Part I. The story: 5. Monasticism

Monasticism

Such is the unconquerable buoyancy implanted by God within the Coptic Church that, while facing dangers and temptations, She could outswim the tide. One of Her most far-reaching and sweeping influences on the whole of Christendom is monasticism. The enemies of such life of sanctity presume that monks were escapists. But a close scrutiny will reveal the authentic goal of these “Athletes of God”. First, it should be remembered that the ancient Egyptians regarded the desert as the domain of the god of evil to which he was banished by the god of good. So that we can liken the monks to the parachutists who dare to fight the enemy within his own territory. Second, countless of the Masterlights among them were of the rich and influential class who could live in luxury despite persecutions. Third, whenever persecutions or plagues raged, these desert dwellers left their abodes and went into the cities to face torture with their brothers in the world. Last but not least, the persecutors marched into the desert and did not hesitate to kill the monks despite age, sex, and sanctity. Thus, we can see that those who left the world sought seclusion with God. All the early writers describe them as “God’s Athletes” seeking to be “alone with the Alone”.

Monasticism passed through three stages :

(a) COMPLETE SOLITARINESS : the man (or woman) seeking a life of prayer fasting and meditation, went alone into the desert, found some natural cave or dug one for his purpose and lived therein for the rest of his life; unknown, unsought and completely by himself. The most outstanding solitaire among men is St. Paul the first hermit who lived ninety years in utter obliviousness — having left the world at twenty. Only one week before his death, the Angel of the Lord disclosed his secret to St. Antoni who sought him out and heard from him his own story. A monastery still stands in the Eastern desert which bears his name — it is in the vicinity of the cave wherein he lived. As to the most outstanding woman, she is Mary the Errant (or the Repentant). She was of great beauty, and like the Magdalene spent the first part of her life in riotous living. Overcome by remorse, she went into the desert by the Jordan at twenty nine. There she lived in utter solitariness for forty five years. Then she was discovered by Zosima, an Abbot of a monastery in the Eastern desert. She confessed to him her life-story begging him to bring her the Eucharist the following year, and he complied with her request. A year later, he went to see her expressly, but found her dead with a slip of paper beside her on which were these words: “Return unto the earth what belongs to the earth, and pray for me”. The reason for calling her “the Errant” is because she did not restrict herself to a certain cave, but wandered throughout the desert.

(b) THE ANTONIAN RULE : When St. Antoni restored to the desert, he assumed that he would be left alone like unto those who went before him. But he was not left to enjoy the silence of solitude for long. The multitudes went to see him. Naturally the majority sought him for spiritual counsel or for physical healing. But the few were so magnetized by his personality that they desired to stay with him. He advised each to find a cell for himself in which to live from Sunday evening to Saturday noon. On Saturday, at midday, they all gathered round him, and together they spent the time until Sunday evening. He taught them that each must work with his hands, alternating prayer with handwork. “For”, said he, “a monk must earn his living. Also, if many devils beset the idle, one only besets the worker”. He, also, set for them a specific garb: a white robe of flax reaching halfway between the knee and the ankle, with a wide leather belt tightened round their waist to keep them alert. Whenever any of them went to a town to sell their work (or for any other purpose) he wore a cape of the same material in summer, or a sheepskin (or any other skin) in winter. (The present day black robes worn by the Coptic monks and clergy were imposed by Sultan Al-Hakim in 979 A.D.) This rule of five and a half days in solitude, and one and a half in companionship is known as the Antonian monasticism. And because Abba Antoni was the first desert dweller to have disciples whom he taught and directed he is known as “The Father of Monks”.

(c) COENOBITICAL OR COMMUNAL LIFE : This was inaugurated by Abba Pakhôm whose very life is a miracle. Born of pagan parents, he was mobilized at twenty by emperor Constantine. One evening, he and his companions were made to encamp outside the city of Esnah (just north of Aswan). To his astonishment, he found some Esnites coming out to them with food and water. They washed for them their hands and feet, then offered them the food and waited on them as though they were their servants. Amazed by this kindness, he asked why. One of his companions answered: “They are Christians, and their Christ enjoins them to love all people”. Pakhôm meditated on this answer, and said within himself : “If this be the commandment of the Christ, then I must be a Christian should I return safely from war”. On his return, he went straightway to Esnah where he found, in the nearby desert caves, an aged ascetic called Palamon with whom he lived for three years. At the end of these years, the Saintly man advised him to find a cave in which to live alone. He obeyed. Being of a very sensitive and sympathizing nature, he began to mediate that surely there are many who desire to give themselves wholly to God, but cannot endure solitude. So he set himself to pray for all these. In answer to his prayers, he was guided by the Angel of the Lord to build a monastery in which he will gather those seeking to live in prayer and devotion but are unable to live alone. Thus, he built the very first monastery throughout the world for men in a place called Tabenisri near Dendarah in the Upper reaches of the Nile. Few months later, his sister Mary came to ask about him. Charmed by this mode of life, she asked him to build a monastery for women. Some of his monks built it for her in the same vicinity.

St. Pakhôm’s monasteries did not attract the Egyptians only — men and women from different countries came to live with them. Some lived for the rest of their lives; others lived for some years then returned to their respective home lands to start monastic life according to the Pakhômian Rule. In Egypt, the Pakhômian Rule is the only order of monasticism, whereas in the West numerous orders evolved, yet they all sprouted from the same Rule. Hence St. Pakhôm is entitled “Father of the Coenobites”.

The most outstanding of God’s Athletes are : Abba Macari the Great (known as Macarius of Egypt), foremost among St. Antoni’s disciples. He lived in the region of “She-heat” (or Scales of the Heart) in Wadi n-Natrun in the Western desert, and is known among the Copts as “Father of the She-heat desert”; and entitled by the historians “Father of the Patriarchs” because a preponderent number of Alexandrian Popes were selected from among the Macarians. His monastery still flourishes.

ABBA PISHOY : After whom one of the Wadi n-Natrun monasteries still extant is called. He is described in the Liturgy with the words “the perfect man, beloved of Our Good Saviour”. His monastery has been repaired by the present Pope, Abba Shenouda III, who also revived it by encouraging a number of fine young men to enter it.

ABBA YOANNIS KAMI : Founder of the monastery now known as “As-Suriani” in Wadi n-Natrun. It is the monastery in which Abba Shenouda III lived before his papacy. Also, at present, Bishops Samuel for Public Relations and Social Service, Athanasius of Beni Suef, Domadius of Giza, Yoannis of Gharbeya, and Pakhômius of Beheira and the Pentapolis, all lived in this monastery.

ABBA SHENOUDA THE ARCHIMANDRITE : Reckoned by the West to be the foremost leader to free the Egyptian from the shackles of Byzantium. He lived during a good part of the fifth and on to the sixth centuries as he attained the age of an hundred and eighteen years. And such was paternal solicitude that when the Bagat tribes marauded the region, capturing twenty thousand people and seizing their wealth, he crossed the Nile and met the leader of the marauders and said to him: “Keep the spoils but give me the people”. He, then, took his relieved compatriots to his white monastery (near Sohag in Upper Egypt) where he kept them for three months. He relegated the sick to his doctor monks, and placed the aged and the children under the care of the educators and social workers (monks). During these three months ninety four died and were buried in the monastery cemetery; and fifty two babies were born. These freed captives were kept until Abba Shenouda found work for the men by which to support their families.

THE SPIRITUAL FATHER MARCUS THE ANTONIAN : (late 14th and early 15th century.). He was born in a village near Sohag in Upper Egypt of poor hardworking peasants. Orphaned of his father at ten, he had to toil in the fields to earn a living for himself and his mother. He noted that his mother was an extremely generous soul despite their poverty, never refusing anyone. If some beggar knocked at her door when she had no money she would give him an egg or a cup of milk or a loaf of bread, she could never send him away empty. She was also an example in prayer and fasting: persevering in all these practises. Consequently at twenty three, Marcus disclosed to her his wish to become a monk. She replied: “Go in peace, my Son. Be steadfast and diligent; remember that our Lord said: ‘No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of god’. (Luke 9 : 62)”. He joined the monastery of the great Luminary of the Eastern desert, St. Antoni. In due time, he became guide and teacher to the monks of that monastery. They so revered him that they called him “spiritual father”. And God granted him a long life (nearly a century) during which he set his face steadfastly forward that he may be fit for the kingdom of God.

MOSES THE BLACK : In his youth, he was a slave; tall and heavily built, he had the strength of the brutes. And so wild and unruly was he that his own master chased him away. Glad in his release, he became the terror of the region in which he took his abode: killing, pillaging, getting drunk and committing all the evils of which depraved man is capable. Yet in the midst of this abyss, the Divine Spark hounded him. At times, he would walk out into the open, look up at the sun and say: “Are you God ?” if not, where is He ? One day as he repeated this obsessing question, he heard a Voice saying: “If you would know God, go to She-heat where the holy men will tell you.” Immediately, he buckled on his sword, out of sheer habit, and went straightway to the designated spot. There he was met by Isidorus, the Priest of She-heat who was frightened by his sight. Moses quietened his fears by relating to him why he came. Isidorus took him to the Great Macari who put him under his own tutelage. And God’s Grace shone in this fallen sinner transforming him into a great saint, so much so, that he became abbot of a monastery wherein three hundred monks lived under his guidance. One day as they sat conversing with Abba Macari, the Great Luminary said: “I can see the Crown of Martyrdom on the head of one of you !” Moses replied : “This must surely be me, for our Lord said (they that take by the sword shall be taken by the sword).” Few days later, the Monastery was raided; seven monks were killed one of whom was Moses the Black whom the Church describes with the word “the Strong”, for he succeeded in climbing from the depths of the abyss to the heights of sanctity.

At present, there are four monasteries in Wadi n-Natrun; they are those of : Abba Macari the Great, Abba Pishoy, As-Suriani, and Al Baramus. Two monasteries within the region of the Red Sea; they are those of St. Antoni and St. Paul the first hermit. One in central Upper Egypt, near Fayoum called after a prominent confessor, Abba Samuel of Kalamon. One South of the city of Assiut in Upper Egypt called Al-Moharraq, enclosing a church named after the Blessed Virgin and built over a spot wherein the Holy Family spent some time during their stay in Egypt. One in the desert of Mariut, near Alexandria, named after the martyr St. Mena. It was once in the centre of a big city comprising a hospital run by the monks, and a well from which pilgrims carried water back to their homes. Ampullae on which St. Mena’s icon is engraved were found in Dongola (in the Sudan) and in Marseilles (in the South of France) denoting the great popularity of the saint. The church and the whole city were destroyed in the Middle Ages. Then, when Abba Kyrillos VI became Pope of Alexandria in 1959, he succeeded in getting from the Egyptian Government the right to build a new monastery within sight of the old one. Now it stands comprising within its walls: cells for monks, a grand cathedral, two churches, and a guest house. The belfry of its first-built church is high and can be seen from afar — a Lighthouse to the wayfarer, and a spearhead towards heaven. These nine are all for men. As for the women’s convents there are seven of them, they are those of: The Blessed Virgin and St. George at Haret Zeweila; St. George, and St. Mercurius of the two swords in Old Cairo; and Prince Theodorus at Haret ar-Rum. These five are in the Cairo area. There is one convent named after the Archangel Mikhail near the city of Tanta; and one near the city of Mansoura named after the Virgin-Martyr Dimiana. Both these cities are in the Delta.