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Egyptian Christianity

Egyptian Monasticism

Egypt

Theologians

Clement of Alexandria

Origen

Monasticism

Arian Controversy

Monophysite Controversy

Egypt Under Islam

Christian monasticism began in Egypt about the time that Christianity was legalized by Constantine the Great in 313, though Christians had fled into the desert throughout the years of persecution that preceded Constantine’s edict of toleration. For many years Egypt was the center of the monastic movement, housing the most rigorous monks and some of the most creative minds of the time.

Christian monasticism (the name comes from the Greek word monachos, which means "solitary") refers to those Christians who seek to live a life rigorously and fully devoted to prayer, contemplation and worship of God. A key element in monasticism is the idea of renouncing the world and living a life of asceticism or self denial.

Inititially monks were solitaries (or hermits) who withdrew from the cities and towns of Egypt to live in caves in the desert, physically and symbolically separating themselves from the world. One of the earliest of these hermits was St Anthony who went out into the wilderness to practice solitary ascetic Christianity in 285 and organized a form of monastic life for his disciples about twenty years later. He died in 356, at the age of 105.

These early monks took to the desert in part because Christianity had become too easy once the emperor Constantine had converted to Christianity. People began to join the Christian Church in large numbers, because it was popular and an avenue for political or social advancement. The monks rejected this easy Christianity and longed for the rigorous faith they had practiced during the years of persecution. Asceticism and desert monasticism gave them an avenue to continue to do so.

A second and related motivation was their veneration of the Christian martyrs, who had given their blood and their lives for their faith. Many monks regretted the fact that physical martyrdom was no longer an option for them. They turned instead to "white martyrdom" -- dying to the world and the flesh -- as a replacement for physical "red martyrdom."

A third reason the monks went out into the Egyptian desert was to act as champions and intercessors for the Christian community. The monks saw prayer as their main task in the body of Christ, and viewed themselves as the first line of defense in the struggle against Satan. The accounts of the hermits are full of stories of encounters with Satan in one form or another, and there seems to be a clear implication that as long as the Evil One was kept busy tempting and wrestling with the hermits, the rest of the Church would be spared the same level of temptation and struggle.

A generation or so after St Anthony, likeminded monks and nuns came together to form communities for mutual support and encouragement. This second form of monasticism is called cenobitic, or communal monasticism, and is probably the more familiar form of monasticism in the popular mind. The first monastic community was founded, also in Egypt, by St Pachomius early in the fourth century. St. Pachomius and cenobites in general were less concerned with the asceticism of the monastic life and place a greater emphasis on the work of prayer, as well as the importance of manual labor to support the community. These monastic communities flourished, with one estimate crediting Pachomius with founding monastaries of 5,000, 7,000 and 10,000 monks. (Aziz 63) Monasticism became so popular that the population of the monastaries rivaled that of secular towns.

Although the Egyptian monks fled society to live in the desert, whether as hermits or in communities, they nevertheless remained a powerful force in the Egyptian Church and did not hesitate to use their power and influence to impose a greater rigor on the Church when they felt it necessary.

The monks came out strongly in support of Bishop Athanasius, who clearly sympathised with and identified himself with the monks both in his personal austerity, and in the fact that he fled into the Desert to live with the monks when he was driven into exile over the Arian controversies and the resultant political infighting. Athanasius, in fact, wrote a hagiographical Life of St Anthony about the year 360.

At the turn of the fifth century, the monks came out in force as a part of the campaign against paganism, storming into the cities and towns, smashing and burning pagan images and temples, including the Temple of Serapis in Alexandria, home of the Museion, or great Library of Alexandria. Most of the books, however, had already disintegrated or been destroyed before the Museion was burned. These same monks were part of the rioting that led to the murder of Hypatia, the last pagan teacher in the School attached to the Museion.

Egyptian desert monasticism continued to flourish, though at diminished levels after the Arab invasion of Egypt. To this day there are still a few Coptic monastaries left in the Egyptian desert.

This page was based on the following sources, which you can consult for more detailed information:

Links to Egyptian Monasticism:

http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/10464a.htm

http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/coptic/writings/history/monasticism.html

Sayings of the Desert Fathers:

http://pharos.bu.edu/cn/articles/SayingsOfDesertFathers.txt

http://pharos.bu.edu/cn/articles/ParadiseOfDesertFathers.txt

http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/Christian/Desert/kunda.html

For more on St Anthony see: http://pharos.bu.edu/cn/synexarion/Anthony.txt

For more links see: http://www.innerlightproductions.com/links.htm

Bibliography:

Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity. New York: Harper & Row, 1984 pp 136-150

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