Saint of the Day: St. Pachomius, Abbot, Founder of Communal Monasticism

St. Pachomius was the founder of Christian communal monasticism. He was born to pagan parents in Upper Thebaid (Egypt) in 292. He was raised as a pagan and joined the emperor’s army. As he and other recruits were being transported down the Nile in wretched conditions, they received great kindness and compassion from Christians. Pachomius never forgot this compassion and when he left the military in 1313, he converted to Christianity. Soon afterwards he withdrew to the desert and became the disciple of an old, but famed hermit called Palameon.

Upon promising obedience, he received the habit and lived a very austere life. His diet was bread and salt; he drank no wine and used no oil; he watched half the night and frequently passed the whole of it without sleep. He sometimes engaged in manual labor accompanied by interior prayer or would read the entire Psalter.

One day, when he was visiting a vast uninhabited desert on the banks of the Nile called Tabennisi, he heard a voice instructing him to build a monastery there, and at the same time, he had a vision of an angel who gave him specific instructions regarding the religious life. In 318, Palameon accompanied Pachomius to Tabennisi and helped him construct a cell and stayed there with him for some time before returning to his solitude.

The first disciple to receive the habit from Pachomius was his oldest brother, John, and within a short time the number of his monks exceeded one hundred. He led them in a life of perfection through his own fervent spirit and pious example. He passed 15 years without ever lying down, taking a short rest, sitting on a stone, and from the moment of his conversion, he never ate a full meal.

Pachomius established ten other monasteries for men and two nunneries for women. Pachomius was the first monk to organize hermits into groups and write down a Rule for them.

Pachomius died on May 15, 348, of an epidemic disease, which had taken the lives of many of his brothers. For his contributions to monasticism, Pachomius is ranked with other great innovators, such as St. Benedict, Basil, John Cassian, and is venerated by the Eastern, Western, and Coptic Churches.