Russian Orthodox Monasticism
Development of Orthodox Monasticism
Christian monasticism started in the East in the Egyptian desert. Following the recognition of Christianity by the Roman Emperor, St. Constantine, in AD 335 there arose the
danger that has not, with the passage of time, become less, that men might confuse the earthly kingdom with the Heavenly one. It was then as it is now, the monks who have kept
the concept alive that the kingdom of God is not of this world. Men, and women too, fearing that the lure of comfort and security would divert them from their search for unity
with God, left all behind them and made their way into the desert, at first singly, then in loosely formed groups. By AD 350, there were already three distinct forms of
monastic life, still found today in the Orthodox Church.
 1) The Eremite or Hermit who
lived alone in a cell difficult of access, his life entirely devoted to prayer and extreme asceticism. His prototype is St. Paul of Thebes, whose life was written by St.
Jerome. He proceeded into the desert by several years St. Anthony (251-355), who is considered the father of monasticism. The story of the holy men’s encounter, after many
long years of solitude, is one of the most lovely in the history of the Desert Fathers. It is clear from St. Athanasius’s Life of St. Anthony that monasticism was already well
known when St. Anthony, having previously entrusted the care of his orphaned sister to a group of virgins near Alexandria, entered the desert.
2) The Cenobitic or community life, was started by St. Pachomius of Tabennisi (circa 315-320), where men lived together under a common rule in a regularly constituted
monastery. There were also communities of women following this same rule. It is this rule that was used to a great extent by St. Benedict in forming his monastic rule upon
which all other Western monastic rules are based. St. Basil the Great (AD 329-319) was a strong advocate of the community life. Because of his two books, the Shorter and
Longer Rules, his influence in Orthodox monasticism is profound, although he did not found an order. Separate Monastic Orders or Congregations, as in the West, are unknown
in the Orthodox Church; quite simply all those who live in the Monastic life are accepted as members of the great Brotherhood of Ascetics, and the same rule is used and the
same habit is worn by both men and women, forming an integral and inseparable part of the Church’s body. Very close to St. Basil stood his sister St. Macrina, who already had
founded a community for women in Capadocia before her brother had founded his on the banks of Iris
3) The Semi-Eremitic Life or middle way, is the monastic way of life of men who live in a loosely knit group of small settlements each practicing asceticism according to his
own will, though under the direction of an Abbot, the first of whom was Ammon of Nitria. Their focal point, is, as it is for all forms of monastic life, the Holy Eucharist,
for which they assemble regularly.
The acme of Orthodox Monasticism, where all three forms of monastic life co-exist to this day, is Mount Athos, the ‘Holy Mountain’ with 1000 years of uninterrupted activity.
It alone gave the church twenty-six Patriarchs and one hundred forty-four Bishops. All Orthodox countries are represented there, the monks living in their own monasteries or
grouped in one or another of the great Lavras, or as hermits. “There is a great richness of forms of the spiritual life to be found within the bounds of Orthodoxy, but
monasticism remains the most classical . . . One could say broadly that Eastern monasticism was exclusively contemplative, if the distinction between the two ways, active and
contemplative, had in the East the same meaning as in the West. In fact for an Eastern monk the two ways are inseparable. The one cannot be exercised without the other . . .
Interior prayer receives the name of spiritual activity . . . If the monks occupy themselves . . . with physical labors, it is above all with an ascetic end in view.”
As we have said monasticism started in Egypt, but by degrees the leadership shifted to Palestine where it flowered under St. Euthymius the Great (died 412) and especially
under his disciple St. Sabbas (died 532) who greatly influenced the monastic rule, and then at the end of the 8th Century to Constantinople when St. Theodore was abbot of
the great and influential monastery of Studium that was founded there in 463. To this age belongs the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, founded by Emperor Justinian
in 560, and which is still in use, harboring a great treasure in manuscripts and holy icons which have escaped the ravages of the iconoclastic wars. With time there developed
in all Orthodox countries a rich and distinctive monastic life, and each could boast of important spiritual centers that spread their light over all the Orthodox world. To
mention only the foremost, are the Lavra of Kiev and Optina in Russia, Mount Athos and Patmos in Greece, Tismana and Neamtu in Romania, Ohrida in Serbia. There were countless
monasteries, convents and hermitages in these, countries in pre-communist days. Monasticism has always been seen as a form of martyrdom. It developed and blossomed forth in
the 4th century after the martyrdom of the bloody persecutions of Christians had dwindled. Today under the communist system, monastic life, like all church life, is being
suffocated to death. In these places there are thousands of unknown martyrs gorging prisons and concentration camps. It is calculated that in Russia alone, more people died
for their faith in the first 30 years of the revolution than did in the first 300 years of Christianity. There seems to have been a balance between the cessation of
persecution and the growth of monasticism. If this is so, then we should be seeing in the free world a resurgence of monastic vocations, especially of the more ascetic kind.
Although the accent in Orthodox monasticism has always been upon spiritual activity aiming above all to union with God in complete renunciation of this present world, it would be incorrect to imply, as some authors do, that Eastern monks cared nothing for the needs of others and had little or no influence upon the course of
events. In the East, as in the West, it was the monks, sometimes hidden in caves, who kept the torch of civilization burning during the dark ages of barbaric incursions; and
later it was in the cloister that Christians and national culture was kept alive during centuries of Tartar and Mohamedan-Turkish invasions and occupations, a trial their
Western brethren did not have to experience. Many a bishop (all Orthodox bishops are monks), played leading roles in their countries’ state councils, for example St. Gregory
Palamas (1296-1359) who was also a great mystic. There was also St. Sergius of Radonezh (?1314-1392) Russia’s greatest saint, and many others up to the present day, such as
Patriarch Miron Christea who was regent in Romania for the young King (l927-30). They advised, admonished, encouraged or opposed their rulers when necessary. They never played
such spectacular roles as the Abbots of Cluny at one time did, nor were they worldly powerful princes. All the same the influence of the monks as a whole was felt throughout
history. In the Byzantine Empire they were very strong and saved it from various heresies, fought against immoralities, none more so that St. John Chrysostom (?344-401), and
St. Tikhon in the Russian Empire. Orthodox monasticism has had its ups and downs as elsewhere, but it never seems to have fallen into the excesses of luxuries as did that of
the monks of Tours in the 11th century who “went about in flowing robes of many colors, and wore shoes that shone like glass.” Nevertheless in town and country, monasteries
abounded and did much good, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and caring for the sick. Many of them grew very large, housing several hundreds and in Russia thousands
of monks or nuns. Some had vast estates that they farmed. At certain times this tended toward too great wealth and was curtailed, at the same time one must not forget that
this wealth enabled them to save whole regions from famine.
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