RB 1980- The Rule Of St Benedict by Saint Benedict

Author:Saint Benedict
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 0814612113
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Published: 1981-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

Part Three

APPENDIX

Longer Expositions of Monastic Topics

Appendix 1

Monastic Terminology: Monk, Cenobite, Nun

Chapter 1 of RB on “The Kinds of Monks” contains a number of traditional monastic terms, such as “monk,” “cenobite,” “sarabaite.” Because of the complex philological and literary background of these words, they are conveniently treated together in this section. Other conventional terms are considered elsewhere in this Appendix.

1. The term “monk”

The term “monk” (Greek: monachos)1 has been used in antiquity and even more so in recent times to denote many different forms of religious life.2 The anachronistic use of the term to describe groups as disparate as the Pythagoreans, Essenes, Therapeutae and Buddhists may be dismissed at once, because none of these people used the term monachos to describe themselves. It has been argued in the Introduction to this volume that, on the basis of the available historical evidence, the rise of the monastic movement is essentially a Christian phenomenon of the first half of the fourth century. Here it will be argued on philological grounds that the development of the special terminology of the movement, including above all the term “monk,” is likewise essentially a Christian phenomenon of the same period.

Even after excluding from consideration this late and anomalous use of the term “monk,” there remain considerable difficulties in describing the original content and the development of this terminology. This is due chiefly to the fact that already in antiquity the term “monk” was widely applied, and diverse meanings were given to the term by ancient writers. In fact, it is apparent from the variety of definitions offered that already in the late fourth century there was some uncertainty over the original meaning of the term. It has been commonly supposed, even in the ancient world, that the term monachos was originally equivalent to “solitary” or “hermit.”3 In one place Jerome interprets it this way (Hier. epist. 14,6,1). But, writing his famous letter to Eustochium in 384, Jerome mentions that in Egypt there are three kinds of monks, and he clearly refers to the cenobites as monks (Hier. epist. 22,34). If the term was originally equivalent to solitary or hermit, it is difficult to understand how it could so quickly have come to denote a form of life as different as that of the Pachomian cenobites.

The usual explanation for this has been a historical one. From antiquity until very recent times, a stereotyped picture of monastic origins has been a commonplace in historical writing on the subject.4 In this picture monasticism begins when the first hermits retire to the Egyptian desert. Gradually colonies of anchorites develop around them. A little later Pachomius established cenobitic monastic life and later still Basil reformed cenobitic life, giving it the form in which it has survived in the East, while even later Benedict reformed monasticism in the West. It is now generally admitted that this picture hardly does justice to the complexities of the evidence.

A similar stereotype of the philological development of the terminology has served to reinforce this simple historical picture.

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