ABSTRACT
Saint Pachomius has been widely regarded as the founder of cenobitic, or communal, monachism in Christendom, even though many desert monks had lived in at least loose association with one another before his time. If the Pachomian tradition itself did not survive as an active order, its spirit did, and nowhere more clearly than in the principle that scripture is the ultimate basis for every facet of the monastic life. Memorization was a basic discipline for the Pachomian monks, as it had been originally for Pachomius at the start of his own ascetic training. An almost ceaseless practice of recitation was enjoined upon all the members of the koinonia, and this recitation and constant internalization of scripture were the overriding goals of memorization. Meditation or recitation of scripture provided the Pachomian monk with a physical and mental discipline that set the deeply religious tone of every aspect of life in the koinonia.
