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Christian monasticism

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Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the mendicant Order of Friars Minor, as painted by El Greco.

Monasticism in Christianity is a way of seeking God, a way of religious living, that is meant to aid a closer following of the example of Jesus Christ than is practically possible for a Christian in ordinary daily living. It is considered to be a calling by God, a vocation. Christians feeling called to enter it do so out of their free will, after prolonged intensive testing.

The monastic life began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modelled upon scriptural examples and ideals, though according to the four canonical Gospel accounts not mandated as an institution by Jesus. The earliest form of Christian monasticism, already mentioned in the New Testament, was the life of the widows and virgins. A couple of centuries later some Christians began to embrace the eremitic life, which eventually led to the emergence of the monastic life in community.

Those living the monastic life are known by the generic terms monks and nuns, in modern English also by the gender-neutral "monastics". The name for the dwelling of monastics is monastery, whether they live there in community (cenobites) or alone (hermits).

Monastic communities, broadly speaking, may be organized into orders and congregations that are being guided by a particular religious rule, such as the Rule of St Benedict or the Rule of St Augustine, and also serve the purpose of their own founder.

Nowadays the monastic life – also known as Consecrated life and "religious life" – is regulated by the respective Church law of those Christian denominations that recognise it, e.g. the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church. Once a Christian feels called to seek God in the monastic life, it needs to be established whether the vocation is as a member of a religious community or as a consecrated virgin, hermit or widow/widower.

While many people think of the Christian monastic life – especially that of Catholic monks or nuns – as having "something to do with living in a religious community", its purpose is not communal living with like-minded Christians, but the perpetual training in a way of living that is meant to help those Christians who feel called to dedicated their life to God in accordance with the perfect example given by Jesus, following his exhortation "be ye perfect like your heavenly Father is perfect". This ideal, also called the state of perfection, is expressed everywhere that the things of God are sought above all other things, as seen for example in the Philokalia, a book of monastic writings. A monk or nun is a person who has made a public vow to observe not only the Ten Commandments and the law of their respective Church authority, like every other Christian, but also the counsels of perfection (e.g., chastity, poverty and obedience), or the equivalent Benedictine vow (cf. Rule of St Benedict, ch. 58.17).

Precursors of Christian monasticism

Old Testament models of the Christian monastic ideal are the Nazirites and the prophets of Israel; other predecessors are the Essene and the Therapeutae.[1]

A Nazirite was a person voluntarily separated to the Lord, under a special vow.

2 Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the LORD as a Nazirite, 3 he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink... 5 During the entire period of his vow of separation no razor may be used on his head. He must be holy until the period of his separation to the LORD is over; he must let the hair of his head grow long. 6 Throughout the period of his separation to the LORD he must not go near a dead body.... 8 Throughout the period of his separation he is consecrated to the LORD.' (Numbers 6, NIV)

The prophets of Israel were set apart to the Lord for the sake of a message of repentance. Some of them lived under extreme conditions, voluntarily separated or forced into seclusion because of the burden of their message. Other prophets were members of communities, schools mentioned occasionally in the Scriptures but about which there is much speculation and little known. The pre-Abrahamic prophets, Enoch and Melchizedek, and especially the Jewish prophets Elijah and his disciple Elisha are important to Christian monastic tradition. The most frequently cited "role-model" for the life of a hermit separated to the Lord, in whom the Nazarite and the prophet are believed to be combined in one person, is John the Baptist. John also had disciples who stayed with him and, as may be supposed, were taught by him and lived in a manner similar to his own.

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea… 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. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. (Matthew 3, NIV)

The female role models for monasticism are Mary the mother of Jesus and the four virgin daughters of Philip the Evangelist:

7 On finishing the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, greeted the brothers, and stayed with them for one day. 8 The next day we left and came to Caesarea. We went to the home of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who could prophesy. (Acts 21, NIV)

The monastic ideal is also modeled upon the Apostle Paul, who is believed to have been celibate, and a tentmaker:

7 I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. 8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. (1 Corinthians 7, NIV)

But, the consummate prototype of all modern Christian monasticism, communal and solitary, is Jesus:

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Philippians 2, NIV)

The first Christian communities lived in common, sharing everything, according to Acts of the Apostles.

Origins of Christian monasticism

Institutional Christian monasticism seems to have begun in the deserts in AD 4th century Egypt as a kind of living martyrdom. Scholars such as Lester K. Little attribute the rise of monasticism at this time to the immense changes in the church that had been brought about by Constantine's conversion and the acceptance of Christianity as the main Roman religion. This ended the position of Christians as a small group that believed itself to be the godly elite. In response a new more advanced form of dedication was developed to preserve a nucleus of the dedicated. The end of persecution also meant that martyrdom was no longer an option to prove one's piety. Instead the longterm "martyrdom" of the ascetic became common.

Others point to historical evidence that individuals were living the life later known as monasticism before the legalization of Christianity. In fact it is believed by the Carmelites that they were started by the Jewish prophet Elias. Anthony the Great (251 - 356) and Pachomius were early monastic innovators in Egypt, although Paul the Hermit is the very first Christian historically known to have been living as a monk. Eastern Orthodoxy looks to Basil of Caesarea (ca. 330 - January 1, 379) as a founding monastic legislator, as well as the example of the Desert Fathers. Benedict of Nursia is often credited with being the 'father of Western monasticism'.

From a very early time there were probably individuals who lived a life in isolation — hermits — in imitation of Jesus' 40 days in the desert. They have left no confirmed archaeological traces and only hints in the written record. Anthony of Egypt lived as a hermit and developed a following of other hermits who lived nearby but not in community with him. On the other hand, Paul the Hermit lived not very far from Anthony in absolute solitude, and was looked upon even by Anthony as a perfect monk. This variety of monasticism is called eremitical or "hermit-like". Pachomius, a follower of Anthony, also acquired a following; he chose to mould them into a community in which the monks lived in individual huts or rooms (cellula in Latin, "cell", which has a different connotation in modern English) but worked, ate, and worshipped in shared space. This method of monastic organization is called cenobitic or "community-based". All the familiar monastic orders are cenobitic in nature. In Catholic theology, this community based living is considered superior because of the obedience practiced and because one is less likely to err than one would be by oneself. The head of a monastery came to be known by the word for "Father" in Syriac, Abba, in English, "Abbot".

Early History

The first efforts to create a proto-monastery were by Saint Macarius, who established individual cells, an example Kellia founded in 328, known as "larvae", the purpose of which was to bring together individual ascetics who, although pious, did not have the physical ability or skills to live a solitary existences in the desert like that of Saint Anthony. These cells were put together as a large single monastic community by Saint Pachomius around 323 in upper Egypt at Tabenna. Guidelines for daily life were created, and separate monasteries created for men and women. He was hailed as 'Abba' (v.s.). This one community was so successful he was called in to help organize others and by one count by the time he died in 346 there were thought to be 3000 such communities dotting Egypt, especially the Thebaid. Within the span of the next generation this number increased to 7000. From there monasticism quickly spread out first to Palestine and the Judean Desert, Syria, North Africa and eventually the rest of the Roman Empire where it became a central aspect of life during the Middle Ages. Monasteries were initially seen by the Church Bishops and imperial governments in Constantinople and Rome as operating outside the authority of the official Church governance, not to mention the Emperor. There existed a tension between the lay clergy and the monastic orders. Eventually over the course of the Early Middle Ages the influence of monastics came to play an important role in the Church. Some would date the golden age of Christian monasticism from about the eighth to the twelfth century.

Eastern Monasticism

See also Eastern Orthodox monks
Analavos worn by Eastern Orthodox Schema-Monks.

Orthodox monasticism does not have Religious Orders as in the West,[2] so there are no formal Monastic Rules (Regulae); rather, each monk and nun is encouraged to read all of the Holy Fathers, and apply them to his or her religious life. There is also no division between the "active" and "contemplative" life. Orthodox monastic life embraces both active and contemplative aspects.

There exist in the East three types of monasticism: eremitic and coenobitic (as mentioned above), and a "third way" called the skete. The skete is a very small community, often of two or three (Matthew 18:20), under the direction of an Elder. They will pray privately for most of the week, then come together on Sundays and Feast Days for communal prayer, thus combining aspects of both eremitic and coenobitic monasticism.

Types of Monks

Main article: Degrees of Orthodox monasticism

There are also three levels of monks: The Rassaphore, the Stavrophore, and the Schema-Monk (or Schema-Nun). Each of the three degrees represents an increased level of asceticism. In the early days of monasticism, there was only one level—the Great Schema—and even Saint Theodore the Studite argued against the establishment of intermediate grades, but nonetheless the consensus of the church has favored the development of three distinct levels.

When a candidate wishes to embrace the monastic life, he will enter the monastery of his choice as a guest and ask to be received by the Hegumen (Abbot). After a period of at least three days the Hegumen may at his discretion clothe the candidate as a novice. There is no formal ceremony for the clothing of a novice; he (or she) would simply be given the Podraznik, belt and Skoufos.

After a period of about three years, the Hegumen may at his discretion Tonsure the novice as a Rassaphore monk, giving him the outer garment called the Rassa (Greek: Rason). A monk (or nun) may remain in this grade all the rest of his life, if he so chooses. But the Rite of Tonsure for the Rassaphore refers to the grade as that of the "Beginner," so it is intended that the monk will advance on to the next level. The Rassaphore is also given a klobuk which he wears in church and on formal occasions. In addition, Rassaphores will be given a prayer rope at their Tonsure.

The next rank, Stavrophore, is the grade that most Russian monks remain all their lives. The name Stavrophore means "cross-bearer", because when Tonsured into this grade the monastic is given a cross to wear at all times. This cross is called a Paramand—a wooden cross attached by ribbons to a square cloth embroidered with the Instruments of the Passion and the words, "I bear upon my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Galatians 6:17). The Paramand is so called because it is worn under the Mantle (Greek: Mandyas; Slavonic: Mantya), which is a long cape, which completely covers the monk from neck to foot. Among the Russians, Stavrophores are also informally referred to as "mantle monks." At his Tonsure, a Stavrophore is given a wooden hand cross and a lit candle, as well as a prayer rope.

St. Anthony of Kiev wearing the Great Schema.

The highest rank of monasticism is the Great Schema (Greek: Megaloschemos; Slavonic: Schimnik). Attaining the level of Schemamonk is much more common among the Greeks than it is among the Russians, for whom it is normally reserved to hermits, or to very advanced monastics. The Schemamonk or Schemanun wears the same habit as the Rassaphore, but to it is added the Analavos (Slavonic: Analav) a garment shaped like a cross, covering the shoulders and coming down to the knees (or lower) in front and in back. This garment is roughly reminiscent of the scapular worn by some Roman Catholic orders, but it is finely embroidered with the Cross and instruments of the Passion (see illustration, above). The Klobuk worn by a Schemamonk is also embroidered with a red cross and other symbols. the Klobuk may be shaped differently, more rounded at the top, in which case it is referred to as a koukoulion. The skufia worn by a Schemamonk is also more intricately embroidered.

The religious habit worn by Orthodox monastics is the same for both monks and nuns, except that the nuns wear an additional veil, called an apostolnik.

The central and unifying feature of Orthodox monasticism is Hesychasm, the practice of silence, and the concentrated saying of the Jesus Prayer. All ascetic practices and monastic humility is guided towards preparing the heart for theorea or the "divine vision" that comes from the union of the soul with God. It should be noted, however, that such union is not accomplished by any human activity. All an ascetic can do is prepare the ground; it is for God to cause the seed to grow and bear fruit.

Historical Development

Even before Saint Anthony the Great (the "father of monasticism") went out into the desert, there were Christians who devoted their lives to ascetic discipline and striving to lead an evangelical life (i.e., in accordance with the teachings of the Gospel). 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, known as the "devout", who usually lived not in the deserts but on the edge of inhabited places, still remaining in the world, but practicing asceticism and striving for union with God. Saint Anthony was the first to specifically leave the world and live in the desert as a monk.[3]

As monasticism spread in the East from the hermits living in the deserts of Egypt to Palestine, Syria, and on up into Asia Minor and beyond, the sayings (apophthegmata) and acts (praxeis) of the Desert Fathers came to be recorded and circulated, first among their fellow monastics and then among the laity as well.

Among these earliest recorded accounts was the Paradise, by Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis (also known as the Lausaic History, after the prefect Lausus, to whom it was addressed). Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (whose Life of Saint Anthony the Great set the pattern for monastic hagiography), Saint Jerome, and other anonymous compilers were also responsible for setting down very influential accounts. Also of great importance are the writings surrounding the communities founded by Saint Pachomius, the father of coenobiticism, and his disciple Saint Theodore, the founder of the Skete form of monasticism.

Among the first to set forth precepts for the monastic life was Saint Basil the Great (d. 379), a man from a professional family who was educated in Caesarea, Constantinople, and Athens. Saint Basil visited colonies of hermits in Palestine and Egypt, but was most strongly impressed by the organized communities developed under the guidance of Saint Pachomius. Saint Basil's ascetical writings set forth standards for well-disciplined community life and offered lessons in what became the ideal monastic virtue: humility.

Saint Basil wrote a series of guides for monastic life (the Lesser Asketikon the Greater Asketikon the Morals, etc.) which, while not "Rules" in the legalistic sense of later Western rules, provided firm indications of the importance of a single community of monks, living under the same roof, and under the guidance--and even discipline--of a strong abbot. His teachings set the model for Greek and Russian monasticism, but had less influence in the Latin West.

Of great importance to the development of monasticism is the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai. Here the Ladder of Divine Ascent was written by Saint John Climacus (c. 600), a work of such importance that many Orthodox monasteries to this day read it publicly either during the Divine Services or in Trapeza during Great Lent.

At the height of the East Roman Empire, numerous great monasteries were established by the Emperors, including the twenty "sovereign monasteries" on the Holy Mountain[4], an actual "monastic republic" wherein the entire country is devoted to bringing souls closer to God. In this milieu, the Philokalia was compiled.

As the Great Schism between East and West grew larger and larger, conflict arose over misunderstandings about Hesychasm. Saint Gregory Palamas, bishop of Thessalonica, himself an experienced Athonite monk, defended Orthodox spirituality against the attacks of Barlaam of Calabria, and left a number of very important works on the spiritual life.

Monasticism Today

Monastic centers thrive to this day in Greece, Russia, Romania, the Holy Land, and elsewhere in the Orthodox world. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, a great renaissance of monasticism has occurred, and many previously empty or destroyed monastic communities have been reopened.

Monasticism continues to be very influential in the Eastern Orthodox Church, even to this day. According to the Sacred Canons, all Bishops must be monks (not merely celibate), and feast days to Glorified monastic saints are an important part of the liturgical tradition of the church. Fasting, Hesychasm, and the pursuit of the spiritual life are strongly encouraged not only among monastics but also among the laity.

Western Monasticism

Monasticism in Gaul

The earliest phases of monasticism in Western Europe involved figures like Martin of Tours (ca. 316 - 397) , who after serving in the Roman legions converted to Christianity and established a hermitage near Milan, then moved on to Poitiers where he gathered a community around his hermitage. He was called to become Bishop of Tours in 372, where he established a monastery at Marmoutiers on the opposite bank of the river Loire, a few miles upstream from the city. His monastery was laid out as a colony of hermits, rather than as a single integrated community.

John Cassian (ca. 360 - ca. 435) began his monastic career at a monasteries in Palestine and Egypt (ca. 385) to study monastic practice there. In Egypt he had been attracted to the isolated life of hermits, which he considered the highest form of monasticism, yet the monasteries he founded were all organized monastic communities. About 410 he established two monasteries near Marseilles, one for men, one for women. In time these attracted a total of 5000 monks and nuns.

Most significant for the future development of monasticism were Cassian's Institutes, which provided a guide for monastic life and his Conferences, a collection of spiritual reflections. Although he founded monasteries at the request of bishops, he did not value their form of life. He urged monks to "flee women and bishops" and considered clerical office a "diabolical temptation" that monks must avoid.[citation needed]

Honoratus of Marseilles (d. 429) was a wealthy Gallo-Roman aristocrat, who after a pilgrimage to Egypt, founded the Monastery of Lérins, on an island lying off the modern city of Cannes. The monastery combined a community with isolated hermitages where older, spiritually-proven monks could live in isolation.

One Roman reaction to monasticism was expressed in the description of Lérins by Rutilius Namatianus, who served as prefect of Rome in 414:

A filthy island filled by men who flee the light.
Monks they call themselves, using a Greek name.
Because they will to live alone, unseen by man.
Fortune's gifts they fear, dreading their harm:
Mad folly of a demented brain,
That cannot suffer good, for fear of ill.

Lérins became, in time, a center of monastic culture and learning and many later monks and bishops would pass through Lérins in the early stages of their career. Honoratus, himself, was called to be Bishop of Arles and was succeeded in that post by another monk from Lérins. Lérins was aristocratic in character, as was its founder, and was closely tied to urban bishoprics.

Monasticism in Italy

We know little about the origins of the first important monastic rule (Regula) in Western Europe, the anonymous Rule of the Master (Regula magistri), which was written somewhere south of Rome around the year 500. The rule adds legalistic elements not found in earlier rules, defining the activities of the monastery, its officers, and their responsibilities in great detail.

Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480 - 546 × 550) is the most influential of Western monks. He was educated in Rome, but soon sought the life of a hermit in a cave at Subiaco, outside the city. He then attracted followers with whom he founded the monastery of Monte Cassino (ca. 520), between Rome and Naples. His Rule is shorter than the Master's, somewhat less legalistic, but much more so than Eastern rules.

His Rule:

  • specified a course of seven prayers during the day beginning hours before dawn and ending with evening prayer,
  • specified a diet which provided no meat except for the sick, but several different vegetables, bread, and wine for the main meal,
  • emphasized work as a valuable act in itself (some modern historians see this as the source of the Western work ethic),
  • required monks to engage in "spiritual reading," which required a library that was often extended to include a wide range of books on secular topics,
  • and emphasized the idea of submission to the Rule and to the jurisdiction of monastic superiors as an essential step on the ladder of humility.

In time, largely under the inspiration of the Emperor Charlemagne, Benedict's Rule would become the basic guide for Western monasticism, but this did not occur until the ninth century.

Irish Monasticism

The first non-Roman area to adopt monasticism was Ireland, which developed a unique form closely linked to traditional clan relations, a system that later spread to other parts of Europe, especially France.

The earliest Monastic settlements in Ireland that we know of emerged at the end of the fifth century. The first identifiable founder of a monastery (if she was a real historical figure) was Saint Brigit (d. ca. 525), a saint who ranked with Patrick as a major figure of the Irish church. The monastery at Kildare was a double monastery, with both men and women ruled by the Abbess, a pattern which we see in other monastic foundations.

Commonly Irish monasteries were established by grants of land to an abbot or abbess, who came from a local noble family. The monastery became the spiritual focus of the tribe or kin group. Successive abbots and abbesses were members of the founder’s family, a policy which kept the monastic lands under the jurisdiction of the family (and corresponded to Irish legal tradition, which only allowed the transfer of land within a family).

Ireland was a rural society, of petty kings living in the countryside. There was no social place for urban leaders, such as bishops. In Irish monasteries the abbot (or abbess) was supreme, but in conformance to Christian tradition, bishops still had important sacramental roles to play (in the early Church the bishops were the ones who baptized new converts to bring them into the Church). In Ireland, the bishop frequently was subordinate to (or co-equal with) the abbot and sometimes resided in the monastery under the jurisdiction of the abbot.

Irish monasticism maintained the model of a monastic community, while, like John Cassian, marking the contemplative life of the hermit as the highest form of monasticism. Saints' lives frequently tell of monks (and abbots) departing some distance from the monastery to live in isolation from the community.

Irish monastic rules specify a stern life of prayer and discipline in which prayer, poverty, and obedience are the central themes. Yet Irish monks did not fear pagan learning. Irish monks needed to learn a foreign language, Latin, which was the language of the Church. Thus they read Latin texts, both spiritual and secular, with an enthusiasm that their contemporaries on the continent lacked. By the end of the seventh century, Irish monastic schools would be attracting students from England and even from the continent.

Irish monasticism spread widely, first to Scotland and Northern England, then to Gaul and Italy. Columba (521-597) and his followers established monasteries at Bangor, on the northeastern coast of Ireland, at Iona, an island northwest of Scotland, and at Lindisfarne, which was founded by Aidan, an Irish monk from Iona, at the request of King Oswald of Northumbria.

Columbanus (ca. 530-615), an abbot, from a Leinster noble family traveled (ca. 590) to Gaul with twelve companions. Columbanus and his followers spread the Irish model of monastic institutions established by noble families to the continent. A whole series of new rural monastic foundations on great rural estates under Irish influence sprang up, starting with Columbanus's foundations of Fontaines and Luxeuil, sponsored by the Frankish King Childebert II (reigned 575-595). After Childebert's death Columbanus traveled east to Metz, where Theudebert II (reigned 595-613) allowed him to establish a new monastery among the semi-pagan Alemanni in what is now Switzerland. One of Columbanus's followers founded the monastery of St. Gall on the shores of Lake Constance, while Columbanus continued onward across the Alps to the Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy. There King Agilulf (reigned 590-616) and his wife Theodolinda granted Columbanus land in the mountains between Genoa and Milan, where he established the Monastery of Bobbio.

Later Medieval Monasticism

This activity brought considerable wealth and power. Wealthy lords and nobles would give the monasteries estates in exchange for the conduction of a mass for a loved one. Though this was likely not the original intent of Benedict, the efficiency of his cenobitic Rule in addition to the stability of the monasteries made such estates very productive; the general monk was then raised to a level of nobility, for the serfs of the estate would tend to the labor, while the monk was free to study. The monasteries thus attracted many of the best people in society and during this period the monasteries were the central storehouses and producers of knowledge.

The system broke down in the eleventh and twelfth centuries as religion began to change. Religion became far less a preserve of the religious elite. This was closely linked to the rise of mendicant orders such as the Franciscan friars, who were dedicated to spreading the word in public, not in closed monasteries. Religious behavior changed as common people began to take communion and actively participate in religion. The growing pressure of the nation states and monarchies also threatened the wealth and power of the orders.

Monasticism continued to play a role in Catholicism, but after the Protestant reformation many monasteries in Northern Europe were shut down and their assets seized. (see Dissolution of the Monasteries).

The legacy of monasteries outside remains an important current in modern society. Max Weber compared the closeted and puritan societies of the English Dissenters, who sparked much of the industrial revolution, to monastic orders. Many Utopian thinkers (starting with Thomas More himself) felt inspired by the common life of monks to apply it to the whole society (an example is the falansterium).

Modern universities have also attempted to ape Christian monasticism. Even in the new world universities are built in the gothic style of twelfth century monasteries. Communal meals, dormitory residences, elaborate rituals and dress all borrow heavily from the monastic tradition.

Orthodox monks farming potatoes in Russia, ca. 1910

Today monasticism remains an important part of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican faith. Vatican II saw major changes to Catholic monasticism including allowing nuns and monks to shed their habits.

Nature of monasticism

Christian monasticism was and continued to be a lay condition—monks depended on a local parish church for the sacraments. However, if the monastery was isolated in the desert, as were many of the Egyptian examples, that inconvenience compelled monasteries either to take in priest members, to have their abbot ordained, or to have other members ordained. A priest-monk is sometimes called a hieromonk. In many cases in Eastern Orthodoxy, when a bishopric needed to be filled, they would look to nearby monasteries to find suitable candidates, being good sources of men who were spiritually mature and generally possessing the other qualities desired in a bishop. Eventually, among the Orthodox Churches it became established by canon law that all bishops must be monks.

Secular influence

In traditional Catholic societies, monastic communities often took charge of social services such as education and healthcare; to the latter they were so closely linked that nurses are often called "sisters."

In the Middle Ages, monasteries conserved and copied ancient manuscripts in their scriptoria, their pharmacies stored and studied medicaments and they aided the development of agricultural techniques. The requirement of wine for the Mass led to the development of wine culture, as shown in the discovery of the méthode champenoise by Dom Perignon. Several liquors like Bénédictine and the Trappist beers were also developed in monasteries. Even today many monasteries and convents are locally renowned for their cooking specialties.

Christian monks cultivated the arts as a way of praising God. Gregorian chant and miniatures are examples.

The status of monks as apart from secular life (at least theoretically) served a social function. Dethroned Visigothic kings were tonsured and sent to a monastery so that they could not claim the crown back. Around the change of millennium, monasteries became a place for second sons to live in celibacy so that the family inheritance went to the first son; in exchange the families donated to the monasteries. Some orders were favored by monarchs and rich families to keep and educate their maiden daughters before arranged marriage. This however did not bar seducers like the fictional Don Juan and the real Giacomo Casanova from assaulting convents and novices.

The monasteries also provided refuge to those sick of earthly life like Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor who retired to Yuste in his late years.

Western monastic orders

A number of distinct monastic orders developed within Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism. Eastern Orthodoxy does not have a system of orders, per se.

Roman Catholic

On 7 February 1862 Pius IX issued the papal constitution entitled Ad Universalis Ecclesiae, dealing with the conditions for admission to religious orders of men in which solemn vows are prescribed.

Anglican Communion

Communities of monks and nuns represent a small but hugely influential aspect of Anglicanism. Shortly after the beginning of the revival of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England, there was felt to be a need for some Anglican Sisters of Charity. In 1848 Mother Priscilla Lydia Sellon became the first woman to take the vows of religion in communion with the See of Canterbury since the Reformation. In October 1850 the first building specifically built for the purpose of housing an Anglican Sisterhood was consecrated at Abbeymere in Plymouth. It housed several schools for the destitute, a laundry, printing press and soup kitchen. A series of letters were exchanged publicly between her and the Rev. James Spurrell, Vicar of Great Shelford, Cambs., who, along with others, criticized Miss Sellon's Sisters of Mercy. From the 1840s and throughout the next one hundred years, religious orders for both men and women proliferated in the UK and the United States, as well as in various countries of Africa, Asia, Canada, India and the Pacific.

Anglican religious life at one time boasted hundreds of orders and communities, and thousands of religious. An important aspect of Anglican religious life is that most communities of both men and women lived their lives consecrated to God under the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (or in Benedictine communities, Stability, Conversion of Life, and Obedience) by practicing a mixed life of reciting the full eight services of the Breviary in choir, along with a daily Eucharist, plus service to the poor. The mixed life, combing aspects of the contemplative orders and the active orders remains to this day a hall mark of Anglican Religious Life.

Since the 1960's, there has been a sharp falling off in the numbers of religious in most parts of the Anglican Communion. Many once large and international communities have been reduced to a single convent or monastery comprised of elderly men or women. In the last few decades of the 20th century, novices have for most communities been few and far between. Some orders and communities have already become extinct.

There are however, still several thousand Anglican religious working today in approximately 200 communities around the world.

The most surprising growth has been in the Melanesian countries of Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The Melanesian Brotherhood, based at Tabalia, Guadalcanal, in 1925, by Ini Kopuria, is now the largest Anglican Community in the world with over 450 Brothers in Solomons Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and the United Kingdom. The Sisters of the Church, started by Mother Emily Ayckbowm in England in 1870, has more Sisters in the Solomons than all their other communities. The Community of the Sisters of Melanesia, started in 1980 by Sister Nesta Tiboe, is a growing community of women throughout the Solomon Islands. The Society of Saint Francis, founded as a union of various Franciscan orders in the 1920s, has experienced great growth in the Solomon Islands. Other communities of religious have been started by Anglicans in Papua New Guinea and in Vanuatu. Lydia Sellon herself traveled to the Sandwich Islands, better known now as Hawaii, in 1864 where she and her sisters founded a school. Most Melanesian Anglican religious are in their early to mid 20s, making the average age 40 to 50 years younger than their brothers and sisters in other countries. This growth is especially surprising because celibacy was not regarded as a Melanesian virtue.

Protestant Monasticism

Monasticism in the Protestant tradition proceeds from John Wycliffe who organized the Lollard Preacher Order (the "Poor Priests") to promote his reformation views.

During the Reformation the teachings of Martin Luther led to the end the monasteries, but a few Protestants followed monastic lives. Since the 19th century there have been a renewal in the monastic life among Protestants.

In 1947 Mother Basilea Schlink and Mother Martyria founded the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, in Darmstadt, Germany. This movement is largely considered Evangelical or Lutheran in its roots.

In other Lutheran traditions "The Congregation of the Servants of Christ" was established at St. Augustine's House (http://www.staugustineshouse.org/) in Oxford, Michigan, U.S.A., in 1958 when some other men joined Father Arthur Kreinheder in observing the monastic life and offices of prayer. These men and others came and went over the years. The community has always remained small; at times the only member was Father Arthur himself. During the 35 years of its existence over 25 men tested their vocations to monastic life by living at the house for some time, from a few months to many years, but at Father Arthur's death in 1989 only one permanent resident remained. At the beginning of 2006, there are 2 permanent professed members and 2 long-term guests. Strong ties remain with this community and their brothers in Sweden (http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/klostren/OSTANENG.htm) and in Germany (http://www.st-wigberti.com/).

Around 1964, Reuben Archer Torrey III, an Episcopal missionary, grandson of R. A. Torrey, founded Jesus Abbey as a missionary community in Korea. It is has some links with the Episcopal Church and hold an Evangelical doctrine.

In 1999 an independent Protestant order was founded named The Knights of Prayer Monastic Order. The community maintains a number of monks in its Portland, Oregon, cloister; and has an international network of associated lay people. It is not affiliated with any particular congregation.

In February, 2001 the United Methodist Church organized the Saint Brigid of Kildare Monastery is a Methodist-Benedictine residential monastery for women in Collegeville, MN.

Ecumenical Monastic Expressions

Christian monasticism is experiencing renewal in the form of several new foundations with an 'inter-Christian' vision for their respective communities.

In 1946 Roger Schutz, a pastor of the Swiss Reformed Church, founded a small religious brotherhood in France which became known as the Taizé Community. Although he was partly inspired by the hope of reviving monasticism in the Protestant tradition, the brotherhood was interdenominational, accepting a number of Roman Catholic brothers, and is thus an ecumenical rather than a specifically "Protestant" Community.

The Order of Ecumenical Franciscans (OEF)[1] is a religious order of men and women devoted to following the examples of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare of Assisi in their life and understanding of the Christian gospel: sharing a love for creation and those who have been marginalized. It includes members of many different denominations, including Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and a range of Protestant traditions. The OEF understands its charism to include not only ecumenical efforts and the traditional emphases of the Franciscans in general, but also to help to develop relationships between the various Franciscan orders.

Additional expressions of ecumenical monasticism can be seen in the Bose Monastic Community and communities of the New Monasticism movement arising from Protestant Evangelicalism.

See also

Bibliography

  • Lawrence, C. H. Medieval Monasticism. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2001. ISBN 0-582-40427-4
  • Chitty, D. J. The Desert a City (Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1966)
  • R. T. Meyer, St. Athanasius: The Life of Anthony, ACW 10 (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press 1950)

Notes

  1. ^ Eusebius of Caesarea, in his Ecclesiastical History, describes Philo's Therapeutae as the first Christian monks, identifying their renunciation of property, chastity, fasting, solitary lives with the cenobitic ideal of the Christian monks. Professor Constantine Scouteris, Source
  2. ^ One may hear Orthodox monks referred to as "Basilian Monks", but this is really an inappropriate application of western categories to Orthodoxy.
  3. ^ Saint Paul of Thebes had gone into the desert before Anthony; however, he went not for the purpose of pursuing God, but to escape persecution.
  4. ^ Note that both Mount Sinai and Mount Athos are referred to as "the Holy Mountain" in Orthodox literature,
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