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St Pachomius the Great was both a model of desert dwelling, and with
Sts Anthony the Great (January 17), Macarius the Great (January 19), and
Euthymius the Great (January 20), a founder of the cenobitic monastic
life in Egypt.
St Pachomius was born in the third century in the
Thebaid (Upper Egypt). His parents were pagans who gave him an excellent
secular education. From his youth he had a good character, and he was
prudent and sensible.
When Pachomius reached the age of twenty, he
was called up to serve in the army of the emperor Constantine
(apparently, in the year 315). They put the new conscripts in a city
prison guarded by soldiers. The local Christians fed the soldiers and
took care of them.
When the young man learned that these people
acted this way because of their love for God, fulfilling His commandment
to love their neighbor, this made a deep impression upon his pure soul.
Pachomius vowed to become a Christian. Pachomius returned from the army
after the victory, received holy Baptism, moved to the lonely
settlement of Shenesit, and began to lead a strict ascetic life.
Realizing the need for spiritual guidance, he turned to the
desert-dweller Palamon. He was accepted by the Elder, and he began to
follow the example of his instructor in monastic struggles.
Once,
after ten years of asceticism, St Pachomius made his way through the
desert, and halted at the ruins of the former village of Tabennisi. Here
he heard a Voice ordering him to start a monastery at this place.
Pachomius told the Elder Palamon of this, and they both regarded the
words as a command from God.
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They went to Tabennisi and built a
small monastic cell. The holy Elder Palamon blessed the foundations of
the monastery and predicted its future glory. But soon Palamon departed
to the Lord. An angel of God then appeared to St Pachomius in the form
of a schemamonk and gave him a Rule of monastic life. Soon his older
brother John came and settled there with him.
St Pachomius endured
many temptations and assaults from the Enemy of the race of man, but he
resisted all temptations by his prayer and endurance.
Gradually,
followers began to gather around St Pachomius. Their teacher impressed
everyone by his love for work, which enabled him to accomplish all kinds
of monastic tasks. He cultivated a garden, he conversed with those
seeking guidance, and he tended to the sick.
St Pachomius
introduced a monastic Rule of cenobitic life, giving everyone the same
food and attire. The monks of the monastery fulfilled the obediences
assigned them for the common good of the monastery. Among the various
obediences was copying books. The monks were not allowed to possess
their own money nor to accept anything from their relatives. St
Pachomius considered that an obedience fulfilled with zeal was greater
than fasting or prayer. He also demanded from the monks an exact
observance of the monastic Rule, and he chastized slackers.
His
sister Maria came to see St Pachomius, but the strict ascetic refused to
see her. Through the gate keeper, he blessed her to enter upon the path
of monastic life, promising his help with this. Maria wept, but did as
her brother had ordered. The Tabennisi monks built her a hut on the
opposite side of the River Nile. Nuns also began to gather around Maria.
Soon a women’s monastery was formed with a strict monastic Rule
provided by St Pachomius.
The number of monks at the monastery
grew quickly, and it became necessary to build seven more monasteries in
the vicinity. The number of monks reached 7,000, all under the guidance
of St Pachomius, who visited all the monasteries and administered them.
At the same time St Pachomius remained a deeply humble monk, who was
always ready to comply with and accept the words of each brother.
Severe
and strict towards himself, St Pachomius had great kindness and
condescension toward the deficiencies of spiritually immature monks. One
of the monks was eager for martyrdom, but St Pachomius turned him from
this desire and instructed him to fulfill his monastic obedience, taming
his pride, and training him in humility.
Once, a monk did not
heed his advice and left the monastery. He was set upon by brigands, who
threatened him with death and forced him to offer sacrifice to the
pagan gods. Filled with despair, the monk returned to the monastery. St
Pachomius ordered him to pray intensely night and day, keep a strict
fast and live in complete solitude. The monk followed his advice, and
this saved his soul from despair.
The saint taught his spiritual children to avoid judging others, and he himself feared to judge anyone even in thought.
St
Pachomius cared for the sick monks with special love. He visited them,
he cheered the disheartened, he urged them to be thankful to God, and
put their hope in His holy will. He relaxed the fasting rule for the
sick, if this would help them recover their health. Once, in the saint’s
absence, the cook did not prepare any cooked food for the monks,
assuming that the brethren loved to fast. Instead of fulfilling his
obedience, the cook plaited 500 mats, something which St Pachomius had
not told him to do. In punishment for his disobedience, all the mats
prepared by the cook were burned.
St Pachomius always taught the
monks to rely only upon God’s help and mercy. It happened that there was
a shortage of grain at the monastery. The saint spent the whole night
in prayer, and in the morning a large quantity of bread was sent to the
monastery from the city, at no charge. The Lord granted St Pachomius the
gift of wonderworking and healing the sick.
The Lord revealed to
him the future of monasticism. The saint learned that future monks would
not have such zeal in their struggles as the first generation had, and
they would not have experienced guides. Prostrating himself upon the
ground, St Pachomius wept bitterly, calling out to the Lord and
imploring mercy for them. He heard a Voice answer, “Pachomius, be
mindful of the mercy of God. The monks of the future shall receive a
reward, since they too shall have occasion to suffer the life burdensome
for the monk.”
Toward the end of his life St Pachomius fell ill
from a pestilence that afflicted the region. His closest disciple, St
Theodore (May 17), tended to him with filial love. St Pachomius died
around the year 348 at the age of fifty-three, and was buried on a hill
near the monastery.
See also
Theosis (deification): The True Purpose of Human Life
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