Cenobitic (or coenobitic) monasticism is a monastery tradition that stresses community life. Often in the West the community belongs to a religious order, and the life of the cenobitic monk is regulated by a Monastic rule, a collection of precepts. The older style of monasticism, to live as a hermit, is called eremitic. A third form of monasticism, found primarily in Eastern Christianity, is the skete.[Hovorun, C., Eastern Christianity in Its Texts (London: T&T Clark, 2022), pp. 124–125.]
The English words cenobite and cenobitic are derived, via Latin, from the Greek language words (κοινός, ), and (βίος, ). The adjective can also be cenobiac () or cœnobitic (obsolete). A group of monks living in community is often referred to as a cenobium (Latin, from Greek koinobion). Cenobitic monasticism appears in several religious traditions, though most commonly in Buddhism and Christianity.
Origins
The word
cenobites was initially applied to the followers of
Pythagoras in Crotone, Italy, who founded a commune not just for philosophical study but also for the "amicable sharing of worldly goods."
[Bernard, R. W., Pythagoras, the Immortal Sage (Pomeroy, WA: Health Research Books, 1958), p. 25.]
Judaic monasticism
In the 1st century AD, Philo of Alexandria () describes a Jewish ascetic community of men and women on the shores of
Lake Mareotis in the vicinity of Alexandria, Egypt which he calls the
Therapeutae.
Members of the community lived apart from one another during six days of the week, studying the
Hebrew Bible during the daytime and eating during the evening, whereafter on the
Sabbath they hoped to dream visions informed by their studies. Members of the community composed books of
midrash, an allegorical method of interpreting scripture. Only on the Sabbath would the Therapeutae meet, share their learning, eat a common, albeit simple, meal of bread and spring water, and listen to a lecture on the
Torah given by one of the venerable members of the community. Every seventh Sabbath, or
High Sabbaths, was accorded a festival of learning and singing, which climaxed in an egalitarian dance.
The 3rd-century Christian writer Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263–339), in his Ecclesiastical History, identified Philo's Therapeutae as the first Christian monks, identifying their renunciation of property, chastity, fasting, and solitary lives with the cenobitic ideal of the Christian monks.[Scouteris, C. B., University of Athens ( source), "The semianchoritic character of the Therapeutae community, the renunciation of property, the solitude during the six days of the week and the gathering together on Saturday for the common prayer and the common meal, the severe fasting, the keeping alive of the memory of God, the continuous prayer, the meditation and study of Holy Scripture were also practices of the Christian anchorites of the Alexandrian desert."—C. B. Scouteris, "The Therapeutae of Philo, and the Monks as Therapeutae according to Pseudo-Dionysius", 2012]
Christian monasticism
The organized version of Christian cenobitic monasticism is commonly thought to have started in
Egypt in the 4th century AD. Christian monks of previous centuries were usually
, especially in the
Middle East; this continued to be very common until the decline of
Aramean Christianity in the Late Middle Ages. This form of solitary living, however, did not suit everyone. Some monks found the eremitic style to be too lonely and difficult; and if one was not spiritually prepared, the life could lead to mental breakdowns.
[C. H. Lawrence, "Chapter 1: The Call of the Desert" in Medieval Monasticism, 3rd edition, (Toronto: Pearson Education Limited, 2001), p. 7.]
For this reason, organized monastic communities were established so that monks could have more support in their spiritual struggle. While eremitic monks did have an element of socializing, since they would meet once a week to pray together, cenobitic monks came together for common prayer on a more regular basis.[James E. Goehring, "Withdrawing from the Desert: Pachomius and the development of Village Monasticism in Upper Egypt," Harvard Theological Review 89 (1996), p. 275.] The cenobitic monks also practised more socializing because the monasteries where they lived were often located in or near inhabited villages. For example, the Bohairic version of Dionysius Exiguus' The Life of Saint Pachomius states that the monks of the monastery of Tabenna built a church for the villagers of the nearby town of the same name even "before they constructed one for themselves."[Goehring, "Withdrawing from the Desert," p. 282.] This means that cenobitic monks did find themselves in contact with other people, including Laity, whereas the eremitic monks tried to keep to themselves, only meeting for prayer occasionally.
Saint Pachomius
Cenobitic monks were also different from their eremitic predecessors and counterparts in their living arrangements. Whereas eremitic monks (hermits) lived alone in a
monastery consisting of merely a
hut or
cave (
Monastic cell), cenobitic monks lived together in monasteries comprising one or a complex of several buildings. In the latter case, each dwelling would house about twenty monks, and within the house there were separate rooms or cells that would be inhabited by two or three monks.
[Dunn, M., "Chapter 2: The Development of Communal Life" in The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages, (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2000), p. 30.] To early generations of historians, the style of housing maintained by cenobitic monks was attributed to the man usually hailed the "father of cenobitic monasticism,"
Saint Pachomius, who was believed to have found the idea for such quarters during the time he spent in the
Roman army, as the style was "reminiscent of army barracks." While this impression may have been to some extent mythologized by the bishop and historian Palladius of Galatia,
[Dunn, p. 29.] communal
barracks-like desert dwellings known as
cenobia came to exist around the early 4th century.
[Fanning, S., Mystics of the Christian Tradition (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 28.]
Though Pachomius is often credited as the "father of cenobitic monasticism," it is more accurate to think of him as the "father of organized cenobitic monasticism", as he was the first monk to take smaller communal groups that often already existed and bring them together into a federation of monasteries.[Dunn, p. 26.] He continued this work until his death in 347 at Pbow, a monastic center that he had founded ten years before.
Palladius' Lausiac History claims that Pachomius was given the idea to start a cenobitic monastery from an angel.[Paul Halsall, "Chapter XXXII: Pachomius and Tabennesiots" in Palladius: The Lausiac History
]
>. Though this is an explanation of his reasoning for initiating the cenobitic tradition, there are sources that indicate there were already other communal monastic groups around at that time and possibly before him. Three of the nine monasteries that joined Pachomius' federation "clearly had an independent origin", meaning he was not the first to have such an idea.[Attridge, H. W., & Hata, G., "The Origins of Monasticism" in Ascetics, Society, and the Desert : Studies in Egyptian monasticism, (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999), p. 28.]
Melitians and Manichaeans
Besides the monasteries that joined Pachomius' federation of cenobitic monasteries, there were both Christian and non-Christian cenobitic groups who decided not to join him, such as the
Melitians and
Manichaeans.
[Lundhaug, H., & Jenott, L., The Monastic Origins of the Nag Hammadi Codices (Heidelberg: Mohr Siebeck, 2015), pp. 234–262.]
Before Pachomius had begun organizing monastic communities, the Melitians as a group were already recruiting members. They were a heretical Christian sect founded by Melitius of Lycopolis. They "heard of Pachomius' monastic aspirations and tried to recruit him" to join their community.[Harmless, W., "Chapter 5: Pachomius" in Desert Christians - An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 118.]
Some scholars believe the Manichaeans, founded by Mani, were the "pioneers of communal asceticism in Egypt,"[Dunn, 25.] rather than Pachomius. Mani himself was influenced to begin cenobitic monasticism from other groups, including and Jewish-Christian Elkasites.[
]
Later cenobitic communities
The cenobitic monastic idea did not end with these early groups, and inspired future groups and individuals:
-
Mar Awgin founded a monastery on Mount Izla above Nisibis in Mesopotamia (c. 350), and from this monastery the cenobitic tradition spread in Mesopotamia, Sasanian Empire, Armenia, Georgia, India and China.
-
St. Basil of Caesarea founded a monastery at Annesi, Pontus (c. 364) after witnessing the Egyptian monasteries.
-
Mar Saba organized the monks of the Judaean Desert in a monastery close to Bethlehem in 483, which is considered the mother of all monasteries of the Eastern Orthodox churches.
[Hannick, C., "Hymnographie et hymnographes sabaïtes," in Patrich, J., ed., The Sabaite Heritage in the Orthodox Church from the Fifth Century to the Present , Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 98 (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2001), pp. 217–228.]
-
St. Benedict of Nursia founded the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy (529), which was the seed of Roman Catholic monasticism in general, and of the order of Benedict in particular.
-
St. Bruno of Carthusia, prompted by the spectre of the damnation of the Good Doctor of Paris Cenodoxus, founded a monastery just outside Paris in the 11th century.
In both the East and the West, cenobiticism established itself as the primary form of monasticism, with many foundations being richly endowed by rulers and nobles. The excessive acquisition of wealth and property led to several attempts at reform, such as Bernard of Clairvaux in the West and Nilus of Sora in the East.
See also
Notes
-
Attridge, H. W., & Hata, G. "The Origins of Monasticism" in Ascetics, Society, and the Desert : Studies in Egyptian monasticism. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999.
-
Dunn, Marilyn. The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.
-
Goehring, James E. "Withdrawing from the Desert: Pachomius and the development of Village Monasticism in Upper Egypt." Harvard Theological Review 89(1996): 267–285.
-
Halsall, Paul. "Chapter XXXII: Pachomius and Tabennesiots" in Palladius: The Lausiac History
>.
-
Harmless, William. "Chapter 5: Pachomius" in Desert Christians - An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
-
Lawrence, C. H. "Chapter 1: The Call of the Desert" in Medieval Monasticism. 3rd edition. Toronto: Pearson Education Limited, 2001.
External links
