THE
“PRE-HISTORY”
of
CHRISTIAN
MONASTICISM
based
on: The
Death of Jerome, The Belles Heures
of Jean, Duke of Berry.
f. 191., inage modif.
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THE based
on: The
Death of Jerome, The Belles Heures |
EARLY CHRISTIAN CELIBATE COMMUNITIES
Communities of WIDOWS and virgins in early Church: attested in Tertullian and other early theologians; their early history is largely unwritten and therefore uncertain (although hotly debated), despite their vital importance (see P. Brown, The Body and Society, Columbia U. Pr., NY 1988, pp. 147-149). Antony was able to entrust his young sister to the care of one of these communities (ca. 268) BEFORE he began his own monastic enterprise.
Thus Antony is NOT the historical founder of Christian monasticism (nor, according to St. Jerome, the first hermit), but rather the earliest popular icon or exemplar of monastic spirituality.
The third-century SYRIAN Church had celibate liturgical and social service-oriented communities of men and women called “sons-” and “daughters of the covenant” (see P. Brown, The Body and Society, pp. 101-102).
THESE existed BEFORE the more famous efforts of Antony, Pachomius, Amoun, Macarius, and the other founders of Egyptian monasticism.
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This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1990
