ABSTRACT
Credited by church tradition with the establishment of cenobitic monasticism, in which monks live together in a single monastic complex under a common rule. Prior to this innovation, the monastic enterprise was dominated by the hermit monk, best represented by the Egyptian Anthony, who withdrew from the world in solitude (anchoritic monasticism). Pachomius is also credited with devising the first monastic rule for governing monks in the common economic and spiritual life of shared meals, work, and prayer within a walled complex. Recent scholarship indicates that Manichaean and Melitian organized ascetic communities appeared in Egypt independently in the same period.
