Monastic spirituality

1. Communal monastic life.2. Spiritual warfare.3. Goals of monastic life.4. Evagrius of Pontus. 5. Functions of the holy man.

Simeon the Pillar-Dweller (389-459).

Eusebius on Two Ways of Life:

• Two ways of life were thus given by the law of Christ to His Church. The one is above nature, and beyond common human living; it admits not marriage, child-bearing, property nor the possession of wealth, but wholly and permanently separate from the common customary life of mankind, it devotes itself to the service of God alone in its wealth of heavenly love!.. And the other more humble, more human, permits men to join in pure nuptials and to produce children, to undertake government, to give orders to soldiers fighting for right; it allows them to have minds for farming, for trade, and the other more secular interests as well as for religion: and it is for them that times of retreat and instruction, and days for hearing sacred things are set apart. And a kind of secondary grade of piety is attributed to them, giving just such help as such lives require, so that all men, whether Greeks or barbarians, have their part in the coming of salvation, and profit by the teaching of the Gospel.– Eusebius, Proof of the Gospel, i. 8.

St. Pachomius (290-346)

• Founded a monastery at Tabenninsi in Egypt about 320 AD

• Wrote the first monastic rule

• At death presided over 9 monasteries for men and 2 for women

Pachomius & David of Thessalonica (right)

Main features of Pachomius’s monastery

• Enclosing wall

• Gate-house

• Guest-house

• Assembly Hall (church or synaxis)

• Refectory with Kitchen

• Hospital

• Several houses with cells for monks

Monastery of Anba Hatre in Egypt (established at the end of the 4th c.)

Anba Hatre. Plan of the monastery.

Main Church (11th c.; remains)

A Cell with Stone Beds

Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai.

Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai

Spiritual warfare: five stages of sin

1. Provocation2. Coupling3. Assent4. Captivity5. Habit

Temptations of St. Antony

Goals of monastic life

1. Self-mastery.2. Purity of heart.3. Ceaseless prayer. 4. Imitation of Christ.5. Final goal: eternal life.

John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Assent

Evagrius on Prayer

• ascent of the spirit to God• conversation with God• nourishment of the mind• activity which dignifies human spirit• the most divine of virtues• flower of meekness and mildness• fruit of joy & thanksgiving• exclusion of sadness and despondency• prelude to immaterial and simple

knowledge of God • the highest act of the intellect

Simeon surrounded by visitors

St Simeon’s whereabouts

Remains of the pillar of St Simeon the Younger

Qala’at Semaan about 60 miles East from Antioch. Built ca. 490.

The function of the holy man in Late Antiquity

• Miracle-worker • Patron and protector• Mediator between heaven and earth• Intercessor who stands outside social relations

Seven deadly sins

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