The Origins of Monasticism

The Monastic Impulse

• At the time of Jesus there were Jews living in the desert who are called Essenes.

• People went to the desert to meet God.

• Jesus spent time in the desert.

• A person goes to the desert to leave behind the distractions of common life and seek an encounter with the divine.

The First Monks

• Saint Anthony (251-356) is considered the father of monasticism.

• To go to the desert was to give up your life.

• The first monks were hermits. And sought through lives of intense prayer, meditation, and discipline to seek union with God.

• Older monks often taught by example, by their presence rather than their words.

• The goal of desert monasticism was to live lives of utter simplicity, love, and compassion.

• Women came to the desert as well as men.

The Jesus Prayer

• “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Saint Benedict

• While Anthony is considered the founder of monasticism, almost all modern forms of Western monasticism stem from the Rule of Saint Benedict (480-543).

• The monastery is to be a school of love, “a school in the Lord’s service.”

• Monasteries had a tendency to become wealthy and eventually there were many reformations to bring back the original simplicity and purpose of the monastic life.

New Camaldoli Hermitage

• Monasteries have become favored places of retreat.