Religious life

Religious life is a term for the way of life that some people choose for becoming as holy as possible and for being of the greatest possible service to others.  Those who adopt this manner of life are called monks, nuns, brothers or sisters--or simply religious.  Some may be priests or ministers.  But most followers of the religious life are not members of the clergy. 

 

Followers of the religious life devote themselves exclusively to holiness and service.  Unlike ascetics and hermits, who also strive for holiness, they belong to religious orders.  The members of many orders live together in a community under a religious superior.  These communities are called convents, though those where monks live may be known as monasteries, and most nuns live in nunneries.  After one or more years of training and testing, candidates are admitted into the community.  In most cases, the candidates vow to stay until they die.  Generally, a final commitment is made only after several years of living under temporary vows or promises. 

Asceticism

Asceticism is the practice of self-denial or self-punishment, often for religious purposes.  People who practice asceticism are called ascetics.  They may go for long periods without food or sleep, wear rough clothing, expose themselves to extreme heat or cold, or refrain from sexual relations.  Some even whip themselves or stick sharp objects in their skin. 

 

Ascetics believe a person's physical life conflicts with his or her spiritual life.  Ascetics strive to become more spiritual by denying themselves physical pleasures and many necessities.  Sometimes, ascetic practices produce religious visions.  Asceticism has been a part of religious traditions for thousands of years.  Many early Christians gave up physical comforts to become closer to God.  Asceticism has been especially important in Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, and Islam.

Hermit

Hermit is a person who lives a solitary life, removed from social contact with others.  Men and women become hermits for many reasons.  They may want to avoid the evils or temptations they see in society.  They may believe they can purify themselves by living alone.  Or they may simply want nothing to do with other people. 

 

Hermits give up comfort, family, marriage, property, and pleasure for chastity, fasting, meditation, and silence.  They train themselves to eat simply, infrequently, and in small amounts.  Curious people or people who want spiritual guidance or physical healing may seek them out.  This attention sometimes drives hermits to even more secluded places. 

 

Religious hermits are commonly regarded as holy persons.  They have played important roles in forming the religious disciplines of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Taoism.  Religious hermits have withdrawn to caves, cells, holes, pillars, and tombs.  They may live in deserts, forests, mountain ravines, or even in cities. 

 

In some religions, particularly Buddhism and Christianity, there were hermits who came to regard solitude as selfish.  They joined others in forming hermitages.  In a hermitage, a number of hermits live in separate cells or rooms and follow religious disciplines.  They have few social contacts.  Monasteries developed from hermitages.  In monastic communities, monks form self-sufficient social groups and set aside certain times for solitary meditation and prayer. 

 

Anyone may want to be alone and silent for a time to think seriously, work, or prepare for some special event.  Hermits find this experience so rewarding that it becomes a way of life for them.

Monasticism

Monasticism is a special form of religious community life.  People who practise monasticism separate themselves from ordinary ways of living so they can follow the teachings of their religion as completely as possible.  Men who adopt a monastic life are called monks and live in a monastery.  Monastic women are called nuns and live in a convent. 

 

Monasticism has an important part in several major religions.  The word comes from the Greek word monos, meaning alone.  The first Christian monastics were called ones who live alone because they lived by themselves in the desert.  Later, groups of them gathered together and formed communities that followed a life of prayer and self-discipline.  Today, the members of monastic communities also follow this kind of life. 

 

Christian monasticism began in Egypt about A.D. 271, when Saint Anthony of Thebes went alone into the desert to lead a holy life.  Others soon followed.  In the early 300's, Saint Pachomius, another desert holy man, gathered some of these hermits into monasteries. 

 

Monasticism became especially influential in Europe during the early Middle Ages.  At that time, Europe had thousands of monasteries that were great centers of learning.  After about 1200, however, Christian monasticism began to be replaced by orders of wandering friars.  It has never regained its former influence. 

Middle Ages

The Christian church was the main civilizing force of the early Middle Ages.  It provided leadership for the people and saved Western Europe from complete ignorance. 

 

Little by little, the church made Christians of the barbarians.  Although the people of Europe no longer honoured one ruler, they gradually began to worship the same God.  People called missionaries travelled great distances to spread the Christian faith.  They also helped civilize the barbarians by introducing Roman ideas of government and justice into their lives. 

 

The popes, bishops, and other leaders of the church took over many functions of government after the Roman emperors lost power.  The church collected taxes and maintained law courts to punish criminals.  Church buildings also served as hospitals for the sick, and as inns for travelers. 

 

Two church institutions--the cathedral and the monastery--became centers of learning in the early Middle Ages.  Cathedrals were the churches of bishops.  Monasteries were communities of men called monks, who gave up worldly life to serve God through prayer and work.  The monks of some monasteries and the clergy of the cathedrals helped continue the reading and writing of Latin, and preserved many valuable ancient manuscripts.  They also set up most of the schools in Europe.

 

Life in a Christian monastic community involves work, prayer, and meditation.  A monastery or convent may be in a rural area or in a city.  It may consist of a small, walled-in group of huts or a huge complex that houses hundreds of people.  But it is designed to isolate its people from the world outside. 

 

Christian monasticism includes an extremely important element called the rule, a set of guidelines by which members of a monastic group live.  Its essential purpose is to set specific times each day for study, work, prayer, and other activities.  Eastern Orthodox monastic groups base their rule on the teachings of Saint Basil of Caesarea, who lived in the 300's.  The Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia, written in the 500's, is the model for most Roman Catholic groups. 

 

In addition to following a rule, Christian monks and nuns take three vows--poverty, chastity, and obedience.  The vow of poverty requires a person not to own any private possessions.  The vow of chastity obligates a monk or nun to have no sexual relations.  The vow of obedience requires a person to always follow the decisions of the leader of the monastic community. 

 

There are several Christian monastic orders.  Each of these groups of monasteries or convents follows the same rule and shares a common leadership.  There are also many nonmonastic orders.  The members of these groups dedicate their lives to preaching and service, rather than to prayer and meditation. 

 

 

                    Christian communities

 

Religious life among Christians started with the practice and teachings of Jesus.  His voluntary poverty, His celibacy (remaining unmarried), and His obedience to God's will became the pattern for the religious life. 

 

The Roman Catholic Church:  Persecution in the early Christian church prevented the development of organized religious orders in the Roman Empire.  However, many hermits practiced poverty, remained unmarried, and lived alone in the desert.  St. Paul the Hermit and St. Anthony of Thebes were dominant figures in this early stage of the religious life.  Both lived in Egypt. 

 

In the early 300's, St. Pachomius organized a religious community in south Egypt.  He wrote a rule (programme of life) for monks who wished to live together under a superior.  Shortly before his death, there were 40 monasteries with 2,000 monks under his direction.  Later in the 300's, St. Basil of Caesarea adopted the rule of Pachomius and made his monasteries in Asia Minor homes of charity.  The monasteries included orphanages, hospitals, farms, and places of rest. 

 

St. Benedict of Nursia was the father of Christian monasticism in the West.  His policies of the 500's became the pattern for religious life in Europe and America.  The Benedictine approach emphasized attachment to a single monastery, community living, and labour.  Eastern monasticism, on the other hand, stressed austere physical living and severe discipline.  Today, Eastern Orthodox religious life still favours the pattern of St. Pachomius and St. Basil, and the Roman Catholic Church prefers that of St. Benedict. 

 

During the early 1200's, St. Francis of Assisi began a new practice in religious life by encouraging his followers to travel about the countryside, preaching and helping the needy.  Also around 1200, St. Dominic established the Order of Preachers to teach in schools and colleges.  In 1534, St. Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuits "to extend the Kingdom of Christ" to all parts of the world.  Early Jesuits included missionaries such as St. Francis Xavier in India, and such explorers as Jacques Marquette in America. 

 

 

 

During the 1500's and 1600's, as a result of the Protestant Reformation and an expansion of learning, new Roman Catholic orders were established to try to meet every humanitarian need.  St. Angela Merici founded the Ursulines in Italy.  Louise de Marillac and St. Vincent de Paul started the Sisters of Charity in France.  St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle founded the Christian Brothers in France as a community of teachers. 

 

Today, there are about 11/5 million members of Catholic religious communities throughout the world. 

 

Vatican Council II, which met from 1962 to 1965, urged religious communities to adapt themselves "to the changed conditions of our time."  As a result, the communities started a period of adjustment.  Encouraged by the Vatican, women in the communities have adapted their clothing and many of their customs to the practical needs of modern life.  The practice of poverty in wealthy societies and of obedience in democratic cultures is being modified.  However, a balance has not yet been reached between the demands of the present day and the unchangeable principles of Christian perfection. 

 

The Eastern Orthodox Churches regard monasticism as an essential feature of their tradition.  Until the 1900's, Eastern Orthodox monks and nuns rarely took part in teaching, preaching, or the ministry.  Practically all Eastern Orthodox religions follow the teachings of St. Basil.  Two characteristics of Eastern Orthodox monasteries are liturgical worship and fasting.  Membership in these communities is about 30,000, of whom two-thirds are women. 

 

Of the estimated 550 Orthodox monasteries in Europe and Asia, the most famous is probably the monastic republic of Mount Athos in Greece.  There are 20 monasteries on the mountain.  Eleven of them follow the cenobitic rule, and nine observe the idiorrhythmic rule--the approximate ratio for Eastern Orthodox monasticism in general.  The cenobitic rule calls for community life under an abbot elected for life.  The idiorrhythmic rule provides for monasteries directed by trustees who are elected annually.  It gives monks greater freedom in matters of poverty and daily activities. 

 

Protestant churches.  Protestant leaders did not encourage religious life under vows during the Reformation of the 1500's.  However, a Lutheran Augustinian monastery at Mollenbeck, Germany, existed until 1675.  Protestant groups called Pietists, such as the Bohemian Brethren, organized in 1722 in Moravia, formed partially monastic communities that later influenced European and American Protestantism. 

 

By the mid-1800's, certain Protestant denominations had re-established religious communities.  A Lutheran community of deaconesses was organized in Germany in 1836.  In England, an Anglican group for men was founded in 1842, and one for women was set up in 1845.  In 1940, the Taize community in France was formed under Lutheran and Reformed sponsorship.  Today, there are several thousand members in about 100 Protestant religious communities throughout the world.  The majority of these Protestant communities are Episcopalian.

 

Other communities

Non-Christian monasticism:  A number of non-Christian religions also have monastic communities.  For example, monasticism in Buddhism began in the 500's B.C., about 800 years before Christian monasticism.  Buddha, the founder of the religion, taught his followers to give up their family, work, and material things.  Early Buddhist monks and nuns spent most of their time as wandering mendicants (holy beggars).  Today, most Buddhist monastics live in monasteries or convents.  Buddhist monks are the only preachers of their religion.  They live by a highly detailed rule called the Vinaya, which guides everything they do. 

 

The monks and nuns of Jainism, an ancient religion of India, still live much as the first Buddhist monastics did.  They are wandering mendicants who lead extremely strict lives and strive never to harm any living creature, not even an insect.

 

Hinduism has had religious hermits since ancient times.  But they were never well organized until about A.D. 800, when a great teacher named Sankara founded an order with four monasteries.  Since then, about 10 large orders and many small ones have developed. 

 

The influence of monasticism today has declined almost everywhere.  Perhaps the chief reason for this decline has been widespread secularism (doubt of the value of religion).  Christian monastic groups have lost members who question the value of the traditional vows, especially the vow of chastity.  In addition, Communist governments have persecuted Buddhist monastics in China, Tibet, and parts of Southeast Asia. 

 

On the other hand, there has been renewed interest in monasticism among some religious groups.  The Ramakrishna Mission, a modern Hindu order involved in social work, has attracted a large following in India and in other parts of the world.  Tibetan Buddhist exiles have founded successful monasteries in the United States.  The Lutheran and Dutch Reformed churches and several other Protestant groups have also started monastic communities.

 

All religious communities were founded to advance the spiritual life of their members.  Contemplative orders concentrate on this role and have an organized daily routine with ascetic practices and many hours of prayer.  Active communities engage in social and spiritual work in schools, hospitals, and orphanages.  But even the most active community is basically dedicated to promoting the holiness of its members.

 

Among the major world religions, only Hinduism and Buddhism have developed traditions that correspond in some ways to the Christian religious life.  The beliefs and practices of Islam and Judaism do not include religious orders or separate communities of monks and nuns. 

 

Hinduism:  The closest Hindu equivalent to Christian religious life is the sannyasi, the fourth and last stage of a Hindu's life.  With advancing age, a Hindu man, alone or with his wife, may retire from active life.  He prays, practices severely simple living, and finally reaches a state of spiritual perfection. 

 

Buddhism: Buddha made monasticism an inseparable part of his creed.  He planned his religion as a monastic order headed by himself.  As Buddhism expanded, members of the laity were included.  But they had to affirm their belief in the Sangha (monastic order) as strongly as their faith in Buddha and his creed. 

 

According to Buddha, "There are two kinds of gifts, the gift of material things and the gift of Dharma (the law).  Of these two, the gift of the law is preeminent."  An example of the first kind of gift-giving would be monks or nuns living in a community where they own material things in common.  An example of the second type would be monks and nuns teaching the methods which must be used in order to attain the state of nirvana (perfect happiness). 

 

There were several thousand Buddhist monasteries in China before the Chinese Communists conquered the country in the 1940's.  Buddhist monasticism was changed drastically after the Communist take-over of China, Vietnam, and Tibet.  The Communists have allowed some monasteries to function in these countries--if the members cultivate an assigned portion of land and raise a quota of crops. 

 

In non-Communist Asia, Buddhist monasticism varies.  The greatest differences exist between the Hinayana and Mahayana orders.  Hinayana communities have a stricter daily life, and members spend much time in meditation.  Most Hinayana communities are in Southeast Asia.  Mahayana communities are more active in welfare and education, and are centered in Japan and China.