Coptic monasticism
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Coptic monasticism was a movement in the Coptic Orthodox Church to create a holy, separate class of person from layman Christians.
It is said to be the original form of
The Monastery of Saint Anthony is the oldest Christian monastery in the world. (It is not the oldest monastery because vihāras for Buddhist monasticism were established by 500 BCE, many hundreds of years earlier.[2]
Although Anthony's way of life was focused on solitarity,
Origins
Institutional Christian monasticism seems to have begun in the deserts in fourth century Egypt as a kind of living
Many Egyptian Christians went to the desert during the third century, and remained there to pray and work and dedicate their lives to seclusion and worship of God. This was the beginning of the monastic movement, which was organized by Anthony, the world's first anchorite Macarius of Alexandria, and Pachomius in the fourth century.
Pachomius
Pachomius established his first monastery between 318 and 323 at Tabenna, Egypt, and when it grew too large, his second one, Pbow, was built in Fāw Qiblī. Pachomius spent most of his time at Pbow. By the time of his death in 345, one count estimates there were 3000 monasteries dotting Egypt from north to south. Within a generation after his death, this number grew to 7000 and then expanding out of Egypt into Palestine and the Judaean Desert, Syria, North Africa and eventually Western Europe.[3]
Monasticism
Christian
All Christian monasticism stems, either directly or indirectly, from the Egyptian example:
The Coptic monasticism took three forms:[4]
- Monachism [further explanation needed]
- The coenobitic system
- The communal System or semi-eremitic Life
Modern status
The
Coptic monasticism saw a revival that started in the 1960s during the papacy of
There are currently 33 monasteries in Egypt and in the lands of the immigration with a total of more than 1,000 monks, and six convents with about 300 nuns.[7] The largest monasteries, and most famous, are at Wadi Natrun,[8] about 60 miles northwest of Cairo. They are the only four of the ancient fortified self-sufficient monasteries which have survived out of many that were in the Wadi Natroun valley.
Image gallery
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Coptic Monastery inScetes, Egypt
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Scetes, Egypt
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Scetes, Egypt
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Scetes, Egypt
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Scetes, Egypt
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Scetes, Egypt
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Scetes, Egypt
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Monastery of Saint Anthony, Kröffelbach, Germany
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Frescos at theScetes, Egypt
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Frescos at theScetes, Egypt
See also
- Christian monasticism before 451
- The Daughters of St. Mary
- Desert Fathers
- Eastern Christian monasticism
- List of Coptic monasteries
- Members of the Covenant
- Monophysitism
- Parabalani
- Tall Brothers
- Matta El Meskeen
- Chronology of early Christian monasticism
References
- ^ a b "Monasticism in Egypt by Pope Shenouda". Archived from the original on 2009-10-22. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
- ^ Winters, Dennis A. (1988). "The First Buddhist Monasteries". The Tibet Journal. 13 (2): 12–22. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ISBN 1-56585-090-4(audio recording)
- ^ Coptic centre Archived 2007-07-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Religion: The Desert Revival". Time. April 19, 1976. Archived from the original on March 14, 2011.
- ^ St Takla.org Coptic Monasteries & Convents Links
- ^ CNEWA
- ^ Lexicorient
Further reading
- ISBN 978-9774246913
- Gruber, Mark. 2003. Sacrifice In the Desert: A Study of an Egyptian Minority Through the Lens of Coptic Monasticism. Lanham: ISBN 0-7618-2539-8
- Palladius of Galatia (1907). . The paradise, or garden of the holy fathers. Translated by Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge. Chatto & Windus.