Cenobitic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The cenobitic (also spelled coenobitic) tradition is a monastic tradition that stresses community life. Often the community belongs to a religious order and the life of the cenobitic monk is regulated by rules. The opposite, to live as a hermit, is called eremitic.
Cenobite and cenobitic are derived, via Latin from the Greek words κοινός and βίος (koinos and bios meaning "common" and "life"). The adjective is κοινοβιακόν in Greek. The group of monks is often referred to as a 'cenobium'.
Cenobitic monasticism exists in various religions, though Buddhist and Christian cenobitic monasticism are the most prominent.
Christian cenobitic monasticism started in Egypt. Originally, all Christian monks were hermits, and especially in the Middle East, this continued to be very common until the decline of Syrian Christianity in the Late Middle Ages. But not everybody is fit for solitary life, and numerous cases of hermits losing their emotional stability are reported.
The need for some form of organized spiritual guidance was obvious, and around 320 Pachomius started to organize his many followers in what was to become the first Christian monastery. Soon the Egyptian desert abounded with similar institutions.
The idea caught on, and other places followed:
- Mar Awgin founded a monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis in Mesopotamia (~350), and from this monastery the cenobitic tradition spread in Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Georgia and even India and China.
- Mar Saba organized the monks of the Judean Desert in a monastery close to Bethlehem (483), and this is considered the mother of all monasteries of the Eastern Orthodox churches.
- St. Benedict of Nursia founded the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy (529), which was the seed of Roman Catholic monasticism in general, and of the order of Benedict in particular.
- St. Bruno of Carthusia, prompted by the spectre of the damnation of the Good Doctor of Paris Cenodoxus founded a monastery just outside of Paris in the 11th Century.
