May 2017 – The North American Thebaid

St. Pachomius lived in the Egyptian Thebaid, and is to cenobitic monasticism what St. Anthony the Great is to the eremitic (solitary) way, and what St. Nilus of Sora is to skete life in Russia. He is commemorated on May 15.

From his Life at OCA.org:

St. Pachomius receives the monastic rule and habit from an angelic messenger (14th c. fresco, Mount Athos).

Saint Pachomius the Great was both a model of desert dwelling, and with Saints 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.

Saint 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, Saint 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.

Continue reading “Venerable Pachomius the Great, Founder of Coenobitic Monasticism” →

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

I hope and trust we have all had a soul-profiting Lent and Holy Week, and a radiant Pascha and Easter…

What better way to return to blogging on the North American Thebaid than to share the life of St Nilus of Sora, whom we just commemorated on May 7.

In the Russian Northern Thebaid, Venerable Nilus established the way of skete life, which is often considered the ‘Royal Way’ between the solitary monastic life (eremitic) and communal (cenobitic). In skete life, anywhere from a few to several monks or nuns live in their own separate cells or huts, within shouting distance of one another (in case of emergency), and then join together for the divine services for the Lord’s Day and on major feasts and saints’ days. During the week, they keep their monastic prayer rule and work at their crafts and obediences to help sustain the Skete.

Skete life shows the wisdom of the monastic way, as not everyone is suited for close living in community, and only a very few are called to life as a hermit, in complete solitude. It may very well be that here in North America, where we all have become accustomed to living such individualized, idiosyncratic lives, that skete life will be a real option for many monastics as the North American Thebaid grows and matures (should the Lord not return first).

Repose of the Venerable Nilus the Abbot of Sora

OCA, May 7, 2017:

Saint Nilus of Sora, a great ascetic of the Russian Church, was descended from the Maikov nobility. He accepted monasticism at the monastery of Saint Cyril of White Lake (June 9). Here he made use of the counsels of the pious Elder Paisius Yaroslavov, who was afterwards igumen of the Trinity-Sergiev Lavra.

Saint Nilus journeyed much through the East, studying the monastic life in Palestine and on Mt. Athos. Returning to Rus, he withdrew to the River Sora in the Vologda lands, and built a cell and a chapel, where there soon grew up a monastery with a new (for that time in Rus) skete Rule adopted by Saint Nilus from Mt. Athos. Following the command of Saint Nilus, the monks had to sustain themselves by the work of their own hands, to accept charity only in extreme need, and to shun the love of things and splendor even in church. Women were not permitted in the skete, monks was not allowed to leave the skete under any pretext, and the possession of lands or estates was forbidden. Continue reading “Repose of the Venerable Nilus, Abbot of Sora” →