Eastern Church And Early Monastic Leaders

Question 1

Anthony the Great

Answer 1

Egyptian hermit, one of the founders of monasticism
3rd-4th centuries
Popular Life, written by Athanasius
Influential in attracting disciples to the ascetical life in the desert
Athanasius: “The desert became a city”

Question 2

John Cassian

Answer 2

monastic founder, writer (bilingual, Latin and Greek)
4th-5th centuries
Visited Egyptian monks and transmitted their ascetic ideals to the West, esp. Gaul
Wrote the Conferences, an influential account of his conversations with hermits

Question 3

Pachomius

Answer 3

Founder of cenobitic (communal) monasticism
4th century
Upper (southern) Egypt
Ruled and regulated large monasteries for several hundred men and women
His ‘Rule’ influenced later rules in the East and West

Question 4

Benedict of Nursia

Answer 4

Monastic founder, “Father of Western Monasticism”
late 5th and 6th centuries
Italy; Rome and environs
After period as hermit, established a monastery at Monte Cassino
Wrote the Rule of St. Benedict that would become the dominant rule in the West

Question 5

John Climacus

Answer 5

6th-7th-century monk and ascetic writer
Mount Sinai
“John of the Ladder”
Wrote Ladder of Divine Ascent
One of most widely read books in Byzantine Christianity
Describes ascent to God by stages in terms of Jacob’s ladder
ascetical emphasis

Question 6

Simeon the New Theologian

Answer 6

10th-11th-century Byzantine monk, mystic, and spiritual writer
Constantinople
influential mystical writer
emphasized the vision of divine light
sums up Byzantine spiritual teaching
in turn influences later Hesychasm (inner mystical prayer associated with Mt. Athos)

Question 7

Mount Athos

Answer 7

‘The Holy Mountain’
peninsula in Macedonia, north eastern Greece
Since 9th-10th centuries, a major site for Byzantine monasticism
Associated with the Jesus Prayer and hesychasm, a practice of inner mystical prayer
“descending with the mind into the heart”