CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Monasticism. Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. The basic idea of monasticism in all its varieties is seclusion or withdrawal from the world or society. The object of this is to achieve a life whose ideal is different from and largely at variance with that pursued by the majority of mankind; and the method adopted, no matter what its precise details may be, is always self- abnegation or organized asceticism. Taken in this broad sense monachism may be found in every religious system which has attained to a high degree of ethical development, such as Brahmin, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Moslemreligions, and even in the system of those modern communisticsocieties, often anti- theological in theory, which are a special feature of recent social development especially in America. Hence it is claimed that a form of life which flourishes in environments so diverse must be the expression of a principle inherent in humannature and rooted therein no less deeply than the principle of domesticity, though obviously limited to a far smaller portion of mankind. This article and its two accompanying articles, EASTERN MONASTICISM and WESTERN MONASTICISM, deal with the monastic order strictly so called as distinct from the .

For information as to these see RELIGIOUS ORDERS, and the article on the particular order or congregation required. Its growth and method. Origin. Any discussion of pre- Christian asceticism is outside the scope of this article. So too, any question of Jewishasceticism as exemplified in the Essenes or Therapeutae of Philo's . Any such thing was rendered impossible by the circumstances in which the early Christians were placed, for in the first century or so of the Church'sexistence the idea of living apart from the congregation of the faithful, or of forming within it associations to practise special renunciations in common was out of the question. While admitting this, however, it is equally certain that monasticism, when it came, was little more than a precipitation of ideas previously in solution among Christians. For asceticism is the struggle against worldly principles, even with such as are merely worldly without being sinful.

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The world desires and honourswealth, so the asceticloves and honourspoverty. If he must have something in the nature of property then he and his fellows shall hold it in common, just because the world respects and safeguards private ownership.

Maria Valtorta –The “Pen” of Jesus Maria Valtorta (1897-1961) was an extraordinary Italian laywoman and mystic who was given an series of visions of the life of. The Cattle of Geryon. Heracles’ labours were getting further and further away from home. For his next task, he had to cross the Libyan desert to get to the other. About this page. APA citation. Huddleston, G. Monasticism. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

In like manner he practises fasting and virginity that thereby he may repudiate the licence of the world. Hereafter the various items of this renunciation will be dealt with in detail, they are mentioned at this time merely to show how the monastic ideal was foreshadowed in the asceticism of the Gospel and its first followers. Such passages as I John, ii, 1. If any manlove the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the father but is of the world.

And the world passeth away and the concupiscence thereof. Watch My Third Wife, George Download. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

And this is precisely what the early ascetics did. We read of some who, driven by the spirit of God, dedicated their energies to the spread of the Gospel and, giving up all their possessions passed from city to city in voluntarypoverty as apostles and evangelists.

Of others we hear that they renounced property and marriage so as to devote their lives to the poor and needy of their particular church. If these were not strictly speaking monks and nuns, at least the monks and nuns were such as these; and, when the monastic life took definite shape in the fourth century, these forerunners were naturally looked up to as the first exponents of monachism. For the truth is that the Christian ideal is frankly an ascetic one and monachism is simply the endeavour to effect a material realization of that ideal, or organization in accordance with it, when taken literally as regards its . The first of these was the expectation of an immediate Second Advent of Christ (cf. Corinthians 7: 2. Peter 4: 7, etc.) That this belief was widespread is admitted on all hands, and obviously it would afford a strong motive for renunciation since a man who expects this present order of things to end at any moment, will lose keen interest in many matters commonly held to be important. This belief however had ceased to be of any great influence by the fourth century, so that it cannot be regarded as a determining factor in the origin of monasticism which then took visible shape.

A second cause more operative in leading men to renounce the world was the vividness of their belief in evil spirits. The first Christians saw the kingdom of Satan actually realized in the political and social life of heathendom around them. In their eyes the gods whose temples shone in every city were simply devils, and to participate in their rites was to join in devil worship. When Christianity first came in touch with the Gentiles the Council of Jerusalem by its decree about meat offered to idols (Acts 1.

Consequently certain professions were practically closed to believers since a soldier, schoolmaster, or state official of any kind might be called upon at a moment's notice to participate in some act of state religion. But the difficulty existed for private individuals also. There were gods who presided over every moment of a man'slife, gods of house and garden, of food and drink, of health and sickness. To honour these was idolatry, to ignore them would attract inquiry, and possibly persecution. And so when, to men placed in this dilemma, St.

John wrote, . Probably the community of goods was simply a natural continuation of the practice, begun by Jesus and the Apostles, where one of the band kept the common purse and acted as steward. There is no indication that such a custom was ever instituted elsewhere and even at Jerusalem it seems to have collapsed at an early period. It must be recognized also that influences such as the above were merely contributory and of comparatively small importance.

The main cause which begot monachism was simply the desire to fulfill Christ'slaw literally, to imitate Him in all simplicity, following in His footsteps whose . So we find monachism at first instinctive, informal, unorganized, sporadic; the expression of the same force working differently in different places, persons, and circumstances; developing with the natural growth of a plant according to the environment in which it finds itself and the character of the individual listener who heard in his soul the call of . For him, as for all men, the end of life is to love.

God. Monastic asceticism then means the removal of obstacles to loving. God, and what these obstacles are is clear from the nature of love itself.

Love is the union of wills. If the creature is to love. God, he can do it in one way only; by sinking his own will in God's, by doing the will of God in all things: . No one understands better than the monk those words of the beloved disciple, . Broadly speaking this renunciation has three great branches corresponding to the three evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience.(a) Poverty. There are few subjects, if any, upon which more sayings of Jesus have been preserved than upon the superiority of poverty over wealth in His kingdom (cf. Matthew 5: 3; 1. 3: 2.

Mark 1. 0: 2. 3 sq.; Luke 6: 2. The argument based on such passages as Matthew 1. If a man wish to attain eternallife it is better for him to renounce his possessions than to retain them. Jesus said, . Augustine points out, the disciples evidently understood Jesus to include all who covetriches in the number of ?

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