Program / Course 3: The Rule of Life / Lesson 1.2
What you will learn
- Describe who Pachomius was and what he started in Egypt.
- Explain the idea of the common life (koinonia) and how it differed from the life of a hermit.
- Identify the main features of Pachomian community life: work, prayer, Scripture and obedience.
- Explain why scholars treat the sources for Pachomius with care.
The big idea
Pachomius, an Egyptian who lived in the early fourth century, is traditionally credited with founding the first monasteries where many monks lived together under a written rule. Before him, most ascetics lived alone or in loose groups around a master. He gave them a shared house, shared work, fixed times of prayer and a set of regulations. His rule shows the basic idea that later rules develop: holiness is learned in a common, ordered life, not only in solitude.
Key terms
- Koinonia
- A Greek word meaning fellowship or common life. The Pachomian communities were called by this name.
- Cenobite
- A monk who lives in community under a rule, from Greek words for common life.
- Anchorite
- A monk who lives alone or apart, from a Greek word meaning to withdraw. Also called a hermit.
- Coptic
- The language of Christian Egypt in this period. Pachomius spoke Coptic, and the earliest sources about him were written in it.
- Abbot
- The head of a monastery, from the Aramaic word abba, father.
- Hagiography
- Writing about the life of a saint, meant to teach and encourage as well as to record events.
Background
In Egypt in the late third century, Christians had begun to withdraw from towns to pray in the desert. Anthony is the best known of them. Many lived alone, and others gathered around an experienced elder. This was a movement of individuals, not yet of institutions. The sources describe it with admiration, but they also show its risks: some hermits became proud, some fell ill and some starved. A more settled form of life was needed for the many who wished to follow.
Pachomius was born around 292 in Upper Egypt, according to the traditional dating, and died in 346. The ancient Lives say that he was drafted into the army as a young man and was struck by the kindness of Christians who fed the recruits. After his discharge he was baptized and spent time as a disciple of a hermit. Then, in the 320s, he founded a community at a place called Tabennisi. Over time the movement grew to many houses for men and for women, linked under one leader. These are the traditional accounts, and details such as numbers of monks are uncertain.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The common life
Pachomius is said to have understood the community, and not the cell alone, as the setting for Christian growth. The Acts of the Apostles describes believers who had all things in common (Acts 2:44-45 and 4:32), and the Pachomian monks took that picture seriously. They held property in common, ate together, worked on shared projects and prayed together at set hours.
The community was organized in houses, each with a head and an assistant. Houses were grouped into larger monasteries, and the monasteries were connected under one overall leader. The structure was meant to prevent the drift and rivalry that could appear among scattered hermits.
Step 2: Work, prayer and Scripture
Work held a large place. The monks wove mats and baskets from reeds and palm leaves, and also farmed and kept house. Their products were sold, and from the income they met their needs and helped the poor. Work was not a distraction from holiness. It was part of the discipline, and it protected against idleness.
Prayer was shared. The sources describe assemblies for prayer in the morning and evening, and prayer and psalm singing during the work. Reading Scripture was required. According to the surviving rule, a newcomer who could not read was taught, and monks were expected to learn a good deal of Scripture by heart, especially the Psalms. In a world where books were costly, memory carried the Bible.
Step 3: Obedience and fairness
The rule asked for obedience to the head of the house and to the leader. It also tried to keep the community just. Food, clothing and tasks were assigned by rule and not by favor, and the leaders were to treat all alike. The rule is practical, even blunt. It lists small regulations for meals, for the care of the sick, for travel and for the reception of visitors.
A rule like this protects the weak as well as constraining the strong. A monk who is ill is not left to starve. A monk who is zealous is not allowed to out-fast the rest and make the others feel ashamed. Many later rules, including Benedict’s, share this concern.
Step 4: Handling the sources
The Rule of Pachomius survives mainly in a Latin version made by Jerome around the year 404 from a Greek text, which itself rests on the earlier Coptic. Several Lives of Pachomius survive in Greek and Coptic, and scholars debate how they relate and which is earliest. These are works meant to inspire, and they contain miracle stories.
Scholars also debate how much of the surviving rule comes from Pachomius himself and how much was added by his successors, such as Theodore. For a student, the safe statement is that the rule is associated with Pachomius, that it reflects the community life of the fourth century, and that its details were refined over time.
- What can a community give a person that private discipline cannot?
- What is lost when all practice depends on my own mood and judgment?
- Which of my present responsibilities is closest to the shared work of a Pachomian house?
- How much of Scripture could I recite from memory, and what would I choose to learn?
- Do I react to rules with gratitude, with resentment, or with indifference, and why?
- How would I treat a newcomer who found my own tradition’s practices difficult?
Examples
A shared task
In a Pachomian house, monks might weave palm mats while one recited a psalm aloud, or they listened together. Labor, prayer and learning happened together. (This is a reconstruction from the surviving sources, not a quotation from them.)
A modern echo
Two neighbors agree to pray the same short evening prayer at the same time each night, in their own houses, and to call one another on Sundays. Their arrangement is far smaller than a monastery, but it borrows the idea that a shared pattern supports each person. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
The Orthodox view
Orthodox Christians honor Pachomius as a saint and father of the common life, remembered on a day in May in their calendar. Orthodox monasticism has been shaped by Pachomius and Basil together, with strong emphasis on obedience to an elder and on the liturgical life.
The Catholic view
Catholic tradition also honors Pachomius as a founder of cenobitic monasticism. The Rule of Benedict stands in a line that runs through Jerome’s translation of the Pachomian rule and through John Cassian, who visited Egypt and wrote about Egyptian monks.
The Protestant view
Protestants do not usually keep monastic orders. The Reformers criticized vows that were treated as a higher state. Many Protestants nonetheless admire the early monks for their devotion to Scripture and prayer and borrow from them, as in the Protestant communities that have formed in recent centuries.
The scholarly view
Historians describe Pachomian monasticism as a major institutional invention: a large, disciplined, economically active network. They debate how it relates to earlier Egyptian practice, to Roman military and administrative models, and to local village life. These debates do not change the basic picture of the common life.
Why it matters
Pachomius shows a point that solitary readers easily miss. A rule is partly a way of letting other people hold a person to a pattern. Even those who pray alone benefit from asking who shares the pattern, who would notice if it lapsed, and what work and learning accompany the prayer. The earliest written rule was not a private diary. It was a shared agreement.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The first monks were all hermits.
Correction: Some were, and Anthony is the model. But Pachomius organized large communities in the fourth century, and by the time of Basil and Benedict the common life was the main form.
Misunderstanding: Pachomius wrote a rule exactly as it survives today.
Correction: The surviving rule is a Latin translation by Jerome of a Greek text based on Coptic material. Scholars think it developed over time and that successors added to it.
Misunderstanding: Pachomian monks only prayed.
Correction: The sources show a community of farmers, weavers and traders who also supported the poor. Work was part of the discipline.
Knowledge check
Who was Pachomius, and what did he found?
Pachomius (c. 292 to 346) was an Egyptian Christian who is traditionally credited with founding the first monasteries organized as communities under a written rule. He began at Tabennisi in the 320s. His communities grew into a network of houses for men and women, with shared property and shared prayer.
What does koinonia mean, and why does it matter here?
Koinonia is a Greek word for fellowship or common life. The Pachomian monasteries took the name because they held goods in common and lived together, echoing the picture of the early church in Acts. The word shows that the aim was shared life and not only individual asceticism.
What roles did work and Scripture play in Pachomian life?
Monks wove mats and baskets, farmed and kept house, and the income supported them and the poor. Scripture was required learning: newcomers were taught to read, and monks memorized much of it, especially the Psalms. Work and Scripture were treated as parts of the spiritual discipline.
Why should a student be careful with the sources on Pachomius?
The Lives were written to inspire and contain miracle stories. They survive in several languages, and scholars debate which is earliest. The rule survives mainly in Jerome’s Latin translation, and it probably grew after Pachomius. Details such as numbers of monks are uncertain.
Think it through
- Is there a way in which your own prayer could be shared with another person, even at a distance?
- What are the advantages and risks of a rule that holds property in common?
- Why might the early church have made reading and memorizing Scripture a condition of joining?
Independent assignment
Common and private practice
In your notebook, write 300 to 400 words. Make two columns: practices that you do alone and practices that you could share with at least one other person. Choose one practice from the second column and describe how it could be done, with whom, and how often. If you have no one to share with, describe how you could find such a person without leaving a duty undone. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of St. Anthony Read how Anthony’s movement began, to see the background of Pachomius.
- John Cassian, The Institutes Read Book 4 for Cassian’s account of Egyptian monastic life.
- Benedicta Ward, trans., The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection Read the sayings that mention work and the cell.
- Acts 2:44 Believers had all things in common.
- Acts 4:32 One heart and one soul.
- Psalm 133:1 How good it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.