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christian-spirituality-mysticismfeatured in 36 works

Monasticism

To leave everything for God alone — in the desert's silence or a shared house of prayer

Monasticism is the life, communal or solitary, wholly dedicated to prayer, asceticism, and seeking God. Anthony is remembered for the eremitic or solitary form, Pachomius for the cenobitic or communal form, and Benedict for his influential Rule. It is central to Catholic and Orthodox life. The magisterial Reformation largely rejected monasticism as an institution, favoring a vocation lived within ordinary society.

How it traveled

  1. The Church History of Eusebius
    Caesarea · 339
    explains
  2. Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations
    Mosul · 345
    explains
  3. Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.)
    Alexandria · 373
    explains
  4. Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life
    Alexandria · 373
    explains
  5. The Letters
    Caesarea (Cappadocia) · 379
    explains
  6. Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen
    Nazianzus · 390
    explains
  7. Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose
    Milan · 397
    explains
  8. The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  9. The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  10. The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    applies
  11. The Letters of St. Jerome
    Bethlehem · 420
    explains
  12. Jerome and Gennadius. Lives of Illustrious Men
    Bethlehem · 420
    explains
  13. The Life of S. Hilarion
    Bethlehem · 420
    explains
  14. The Life of Paulus the First Hermit
    Bethlehem · 420
    explains
  15. The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk
    Bethlehem · 420
    applies
  16. Against Vigilantius
    Bethlehem · 420
    applies
  17. Dialogues of Sulpitius Severus
    Toulouse (Aquitaine) · 425
    explains
  18. Of the Work of Monks
    Hippo Regius · 430
    applies
  19. Letters of St. Augustin
    Hippo Regius · 430
    applies
  20. The Confessions
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  21. Expositions on the Book of Psalms
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  22. On the Morals of the Catholic Church
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  23. The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults
    Marseille · 435
    explains
  24. The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV
    Marseille · 435
    explains
  25. The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X
    Marseille · 435
    explains
  26. The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII
    Marseille · 435
    explains
  27. The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 439
    explains
  28. The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 450
    explains
  29. The Fourth Ecumenical Council. The Council of Chalcedon
    Chalcedon · 451
    applies
  30. The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret
    Cyrrhus · 458
    explains
  31. The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great
    Rome · 604
    applies
  32. Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great
    Rome · 604
    explains
  33. The Canons of the Council in Trullo; Often Called The Quinisext Council
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 692
    applies
  34. The Seventh Ecumenical Council. The Second Council of Nice
    Nicaea · 787
    applies
  35. Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul
    Zwolle · 1471
    applies
  36. Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church
    Geneva · 1564
    applies

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Modern and living teachers whose books take up Monasticism. These works are still in copyright, so we can’t show the text here — each links out to the book.