28. Происхождение монашества. Основатели его на Востоке и Западе. Значение монашества

The Gospel demands from everyone a morally good life, but at the same time, for some, especially those who are zealous for piety, it gives instructions on how to build a more perfect life. So, for example, everyone is allowed to enter into a legal marriage, and Christian marriage is sanctified by the sacrament, but the one who has preserved his virginity in purity and chastity is considered more perfect. Everyone is commanded to give a portion of their property to the poor, but the greater feat is when someone gives all of their property to the poor. From the very beginning of the Christian Church, many of the believers strove to achieve the highest spiritual perfection: some voluntarily gave up their property and distributed it to the poor; others, imitating the Ever-Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist, the Apostles Paul, John and James, took a vow of virginity and spent time in unceasing prayer, fasting and abstinence. Such ascetics were known in the Church under the name of ascetics. But in the first two centuries, asceticism in all its forms was not an organized phenomenon: ascetics lived separately from each other and did not form any special society with a specific charter. At the end of the third century, asceticism began to take on a more definite character. Christian ascetics consider life away from the world more convenient for fulfilling their vows. Therefore, they leave cities and villages and settle in mountains and deserts. Such ascetics who retired from the world were called anchorites (from Greek “hermit”) and heremites (from Greek “hermit”). The horrors of the persecution from Decius were some external motivation for this movement, but with the cessation of the persecution, the desire of Christian ascetics for solitude intensified even more. In the days of peace, with the transition of many pagans to the Church, the strictness of the life of Christians began to weaken, and this also prompted the zealots of piety to seek salvation in the desert. Monasticism originally arose in the East. Egypt is considered his homeland; its father and founder is Anthony the Great. Anthony the Great was born around 250 from noble and wealthy parents who raised him in piety. At the age of eighteen, he lost his parents and was left alone with his sister, who was in his care. One day he was going to church and thinking about the holy apostles, how they left everything to follow the Lord. He enters the church and hears the gospel words: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your property and give it to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). These words struck Anthony as much as if they had been spoken by the Lord to him personally. Anthony’s first act after this was to renounce the inheritance after his parents in favor of the poor inhabitants of his village, but Anthony was perplexed to whom he would leave his sister. Concerned with this thought, he enters the church another time and hears there again the words of the Savior addressed to him: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things: enough for each day is its own care” (Matthew 6:34). Anthony entrusted his sister to Christian virgins known to him and left the city and home to live in solitude and serve the Lord alone. The removal of Saint Anthony from the world did not happen suddenly, but gradually. At first he stayed near the city with an old man who lived in solitude, and tried to imitate him in everything. He also visited other hermits who lived in the vicinity of the city and took their advice. Already at this time he became so famous for his exploits that he was called “the friend of God.” Then he decides to leave further, calls the old man with him and, when he refused, says goodbye to him and settles in one of the tomb caves. One of his friends brought him food from time to time. Finally, Saint Anthony leaves completely from inhabited places, crosses the Nile River and settles in the ruins of a military fortification. He brought with him bread for six months, and after that he received it from his friends only twice a year through a hole in the roof. It is impossible to describe how many temptations and struggles this great ascetic endured. He suffered from hunger and thirst, from cold and heat. But the most terrible temptation of the hermit, according to Anthony himself, is in the heart: this is longing for the world and agitation of thoughts. To all this were added temptations and horrors from demons. Sometimes the holy ascetic became exhausted and was ready to fall into despondency. Then either the Lord Himself appeared or sent an angel to encourage him. “Where have you been, good Jesus? Why didn’t You come first to end my suffering?” - Anthony cried when the Lord, after one grave temptation, appeared to him. “I was here,” the Lord told him, “and I waited until I saw your feat.” Once, in the midst of a terrible struggle with his thoughts, Anthony cried out: “Lord, I want to be saved, but my thoughts won’t let me.” Suddenly he sees someone similar to him sitting and working, then he got up and began to pray, then he sat down to work again. “Do this and you will be saved,” the angel of the Lord told him. Antony had already lived twenty years in his solitude, when some of his friends, having learned of his whereabouts, came to settle around him. For a long time they knocked on his door and asked him to come out to them from his voluntary imprisonment; They finally decided to break down the doors when Anthony opened them and went out. They were surprised to find no traces of exhaustion in him, although he subjected himself to the greatest hardships. Heavenly peace reigned in his soul and was reflected on his face. Calm, reserved, equally friendly to everyone, the elder soon became the father and mentor of many. The desert came to life: in the mountains all around there appeared abodes of monks; many people sang, read, fasted, prayed, worked, and served the poor. Saint Anthony did not give his disciples any specific rules for monastic life; he cared only about instilling in them a pious mood, instilling in them devotion to the will of God, prayer, renunciation from everything earthly, and tireless work. But Anthony, in the desert itself, was burdened by the crowds and sought new solitude. “Where do you want to run?” - there was a voice from the sky when he was waiting on the banks of the Nile for a boat to get away from people. “To Upper Thebaid,” answered Anthony. But the same voice objected to him: “Whether you sail up to Thebaid or down to Bucolia 53, you will have no peace either there or here. Go to the inner desert." This was the name of the desert that lay near the shores of the Red Sea. Anthony went there, following the passing Saracens. After three days of travel, he found a wild, high mountain with a spring of water and a few palm trees in the valley. He settled on this mountain. Here he cultivated a small field, so that now no one needed to come to him and bring bread. From time to time he visited the brethren. The camel carried bread and water to maintain his strength during these difficult journeys through the desert. However, admirers of Saint Anthony also discovered his last solitude. Those who sought his prayers and instructions began to come to him in large numbers. They brought the sick to him: he prayed for them and healed them. Saint Anthony had been living in the desert for about seventy years; against his will, he began to be embarrassed by the proud thought that he was older than everyone here. He asked God to remove this thought from him and received a revelation that a certain hermit had settled in the desert much earlier than him and had been serving the Lord longer than he. Anthony got up early in the morning and went to look for this ascetic unknown to the world. I walked the whole day and did not meet anyone except desert animals. An immense space spread out before him, but he did not lose his hope. Early in the morning he went again. A she-wolf flashed before his eyes, running towards the stream. Saint Anthony approached this stream and saw a cave near it. At the sound of his footsteps, the door to the cave closed tightly. Until noon, Saint Anthony called out through the door to the unknown ascetic and asked to show him his face. Finally the door opened, and a very old man, completely white with gray hair, came out to meet him. It was Saint Paul of Thebes. He had already lived in the desert for about ninety years. After the brotherly kiss, Paul asked Anthony: in what condition is the human race? What kind of government is there in the world? Are there still idolaters left? The end of persecution and the triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire was good news for him, but the appearance of Arianism was bitter. While the elders were talking, a raven came down to them and laid down some bread. “The Lord is generous and merciful,” Paul exclaimed, “for how many years I have received half a loaf of bread from Him every day, but now for your coming He has sent a whole loaf.” On the morning of the next day, Paul revealed himself to Anthony that he would soon depart from the world; therefore, he asked Anthony to bring to him the mantle of Bishop Athanasius (famous for his struggle for Orthodoxy against the Arian heresy) in order to cover his remains with it. Anthony hastened to fulfill the desire of the holy elder. He returned to his desert in great excitement and to the questions of the brethren he could only say: “I am a sinner, I still considered myself a monk! I saw Elijah, I saw John, I saw Paul in heaven." On the way back to Saint Paul, he saw him carried to heaven, among a host of angels, prophets, and apostles. “Why, Pavel, didn’t you wait for me? - Anthony exclaimed. “I recognized you so late and you are leaving so early!” However, when he entered Paul's cave, he found him silent and motionless on his knees. Anthony also knelt down and began to silently pray. After several hours of prayer, he was convinced that Paul was not moving because he was dead. He reverently washed the body and wrapped Athanasius in a robe. Suddenly two lions appeared and with their claws dug a rather deep grave, where Anthony buried the holy ascetic. Saint Anthony died in 356 at the age of 106 and for his exploits earned the title of the Great. The Monk Anthony founded hermit monasticism. Several hermits, under the guidance of one mentor (abba, the Hebrew word means “father”), lived separately from each other in huts or caves (monasteries) and indulged in fasting, prayer, and labor for the benefit of themselves and the poor (weaving baskets, mats, etc.). Several monasteries, united under the authority of one abba, were called a monastery. But even during the life of Anthony the Great, another kind of monastic life appeared. The ascetics gathered in one community, each carried out labors according to his strength and ability for the common benefit and obeyed the same rules. Such communities were called cenovia, or monasteries. The abbas of these communities began to be called archimandrites. The Monk Pachomius the Great is revered as the founder of cenobitic monasticism. The parents of the Monk Pachomius were pagans. Richly gifted by nature, he received a good education in his youth. In 312 he was taken into the army of Caesar Maximin, who rebelled against the emperors Constantine and Licinius. Among the labors and hardships of the campaign, he had the opportunity to recognize Christians, how, according to the commandment of their Teacher, they treated their suffering enemies with mercy and love. He began to pray to the Lord Savior while not yet a Christian, and upon returning from the war he was baptized, went into the desert and was saved under the leadership of one ascetic named Polemon. After fifteen years of hidden spiritual exploits, the Lord inspired him to unite the hermits who lived separately under one general rule. On one island of the Nile River (Tavenna) he began to establish a monastery. Soon this monastery could no longer accommodate everyone who wanted to be saved under the leadership of Saint Pachomius. and he was forced to found several more monasteries on the banks of the Nile, not far from one another. He also founded the first convent, where his sister was the first abbess. In his monasteries, he introduced certain rules that were binding on everyone. The foundations of this charter were: chastity, humility, renunciation of everything earthly and unquestioning submission to the Abba. The monks lived in groups of three in each cell, doing handicrafts and eating food together. Everyone had the same clothes (lower linen - a sleeveless tunic, upper leather, a hair cap - kukul - on the head, sandals on the feet). Several times a day, day and night, at the sound of a trumpet or bell, the monks silently flocked to the church. Here they read the Holy Scriptures, listened to the elder’s instructions, prayed, and sang psalms. On Sunday, a presbyter appeared from a neighboring village, celebrated the liturgy and gave communion to the monks 54 . Everyone went to work in order and silence, together with their superior. Without the blessing of the elder, no one dared to start a new job or move from one place to another. The work performed by one or another brother did not belong to him, but to the entire community. Food was taken once - at noon and consisted of bread, vegetables, fruits; On Sunday there was an evening meal. In order for all these rules to be invariably followed by the monks, the Monk Pachomius decided not to first accept those wishing to enter the monastery, as after a one-year trial. The society of monks founded on such principles during the lifetime of Saint Pachomius grew to 7,000, and a hundred years after him to 50,000 people. Around the time when Anthony retired to the deserted shores of the Red Sea, and Pachomius founded the Tavenian hostel, one of Anthony's students, Ammon, founded a new refuge for monks not far from Alexandria, on Mount Nitria 55. By the end of the 4th century, there were up to 50 monasteries and up to 5,000 monks. Behind the mountain began the vast Libyan Desert. When the solitude of Mount Nitria turned out to be insufficient, Ammon, with the blessing of the Monk Anthony, moved the cells to this desert, and from that time this desert began to be called cells. Even further from Mount Nitria stood monastery 56, where the Monk Macarius of Egypt began his monastic life. There was no path here. They found their way to the monks by following the stars. One of the disciples of Saint Anthony, Hilarion, transferred monasticism to his homeland - Palestine and founded a monastery near Gaza. From here monasticism spread throughout Palestine and Syria. Basil the Great, who at the end of his education visited monasteries in Palestine and Egypt, planted monasticism in Cappadocia and gave it strictly defined rules, which became universal in the East. One of the ascetics of the 5th century, Savva the Sanctified (i.e., who combined the rank of priest with the title of monk), established a monastery in Jerusalem, in the rock, near the Kidron stream, and introduced here a strictly defined liturgical charter. Eastern monasticism found a special refuge on Mount Olympia and Mount Athos. On the latter (over 30 versts in length and 20 in diameter) there are about 20 monasteries, up to 800 hermitages and about 8,000 ascetics. Here you can see different examples of monastic life - from secluded caves and cells to crowded laurels. From here monasticism came to us in Russia. Hermitage and community life are the most common types of monasticism in the East. But besides these types, pillarism and foolishness about Christ are also known. The founder of the first is Saint Simeon, a Syrian by birth, who lived in the 5th century. For many years he labored in prayer, without leaving the pillar and being exposed to all the changes in the air. The holy fools tried to overcome the main root of all sins - pride, and mainly the pride of the mind. Having high spiritual enlightenment, sometimes possessing a remarkable secular education, they deliberately took on the appearance of ordinary people so as not to arouse any praise for themselves. Of the holy fools, Saint Andrew 57 is especially famous, who for his humility was awarded a vision of the Mother of God in the Blachernae Church, which is remembered by the Church on the Feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Monasticism spread to the West from the East. Saint Athanasius the Great, during his stay there, described the life of Saint Anthony the Great and aroused in many the desire to imitate his ascetic life. The famous teacher of the Western Church, Blessed Jerome, had the same influence on the zealots of piety with his biography of St. Paul of Thebes. Many of the noble Romans, men and women, abandoned the world for a solitary life in the desert. But Saint Benedict of Nursia (b. 480, died 543), founder of the later famous monastery of Monte Cassino, is especially revered as the father and organizer of monasticism in the West. He gave Western monasticism a different, more practical direction. He did not demand from his followers those hardships that the monks suffered in the East, but commanded them only decorum, abstinence and hard work. Among the works convenient for a monk, he pointed to the rewriting of books. Therefore, within the walls of the Benedictines many of the works of the holy fathers and works of classical antiquity were preserved. Despite the fact that the monks withdrew from the world to achieve the highest moral perfection, monasticism had a great beneficial influence on those who lived among the world and retains it to this day. Just one glance at the life of the monks, detached from everything earthly, gave and gives worldly people a sense of what his heavenly calling requires of a Christian and where his true fatherland is. The glory of the life and deeds of the desert saints attracted many people to them, seeking guidance and consolation. From all over the Roman world, zealots of piety flocked to see this wonderful life of the ascetics. Visitors not only learned piety from them, but also told others about them and wrote down their deeds and words. Collections of the deeds and sayings of holy ascetics became educational books and moral guides for all Christians. Helping the spiritual needs of their neighbors, the monks did not refuse, when they had the opportunity, to serve their temporary needs. Earning food for themselves through labor, they shared their means of subsistence with the poor. At the monasteries there were hospices where monks received, fed and gave rest to wanderers. Alms were sent from monastic monasteries to other places: to prisoners languishing in prison, to those in poverty during famine and other misfortunes. But the main invaluable service of monks for society is in the unceasing prayer they perform for the Church, the fatherland, the living and the dead: “Monks are a sacrifice to God from society, which, handing them over to God, makes up its own fence from them. In monasteries, especially, ceremonial, complete, and long-lasting priesthood flourishes. The Church appears here in all the beauty of its vestments. Here is an inexhaustible source of edification for the laity." 58 By promoting the spiritual and physical well-being of believers, monasticism contributed to the spread of the faith of Christ and the final fall of paganism. The high life of the monks surprised the pagans themselves and was for them proof of the holiness of the Christian religion. Anthony the Great, with his one appearance in Alexandria, according to the testimony of Saint Athanasius, converted as many pagans to the faith of Christ as at other times they were converted per year. The monks were zealous collaborators of the shepherds in the fight against heretics. With them Saint Athanasius more than once found refuge from his persecutors, and they supported him in the midst of his sorrows. The monks themselves appeared at the most necessary time to fight the heretics and fearlessly denounced the powerful of the world for deviating from the Church and Orthodoxy (Reverend Isaac - Emperor Valens). Seeing the high piety of the monks and their spiritual wisdom, the archpastors began to elevate them to sacred degrees. Subsequently, the importance of monasticism increased even more. From among the monks, they began to predominantly, and then exclusively, elevate them to the highest sacred degree of episcopacy, and the spirit of monasticism, in which the clergy leaders of the Church are brought up, acts through them beneficially and life-giving on the entire composition of the Orthodox Church. - The seaside at the confluence of the Nile, east of Alexandria. – Saint Pachomius himself did not accept the priesthood, and did not allow others to accept it for fear of the spirit of covetousness. – The name of the mountain comes from the abundance of nitrate, or saltpeter. – Skete is the name of the area, meaning a long and dry valley. – Lived in the 10th century (886–911). – The Reverend Theophan in “The Outline of Christian Moral Teaching,” page 499. You might be interested in: