Christian Monasticism

The priestesses of Delphic Apollo, Achaian Juno, and Scythian Diana were virgins. In Judea the ancient Nazarites afford an example. The Essenes seem to be the direct forerunners of Christian monasticism. In addition there were conspicuous individual examples in Jewish history like that of Elisha, Elijah, Samuel, and John the Baptist. In Rome the name of vestal virgin was a proverb. In Egypt , the priests of Serapis were ascetics, the priestesses of Ceres were separated from their husbands, and the Therapeut? were rigid monks who lived about the time of Jesus.

These influences and examples, coupled with Platonic philosophy, and the interpretation put upon the teachings and lives of Jesus and His Apostles, produced Christian monasticism. Jesus Himself was unmarried, poor, and had not "where to lay his head." He commanded the rich young man to sell his property for the poor, and said: "Take no thought for the morrow what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed." St. John and probably other Apostles were celibates.

The priestesses of Delphic Apollo, Achaian Juno, and Scythian Diana were virgins. In Judea the ancient Nazarites afford an example. The Essenes seem to be the direct forerunners of Christian monasticism. In addition there were conspicuous individual examples in Jewish history like that of Elisha, Elijah, Samuel, and John the Baptist. In Rome the name of vestal virgin was a proverb. In Egypt , the priests of Serapis were ascetics, the priestesses of Ceres were separated from their husbands, and the Therapeut were rigid monks who lived about the time of Jesus.

These influences and examples, coupled with Platonic philosophy, and the interpretation put upon the teachings and lives of Jesus and His Apostles, produced Christian monasticism. Jesus Himself was unmarried, poor, and had not "where to lay his head." He commanded the rich young man to sell his property for the poor, and said: "Take no thought for the morrow what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed." St. John and probably other Apostles were celibates.

While there is no reason for questioning the general outlines of this picture, one of the consequences of such a view remains problematic; because of the particularly rich synthesis of religious impulses which existed in Egypt , early Egyptian Christianity and early Egyptian monasticism have often been accused of being heterodox. Although there can be no doubt that they were affected by these various religious movements, it is not at all clear how extensive this influence was. We can help to clarify the kind of world into which early Christian monasticism entered and the likely place of the Bible in giving rise to it by highlighting some of the main characteristics of early Christianity in Egypt .

Already by the middle of the second century, there were two distinct ascetic currents there, one deriving from the type of Judaism developed in the diaspora, particularly by Philo, and the second influenced by Jewish Christianity and Judaism in Syria . Armand Veilleux argues that "it was the second of these two traditions that more influenced Christian monasticism, including the Egyptian one." A brief glance at some of the characteristic features of this strand of early Syrian asceticism will help to make the plausibility of its connection with Egyptian monasticism clear.

Early Christian monasticism was so inextricably tied to a particular geographic terrain that the connection between the monk and the desert was never questioned. The choice of vocation and the choice of landscape were almost always one. Jerome accepted this as a given when he described the habitat of the desert fathers and mothers at Wadi Natrun on the borders of the Libyan Desert in Egypt .