Monasticism and Religious Life

18 eventsShow on the timeline

Men and women who left ordinary life for prayer and service: the desert hermits, Benedict’s Rule, Athos, the friars, the Jesuits, and the renewal movements that followed.

Monasticism began in the Egyptian desert at the end of the third century and became one of the most durable institutions of both Eastern and Western Christianity. Monasteries were centres of prayer, learning and mission, and repeated reforms of the church began inside them.

The thread from start to finish

about 150 BC to AD 68, estimated date
The Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Caves at Qumran, by the Dead Sea, preserve biblical scrolls and the writings of a Jewish movement that lived under a strict common rule. Most scholars identify it with the Essenes described by Josephus and Pliny; some dispute this.
c. AD 270–285, estimated date
Antony Withdraws to the Desert
A young Egyptian Christian hears the words of Jesus to the rich man read in church, gives away his property and withdraws by stages into the desert. Others follow, and the Life written by Athanasius makes him the model of the monk.
about AD 320, estimated date
Pachomius Founds Communal Monasticism
At Tabennisi in Upper Egypt, Pachomius gathers monks into a walled community with a common rule, shared meals and work, and a single superior. By his death there are several houses of men and women, and his rule is later translated for the West.
about AD 370 to AD 381, estimated date
The Cappadocians and the Doctrine of the Trinity
Basil of Caesarea, his friend Gregory of Nazianzus and his brother Gregory of Nyssa speak of one divine essence in three persons and defend the deity of the Holy Spirit. The creed of 381 uses kindred language. Basil and his sister Macrina foster monastic life.
c. AD 530–550, estimated date
Benedict Writes His Rule
Benedict of Nursia, abbot of Monte Cassino, writes a rule for monks living in community under an abbot, with a day divided between common prayer, reading and manual work. It later becomes the standard rule of Western monasteries.
AD 563, estimated date
Columba Founds Iona
The Irish priest and abbot Columba crosses to Britain and founds a monastery on the island of Iona. From it he preaches among the Picts, and it becomes the mother house of a family of monasteries in Ireland and Britain.
11 September AD 910, estimated date
The Founding of Cluny
Duke William of Aquitaine gives his estate at Cluny for a monastery under the Rule of Benedict and renounces every right over it, placing it under the apostles Peter and Paul and the protection of the pope.
AD 963 to AD 972, estimated date
The Great Lavra and the Monastic Republic of Athos
With the backing of the general and emperor Nikephoros Phokas, the monk Athanasius builds the Great Lavra on Mount Athos as a self-governing monastery. A few years later an imperial charter gives all the monks of the Mountain a common rule.
1098 to 1115, estimated date
The Cistercians and Bernard of Clairvaux
In 1098 monks from Molesme found a “New Monastery” at Cîteaux to keep the Rule of Benedict to the letter, in poverty and by their own labour. Bernard joins with some thirty companions and becomes abbot of Clairvaux, and daughter houses multiply.
about 1209, estimated date
Francis of Assisi and the Friars Minor
Francis of Assisi gives up his property to live by the Gospel in poverty, gathers brothers and wins the approval of Pope Innocent III. Clare founds a sister community, and in 1223 Honorius III confirms the Rule of the Friars Minor.
22 December 1216, firm date
Dominic Founds the Order of Preachers
Dominic, a Spanish canon who had spent nearly ten years preaching against heresy in southern France, gathers a community at Toulouse. Pope Honorius III confirms it in December 1216, and within five years its friars are in Paris, Bologna and Spain.
c. 1337–1345, estimated date
Sergius of Radonezh and the Trinity Monastery
A young man from a ruined Rostov family settles in the forest near Radonezh and builds a small church of the Trinity. The community that gathers round him adopts the common life and grows into the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
1341 to 1351, firm date
Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Councils
Councils at Constantinople in 1341 and 1351 uphold the monk Gregory Palamas against Barlaam. God’s essence is beyond reach, they teach, but his uncreated energies, seen as the light of Tabor, are shared by the saints. The Orthodox Church holds this teaching as its own.
1384 to 1441, firm date
The Devotio Moderna and the Imitation of Christ
Geert Groote of Deventer gives up his benefices and preaches repentance. After his death in 1384 his followers form houses that live in common by copying books, and a monastery at Windesheim. In 1441 Thomas à Kempis, one of them, writes out the Imitation of Christ.
27 September 1540, firm date
The Society of Jesus Is Founded
Pope Paul III approves the Society of Jesus, a company of ten priests, masters of the University of Paris, led by Ignatius of Loyola. Its members vow poverty, chastity and obedience, with a special vow to go wherever the pope sends them.
24 August 1562, firm date
Teresa of Ávila Reforms Carmel
In 1562 the Carmelite nun Teresa founds the small, enclosed and unendowed convent of St Joseph at Ávila to keep her order’s rule in its early strictness. More houses follow, friars join the reform, among them John of the Cross, and both leave writings on prayer.
21 July 1773, firm date
The Suppression of the Jesuits
By the brief Dominus ac Redemptor of 21 July 1773 Pope Clement XIV abolishes the Society of Jesus, which the Catholic kings of France, Spain, Portugal and the Two Sicilies had already expelled. In 1814 Pius VII restores it in all countries.
1782, firm date
The Philokalia Is Published
A Greek anthology of writers on watchfulness and the prayer of the heart, gathered from the libraries of Mount Athos, is printed at Venice in 1782. Its preface offers the prayer to laypeople as well as monks. A Slavonic version follows at Moscow in 1793.