Written by: Aziz S. Atiya

Monastic Rule

If the Copts lost their leadership  in the fifth century,  we must go back in
time for a more enduring contribution  to Christian civilization. Parallel to
the Catechetical School and  the Oecumenical Movement, a  new and more stable
institution had  evolved which must be regarded  as  a purely Coptic  gift to
Christendom. This  is the monastic rule [19],  which was generated  by Coptic
piety and the image of  Christ and the  Apostles. Social and economic factors
played  a role as   well,  since persecution forced  many   to escape  to the
desert.

From its humble beginnings  on the fringe of the  desert, monasticism grew to
be a way  of life and developed  into cenobitic communities which became  the
wonder of   Christian antiquity.  With  its introduction   to Europe, it  was
destined to become the  sole custodian of  culture and Christian civilization
in the Dark Ages. However, like  all great institutions, Coptic monastic rule
was perfected through a number of long and evolutionary stages.

The founding of this way of life is  generally ascribed to Saint Anthony [20]
(died 336 A.D.), though organized flights to the wilderness are known to have
predated  his retirement   from the  Nile  Valley. A  certain  Frontonius and
seventy  companions decided to reject the  world and espoused a celibate life
in  the  Nitrean  desert  during  the   reign of   Antonius   Pius (died  161
A.D.). Anthony himslef, while penetrating deeper  and deeper into the Eastern
Desert, assuming that  he was  in  perfect solitude  with the Lord,  suddenly
discovered Saint Paul  the   Hermit at the    age of 113 years  already  long
established in that remote region.

Nevertheless, if we overlook these isolated instances, we can safely consider
that the first definable phase in the genesis of monasticism was the Antonian
way  of life  based  on solitude, chastity,   poverty,  and the  principle of
torturing the body to save  the soul. How did  all this begin? An  illiterate
twenty-year-old  Christian at the  village    of Coma  in  the  district   of
Heracleopolis in Middle Egypt, Anthony  heard it said one  day in church: "If
thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that  thou hast, and give  to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven" [Matthew 19:21]. A fundamentalist, he did
just that  and  crossed  the Nile  for the  desert  solitude  where  he spent
eighty-five years of increasing austerity and  asceticism. Though a solitary,
he could not  hide his light of sanctity  under a bushel,  and, when his fame
had spread so  as to reach the  imperial court, Constantine  wrote asking for
his blessing. Even the  great Athanasius spent two years  with the  Saint and
composed his biography. Others followed this "athleta christi" to the Red Sea
Mountains and lived around his cave to seek  his spiritual guidance. Thus the
second   phase in the evolution  of  the monastic  rule arose in  what may be
termed   "collective eremiticism" where settlements   of solitaries sprang up
around the person of a saint, not merely  for initiation and orientation, but
also as a measure of self-defense in the arid desert. A disabled anchorite in
this distant wilderness could perish  for lack of food and  water, if he were
not   observed by another   neighborly  solitary. Such  settlements  began to
multiply in other  parts of the  country. Besides  Pispir in Eastern  Desert,
others arose in the Thebaid in Upper Egypt as well as the Nitrean Valley [21]
in the desert to the west of the Delta of the Nile.

Subsequently at  Tabennesis, the third stage  in the development of cenobitic
life  was already taking shape under  the rule of  Saint Pachomius [22] (died
346). Originally a pagan legionary in the armies of Constantine and Licinius,
he was exposed  to the goodness of Christian  villagers during the wanderings
of his battalion. They came to  wash the soldiers'  feet and broke bread with
them despite their  harsh tax levies. Captivated by  their kindness  to their
oppressors, he  decided, on his  liquidation from  the  service, to become  a
Christian.  After his baptism, he zealously followed  a hermit by the name of
Palaemon for  training in the art of  sanctity and self-torture.  An educated
man with    a background of   military  discipline, he soon    perceived that
self-inflicted torture  could not be the only  way to heaven.  This signalled
the inception of  one of the  greatest cenobitic doctrines  of all times. The
new Rule   of  Saint Pachomius  prescribed communal  life   in a cenobium and
repudiated the principle of  self-mortification. Instead, the brethren should
expend their potential in useful pursuits both  manual and intellectual while
preserving  the   monastic vow   of  chastity,  poverty,  and  obedience. The
Pachomian system reflected the personality  of  the soldier, the  legislator,
and the holy man. Pachomius aimed at the  humanization of his monastic regime
without    losing  the   Christian   essence  of    Antonian  or  Palaemonian
sanctity. Every detail of a monk's daily activities was prescribed within the
walls of a given monastery. Each monk had to  have a vocation to make himself
a useful human being to his brotherhood;  all must labor  to earn their daily
bread, without losing sight of  their intellectual advancement; and each must
fully participate in the devotional duties of monastic life.

Pachomian monasteries multiplied rapidly in their founder's lifetime, and all
were  enriched through wise administration  as  well  as honest and  selfless
labor. in  his  famous   work   entitled  "Paradise of  the    Fathers",  the
fourth-century Bishop Palladius states that he found in one monastery fifteen
tailors, seven smiths,  four  carpenters, fifteen  fullers,  and twelve camel
drivers besides unspecified numbers of bakers, cooks, basket and rope makers,
millers, weavers,  masons, instructors, and   copyist of manuscripts  --  all
living in  complete harmony  and  perfect discipline  within a structure that
looked like a vast Roman fortification.

To   preserve good   government  in  his   expanding  institutions, Pachomius
established a   closely knit  Rule   to guard  against corruption  and  moral
deterioration. Three or  four monasteries  within  reach of  each other  were
united in a clan or a stake with a president elected from among their abbots,
and all    of  the monks  in  the   clan met  periodically  to  discuss local
problems. All clans were organized  under a superior-general who summoned the
whole brotherhood to  a general council twice each  year: once  in the summer
after the  harvest for administrative  and budgetary considerations, and agin
at Easter for making annual  reports as well as  for the announcements of new
abbots and the transfer of office among the old  ones. The last meating ended
with an impressive scene of prayer and mutual forgiveness of sins.

The fame of Pachomian foundations spread far and wide,  not only within Egypt
but also throughout the world.  Monks came to  live  with the fathers of  the
desert  from many nations --  Greeks, Romans,  Capadocians, Libyans, Syrians,
Nubians, and Ethiopians, to mention a few of those on record -- and Pachomius
devised a system of wards for each nation within every monastery.

The Coptic  cenobitic  rule became the wonder  of  ancient  Christendom.  The
planting of the Coptic system in Europe and other continents of the Old World
was achieved by some of the greatest divines  of the mediaeval world. We know
that during one of his exiles in  Europe, Saint Athanasius spoke about Coptic
monasteries   at the Roman  Curia  of Julius I (337-352   A.D.)  But the real
apostles of Coptic monastic  rule  were celebrated personalities who  resided
for years in Pachomian establishments in the Thebaid and sojourned as well in
the  convents of Kellia, Scetis,  and Nitrea in the  Western Desert. To quote
some  of the illustrious names  who made extended  pilgrimages  to the Coptic
fathers of the desert,  we must begin with  Saint Jerome (342-420  A.D.), who
translated the  "Regula Sancti Pachomii" into  Latin, which version must have
been used by Saint Benedict of Nursia  (480-550 A.D.) in composing his famous
Rule. Others included Saint  John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.); Rufinus (345-410
A.D.), the renowned ecclesiastical historian; Saint Basil (330-379 A.D.), the
Cappadocian author of the  great  Eastern liturgy  used  to this day and  the
founder of   a Byzantine monastic  order  on the model  of the  Rule of Saint
Pachomius;  Saint John Cassian (360-435 A.D.),  the  father of monasticism in
Gaul, who  is known  to have spent  seven  years in  the  Thebaid and Nitrea,
Palladius (365-425 A.D.), Bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, who compiled the
lives of the desert fathers in "The Lausiac History"; Saint Augen or Eugenius
of Clysma, the father of Syrian asceticism; and many more from other parts of
Europe  in addition to  some lesser known  persons from  Ethiopia, Nubia, and
North Africa.

In reality,  the rule  of   Saint Pachomius continued  to influence  European
monasticism beyond  the Middle Ages. Saint  Benedict failed to incorporate in
his rule the Pachomian system of unifying the convents into clans with annual
meetings for  mutual   surveillance of  their  activities. It  is  known that
independent Benedictine houses became very rich in the long run, and that the
Benedictine monks decided to discard  toil and live  luxuriously on the hired
labor  of local farmers,  thus losing the virtue of   the Pachomian system of
surveillance by other members of the brotherhood. Only  the Cluniac reform of
the tenth century was  able to remedy that  rising  evil by reverting  to the
spirit of   the Pachomian rule. Subsequently most    newer European orders of
religion  observed the  same  cooperative  system.  The Carthusians  and  the
Cistercians in the eleventh and twelfth  centuries as well as the Franciscans
and the Dominicans  were founded on  the basis of  union among their convents
under  the  authority  of a  central  government.  Even   the  Jesuits in the
sixteenth  century  appear  unwittingly to  have fallen  under   the spell of
Pachomian dictates. It  becomes  quite obvious  that the contribution  of the
Copts in the field of monasticism persisted until the modern age.