Monasteries

My colleague, Michael Calabria tells me that famed Egyptologist Howard Carter once said something like, “there’s something about Egypt that turns people toward solitude.” Perhaps this is the reason the solitary contemplative life – monasticism – was born by the Copts in the 3rd and 4th centuries. It must have been the environment that bred a desire for solitude because it’s hard to imagine what else could have drawn St. Paul of Thebes and St. Anthony the Great and so many others to the eastern desert. To be sure the landscape is beautiful. But even today the landscape is barren and desolate, except where monasteries have been developed over time. Over the centuries the eastern desert has been the wandering ground of the Bedouins who attacked and took control of the monasteries at various times, but other than random outposts, this land appears to be largely uninhabited and uninhabitable.

Yet early on in Christian history St. Paul and then St. Anthony made their way separately to the eastern desert and took up residence in small mountain caves. In these homes over the course of decades – 8 for St. Paul and 4 for St. Anthony – they prayed, they pondered and they lived in complete dependence on the mercy of a provident God.

The legend of St. Paul says he came to the desert around 250 AD to escape Roman persecution. He lived in the mountains of the desert in a cave near a clear spring and a palm tree, the leaves of which provided him with his clothing and the fruit of which provided him with his source of food until he was 43 years old, when a raven started bringing him half a loaf of bread daily. He remained in the cave for the rest of his life, almost a hundred years.

According to church teaching, Anthony the Great came to visit when Paul was 113. They were together for one day. When Anthony next visited him, Paul was dead. Anthony is said to have clothed him in a tunic presented by Athanasius of Alexandria and buried him, with two lions helping to dig the grave.

The legend of St. Anthony says that he came from a wealthy family. His parents died when he was a young man and left him with the care of an unmarried sister. In 285, at the age of 34, he decided to follow the words of Jesus, who said, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow me.” Anthony took the words literally. He gave away some of his estate, sold the rest and donated the funds to the poor and became the disciple of a local hermit. Over time he made he made his way to the eastern desert where he found his own cave and source of water and lived a life of prayer and work. While he was not the first desert father, he is widely considered one of the “Fathers” of the monastic life that continues to thrive in Egypt. If I heard correctly, St. Anthony’s cave was the first place the others came to gather together and sought to live a monastic life in community.

St. Anthony’s monastery is a beautiful, large complex that is now home to around 120 Coptic Orthodox monks. Our guide on our tour was Abuna (Father) Ruwais a Coptic monk who looks a little like Santa Claus with his long white beard and who ran his tour with authority and conviction. He had no tolerance for those who lingered too long in any one spot, but was also sure to point out the good spots for photos along the way like any good Egyptian tour guide. Abuna Ruwais repeatedly emphasized that the monastery remains an active community of monastic life and was first and foremost a place for prayer. He didn’t let us get too loud along the way and he insisted on silence and prayer when we entered the chapel.

Somewhere along the way in the course of our tour I told the good Abuna that I also was an “abuna” after someone mentioned that I “worked for the church.” Initially he looked at me in dismay and reminded me that in all of scripture there are no woman priests. Over time he asked more questions and engaged me more in conversation. By the end of the day he had given me his card and was happy to take the almonds that I offered him.

Our visit to St. Paul’s was shorter and we did not have the same personality-filled guide as we had at St. Anthony’s. The priest at St. Paul’s was happy to speak in Arabic when he learned that there were those in the group who could translate and he used a red pointer to point to paintings and tell us when they were dated – “The angel Gabriel 17th century . . . St. George 16th century.”

St. Paul’s remains home to some 80 monks and as we toured the grounds we could hear them gathered for prayer and singing Coptic songs with the familiar sound of cymbals and triangles giving the rhythm.

The grounds at St. Paul’s were spread out and we only saw a fraction of the facility. There was a large beautiful modern church structure that appeared to quite new that I didn’t get to see. And as we were getting ready to leave I looked up in the mountains and noticed that there was a large mountainside building that appeared to be quite large. I didn’t get all the details but it sounded like that was the vision of one of the monks and has been worked on over time with the help of volunteers. It sounded like there were several church that had been built into the side of the mountain and other buildings as well.

All in a great day seeing new places and piquing my curiosity for more.

For some reason I'm only being allowed to post two photos. You can check out more of my pictures from St. Anthony's and St. Paul's on my Facebook page.