Syriac-speaking appear to have accepted as baptized members only those were celibate), there was no sign of an organized 'spiritual elite' inside the church apart from groups of widows and virgins.  On the fringes of mainstream Christianity, for example among Jewish-Christians groups, Marcionites, and Montanists, asceticism was very popular, often in the form of 'encratism' (Greek for 'self-control').  Encratites rejected marriage, wine, and meat.  Clement of Alexandria and Origen laid the foundations for an orthodox theology of asceticism.

THE FIRST MONKS

Icon of Saint Anthony the Great, the founder of Christian monasticism

Monks replace martyrs as the spiritual elite

Frescos at the Syrian Monastery, Scetes, Egypt

The late third and early fourth centuries saw the beginnings of monastic asceticism in Christianity.  General toleration of Christianity even before Constantine produced an influx of new members into the churches and growth in numbers was accompanied by a lowering of standards.  At the same time martyrdom became less and less frequent, and the martyrs and confessors were replaced as the spiritual elite by the first monks.  The monks aimed to live the Christian life to the full, and felt that continued residence in the 'world' hindered this.  They tried to achieve a pure Christianity and a deep communion with God which they considered unattainable in the existing churches.

Saint Catherine in Egypt's southern Sinai Peninsula, on a snowy winter morning.

There is considerable debate as to where monasticism began.  The first monks were individuals who retreated to the desert in Egypt or Syria.  Sometimes these retreats were only temporary, and may have been prompted by the need to flee persecution; often they became permanent.  Although he may not have been the earliest, Antony (about 256-356), a Coptic peasant from Egypt, was the first famous hermit.  His example was followed by others, and soon there were many hermits, living either singly or in loosely-associated groups on the edge of the desert.

The hermit

St. Jerome, who lived as a hermit near Bethlehem, depicted in his study being visited by two angels (Cavarozzi, early 17th century).

The main routine of the hermit was prayer and meditation, supplemented by reading of the Bible.  Fasting was also important, and they attempted many other rigorous feats such as standing for hours while praying.  Some of the prayers were rather mechanical, involving the repetition of short set formulas.

Loneliness and shortage of food

Solitude, Jean Jacques Henner

The prolonged loneliness and the shortage of food and sleep fostered hallucinations as well as growth in spiritual awareness of God.  Conflicts with demons were frequent.  Many of the visions, trances, and strange experiences of the desert hermits have obvious psychological explanations (for example, the appearance of the devil as a seductive woman could be the result of repressed sexual feelings).  Those who retreated to the desert inevitably abandoned family life, and celibacy was the rule, although some married couples retreated together into the desert, but lived without sexual intercourse.  Most hermits remained fairly stationary, but there were some wanderers, especially in the regions of Syria, including more extreme groups such as the unruly Messalians who wandered about, sleeping rough and keeping up a continual chanting.

Going to extremes

A copy by the young Michelangelo after an engraving by Martin Schongauer around 1487–9, The Torment of Saint Anthony. Oil and tempera on panel. One of many artistic depictions of Saint Anthony's trials in the desert

Some hermits went to unnatural extremes, such as living at the top of pillars, or walling themselves up in caves.  Early hermits were largely lay people.  Occasionally they might meet to receive the Eucharist, or a priest who was a hermit would minister to a group throughout an area.  But the Eucharist had little place in the routines of the early hermits.

PACHOMIUS STARTS A COMMUNITY

Pachomius the Great, Father of Spiritual Communal Monastic Life

Pachomius founds communal monasticism

Painting of Pachomius the Great in the Curtea Veche, Bucharest.

Communal monasticism was begun about 320 by Pachomius.  He was a converted solider, and after discharge he spent some time as a hermit before setting up his first ascetic community at Tabennisi, by the River Nile in Egypt.  The rule of his community survives in a Latin translation made by Jerome.

Life at the monastery

The Monastery of Saint Anthony in Egypt, built over the tomb of Saint Anthony, the "Father of Christian Monasticism".

Pachomius set his face against extremism.  He insisted on regular meals and worship, and aimed to make his communities self-supporting through such industries as the weaving of palm-mats or growing fruit and vegetables for sale.  Entrants to his community had to hand over their personal wealth to a common fund, and were only admitted as full members after a period of probation.  To prove their initial earnestness they were required to stand outside the monastery door for several days.  Part of the qualifications for full membership was to memorize parts of the Bible; and if the candidates were illiterate they were taught how to read and write.  Although Pachomius' first communities were for me, before his death he supervised the establishment of the earliest communities for women as well.  Pachomius created the basic framework which was followed by all later monastic communities.

Athanasius brings monasticism to the West

Icon of St Athanasius

Monasticism appeared first out of Eastern Christianity.  It was first brought to the notice of the Western Churches by Athanasius.  While he was in exile in the West between 340 and 346, he was accompanied by two Egyptian monks.  Athanasius spent parts of his later exiles hiding among the hermits of the Egyptian desert, and subsequently wrote the life of Antony.  This biography provides almost all our knowledge about Antony, and largely helped to spread the ideals of the ascetic movement.  It was soon translated into Latin, and among those influenced by it was Augustine of Hippo.  In the West monasticism had the backing of church leaders such as Ambrose from the very beginning.

Source: Smith, Michael A. "Chapter 15: Ascetics and Monks." In Introduction to the History of Christianity. Second Edition, ed. Tim Dowley, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013, pages 169-171.