Blackwell Reference Online

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Christian monasticism has its biblical roots in the austerities of the forty days Jesus of Nazareth spent in the desert, but also in the community of his followers who lived together after his ascension. It is the institutional practice of a “higher” Christian life, today most often thought to encompass the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Early Christian monks or nuns sought closeness to God by pursuing lives of self‐denial and austerity, or asceticism. Such Christians had parallels in Jewish ascetic groups such as the Essenes or the community at Masada, as well as in Greek philosophical communities. From the earliest Christian centuries there were ascetic Christian women who lived monastic lives as consecrated virgins or veiled widows in family homes, devoting their lives to prayer and chastity. Eventually communities of such women were founded, for instance, that at Bethlehem founded by St Jerome's friend and patron, Paula. When the spokesmen for medieval Christian monasticism looked back to their origins, however, they pointed to the “desert fathers” as the founders of monasticism: St Anthony the hermit (d. c. 250), whose life was written by Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria (c. 298–373), and St Pachomius (c. 292–346), the converted soldier, founder of a monastic community at Tabennisa in the Egyptian desert, modeled on a Roman military camp. There was further identification ... log in or subscribe to read full text