The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1917-11-02
M0NAsTICIsM.

MonasticIsm Is the general term used. to
describe the system under which those men
and women live who have abandoned the
world for religious motives and live, whether
separately or in community, in the pursuit
OF spiritual perfection. They are bound by
the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience
From their being bound by such vows. these
people are known as religious from the
Latin RELIGARE, to bind.
Forms of monasticism existed among the
so-called pagan nations long before Christ.
Buddha found the institution practically
essential feature OF Brahma aism and Great
ed a monastic order for which he drew up q
set of rules that contain many analogies
With the rules of Christian religious orders.
In Egypt the worship OF Scraps was asso-
ciated with the foundation OF monasteries.
The largest institution OF the kind was that
at Memphis.
The first reference to the monastic life In
Christian writers is considered by some to be
letter to st. Ignatius of Antioch. The first
Christian hermits seemed TO have establish
ed themselves on the shores OF the Red Sea-
Not long afterward the desert regions of
Upper Egypt became favorite retreat of
the Christians from the prosecutions so
frequent during the third century. Among
the earliest OF these fathers OF the desert
were Paul OF Thebes and st. Antony. St.
Basil, the great was the founder of monas-
teries in the East.
In the time of st. Jerome and St. August
Inc, the monastic life was well organized as
an Integral part OF the Church's system
Monastt RES continued to spring up In many
parts OF the West during the fourth, fifth
and sixth centuries. One OF the most fam
Gus OF these was situated on the lies de-
Lereus In the Mediterranean Sea, off the
coast OF France. near the present town CT
Cannes. Many monasteries fiourished in
Ireland during these centuries and furnish
ed missionary monks who spread not only
Christianity, but literature and arts among
the barbarians who had overrun the CONT
nent OF Europe. Perpetual silence complete
abstinence from fresh meat, daily fasting,
labor, reading, prayer, poverty. humility
and chastity are the VOWS OF CoIumbanus, an
Irish monk
The monastic rule which had most infiu-
ence in the West however. was that of st,
BENEDICT He founded the monastery OF
Monte Casino. which became the mother
house of Western nionasticism.
The Immediately succeeding centuries saw
wonderful development OF monastIcism In
the West The monasteries became the
home of learning. Monks were the teachers
OF the world, and went forth as missionary
preachers into England. Germany, and the
nations of Northern and Central Europe.
Agriculture as well as civilization became
their care, and the first serious attempts to
do away with serfdom was under their rule.
Education for women developed first in the
converts and then to their sisters In the
world until women were better educated
than at any preceding period In history. In
the inconsistencies and converts expert nurs-
ing of the sick and wounded and the first
germs OF modern chemical medicine devel-
oped.
In the tenth century occurred the greatest
name in monastc history that OF Cluny.
The ideal of Cluny was the existence OF one
great central monastery with dependencies
spread over many lands aud forming vast
teudel heirarchy.The subordinate monaster.
les were dependents in the strictest sense
Their superiors were not called abbots, bu,
priors, The superior of every house, how
ever great, was the nominee OF the abbot OF
3luny. Cluny remains, in spite of the de-
fects OF It's feudal character, one OF the chief
factors in the history of the eleventh
century.
Monasticism has been, at least in the West
in constant DEVELOPMENT, always growing
more closely in touch with the shifting On
Nironment in which IL was placed In the
course OF time. The skeptical character OF
The eighteenth century was unfavotab!e to
monastic evolution, but the nineteenth saw
II re-awakening. Persecution and conRsca-
tion for political and pecuniary reasons
have reduced the numbers of religious COM
munities. but under system of true relig-
ious freedom as in the United States, wide
extention of the religious orders has come
about.