Monasteries

Monasteries represent one of the most important institutions of the Christian world. They are inextricably linked to the emergence of monasticism, in the historical period that arose after the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine (around 285-337), as a special expression of the dynamic development of spirituality and, especially, asceticism. The charismatic hermit Antonius the Great, born in the village of Koma in Upper Egypt, around 251, is considered to be the father of monasticism. The weight of his asceticism, which he voluntarily accepted on his shoulders from the year 286, as well as his fearless zeal during the post-Diocletian persecution of Christians in Alexandria, served as an irresistible inspiration to many spiritually sensitive people. The followers of Antony the Great, longing for purity and simplicity, retreated to the desert, forming two colonies: on one branch of the Nile, near the Fayum in Tiwaida, and at the foot of Mount Colcim, on the Black Sea coast.  They lived in small huts, obeying all forms of abstinence, in accordance with Antony’s salutary instructions, completely devoted to harsh physical labor and continuous prayerful contemplation. Due to their special, almost “angelic” way of life, these people were called loners, that is, monks, while their modest huts were called cells (that is, “apartments for ascetics”, “places for meditation”). One of Antony’s students, Pachomius, further improved the monastic feat, founding a special colony in Tavenna, sometime between 320 and 340, gathering his followers in a common courtyard. This community of hermits was called a kinovia, that is, a cloister (in other words, a “closed house”) or a monastery – “a house of a loner”, “a house of a monk”. Since then, monasteries have been considered an inextinguishable source, but also an impregnable bastion of the Christian faith, which, a little later, will have a decisive influence not only on the further development of monotheistic religiosity, but also on the overall organization of the Orthodox Church.