Pachomius's Ascetic Communities

While these communities were very popular among individuals wishing to be spiritually enlightened, many people disapproved of them for various reasons such as tax exemptions (Elm, 21). Because of this tensions, the ascetic communities often stayed very isolated from the local towns and villages. Political unrest caused Pachomius’s ascetic communities to become increasingly withdrawn and secluded, limiting the individuals who were allowed to enter. However, this did not hinder the spread of the ascetic communities, as Pachomius-style monasteries were found in Pontus, Cappadocia, Syria, Palestine, Italy, Africa, and Gaul (Veilluex, 1). The spread of the ascetic movement moved through throughout the rest of the Roman Empire by the religious leaders and philosophers who traveled to Egypt and then spread that information to other cities and villages. For examples, Palladius, an established monk who ended his journeys in Constantinople, wrote about his experiences as a monk in Egypt in Lausiac History. This text was written around 420 (Platte, 45). Another …show more content…
Because of this, they rejected all ideas relating to pagan beliefs including the idea that anyone, no matter social class or status, has access to the divine. Thus, Christian monks began to stress the idea that “an utterly distinct lifestyle” was what gave them access God (Brown, 94). This effectively separated the ideals of the pagans from the Christian monks. For the pagans, contact with the divine was available to anyone devoted enough. For Christians, this was only available to those who practiced the ‘correct’ ascetic behavior. This separation of ideas ultimately led to the spread of asceticism throughout Christian Late Antiquity, and further drove divisions between the average man and the holy leaders (Brown,