Vol: 4 Issue: 5
Baramouda 1726 / May 2010
Instructions to a Monk By: St Pachomius My son, listen and be wise, accept the true doctrine, for there are many ways. Be able to obey God like Abraham, who abandoned his country, went into exile, and with Isaac lived in a tent in the promised land as in a foreign country. He obeyed, humbled himself, and was given an inheritance; he was even put to the test over Isaac. He was courageous in trial and offered Isaac in sacrifice to God; and for that, God called him His friend. When a thought oppresses you, do not be downhearted, but put up with it in courage, saying; ”They swarmed around me closer and closer, but I drove them back in the name of the Lord.” (Ps 118:10) Divine help will arrive at your side immediately, and you will drive them away from you, and courage will compass you round about, and the glory of God will walk with you; and you will be filled to your soul’s desire. For the ways of God are humility of heart and gentleness. It is said indeed; Whom shall I consider if not the humble and the meek?' (Is 66:2) If you move ahead in the ways of the L or d , H e w il l w a tch o ver y ou , w i ll gi ve y ou strength, and will fill you with knowledge and wisdom. Your remembrance will remain before him at all times. He will deliver you from the devil, and in your dying day he will grant you his peace. My son, obey me. Do not be negligent, “Give your eyes no sleep, your eyelids no rest, so that you may break free like a gazelle from the snares”; (Pr 6:4-5) For, O my son, all the spirits have attacked me often since my childhood. When I was in the desert they afflicted me to the point that I was about to lose heart and I thought I could not resist the threats of the dragon. He tormented me in every possible way. If I showed myself, he battled me with flames; if I withdrew, he afflicted me with his insolence. Many a time my heart was in distress, and I turned from side to side and had no rest. When I fled to God with tears, humility, fasts, and vigils, then the enemy
and all his spirits grew weak before me, God's courage came into me, and I experienced at once God's help. For in his mercy he makes his strength and goodness known to the sons of men. Recite constantly the words of God. Put up with fatigue and be grateful for everything. Shun the praise of men and love the one who, in the fear of the Lord, reprimands you. Let every man be profitable to you so that you may be good to everyone. Persevere in your work, and in language be above reproach. Do not take one step forward, then a step backward, that God may not detest you; for the crown shall go to the one who perseveres. Be ever more obedient to God, and He will save you. If you wish to live among men, imitate Abraham, Lot, Moses, and Samuel. If you wish to live in the desert, all the prophets have led the way there before you. Be like them, wandering in the deserts, valleys and caves of the earth, plunged in misery, trials, and affliction. It is said again, The shadow of the parched and the spirit of the maltreated will bless you. And then, for the thief on the cross the one who spoke a word the Lord forgave his sins and received him into paradise. See what honor will be yours if you have steadfastness in the face of trial or of the spirit of fornication, or the spirit of pride, or any other passion. Do battle against diabolic passions, not to follow them, and Jesus will grant you what he has promised. (From: Armand Veilleux, Pachomian Koinonia: the life of saint Pachomius, Vol: 1)
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The Spirituality of St Pachomius’ Rules By: Lisa Agaiby To understand the system of Pachomius’ communal monasticism is to understand Pachomius’ spirituality. In the first place Pachomian spirituality was one of community. His conversion had been brought about by the charity of the Christians, after which he became inspired by the image of service. This inspiration came to typify the expression of Pachomius’ own spirituality and presented a more social dimension to Antony’s monasticism. In addition, the Sahidic Life claims that Pachomius was divinely instructed to “serve mankind” hence giving his vocation a charitable orientation. So where Antony is the father of monks, Pachomius becomes the father of a community of monks. Hence charity becomes the basis of Pachomian legislation; the provision of which was expressed through the work of one’s hands. In fulfilling the scriptural command, charity serves two purposes: it facilitates union with God as well as union with others, and therefore Pachomian spirituality developed along two lines: union with God and union with the brethren. 1) Union with God: The Life clearly indicates that Pachomius was a man of prayer and so to encourage prayer and spiritual life amongst his brothers, the Rules insist above all on the Scriptures and the common liturgies. However, realising the danger of restlessness that can be experienced during prayer and spiritual contemplation, Pachomius instigated a rule combining work and prayer. Accordingly, Pachomian Rules were characterised by the unity between prayer and work; when the brothers took part in a communal service, they were to work in silence at weaving mats or baskets whilst listening to a passage of scripture. Thus, as Marilyn Dunn observes, liturgical practice was recognisably meditative. Likewise, as the brothers went about their daily work, they were to recite verses from the scriptures. This meditative tradition was recognised as the foundation of the spiritual life of all the monks of Egypt, and the means by which they achieved monastic ascesis. 2) Union with the brethren: being charitable to others through service is the core of Pachomius’ vision. The Life abounds with stories of Pachomius’ charitable works: he took particular joy in providing for the needs of the helpless, the elderly, the sick and children, he provided for the needs of the surrounding villages, and he gladly worked with his own hands to provide for the needs of his community of monks. From the beginning Pachomius anticipated a large community of monks, for the angel of God foretold that he was to “gather together a great number of monks,” and that, “many will come to you.” For this reason Pachomius “constructed enough accommodation for a Page 3
great number of people.” To understand the magnitude of the Pachomian community, Cassian estimated there were five thousand monks, Palladius recorded seven thousand by the end of the fourth century, and Jerome stated a staggering number of fifty thousand monks! Regardless of which account is correct, the sources succeed in giving the impression that there were a lot of monks, and so the need for manual labour was central to ensure the monasteries were self sufficient in providing the basic needs for the thousands of monks, as well as provide for the needs of the villagers, and hence fulfil the first Pachomian law of charity which states, “Love is the fulfilment of the law.” So prominent was manual labour that Jerome explains the Pachomian monks were organised into houses by virtue of their trades. According to Palladius’ description, “One works on the land as a labourer, another in the garden, another at the forge, another in the bakery, another in the carpenter’s shop, another in the fuller’s shop, another in the tannery, another in the shoemaker’s shop, another in the scriptorium, another weaving the young reeds.” In addition to a hospital which Pachomius incorporated into the general plan of his monasteries to provide care for the monks as well as the villagers, the type of work undertaken by the monks convey the charitable orientation of the Pachomian communities. Pachomius appreciated the value of manual work, both to fulfil his mission of serving and offering charity to others, and to ensure his growing community remains selfsufficient. He also experienced the manifestation of God’s will for him during the times in which he was both working and praying, and in addition the angel instructed a law that included mutual work and prayer.
A group of youth from Arch-Angel Michael and St Bishoy’s Church spending a retreat at the monastery Page 4
Pachomius and the Development of Village Monasticism By: James E. Goehring Tradition has bestowed on Antony and Pachomius the status of founders of early Egyptian monasticism. They serve as the movement's primary icons; Antony represents the anchoritic model of the ascetic life, Pachomius its coenobitic form. Antony's earlier date has fashioned him as the individual representative of monastic origins. His discovery of the "ascetic" desert, marks the beginning of the movement, and the withdrawn anchoritic life becomes its initial form of ascesis. This understanding of the origins of Egyptian monasticism depends in large part, however, on the widespread success of the purposeful biography of Antony published by the Alexandrian archbishop Athanasius. It is Athanasius who links ascetic practice so intimately with the discovery of the desert. In the Vita Antonii, he fashions the desert as the telos, or final [locational] goal, of male ascetic formation! From his family home within his village, to the outskirts of the village, to nearby tombs, to a deserted fortress in the nearer desert, to the further desert along the Red Sea, Antony's ascetic progress is marked by a movement away from his village, away from the oikoumene, into the desert. The desert is the location of Antony's ascetic perfection and the source of this ascetic power. His subsequent returns to the oikoumene are simply occasions for using his ascetic power on behalf of an ecclesiastical polity defined by Athanasius. The success of Athanasius's Vita Antonii made the desert the trade mark of Egyptian asceticism. True ascetics were desert ascetics. The power of the equation is seen in the tendency of authors to enroll later ascetics, regardless of the location of their cells or monasteries, as citizens of Athanasius's new ascetic city rising in the desert Pachomius too became an inhabitant of this city. Later authors interpret his coenobitic experiment as a secondary development born out of the original anchoritic model Its origins too were understood to lie ultimately with Antony and the desert. While it is true that Pachomius began his ascetic career as an anchorite under the desert ascetic Palamon, it is seldom acknowledged that his coenobitic innovation occurred through his withdrawal from the desert. In fact, his orientation to the oikoumene and its villages was quite distinct from that of Antony. Rather than moving in a direction that led ever further away from the village into the desert, Pachomius, in his ascetic career, never left the fertile Nile valley. He always moved within the sphere of the village, and his innovations occurred precisely through his return to and use of the village. The Pachomian dossier suggests that Pachomius first came into contact with Christians as an imprisoned military conscript in Thebes around 312 CE. He was amazed at the kindness of strangers who came to the prison to encourage the conscripts and give Page 5
them food He struck a deal with God that night in prayer promising to serve him and humankind all the days of his life should he be freed from prison. Released after Licinius's defeat of Maximinus Daia in 313, he proceeded to the village of Seneset where he was baptized. He remained in the village and served the people, in part by gathering wood for them from the nearby acacia forests. Eventually, he decided to embrace more fully the ascetic life and apprenticed himself under the old anchorite Palamon, who lived on the outskirts of the village of Seneset in a small patch of "interior" desert surrounded by fertile land. Palamon was not a withdrawn desert anchorite of the type represented by the perfected Antony of Athanasius's Vita Antonii, but an ascetic who lived on the edge of the village within the fertile valley. He is more akin to the old village ascetic whom Antony first emulated or to Antony himself in his initial ascetic withdrawal to "the places close to the village" The fact that Palamon lived in a desert has little bearing on his social connection with the village, since his desert was simply a barren patch of land in the fertile valley adjacent to the village. Pachomius remained with Palamon for seven years and continued his trips through the acacia forests. The Vita Pachomii reports that on one such trip he wandered ten miles south to the shore of the Nile River where he discovered the "deserted village" of Tabennese It was the opportunity offered by his chance discovery of the deserted village that led to his decision to remain and build a monastery. Unlike Antony, Pachomius's ascetic vocation was not fulfilled by withdrawing further into the desert. He did not move from his initial location near his village deeper into the desert to distance himself further from society. His ascetic career moved him in exactly the opposite direction. Pachomius finds ascetic perfection in his return to the village, albeit a deserted village on the shore of the Nile. Ascetics were masters in the reuse of deserted space, and Tabennese, if indeed it was deserted, offered ready space and housing for an emerging ascetic community Its location on the shore of the Nile made it particularly attractive in terms of the projected needs of such a community. Fertile land for vegetable gardens and the water necessary for their irrigation were immediately available, as were the materials required for the traditional monastic work of basket and mat weaving. Commercial markets for the monks' handiwork were close by, and the Nile offered a ready means of transportation. In fact, the subsequent expansion of the Pachomian koinonia into a system of affiliated monasteries spread over 175 kilometers between the towns of Smin (Panopolis) and Sne (Latopolis) is difficult to imagine apart from the ease of transportation offered by the river. In the later periods of the movement, agricultural holdings outside of the monasteries proper were added, and farming and irrigation regulations became an essential part of the community's rule as the community grew in size and wealth, its markets expanded and its use of the Nile increased. Page 6
Eventually, shipbuilding occurred within the monasteries, and monks sailed not only between the communities in Upper Egypt, but also to and from Alexandria, and possibly to Constantinople. The subsequent growth of the koinonia's agricultural and commercial dealings was a natural result of the original village orientation of the movement. A truly desert movement could not have been so active in the common affairs of the society. (From: James E. Goehring, Withdrawing from the Desert: Pachomius and the Development of Village Monasticism in Upper Egypt)
A Group of youth from St Marks Church spending a retreat at the monastery
From the Rules of St Pachomius Whoever enters the monastery uninstructed shall be taught first what he must observe and if he is illiterate, he shall go at the first, third, and six hour to someone who can teach and has been appointed for him. He shall stand before him and learn very studiously with all gratitude. Then the fundamentals of a syllable, the verbs and nouns shall be written for him, and even if he does not want to, he shall be compelled to read. Page 7
The Holy Psalmody (Coptic, Arabic & English) St Shenouda has republished a psalmody book in the three languages, Coptic, Arabic and English. This book contains the four Hooses, the Psalies and Theotokias for weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays and feast days. It also contains 52 Doxologies for the saints and all the Doxologies for the feast days of the year. To order copies please contact the monastery.
Armand Veilleux, Pachomian Koinonia: the life of saint pachomius, 3 Volumes. Cistercian Publications. This collection of materials, carefully and invaluably assembled by Father Armand Veilleux, contains the archives of a great event: the origin during the fourth century of communal religious life within Christianity. The consequences for Church and society of this event, still continuing to unfold, cannot be measured.
Philip Rousseau, “Pachomius: The making of community in fourthcentury Egypt.� Philip Rousseau's careful reading of the available texts reveals that Pachomius's pioneering enterprise has been consistently misread in light of later monastic practices. Rousseau not only provides a fuller and more accurate portrait of this great teacher and spiritual director but also gives a new perspective on the development of monasticism. Page 8