The Skete at Crosswood Centre

Roots and Legitimacy of our Various Monastic Paths

That our way of "doing" monasticism in the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America is out of the ordinary is commonly observed, and there are times that we all wonder how exactly we can connect our experience of the monastic life with its historical expression. A recently-published text by the Reverend Dr. David G. R. Keller, an Episcopal priest in California, Oasis of Wisdom: The Worlds of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (Liturgical Press 2005) is well worth the price (US$16.95). He makes a brief mention of a hitherto rarely discussed expression of monastic life in the earliest communities of the Egyptian Thebaid; here is a brief summary of some of what he says:

As early as the middle of the third century, certainly during the life times of Saint Antony of Egypt and of Saint Pachomius, there appeared in villages and town, those who set themselves apart from the usual norms of life and commerce in order to devote themselves more intentionally to prayer, social service, and church service. Some were anonymous, but others, as they became known, were often sought as spiritual directors and teachers. Individually, these may very well have been among the first to have been called monachos -- that is, a single-minded person pursuing a goal, or one with a disciplined religious life. As a group, they were known as apotaktikoi, or those who stand apart from the established order. These men and women chose to live a disciplined ascetic life, within or near local society and church, such that they influenced both by their lives and prayers. They could own property and some remained involved in the daily life of their cities or villages.

The apotaktikoi were not hermits, nor were they living in community under a rule and a monastic superior, though certainly they lived according to a monastic rule or ascetic discipline. Like monastics in the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America, they were sometimes called "city monks," living an independent life in an urban setting. Some did not consider them authentic monks; St Jerome of Bethlehem (a brilliant theologian, and a renowned curmudgeon), and others less well known, held them in low esteem. Jerome referred to them as remnuoth, or solitaries -- those who were "on their own," as if that were inferior. Still, the integrity and humility of these apotaktikoi is attested in various ancient texts, as for example the anonymous text, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers.