Q. What do you do all day in a monastery?

A. We fall, and we get back up. We fall, and we get back up. We fall, and we ...

Eastern Monasticism Proverb

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READ THIS Christian History Issue 64: Anthony & the Desert Fathers: Extreme Faith Spiritual Pragmatists

Preview
Two Roads
Human Impulse
Glossary
Anchorites
Coenobites
Monasteries
1. Universities
2. Hospitals
Review
Sources

Revivals Are Not Just an Evangelical Thing [1 ⇑ ↝ ]

Monasticism is a long series of revivals:

With the end of persecutions, the Church grew worldly and weak. The Spiritual Athletes, the Anchorite monks, rose up against this worldliness and weakness.
While their solitary existence kept them the Anchorites free from worldliness, it also kept these Spiritual Athletes from living out the Gospel within normal human relations. Recognizing this deficiency, a former soldier named Pachomius, founded a community where monks could support one another in their quest for a greater experience of God and to live out the Gospel's demands relating to social life. Pachomius also created a convent for women. These became the first Coenobitic monks, Coenobitic being a combination of two Greek words: koinos (common) and bios (life), the "life lived in common."
Inspired by Pachomius, Basil the Great founds monasteries in Cappadocia, the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. Basil's Rule is still the cornerstone of Eastern Orthodox Monasticism.
The harshness of the early Western monastic communities kept their numbers small. The Rule of Saint Benedict (529 AD) was strict enough for monks to feel they were living crucified lives, yet moderate enough for men less than supermen to survive. Monasteries using the Benedictine Rule spread throughout Western Christendom.
Needing property for expansion, Benedictine monasteries allied themselves with their regional political rulers. This led to Investiture, a quid pro quid arrangement where rulers granted property to monasteries in exchange for the right to reward their political supporters with influential and wealthy church offices. The Cluniac Revival rose up against the Investiture abuse and allied themselves with the Pope in putting an end to this avenue for a completely secular church leadership.
The Cluniac Revival ended a little over 100 years later with the Cluniac monasteries the center of lax and luxorious living. The Cistercians arose to combat the Cluniac dissapation.
The pattern repeated with the Cistercians, their monasteries themselves became wealthy, propertied, and politically connected as their predecessors. When the Benedictine Order's corruption was apparent to all (c 1200), the mendicant (begging) orders—the Dominicans and the Franciscans—appeared with a solution. The Dominicans and Franciscans lived itinerant lives, begging their bread as they traveled from town to town preaching the Gospel.
The Dominicans also became the scholarly wing of the Church, preserving the past and re-issuing it into the present via their preservation of the Scriptures and the great classical works of antiquity.
The Jesuit Order arises to battle Protestantism.

The Two Roads

Monastic Motivations [2 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

"For some, it was clearly an attempt to earn God's favor, a classic case of "works righteousness."
For others, it was clearly an expression of spiritual pride, an attempt to be one up on fellow believers.
For others still—let's call them the kooks—it was a great way to work out their pathologies.
But I, for one, believe most monks yearned to know and love God in a way that was not possible in the hubbub of city life. Furthermore, I believe their disciplines allowed them to discover something about God that cannot be discovered unless one does what they did."

Galli

Monasticism Replaces Martyrdom? [3 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

The Argument Against	The Argument For
"Then again, the pioneers of the movement all began their desert lives before the "'peace of the church,' before things went supposedly lax. Antony took up asceticism over four decades before the persecution of Christians ceased, and he visited a number of Christian hermits who had already been living apart from society for years. There seems to have been, then, some other motive driving Christians to abandon family and property and pray their days away."	While it is true that martyrs were still being made when the anchorites appeared, the waning of persecution created a vacuum filled by monasticism. All through history there has always been a form of Heroic Christianity: martyrs, monks, reformers, and now missionaries.

The Argument Against

The Argument For

"Then again, the pioneers of the movement all began their desert lives before the "'peace of the church,' before things went supposedly lax. Antony took up asceticism over four decades before the persecution of Christians ceased, and he visited a number of Christian hermits who had already been living apart from society for years.

There seems to have been, then, some other motive driving Christians to abandon family and property and pray their days away."

While it is true that martyrs were still being made when the anchorites appeared, the waning of persecution created a vacuum filled by monasticism.

All through history there has always been a form of Heroic Christianity: martyrs, monks, reformers, and now missionaries.

Two Roads to God (Shelley, p. 126) [4 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

"Monasticism, said Luther and the other Reformers, encourages the idea of two roads to God, a higher and a lower. But the gospel knows only one way to salvation."

I would argue that we're not necessarily talking about salvation here. I don't think anyone can deny that most Christians believe there are Christians who take their Christianity seriously and Christians who sort of coast along.

Those Who Aspire to Do More (Shelley, p. 126) [5 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

"Shortly after the days of the apostles the idea of a lower and a higher morality appeared. We find it in a document, written about 140, called The Shepherd of Hermas. The New Testament, The Shepherd says, teaches precepts of faith, hope, and love binding upon all. But it also offers advice for those who aspire to do more than what is required of the ordinary Christian."

The World IN the Church (Shelley, p. 127) [6 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

"Whatever Constantine's motives for adopting the Christian faith, the result was a decline in Christian commitment. The stalwart believers whom Diolcetian killed were replaced by a mixed multitude of half-converted pagans. Once Christians had laid down their lives for the truth; now they slaughtered each other to secure the prizes of the church. Gregory of Nazianzus complained, 'The chief seat is gained by evil doing, not by virtue, and the sees [ecclesiastical offices] belong, not to the more worthy, but to the more powerful.

The hermit often fled, then, not so much from the world as from the world in the church."

Not Just Spiritual, Physical and Political As Well [7 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

"The monks, staunch and often audacious Christians, could be compliant or dangerous, depending upon the ebb and flow of any given controversy. The emperor Theodosius tried in 390 to limit their influence by bringing them under greater imperial control, and the great Byzantine emperor Justinian tried to do the same in 519. Both were only partially successful, because these monks, as the new martyrs, could never be entirely controlled. They insisted that righteousness, as they understood it, prevail." Calvert

Jerome (Crow and Galli) [8 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

375 - Jerome's dream during Lent. Jerome is "dragged before a tribunal of God, he was found guilty of preferring classic pagan literature to Christian:'Ciceronianus es, non Christianus,' (You are a follower of Cicero, not of Christ) said his judge."
382-384- Becomes secretary to Pope Damasus. Despises the Romans and lets them know it.
c 383 - One of Jerome's female disciples dies during an extended fast, severely damaging his reputation
384 - Relocates to the Holy Land.
384 - Resumes work on the Vulgate, his Latin translation of the Old and New Testament
405 - He finishes the Vulgate
420 - Dies in 420

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Monasticism: A Human Impulse

Type	Non-Christian Monasticism	Christian Monasticism
Hermits	Before 600 BC - Hindu monks living in ashrams; no Rule	EAST 300 AD – First desert monks living alone or in small groups with no Rule; WEST 400 AD – Celtic monks in Gaul
Monasteries	From 600 BC – Jainists, a strict subset of Hinduism led by Mahavira, form communities of monks and nuns;	200 BC – Essenes form a monastic Jewish communityPachomius forms first monastic communities with a Rule; Benedict follows
Wanderers	From 600 BC – Sangha, Buddist monks, wander, teach, preach, and beg	Franciscan friars wander, teach, preach, and beg; later followed by the Dominicans

Non-Christian Monasticism: The Sadhus of Indian [11 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

Stand for years on one leg
Raise one arm till the muscles atrophy
Travel naked
Cover their face with cow excrement to show their humility
Have sex with corpses to seek the divine in the most corrupt

Non-Christian Monasticism: And Who Can Forget Our Favorite Buddist Monk ...

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True, Some Christian Monks Were Certifiable Insane

St John of the Ladder is an Eastern Orthodox devotional classic, but everyone blanches at Chapter 5. Chapter 5 describes the separate building where monks voluntarily went for pentinence. Undoubtedly, some of these monks were severely mentally ill in an age where scrupulosity (a religious neurosis where one becomes obsessed with personal sinfulness), severe depression, and even paranoia were sometimes indistinguisable from excessive religious zeal.

James E. Goehring writes, "One hears of monks who walked on hot coals or scorpions or asps with their bare feet, of others whose unshaven hair alone served as their clothes, and still others who grazed with the antelope for food. Some monks wore chains and let their hair grow long, much to the dismay of others. Women shaved their heads and passed as male ascetics, their ruse discovered only in their death.

Onnophrius withdrew so far into the desert that Paphnutius had to walk over eight days and receive miraculous aid to reach him. Abba Bessarion avoided sleep for 14 days and nights by standing upright in the midst of thorn bushes, and Eulogius often fasted an entire week, eating only bread and salt. Pachomius bound ashes against his loins so that they ate away at him, and another monk's body became so irritated through his ascetic practices that he was infested with vermin. A solitary, or hermit, in lower Egypt avoided the temptation of a woman by shutting himself in his cell and dousing the flame of lust by thrusting his fingers one by one into the flame of his lamp."

Glossary

Abbot – Boss monk, elected by secret ballot
Anchorites – Hermit monks
Brother – A monk who is not a priest; can’t administer Sacraments
Cenobites – Monastic communities living under a Rule
Laura – A settlement where monks lived independently but met communally on Sundays to worship together.
Friar - A wandering, teaching, preaching, begging monk
Novice – A monk in Boot Camp
Rule – A set of guidelines/constitution for a monastery
Stylites – Pillar monks (a fringe group)

Laura, A Second Type of Monastic Community (Binns) [13 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

"The monastery was really a settlement rather than a community. The rough and rocky terrain was not suited to the compact enclosed buildings and the cultivated fields of a "cenobitic," or communal, monastery. Instead, the monk in a "laura," as this style of monastery was called, lived through the week in his own cell, either alone or with one or two others. He prayed and occupied himself with simple handicrafts, such as making baskets or rope. On Saturdays he went to the buildings at the center of the laura for worship, a communal meal, and to exchange the completed baskets for raw material for the following week's work."

Chronology

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Western Monasticism Highlights	Eastern Monasticism Highlights
360 Martin of Tours takes up the monastic life 385 Jerome and companions found a monastery near Bethlehem; 404 Jerome translates the Pachomian Rule into Latin c. 500 Benedict of Nursia withdraws to a cave to begin the monastic life	c. 251 Antony is born; Paul of Thebes begins living in the desert c. 320 Pachomius founds the first monastic community, at Tabennesi 358 Basil the Great founds his first monastery 423 Simeon Stylites begins living on a pillar in Antioch, Syria 478 Sabas founds the most important of the Palestinian laura

Anchorites

Why Do You Go Into the Desert? Because That's Where the Demons Are. [15 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

"The very word "pagan," meaning "rural" or "from the countryside," came to be used of the heathen customs, beliefs, and practices that still lingered in rural areas. As Christianity consolidated its position in the cities, many believed demons were forced to flee to the desert. So Antony and other monks went to the desert to do battle, much as Christ had gone into the desert and was "tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts" (Mark 1:13).
To the monks, the unseen spiritual powers they battled took the forms of Egyptian animal gods—Anubis the jackal god, Seckmet the lioness, or Sobek the crocodile. In this the monks were only following the lead of the apostle Paul, who himself had called the pagan gods demons (1 Cor. 10:21), and bishops like Cyprian of Carthage (c.220-258), who taught, "The demons hide within the garlanded statues and images."
And how did the monks fight these demon hordes? Not with their own power or wisdom, as had pagan philosopher-magicians, but with prayer, Scripture, the sign of the cross, and the name of Jesus." Severance

Scripture As Their Guide [16 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

"Scripture served as the ultimate guidebook for these men and women. They read it carefully and committed large portions of it to memory. Antony paid such close attention when he heard the Scriptures read that his memory served him in place of books. Pachomian monks memorized large portions of Scripture, especially the Psalms, and meditated upon them. In an ancient rock-cut tomb used by a monk as a cell, the owner painted the first line of each Psalm on the wall to aid him in his recitation of the entire text. The memorized text was then embodied in the ascetic's life." Goering

John Cassian (c.365-c.435) Stewart REWORK THIS INTO MY OWN WORDS [17 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

John Cassian was only a teenager when he, with his friend Germanus, left his home in Scythia Minor (present-day Romania) and joined a monastic community in Bethlehem
Cassian and Germanus settled in the famous center of Scetis
At the very end of the fourth century, Cassian, Germanus, and many famous Egyptian monks were driven from the region because of the Origenist controversy
Cassian went first to Constantinople and worked closely for a few years with John Chrysostom, the famous bishop and theologian, until Chrysostom's fall from imperial favor in 404.
He put down his insights in his Institutes, and later his Conferences, which laid out a comprehensive program for the monks of Gaul (today's France), as well as the bishops eager to support and guide them. Cassian professed to give his readers "a perfect recollection" of Egyptian monastic wisdom; in fact, he brilliantly synthesized and adapted traditional monastic teaching. For example, though he praised the solitary Egyptian hermits, he shaped their insights for the community- dwelling monks of Gaul.
In the Institutes, Cassian spoke of "eight principal faults" he had learned in Egypt from his teacher Evagrius (354-399). This menu was the basis for the later western list of seven deadly sins.
In the Conferences, he described a method of unceasing prayer based on a one-verse formula taken from the Psalms. By praying in that simple, scriptural way, Cassian taught, "whatever we breathe, whatever we know, whatever we speak, is God."

STORAGE FOR COPY AND PASTES

Antony and the Desert Fathers: From the Editors - Models or Kooks? The questions that hover in the background of this issue are as pressing as ever. Mark Galli

In many stories, Antony is clearly a "new Adam," an example of restored humanity, one who is not subject to creation but master of it. In one incident, Antony scolds animals who had trampled his garden, and from then on, they no longer do so. In another story, a pack of hyenas threaten to attack him, but when Antony tells them to depart, they obey.

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Spiritual Athletes

The World Had Changed, But the Word of God Had Not [21 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

The days of persecution had gone away, but the Words of Scripture had not:

Choosing the Cross, a Life of Self-Denial

Matthew 10:38 "And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me."
Matthew 16:24 "Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
Mark 8:34 "And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
Luke 9:23 "And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
Luke 14:27 "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."

Deliberate Self-Mortification

1 Corinthians 9:25-27 "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified."
Matthew 5:29 "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."
Mark 9:43 "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire,"

Ascetic Examples: Christ and John the Baptist

Matthew 3:1 "In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea"
Matthew 3:4 "John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey."
Matt 11:7-9 "Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet."
Luke 7:24 "Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 25 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. 26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. "
Luke 9:58 "Jesus told him, 'Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.'"

Endorsement of Celibacy

Matthew 19:12 "For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb, there are eunuchs who were made by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who is able to accept it should accept it."
I Cor 7:32 "I want you to be without concerns. The unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord--how he may please the Lord."

Disposing of All Your Possessions

Luke 5:11 "When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him."
Luke 14:33 "So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
Matthew 19:21 "'If you want to be perfect,' Jesus said to him, 'go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'"
Luke 18:22 "On hearing this, Jesus told him, 'You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.""
Matthew 19:27 "Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?"
Mark 10:28 "Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You."
Luke 18:28 "Peter said, 'Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.'"
Matthew 19:29 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life."
Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.'
Luke 12:33 "Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Make money-bags for yourselves that won't grow old, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys."
Acts 2:45 "And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."

Donning the Shroud

Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
Colossians 3:3 "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

Homeless - The Wandering Friars

Luke 9:58 "Jesus told him, 'Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.'"

Sleep Deprivation

Mark 1:35 "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying."
Matthew 26:41 "Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Matthew 24:43 "But know this: If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into."

Fasting

Matthew 6:16 "“Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward."
Mark 2:19-20 Christian Standard Bible 19 Jesus said to them, The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the time[a] will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day."

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Approaches to the Body

The Body and Its Pleasures are Bad.	The Body and Its Pleasures are Good, but God is Better.
I understand this when I see it in Catholic monasticism, because Catholicism does not put as much stress as the Orthodox Church on the goodness of matter. I am surprised, however, when I see extreme ascetism in Orthodox monks.	Our bodies are matter, and matter is good, but communion with God is better than enjoying the blessings of this material world.

Stylites

Simeon Stylites (Shelley, p. 128) [24 ↜ ⇑ ↝]: "The reputations of some hermits attracted vast crowds of people from the cities. One, Simeon Stylites, was so troubled by crowds around the mouth of the cave where he lived, that he put up a pillar and made his home on the top of it for over thirty yers. Disciples sent up food to him in a basket, and from time to time, so we are told, he preached to the multitudes below, converting thousands to Christianity."
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Coenobites

Monastic Rules (Shelley, p129) [27 ↜ ⇑ ↝]

c. 400 Augustine for monks at Tagaste and Hippo
415 John Cassian wrote two meditative books, which could be considered Rules
Benedict of Nursia "provided the consititution for Western monasticism"

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529 - At Monte Cassino, Benedict wrote the Rule for what was to become the Benedictine Order.
Benedict was an administrator who understood human strengths and weaknesses.
Benedict's Rule balanced strict discipline with moderation in a way that made monastic life rewardingly difficult yet actually possible.
Monks viewed monastaries as spiritual fortresses in a beseiged world.
Monks were self-sufficent, making their own wine and beer, weaving their own cloth, growing their own food, and doing their own carpentry and masonry work.
Each monk vowed absolute obedience to the abbot's commands, but abbots were democratically elected and could decide weighty matters only after consulting the entire monastery..
Monks were urged to remain inside the monastery walls.
The daily schedule included seven services

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Francis of Assissi and the Franciscans

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Dominic and the Dominicans

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The Jesuits

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Monasteries

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Universities

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Hospitals

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Sources

Chryssavgis, John. “The Spirit-Bearers,” Christian History: Eastern Orthodoxy: Then and Now. Issue 54, 1997.
Gascoigne, Bamber. “History of Monasticism.” http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=2056&HistoryID=ab88 , .
“.” Christian History – A Devoted Life, Issue 93, 2007.
Monk Preston. "Brief History of Christian Monasticism." 2003 http://www.prayerfoundation.org/brief_history_of_christian_monasticism.htm Retrieved Dec 22, 2019.
brewminate. "Medieval Monks and Alcohol." Nov 21, 2017. https://brewminate.com/medieval-monks-and-alcohol/ Retrieved Dec 23, 2019.
Issue 64: Anthony & the Desert Fathers: Extreme Faith Alone in the Desert? Why thousands of early Christians took up the monastic way. James E. Goehring
Diana Severance Exorcizing the Desert Issue 64: Anthony & the Desert Fathers: Extreme Faith The stories of desert fathers' skirmishes with demons pointed to a larger struggle—and victory.
Issue 64: Anthony & the Desert Fathers: Extreme Faith Alone in the Desert? Why thousands of early Christians took up the monastic way. James E. Goehring
Issue 64: Anthony & the Desert Fathers: Extreme Faith Diet For a Large Soul What monks meant by fasting, and what they ate when they didn't. Benedicta Ward
Issue 64: Anthony & the Desert Fathers: Extreme Faith Ascetic Agitators The early monks not only prayed in the desert but sometimes rioted in the cities. Kenneth Calvert
Issue 64: Anthony & the Desert Fathers: Extreme Faith Wordly Monk Jerome was a disciplined ascetic who was on top of current affairs. Kelvin Crow and Mark Galli
Issue 64: Anthony & the Desert Fathers: Extreme Faith Holy Land Sabas just wanted to pray where Christ had lived and died but ended up establishing the most famous monastery in the Judean Desert. John Binns
Issue 64: Anthony & the Desert Fathers: Extreme Faith Antony and the Desert Fathers: The Gallery - Getting Their Act Together Monasticism was more or less a solitary affair until these four came along and taught monks how to live in community. Columba Stewart; John Cassian;