Monastic Bodies by Caroline T. Schroeder;

Author:Caroline T. Schroeder;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780812203387
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 2)

Two features of this passage merit its consideration alongside the more substantive works of Paulinus and Shenoute. It has also been associated with a possibly authentic architectural monument. Moreover, it reveals a shared element in the ascetic ideologies of the Pachomian and Shenoutean traditions.

This passage has traditionally been read through the lens of archaeological history. James Goehring links this text to the site of the Pachomian monastery of Pbow in part due to the archaeological evidence: preliminary excavations have revealed the northern wall of the oldest basilica to be crooked.144 The basilica likely dates to the mid-fourth century, possibly even during Pachomius’s lifetime.145 The dating of the church and its north wall has rendered this citation a potentially “authentic” piece of the Pachomian legends.146 As Derwas Chitty proposed, and as Goehring has concurred, “This sounds like an attempt to explain the actual crookedness of a church the writer knew, due, in fact, to inadequate foundations, faulty material, or inexpert building.”147

For the literary and social historian this strand of the Pachomian tradition is striking because it resonates with the themes in Shenoute’s Canon 7. Genetically, the two sources differ. One is comprised of sermons preached around the time of the construction of the structure under discussion; the other is one small legendary fragment in a collection of hagiographical traditions. Nonetheless, both sources were read and heard by their monastic audiences for their spiritual edification, and similarities in their ascetic ideologies should not be ignored. The Pachomian story promotes a form of ascetic contemplation that resembles Shenoute’s: “the beauty of the house” cannot be regarded simply as a monument to the magnificence of God. It also serves as a potential trap for ascetics who believe themselves to be “marveling” at a holy thing but who really marvel at a work of their own hands. Instead of contemplating God—the reason for constructing an oratory or church—the monks praise a work of human creation. The monks engage in an egregious act of pride in admiring their own work. Pachomius resolves the paradox by mutilating the building so that monks will not be drawn into the devil’s trap by the structure’s beauty. The literary Pachomius expresses concerns similar to Shenoute’s warnings about the dangers of attending to material adornments instead of spiritual edification. The anecdote reveals that the Pachomian communities wrestled with the same tensions between the material and the spiritual that Shenoute articulated. It also highlights a rift between Paulinus of Nola and his Egyptian peers: in Paulinus’s eyes, his buildings housed neither theological paradoxes nor ascetic impediments.

The last literary source with parallels to Canon 7 is a panegyric to Pachomius and to Victor, general abbot of the Pachomian monasteries in the early to mid-fifth century. It is pseudonymously attributed to bishop Timothy of Alexandria.148 Though the text professes to have been delivered in the second half of the fifth century at the dedication of the large basilica at Pbow, it probably dates to the sixth century. It was neither written nor preached by Timothy.

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