:This article is about an abbey as a religious building. See also Abbey (bank), Abbey Theatre and Abbey, SaskatchewanAn abbey (from the Latin abbatia, which is derived from the Syriac abba, "father"), is a Christian monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serve as the spiritual father or mother of the community. A priory only differed from an abbey in that the superior bore the title of prior instead of abbot. Priories were originally offshoots from the larger abbeys, to the abbots of which they continued subordinate; however, the actual distinction between abbeys and priories was lost by the Renaissance. A convent is the usual term for an abbey of nuns.
The earliest known Christian monastic communities (see Monasticism) consisted of groups of cells or huts collected about a common centre, which was usually the house of some hermit or anchorite famous for holiness or singular asceticism, but without any attempt at orderly arrangement. Such communities were not an invention of Christianity. The example had been already set in part by the Essenes in JudeaJudea or Judaea "Praise", Standard Hebrew Yhuda Tiberian Hebrew Yhuh is a term used for the mountainous Southern part of the West Bank. In modern times, the name "Yehudah" is most often used by Zionists. Others prefer to use the collective name introduced and perhaps by the TherapeutaeThe Therapeutae ("Worshipers" in Greek) were an early pre-Christian monastic order established near Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt. They were described in the beginning of the 1st century CE by the writer Philo, in his 1 in EgyptJumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah ( In Detail) Official language Arabic Capital Cairo Largest City Cairo President Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Area Total % water Ranked 29th 1,001,450 kmē 0. 6% Population Total (2003) Density Ranked 15th 74,718,797.
In the earliest age of Christian monasticism the asceticAn ascetic is one who practices a renunciation of worldly pursuits to achieve spiritual attainment. Lao Zi, Gautama Buddha, Mahavir Swami and Jesus Christ can all be considered ascetics. These people left their families, possessions, and homes, and in thes were accustomed to live singly, independent of one another, not far from some village church, supporting themselves by the labour of their own hands, and distributing the surplus after the supply of their own scanty wants to the poor. Increasing religious fervour, aided by persecution, drove them farther and farther away from the civilization into mountain solitudes or lonely deserts. The deserts of Egypt swarmed with the "cells" or huts of these anchorites. Anthony the GreatAnthony the Great ( 251 356), Christian saint, also known as Anthony of Egypt Anthony of the Desert and Anthony the Anchorite was a leader among the Desert Fathers, who were Christian monks in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd and 4th centuries A. His feast, who had retired to the Egyptian Thebaid during the persecution of MaximianMarcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus (c. 250 310) was emperor of the Roman Empire (together with Diocletian) from March 1, 286 to 305. Born to a poor family, Maximian made a career in the army until 285, when the new emperor Diocletian, a friend of his, ma, A.D. 312Events October 28 Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine defeats Maxentius in the fight to become emperor of Rome. He also is converted to Christianity. Arch of Constantine built in Rome Births Deaths October 28 Maxentius, Roman Emperor slain in battle 312, was the most celebrated among them for his
austerities, his sanctity, and his power as an exorcist. His fame collected round him a host of followers imitating his asceticism in an attempt to imitate his sanctity. The deeper he withdrew into the wilderness, the more numerous his disciples became. They refused to be separated from him, and built their ceils round that of their spiritual father. Thus arose the first monastic community, consisting of anchorites living each in his own little dwelling, united together under one superior. Anthony, as Neander remarks (Church History, vol. iii. p. 316, Clark's trans.), "without any conscious design of his own, had become the founder of a new mode of living in common, Coenobitism." By degrees order
was introduced in the groups of huts. They were arranged in lines like the tents in an encampment, or the houses in a street. From this arrangement these lines of single cells came to be known as Laurae, Laurai, "streets" or "lanes."
The real founder of cenobitic (koinos, common, and bios, life) monasteries in the modern sense was PachomiusPachomius who died around AD 345 in Tabennisi, Egypt, was one of the founders of Christian monasticism. Pachomius was a young Egyptian who according to tradition was raised a pagan and became a Christian after service in the Roman army. Pachomius set out, an Egyptian of the beginning of the 4th century. The first community established by him was at Tabennae, an island of the Nile in Upper Egypt. Eight others were founded in the region during his lifetime, numbering 3000 monks. Within fifty years from his death his societies could claim 50,000 members. These coenobia resembled villages, peopled by a hard-working religious community, all of one sex.
The buildings were detached, small and of the humblest character. Each cell or hut, according to Sozomen (H.R. iii. 14), contained three monks. They took their chief meal in a common refectory or dining hall at 3 P.M., up to which hour they usually fasted. They ate in silence, with hoods so drawn over their faces that they could see nothing but what was on the table before them. The monks spent all the time, not devoted to religious services or study, in manual labour. Palladius, who visited the Egyptian monasteries about the close of the 4th century, found among the 300 members of the coenobium of Panopolis , under the Pachomian rule, 15 tailors, 7 smiths, 4 carpenters, 12 cameldrivers and 15 tanners. Each separate community had its own oeconomus or steward, who was subject to a chief steward stationed at the head establishment. All the produce of the monks' labour was committed to him, and by him shipped to Alexandria. The money raised by the sale was expended in the purchase of stores for the support of the communities, and what was over was devoted to charity. Twice in the year the superiors of the several coenobia met at the chief monastery, under the presidency of an archimandrite ("the chief of the fold," from miandra, a sheepfold), and at the last meeting gave in reports of their administration for the year. The coenobia of Syria belonged to the Pachomian institution. We learn many details concerning those in the vicinity of Antioch from Chrysostom's writings. The monks lived in separate huts, kalbbia, forming a religious hamlet on the mountain side. They were subject to an abbot, and observed a common rule. (They had no refectory, but ate their common meal, of bread and water only, when the day's labour was over, reclining on strewn grass, sometimes out of doors,) Four times in the day they joined in prayers and psalms.
