The three key elements of monastic life are 1) union with God through prayer, 2) separation from the world, and 3) communal life. A precursor to monasticism was asceticism, which, though not widespread, was practiced during Christ’s lifetime. One of the first men to practice asceticism, or retreat from the world, was John the Baptist. John was a member of a group called the “Essenes” who lived in the wilderness of Judea.
Most Christians living in the centuries after Christ did not escape to barren lands or retreat from civilization. Instead, they practiced their faith within the confines of the Christian community. It was not until the fourth century A.D. that monasticism, or separation from the world and the community, was fully established.
During the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine, many aesthetics sought refuge in the Egyptian desert, living as hermits in caves and the like. Antony the Great was an aesthetic who stands out as a man of influence, who set an example of self-control and denial to attain a heightened level of virtue. His life was one lived in solitude, in a set of hills near the banks of the river Nile.
A contemporary of Antony, Pachomius, united these aesthetics into communities of faith in an enclosed area with huts and other necessities for survival. Here, believers were able to separate themselves from the world in solitude while feeding off the energy from the Christian community. Prayer, worship, and manual labor were performed weekly, if not daily, in the community. This type of early pre-monasticism was called the cenobitic life.
Although Constantine did much to support and encourage Christianity during his reign, it was not until after the fall of the Roman Empire that monasticism reached a greater stature. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, reached Rome around 340 and wrote the Life of Antony, which described the life of the great aesthetic and eventually spread throughout Western cultures.
Aestheticism began to flourish both in and outside of Rome. Two major transmitters of the cenobitical life were Augustine of Hippo and John Cassian. Augustine believed in and lived the cenobitical, common life. His influence and insight spread throughout Italy in the late fourth and fifth centuries. Cassian moved to Constantinople around 400 and then to Rome. He was instrumental in the founding of pair of monasteries called St. Victor in Marseilles. Cassian also wrote Institutes and Conferences, which were guides for monastic living that stemmed from the traditions of Antony the Great.
Cassian, a follower of Antony, also began to express the permanence of cenobitical living. Sanctification, therefore, would be accomplished in stages, starting with the community and ending in desert isolation.
The greatest influence on monasticism was made by Benedict of Nursia (480-547 A.D.) As a young man, Benedict received his early education in Rome. There, he was so appalled at the vice and debauchery of his fellow students that he eventually escaped to Subiaco to live in a cave for three years. He was supplied with food and other necessities by Romanus, a monk from a monastery nearby.
Although a committed Christian, Benedict struggled greatly with the sin of lust. His self-inflicted cure for this vice was to roll naked in a briar patch to purge the temptation from his body and mind. Once liberated from this sin, Benedict was able to more fully concentrate on the life he truly desired.
