EARLY CHRISTIAN CELIBATE COMMUNITIES

• Communities of  WIDOWS and virgins in early Church: attested in Tertullian and other early theologians; their early history is largely unwritten and therefore uncertain (although hotly debated), despite their vital importance (see P. Brown, The Body and Society, Columbia U. Pr., NY 1988, pp. 147-149). Antony was able to entrust his young sister to the care of one of these communities (ca. 268) BEFORE he began his own monastic enterprise.

  • Thus Antony is NOT the historical founder of Christian monasticism (nor, according to St. Jerome, the first hermit), but rather the earliest popular icon or exemplar of monastic spirituality.

• The third-century SYRIAN Church had celibate liturgical and social service-oriented communities of men and women called “sons-” and “daughters of the covenant” (see P. Brown, The Body and Society, pp. 101-102).

THESE existed BEFORE the more famous efforts of Antony, Pachomius, Amoun, Macarius, and the other founders of Egyptian monasticism.

This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1990....x....  .