Cenobitic monasticism

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Cenobium" redirects here. For the colony of algae, see
Coenobium (morphology)
.
"Cenobite" redirects here. For the fictional race, see Cenobite (Hellraiser). For the hip-hop album, see Cenobites (album).
Coptic icon of Pachomius the Great, the founder of Christian cenobitic monasticism

Cenobitic (or coenobitic) monasticism is a

eremitic. A third form of monasticism, found primarily in Eastern Christianity, is the skete
.

The English words cenobite and cenobitic are derived, via Latin, from the Greek words koinos (κοινός, lit. 'common'), and bios (βίος, lit. 'life'). The adjective can also be cenobiac (κοινοβιακός, koinobiakos) or cœnobitic (obsolete). A group of monks living in community is often referred to as a cenobium. 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

Crotone, Italy, who founded a commune not just for philosophical study but also for the "amicable sharing of worldly goods."[1]

Judaic monasticism

In the 1st century AD,

Alexandria, Egypt which he calls the Therapeutae.[2] 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 Sabbath
, 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.[3]

Christian monasticism

Main article: Christian monasticism

The organized version of Christian cenobitic monasticism is commonly thought to have started in

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.[4]
: 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.

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."[6] This means that cenobitic monks did find themselves in contact with other people, including lay people
, 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

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,[8] communal barracks-like desert dwellings known as cenobia came to exist around the early 4th century.[9]
: 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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]

Melitians and Manichaeans

monastery of St. Gall
in Switzerland, providing for all of the monks' needs within the monastery walls

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

Manichaeans.[13]

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.[14]: 118 

Some scholars believe the Manichaeans, founded by

Elkasites.[15]

Later cenobitic communities

The cenobitic monastic idea did not end with these early groups, and inspired future groups and individuals:

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

  1. Pomeroy, WA: Health Research Books, 1958), p. 25
    .
  2. ^ Philo of Alexandria. De vita contemplativa (On the Contemplative Life).
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ C. H. Lawrence, "Chapter 1: The Call of the Desert" in Medieval Monasticism, 3rd edition, (Toronto: Pearson Education Limited, 2001), p. 7.
  5. ^ James E. Goehring, "Withdrawing from the Desert: Pachomius and the development of Village Monasticism in Upper Egypt," Harvard Theological Review 89 (1996), p. 275.
  6. ^ Goehring, "Withdrawing from the Desert," p. 282.
  7. ^ 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: Blackwell, 2000), p. 30.
  8. ^ Dunn, p. 29.
  9. ^ Fanning, S., Mystics of the Christian Tradition (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 28.
  10. ^ Dunn, p. 26.
  11. ^ Paul Halsall, "Chapter XXXII: Pachomius and Tabennesiots" in Palladius: The Lausiac History, September 1998. Internet Medieval Sourcebook. 15 February 2007 <https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/palladius-lausiac.asp Archived 2014-08-14 at the Wayback Machine>.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Lundhaug, H., & Jenott, L., The Monastic Origins of the Nag Hammadi Codices (Heidelberg: Mohr Siebeck, 2015), pp. 234–262.
  14. ^ Harmless, W., "Chapter 5: Pachomius" in Desert Christians - An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 118.
  15. ^ a b Dunn, 25
  16. ^ "Basilian | Byzantine Rite Monasticism & History | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  17. Peeters Publishers, 2001), pp. 217–228
    .

References

External links

Look up coenobium in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Cenobites".
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cenobitic_monasticism&oldid=1211998603"