While Pachomius is generally considered as the father of cenobitic monasticism, some scholars note that other cenobitic groups had preceded his efforts. His monastery in Thebaid, Upper Egypt was the first “modern” cenobitic monastery.

Pachomius, who is thought to have come up with the idea from his experience serving in the Roman army: It was “reminiscent of army barracks” (Dunn, 29). This arrangement of living, particularly in the merging of smaller communities and monasteries into larger monastic communities, has been attributed to St. The living arrangements for the cenobitic monks came to differ from that of the eremitic hermits as the monks settled into separate rooms or cells in houses. The cenobitic monks found themselves in contact often with local village people, whereas the eremitic monks tried their best to keep to the solitary life, meeting only occasionally for prayer. In response to these conditions, many monks began to spend more time together in organized monastic groups in common prayer on a regular basis.īy the fourth century in Egypt, organized monastic communities often developed in or near villages. Some of the hermit monks found this eremitic life too lonely and difficult it sometimes led individual monks to have mental breakdowns. The hermits lived mostly in solitary cells or caves and met together once a week for common prayers. The early Christian monks were usually hermits, especially in the Middle East. Such a group of monks is sometimes referred to as a 'cenobium.'Ĭhristian monasticism had its beginning in the early centuries of the Christian era. The words cenobite and cenobitic are derived, via Latin, from the Greek words κοινός and βίος ( koinos and bios meaning 'common' and 'life'). The opposite style of monasticism is called eremitic, in which monks live in isolation as hermits. Cenobitic (also spelled coenobitic) is the name associated with the monastic tradition that emphases regulated community life, that is, in which the monks live together under a set of rules established by the ruling abbot.

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