The Desert and the Monastery

Why the desert?

Around 270, a young Egyptian farmer named Antony of Egypt heard the Gospel read in church: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me." He took it literally. He gave away his family's land, placed his sister with a community of virgins, and moved first to the edge of his village and then deep into the desert. He lived there, praying and battling temptation, for most of the rest of his very long life. He died around 356, supposedly aged 105.

Antony was not quite the first, but he became the model. Why did people go? Shelley and MacCulloch both point to several reasons:

• A substitute for martyrdom: When persecution ended, the ultimate sacrifice was no longer available. The monk's total self-giving became a "white martyrdom," dying to the world without shedding blood.
• Protest against a comfortable church: As the church grew rich and filled with half-hearted members after Constantine, monks sought the radical discipleship of the Gospels.
• Spiritual combat: The desert was seen as the home of demons. Monks went there, like Jesus in his forty days of temptation, to fight evil face to face.
• Escape: Some also fled taxes, debts, unhappy marriages or the pressures of city life.
• The ideal of Asceticism: Influenced partly by Platonic ideas, many believed that disciplining the body through fasting, sleeplessness and celibacy freed the soul for God.

The Life of Antony

Antony's fame spread through a biography, the Life of Antony, written around 360 by none other than Athanasius of Alexandria of Alexandria, who had hidden among the monks during his exiles. It presented Antony as a hero of faith, fighting demons, healing the sick, and supporting the orthodox side against the Arians. The book was a bestseller and translated into Latin. Years later, in Milan, Augustine of Hippo heard the story of Antony, and it helped push him to his own conversion. The book created a new kind of Christian literature, the saint's life (hagiography), which flourished for a thousand years.

Hermits and communities

Monasticism developed in two main forms:

• Hermits (from eremos, desert) lived alone or in loose clusters, like Antony. The word monk itself comes from monachos, "solitary."
• Communities (called Cenobitic, from Greek for "common life") lived together under a rule and a leader. The pioneer was Pachomius (c. 292–348), a former soldier who had been impressed by the kindness of Christians when he was a conscript. Around 320, at Tabennisi on the Nile, he founded a monastery organized almost like an army camp. Monks lived in houses grouped by trade, followed a daily timetable of prayer and work, wore uniform clothing, and obeyed their superiors. By his death thousands of men and women lived in his monasteries.

Some ascetics went to extremes. In Syria, Simeon Stylites (c. 390–459) lived for over thirty years on top of a pillar. Pilgrims flocked to see him, and he gave advice and settled disputes from on high. He had imitators, the "stylites," for centuries.

Monasticism spreads from the Egyptian desert

Wisdom of the desert

The "Desert Fathers and Mothers" became famous not for extreme feats but for their practical wisdom. Their short sayings, collected as the Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum), are still read. A young monk asks an elder for "a word," and the elder replies with a short, often surprising answer:

• "Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything."
• One elder refused to judge a brother who had sinned. He came to the meeting carrying a leaking jug of water, saying his own sins were running out behind him, unseen, and yet he was asked to judge another.

Humility, silence, refusing to judge others, hospitality and constant prayer were the core values. Women ascetics, the Desert Mothers or ammas, were also honored. Syncletica of Alexandria of Alexandria taught that it is possible to be a solitary in a crowd and to be in a crowd while living alone in the mind.

The monk Evagrius Ponticus Ponticus (345–399) systematized desert teaching on the "eight evil thoughts," such as gluttony, lust, greed, anger, sadness, acedia (spiritual listlessness, the "noonday demon"), vainglory and pride. This list later became the Seven Deadly Sins of Western tradition.

Basil: monasticism in the service of the church

In Cappadocia, Basil of Caesarea (the Great) of Caesarea, inspired by his sister Macrina the Younger, who had turned the family estate into a religious community, shaped monasticism in a new direction. He thought the solitary life was risky: "Whose feet will you wash," he asked, "if you live alone?" His Rules stressed community life, obedience, moderation and service. His monks ran hospitals, poorhouses and schools. As bishop he built a whole complex of charitable institutions outside Caesarea, nicknamed the "Basiliad." Basil's approach became the foundation of Eastern Orthodox monasticism, which still follows his rules.

Monasticism comes West

The monastic ideal spread rapidly to the Latin West:

• Jerome, scholar and translator of the Vulgate, lived as a monk in Bethlehem. Wealthy Roman women, especially the widow Paula and her daughter, followed him and founded monasteries there. They studied Hebrew and supported his scholarship.
• Martin of Tours (c. 316–397), a former Roman soldier, famously cut his cloak in half to share it with a freezing beggar. He founded monasteries in Gaul and, as bishop of Tours, evangelized the countryside. He became one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages.
• John Cassian (c. 360–435) visited the Egyptian desert and then founded monasteries near Marseille. His books transmitted desert wisdom to Western monks.
• In Ireland, missionaries like Patrick (5th century) planted a church organized around monasteries rather than cities. Irish monks later became great missionaries to Britain and Europe (see Gregory the Great and the Conversion of Europe).

Benedict and his Rule

The most important figure for Western monasticism was Benedict of Nursia of Nursia (c. 480–547). Disgusted by the immorality of student life in Rome, he became a hermit in a cave at Subiaco. Disciples gathered, and around 529 he founded a monastery on the hilltop of Monte Cassino, between Rome and Naples. His twin sister, Scholastica, led a community of women nearby.

Benedict wrote a Rule for his monks, drawing on earlier rules but marked by remarkable balance and common sense. It calls itself "a little rule for beginners." Its key features:

• Stability: monks vow to stay in one community for life.
• Obedience to the abbot (from abba, father), who must rule with love and listen even to the youngest monk.
• "Conversion of life": a lifelong commitment to growing in holiness.
• The Divine Office: seven times of prayer by day and one at night, chanting the Psalms, called "the work of God."
• Work and study: "Idleness is the enemy of the soul." Monks did manual labor and sacred reading (lectio divina) every day.
• Moderation: enough sleep, food and clothing, with special care for the sick, the old and the young.
• Hospitality: every guest is to be received as Christ.

The Benedictine motto is often summed up as ora et labora, "pray and work." The Rule became the standard for Western monasteries for centuries. Benedictine houses preserved ancient books, developed farming, ran schools and hospitals, and became centers of civilization in the turbulent centuries after Rome's fall. Benedict is honored as patron saint of Europe.