Egyptian Monasticism: The Growth of the Solitary Life

By: Karel Innemée

Monasticism and asceticism are not exclusive to Christianity. Buddhism has a tradition of monasteries and a life of abstinence that is centuries older and in Judaism we find predecessors to Christian monasticism that have many similarities. The Essenes, a community in the Judean desert, practiced a life of religious devotion and abstinence, and south of Alexandria a community known as the Therapeutae must have lived a similar life of devotion to God.

Whether the earliest Christian hermits were inspired by Buddhist or Jewish examples is still a subject of discussion, but we do know that in Egypt in the 3rd century CE people started withdrawing from society as individuals or in groups, for apparently various reasons and in different ways. During the reigns of Decius and Diocletian some people tried to escape from persecution. Others had no other reason than seeking the imitatio Christi, following the example of Christ and the apostles, in leading a life of poverty and spreading the Gospel. Some were leading a life of poverty at the edge of society (the so-called village hermits), others were moving around, while some were practicing total seclusion, living in remote places in the desert.

Not only in Egypt, but in Syria-Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula as well, this monastic movement developed rapidly and by the middle of the 4th century at least hundreds of people were leading a solitary life. The etymology of the word ‘monk’ lies in the Greek monachos, meaning single or solitary. The root of the word monastery is the Greek monastirion, which was used initially for the cell of a hermit. This is clear indication that the origin of the monastic movement was the personal seclusion rather than the communal life.

But the variety of monastic life according to a common rule and within a closed community developed soon afterwards. Between 318 and 323 CE Pachomius, a former soldier in the Roman army and convert to Christianity, founded his first community at Tabennisi, in Upper Egypt. This would be the start of coenobitic monasticism (from the Greek koinios bios, communal life).

Meanwhile in Middle and Lower Egypt communities of hermits were living in much more loose communities. Each one would spend the week in seclusion, only to meet at Saturday evenings to spend the night in prayer and to celebrate a liturgy on Sunday morning. In these communities there was no fixed daily schedule and rules instructing what to do and what not. Individual fathers would advise their followers and these orally transmitted teachings and sayings were later collected and codified under the title Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Fathers). They offer us a fascinating insight into the diversity of attitudes towards asceticism and its final goal: the salvation of the soul.

The degree of abstinence and asceticism could vary: some desert hermits went so far as to go naked, refusing even the possession of clothes and the comfort of protection against cold and heat. Where the rule of Pachomius contains sanctions on all kinds of minor and major violations, the motto of the deserts fathers in Lower Egypt was: ‘Judge not, that ye not be judged.’ (Matthew 7:1-3). Judging others would divert from one’s own sins and lead to anger and this, as all passions, would lead to the loss of inner peace. Only God would judge and it was the task for monks to forgive the trespasses of the other.

In many of the apophthegmata there is the advice to become ‘dead to the world’. The hermit would leave his possessions behind, sever his ties with family and friends, and give up all passions and physical pleasure. When a young man asked Saint Macarius, one of the leading desert fathers in the 4th century, how to become a monk, he instructed him to go to a nearby cemetery, insult the dead and then come back. Having done so, he came back and Macarius asked him about their reaction. The young man said he had no reaction. So Macarius told him to go back and praise and flatter the dead in all possible ways. Again the young man told Macarius there was no reaction. So Macarius advised him to become like them: whether insulted or praised, do not become angry or proud, because this will harm the well-being of your soul.

Several monastic settlements in Middle and Lower Egypt developed on and around necropoles: in Saqqara and on the West Bank of Thebes monks and hermits lived in abandoned tombs from the pharaonic period, not just because these were cheap and easy to adapt, but also because the hermit was just one step away from the hereafter.

After the Edict of Milan in 313 persecutions of Christians stopped. In those days the general belief was that martyrs would go straight to heaven, where all others would have to wait for the day of resurrection and the Last Judgment. For many the ascetic life of the hermit was an alternative for martyrdom: a voluntary abandoning of the pleasures of life with the prospect of a life in heaven.

This monastic movement, that attracted thousands in the course of the 4th century, was basically a lay-movement. Pachomius asked priests from outside to celebrate mass in the churches of his monasteries and many hermits refused to be consecrated as priests. One of the main reasons for this was the fear that it would create inequality among the monks and hermits that could threaten the ‘anarchistic theocracy’ of the Lower Egyptian communities. Needless to say, several bishops had their doubts and fear concerning these uncontrolled and vastly growing communities at the edge of society or far away in the desert. Not only in Egypt, also in other parts of the Byzantine Empire, concern and anxiety concerning the uncontrolled popularity of the monastic movement grew by the end of the 4th century, while on the other hand many of the higher clergy realised the enormous potential of these thousands of religiously motivated men.

As a result at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the decision was taken to put all monastic communities and hermits under supervision and responsibility of bishops and to limit the freedom of movement of monastic individuals. It meant a change, not only for the monastic movement, but it had also far-reaching consequences for the Church (and what would become the Eastern Churches). To that point there was no celibacy for the clergy and in order to be ordained a bishop the restriction was that the candidate could have been married only once. From the 6thcentury onwards more and more bishops were recruited from monasteries, and sometimes monks or hermits were even forced to be ordained, trying to resist a return to the world that they had left behind.

By the 10th century practically all the higher clergy came from monasteries and church and monasticism had become completely intertwined. The semi-organised communities of Middle and Lower Egypt became more and more regulated societies with a population living within perimeter walls instead of spread over a wide area. These developments can be followed in historical sources, but also seen archeologically. Monasteries became places of learning, collected important libraries and turned into vital organs for the body of the Church. After a decline from the 18th till the middle of the 20th century, many Coptic monasteries in Egypt have seen a revival and though this is not always to the benefit of the monuments in and around these monasteries, it shows their important role in Eastern Christianity till the present day.