Program / Course 2: The Solitary Christian in Depth / Lesson 2.3
What you will learn
- Explain how shared monastic life (the cenobitic life) grew alongside the hermit life in the fourth to sixth centuries.
- Summarize the contributions of Pachomius, Basil of Caesarea and Benedict of Nursia.
- State Basil’s arguments that a life with others fits the Gospel better than a life alone.
- Explain why Benedict allowed hermits only after a period of testing in community.
The big idea
Within a century of Anthony, many Christians who wanted a life of prayer began to live together under a rule. Pachomius organized large communities in Egypt, Basil of Caesarea argued that life in community is the best school of the Gospel, and Benedict of Nursia wrote a moderate rule that shaped Western monasticism. All three honored the hermit life but placed it after a long training among others. Their reasons are still worth hearing by any Christian who is tempted to treat solitude as the ideal.
Key terms
- Cenobite
- A monk who lives in a community with others under a rule and an abbot. The word comes from Greek words for common life.
- Abbot
- The head of a monastery. The word comes from abba, father.
- Rule
- A written plan of the daily life, work, prayer and obedience of a monastic community.
- Sarabaite and gyrovague
- Benedict’s names for two kinds of monks he considered poor: those who live in small groups with no rule, and those who wander from house to house.
- Stability
- In Benedict’s Rule, the promise to remain in one community for life.
- Obedience
- In a monastery, the habit of listening to and following the direction of the abbot and the rule, understood as a path of humility.
Background
In the early fourth century, Egypt held both solitary monks and groups of monks who gathered round a respected elder. Soon, others created larger and better organized communities. At the same time, in Asia Minor and Syria, ascetics were gathering into groups, and churches were struggling to decide how such people fit within the church. The solution that spread most widely was to place the monk within a community with a rule, an abbot and a shared worship.
This lesson looks at three people who shaped that development. None of them condemned the hermit. All of them thought the hermit life dangerous without preparation. Their reasons show how the early church tried to keep solitude healthy.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Pachomius and the first large communities
Pachomius (about 292 to 346) was a former soldier who became a Christian and a monk in Upper Egypt. He first lived as a hermit under an older ascetic, and then, according to the traditions about him, began to gather others around him. By the 320s he had founded a monastery at Tabennisi, and later others, including communities of women. At his death, thousands lived under his organization.
Pachomian communities had written regulations, regular hours of prayer, work such as weaving and farming, and shared meals. Tradition calls this life koinonia, a Greek word meaning fellowship or common life. The Pachomian rules were later translated into Latin and were known to Western monks.
Step 2: Basil of Caesarea on the common life
Basil (about 330 to 379) was a bishop in Cappadocia, in what is now Turkey, and a leading theologian. As a young man, he traveled to see ascetics in Egypt and the Near East, and then settled with his family on an estate in Pontus. His monastic writings, sometimes called the Rules or the Asketikon, were gathered into longer and shorter sets of questions and answers.
In one of them Basil gives reasons why life with others is better than life alone. First, no one is self-sufficient, since each person has some gifts and lacks others, an idea he draws from Paul’s picture of the body in 1 Corinthians 12. Second, many commandments, such as bearing one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), cannot be kept by a person who is alone. Third, a solitary person has no one to point out his faults, and so is in danger of missing them. Basil did not forbid the hermit life, and it is known that he admired some hermits. But he preferred the shared life and built communities that also served the poor and the sick.
Step 3: Benedict and the Rule
Benedict of Nursia (about 480 to 547), an Italian, wrote his Rule for monks at Monte Cassino around the 530s. He draws on earlier rules, including one known as the Rule of the Master, and on the writings of Basil and Cassian. The Rule is moderate in tone. Benedict calls it a little rule for beginners (chapter 73), and he provides for the weak, the sick, the old and the young.
Benedict organizes daily life around prayer in common, called the Work of God, reading, and manual labor. Monks promise stability, a continuing turning of the life toward God, and obedience. Later tradition summarized the pattern with the Latin phrase ora et labora, pray and work, which is not Benedict’s own wording but fairly describes his plan.
Step 4: Benedict on the four kinds of monks
In his first chapter, Benedict lists four kinds of monks. The first are cenobites, who live in a monastery under a rule and an abbot. The second are anchorites, or hermits. Benedict says they have been tested for a long time in the monastery, have learned from the help of many how to fight the devil, and are now ready to go out to single combat in the desert, trusting in God’s help. The third are sarabaites, who live in small groups with no rule, make their own laws and follow their own desires. The fourth are gyrovagues, who wander and are slaves to their appetites.
Benedict’s view is that the hermit life is respectable but belongs to a person who has been tested. The sarabaites and the gyrovagues are the unwelcome versions. A modern solitary with no tested formation and no rule should read these lines carefully.
Step 5: What the three share
Pachomius, Basil and Benedict each placed the individual inside a structure. They did so not because they disliked solitude but because they had seen what happened to monks who lacked structure: pride, wandering, instability and self-deception. The structure gave them accountability, rhythm and service. For readers today, the lesson is not that everyone must join a monastery. It is that unstructured solitude is hard, and that serious solitaries have usually found some form of rule and counsel.
- What structure in my life holds me to my intentions when I do not feel like keeping them?
- Which of Basil’s three reasons (need for others, commandments that need others, need for correction) applies most to me?
- Who in my life plays the part of abbot or elder?
- Do I have anything like a rule, and who has seen it?
- Am I more like a sarabaite or a gyrovague in any part of my life?
- What would a period of testing look like before I take on a harder discipline?
Examples
A community weaver
In the Pachomian monasteries, monks wove baskets and mats and sold them to support the community and the poor. Prayer and work were mixed throughout the day. The solitary of the cell was supported by a community of workers.
Basil’s hospital
Basil is associated with a large complex of buildings near Caesarea that cared for the poor, the sick and travelers. His idea of community included works of mercy, so that a monastery was not a retreat from need.
A tested hermit
A monk spends fifteen years in a monastery, learns obedience, endures dry seasons and is trusted by his brothers. Only then does the abbot allow him to retire to a hut nearby, still within reach of the community. (A constructed example of the pattern Benedict describes.)
Different perspectives
Orthodox
Basil is one of the great fathers of the Orthodox Church, and monasteries of the East follow his spirit. Orthodox tradition also keeps a place for hermits and for monks living in small settlements called sketes, usually under the guidance of an elder.
Catholic
Benedict is the patron of Europe in Catholic tradition, and Benedictine, Cistercian and other orders follow his Rule. The Catholic Church also has Carthusian and Camaldolese communities which combine solitude with common life.
Protestant
Luther, who was himself a monk, came to reject monastic vows as a claim of special merit, and the Reformed churches generally closed monasteries. Some Protestants have revived community life in new forms, such as Anglican religious orders and ecumenical communities, and some Protestants value Benedict’s Rule as a guide for lay life.
Scholarly
Historians note that organized monasticism also served the church and society by preserving texts, caring for the poor and offering education. Debate continues about how much the great rules owe to earlier ones, and how far the sources describe an ideal more than a practice.
Why it matters
The idea that a Christian can be serious about prayer without others is attractive and also very old. The fourth-century church met it and responded with experience, not just opinion. Pachomius, Basil and Benedict did not argue that solitude was wrong. They argued that most people do not do it well alone, and that those who do it best were trained among others. A person who studies on their own can borrow their reasons and ask honestly whether they apply.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Monasteries were invented to stop people from being hermits.
Correction: Hermits continued, and Benedict himself honors them. Communities grew because many people found shared life more fruitful and more safe.
Misunderstanding: Basil forbade solitary life.
Correction: He gave strong reasons for preferring community but did not condemn hermits. He did think most people would do better with others.
Misunderstanding: Benedict’s phrase ora et labora is in the Rule.
Correction: It is a later summary. The Rule does speak of prayer, reading and work, but not in those exact words.
Misunderstanding: Obedience in a monastery means giving up your conscience.
Correction: Benedict’s Rule calls for obedience to the abbot, who is himself bound by the Rule and by God. It does not require sin. The Rule also tells the abbot to consult the brothers on important matters (chapter 3).
Knowledge check
Who was Pachomius and what did he do?
Pachomius was an Egyptian monk of the early fourth century who organized monks into large communities with written regulations, shared work and common prayer. He is often called the founder of organized, or cenobitic, monasticism.
Give one of Basil’s reasons for preferring life in community.
Examples: no person is self-sufficient and each needs others’ gifts; many commandments, such as bearing burdens, need other people; a solitary has no one to point out faults. Any one of these is a correct answer.
What does Benedict say about hermits in chapter 1 of the Rule?
He says that hermits have been tested a long time in the monastery, learned from the help of many how to fight, and are ready for the single combat of the desert. So the hermit life, for him, grows out of community life.
Why do Pachomius, Basil and Benedict matter to someone who studies alone?
They show that serious Christian teachers saw structure, counsel and testing as protections for solitude. A solitary person can ask what comparable protections exist in his or her own life.
Think it through
- Basil said a solitary has no one to point out his faults. How do you find out your faults now?
- What would your own equivalent of a period of testing be?
- If you adopted a rule from Benedict for one month, which chapter would help you most?
- Which of the four kinds of monks does the modern internet user most resemble?
Independent assignment
A short rule for a month
Read the Prologue and chapters 1 to 7 of the Rule of Benedict in the library edition. In your own notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Summarize in your own words what Benedict says about the four kinds of monks, then draft a short rule for one month of your own life (times of prayer, reading, work and rest, and one person to whom you will report). Keep it modest enough that you can keep it.
Further study
- Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of St. Benedict Read the Prologue and chapters 1 to 7, plus chapter 73.
- John Cassian, The Institutes Read the opening books on monastic dress and prayer, to see the life Benedict drew from.
- Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit (De Spiritu Sancto) A theological work of Basil, useful for seeing the scholar behind the monastic writer.
- Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity Read the sections on monastic growth in the East and West.
- Acts 2:44 All that believed were together.
- Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens.
- 1 Corinthians 12:12 One body, many members.