At the start, I must apologize, Dear Reader, for an article that will drift beyond the historiographical boundaries of early Christian history. Monasticism developed late in the period around which this site is centered, but it still matters in terms of Christianity’s early history. I beg your indulgence for the end of this article, which goes well into the Middle Ages.
Now … from the start of the faith, Christianity always had something of an implicit bias in favor of asceticism. This is reflected in the reported life of Jesus of Nazareth as related in the gospels, and some of his reported teachings. He was an itinerant traveling preacher who never married, and aside from the fact that he had companions he often traveled with, he lived alone. Other aspects of his career and teachings exhibited a somewhat ascetic flavor. For instance, he sent his apostles on a mission, telling them:
And as you go, preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support. (Mt 10:7-10)
At several points, he instructs his followers to “deny themselves” (as for example in Mk 8:34 and Lk 9:23). He describes himself has having no place to lay his head (see Mt 8:20 and Lk 9:58). There are multiple places in the New Testament in which followers of Jesus are admonished to live severely-minimal lifestyles. And there’s even this teaching delivered by Jesus:
Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it. (Mt 19:11-12)
Asceticism in general — including celibacy — wasn’t unprecedented at the time the Christian movements emerged, not within Judaism (which already had its Essene sect and the Therapeutae of the Alexandria region) or the rest of the Hellenic world (with its various Orphean/Pyathagorean groups). While the Christian movements included asceticism in their sacred scriptures as described already, they didn’t look to it as “the” way in which Jesus of Nazareth should be followed. The majority of early Christians retained their positions within their communities, families, and professions. They did not, as a rule, remove themselves to ascetic communities living restricted, celibate lifestyles.
Arguably there was even some pushback against asceticism within Christianity. In the epistle to the Colossians (traditionally attributed to Paul although it’s all but certain he didn’t write it), extreme self-denial is condemned:
Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use) — in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? (Col 2:18-22)
Early Christian hermits were influenced by the Jewish traditions of solitude and ascetic practices, as well as by the radical teachings of Jesus, who advocated for simplicity, humility, and a focus on the eternal rather than the transient. For many early Christians, retreating into the wilderness was a symbolic act, emulating figures like Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist who’d encountered God in the solitude of the desert. This movement was not uniform; rather, it varied according to local customs and personal callings. Some hermits remained entirely isolated, while others formed loose associations with like-minded individuals, sharing spiritual insights and practices.
Within Judaism, the Therapeutae represented the best-known example — to Christians — of this type of movement. They lived isolated lives for six days each week, coming together on the seventh. It is perhaps appropriate that Christianity’s hermitic (or eremitic) movement dawned in Egypt.
The hermitic lifestyle was marked by rigorous self-discipline. Individuals would often engage in long periods of fasting, extended prayer sessions, and meditation on the scriptures. These practices were not only seen as a means to attain personal holiness but also as a form of protest against the perceived decadence of the broader society and even the religious establishment, which many felt had strayed from its original mission.
The earliest individual reported to have expressly practiced Christianity by living as a hermit, was Paul of Thebes, also called (naturally) Paul the First Hermit. He’d been born in the early 3rd century and was a young man at the time of Emperor Decius’s persecution of Christians. At that time, Paul had fled into the desert to evade Roman officials. Eventually he found a cave with a nearby spring and palm tree where he’d be able to live (it’s implied that finding it had been something of a miracle). He lived on the fruit of the tree and the spring water, and wore palm leaves for clothing, spending his time in prayer. At some point, a bird reportedly started bringing him portions of bread, each day (another miracle).
Despite Paul’s holiness and the miracles that had allowed him to live on his own in the harsh Egyptian desert for decades, it appears he’d gone mostly unnoticed until another hermit, St Anthony the Great, learned of his existence and location in a dream and felt called to meet him. Their meeting took place in 341 or 342 CE. Paul, over 110 years old at that time, reportedly passed away shortly after their meeting. Anthony, elderly himself at around the age of 90, subsequently buried him, but returned to the environs of Alexandria with word of his elder contemporary.
I devote an entire article to St Anthony due to his effect on later Christianity. He too had lived as a hermit, but without intending to do so, introduced something of a minor innovation into it: He managed the careful dance of a hermit’s solitude with being a teacher (and even preacher) to the Christian community. He lived alone, to be sure; but at several points in his life, dealt with visitors who sought him out, yearning to learn from a reputed Christian “guru.”
While he continued to practice extreme asceticism, Anthony also guided to his followers, laying down principles that would define monastic life for centuries. His emphasis on humility, charity, and the pursuit of spiritual wisdom became central tenets of Christian monasticism. The monastic communities that emerged under his influence — later known as cenobitic monasticism — emphasized communal living, where monks shared resources, supported one another in their spiritual journeys, and adhered to a common rule of life. Like the Therapeutae before them, they were isolated a majority of the time, but met communally on one or two days each week.
Strangely enough, despite his fame within Christendom, it wasn’t Anthony’s spiritual career that gave any real traction to the cenobitic-monastic movement. That was done by St Pachomius, born near the end of the 3rd century and an occasional associate of Anthony and other hermits in Egypt. About 320 CE, in a deserted village, he reportedly heard a voice telling him to build a structure for him and other hermits to dwell, so they could live in isolation but also within close enough proximity to lean on each other. This allowed them to emulate the Anthonian dance of being isolated but also remaining connected to other like-minded Christians.
Pachomius also promulgated a monastic “rule” for his monastery. This was a list of prayers to be said each day along with some generalized rules by which the community should conduct itself. The rules expanded along with the size of his monastic community. And the community’s expansion led to the construction of additional monasteries. Over the next couple of decades this Pachomian community reached into the Levant, under the influence of St Basil of Caesarea, who’d met with Pachomius and had spent some time in one of his monasteries.
Basil further contributed to Christian monastism with additional commentaries on ascetic life within the Church. A number of Christian teachers (given their often-secluded lives, it’s hard to call them “leaders”) either associated with St Anthony or inspired by him, and who spent at least some time isolated in the desert, are called the Desert Fathers.
Among the practices adopted by some of them, and even promoted by a few, is hesychasm: a form of continuous, uninterrupted prayer. Today this is best-known from the monastery of Mt Athos in Greece whose monks continuously repeat the so-called “Jesus Prayer,” translated into English as: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This prayer is repeated endlessly.
It is known that women were part of this movement, however, not very much of the writings left behind are geared toward them. Some women are mentioned as part of ascetic communities, including Theodora of Alexandria who in the 5th century reportedly disguised herself as a man and joined a monastery. Her ruse, supposedly, wasn’t discovered until after she’d died and the man who’d been her husband (she’d fled her marriage) identified her body.
Some women even led their own monastic communities, such as Syncletica, likewise from Alexandria, in the 4th century. She’d been a female version of St Anthony, who gave up all she owned to live in isolation outside Alexandria. Like him, against her will, she attracted something of a following of women and girls who sought her out for spiritual instruction.
Monasticism extended further into the Greco-Roman world through the following decades. Initially it expanded north into Syria and Armenia, then Mesopotamia, and subsequently Anatolia and Greece. By the middle of the 5th century, it was a phenomenon in the central Roman Empire, so that Benedict of Nursia (born around 480) in Italy met a monk and subsequently adopted a hermitic lifestyle, living in a cave. Late in his life, he would compose his own list of rules for monastic communities, the Rule of St Benedict. This became the framework for most monasticism in western Christianity, but it also influenced eastern Christian monastic groups as well. He’s also counted as founder an order of monks which bears his name (i.e. the Benedictines) even though there’s no evidence he intended to establish such an institution; his Rule assumes each monastic community is self-run and not part of any larger organization.
Benedict and his work is past the end of the scope of this Web site. What’s worth noting, though, is the effect the monastic movement, overall, had on Christendom as a whole. The community of monks, as an institution, profoundly changed the religion’s history. For example, Cyril of Alexandria, patriarch of that city in the early 5th century, had a cadre of cenobitic monks who effectively acted as his enforcers. He could manipulate them in a way that turned them into a classical version of stormtroopers who did his bidding on command. Among other things, they murdered the famous philosopher and teacher Hypatia in 415 CE, and they did so at his orders.
For several centuries, hermits and monks were not ordained, yet many of them were influential within Christendom and some of them were viewed as leaders on par with priests or even bishops. They were effectively an especial, sacred class of Christian who nevertheless were not true clergy. Over time, it became an increasingly common practice for abbots to be ordained, and later in the Middle Ages many ordinary monks were also clergy.
Much later — well into the Middle Ages — the Benedictine monks of the abbey of Cluny in France would set out to reform the western Church as they saw fit. Beginning with that abbey’s second abbot, St Odo, in the early 10th century, they very slowly (but also very surely) changed the Latin Church, in fundamental ways.
Ultimately they managed to get one of their own, the monk Hildebrand of Sovana, elected Pope (as Gregory VII) in 1073. He not only ensured that Cluniac ideals were solidified as Church policy, but in line with Cluny’s overall worldview, he set about making the Roman pontiffs masters of the political realm, too. He took on Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, among other princes — and based on the foundations laid down by Gregory, the Church won.
The victories of Gregory and his successors would culminate in Pope Boniface VIII propounding the bull Unam sanctam in 1302, which declared both spiritual and temporal power were in the hands of the Popes. That had catastrophic consequences for Boniface, and it undermined the authority of the Latin Church, leading to the Great Western Schism, among other serious conflicts. Although this bull can’t actually be enforced because no sovereign state other than Vatican City accepts it, Unam sanctam remains in effect as Roman Catholic Church policy. It was never formally repealed or revoked by any subsequent Pope or ecumenical council. On paper, it remains the Church’s position.
Of note is that the fact that the monastic movement within Latin Christendom having gone far beyond its origins as collectives of ascetic hermits living secluded lives in the wilderness, led to the establishment — during the Middle Ages — of the mendicant movement, or the friars (i.e. the religious orders established by St Francis of Assisi and St Dominic de Guzman, both in the early 13th century). Francis, Dominic, and their followers and supporters thought the monks, particularly of the Benedictine order, had gone too far and strayed from Christ’s mission and that of the earliest hermits such as Paul the First Hermit and St Anthony. The involvement of both those orders in later conflicts, particularly the Inquisitions, subsequently came back to haunt them and likewise showed they’d gone beyond the bounds of what they’d been founded to do.
↵ Go back up to Early Christian History menu.