Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth-Century Egypt

by Philip Rousseau

Pachomius, who died in 346, has long been regarded as the "founder of monasticism." Available again, Philip Rousseau's careful reading of the available texts reveals that Pachomius's pioneering enterprise has been consistently misread in light of later monastic practices. Rousseau not only provides a fuller and more accurate portrait of this great teacher and spiritual director but also gives a new perspective on the development of monasticism. In a new preface Rousseau reviews the scholarly developments that have modified his views and emphases since the book was published. The result is to make Pachomius an even less assured pioneer, a man likely to have been more involved in the village and urban society of his time than previously thought.

250 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1985

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rousseau traces the life of the man who founded the first Christian monastic community, bringing his motives and struggles down to the level of step by step trial-and-error experience. He introduces an Egyptian man who served as a soldier in the Roman occupation army, and was moved to see local Christians offering food to the troops. Rousseau is concerned with practical details, like how Pachomius and his followers started out working as field laborers by day, and experimented with prayer and meditation by night. The book explores each issue in managing a community and its spiritual trials, as those issues appeared and as the monks chose to deal with them. Later the very success of the experiment generated growing controversy, as when Archbishop Athanasius came down from Alexandria to the desert, seeking Pachomius' support in a church power struggle. And Pachomius "hid from the pope," taking the guise of a common monk, till Athanasius went away.

As Rousseau shows, Pachomius hoped his monks would avoid being co-opted as functionaries of the imperial church. He feared that with a rise of institutional overlords, "good men will no longer feel able to speak out for the benefit of the community, but will remain silent and still." For Pachomius, ambition for control over others was an immaturity to be overcome. He openly confessed and ridiculed his own craving for superiority, admitting that he sometimes imagined himself preceded by a voice calling "Make way for the man of God!"

I think the book raises good questions about how we manage our lives, and how we make them a spiritual adventure.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, solid introduction to the OTHER father of Egyptian monasticism. Everyone thinks of Anthony, but Pachomius founded the more enduring form of Egyptian ascesis - communal, moderate, and literate.