In terms of ascetic textuality, the
cenobitic text (like the cenobite itself) cannot be represented in an individualized manner; as Harpham remarks, to be a cenobite "was to copy, one among many, of a manuscript," to be "a second-order imitation" (43).
In the context of
cenobitic monasticism, the classic work on spiritual direction is St.
He challenged the nuns and monks of the order to take up a discussion of the possibilities of "an anthropological model of personal and
cenobitic stamp ...
Bentley, the true lost paradise is to be located in an ancient China structured around solitary hermit-sages, a "
cenobitic" culture to be exalted over the "conventual" one into which Europe--some time, presumably, after the Decadents--has fallen (176): "Invasions swept over China; the Empire split up into warring kingdoms.
These can range from the temporary groups of ascetics frequently found congregating at pilgrimage places to the Shaivite monasteries tracing their origins to the great Shankara - a closer parallel to the Western
cenobitic model.(2) Many South Asian traditions, further, develop distinct monastic and lay branches, with lay disciples ideally supporting renunciates who are supposed to meditate and teach.(3) This paper will examine one of the most radical transformations of the renunciate's ideal: the evident, if incomplete, laicization of an ascetic tradition itself and its reintegration into Hindu society as a caste.
Holy Trinity continues in this
cenobitic monastic tradition.
In the West, our words "monk" and "monastic" contain and express solitude (from ancient Greek monos, "one alone").(*) And yet in both West and East, the practice evolved from the earliest, wandering hermits ("eremites") to become communal ("
cenobitic").
Coming from the West they were of course familiar with the Benedictine tradition,
cenobitic communities bound together by a common rule; in the East the tradition was a modified form of eremetical monasticism with a set of local directives that varied from place to place.
On his return to Jerusalem, Sabas and Theodosius, the leader of the
cenobitic communities in Palestine, took it upon themselves to address a petition directly to the emperor:
He founded the
cenobitic community in Pontus before 360 A.D.
The other extreme is the approach of those who live in community, exemplified by the
cenobitic rule, in which all the individual's labors go to benefit the entire community, while all one's necessities (food, clothing, and cell) are provided by the community.
As the style of life at Kellia evolved, towards a more
cenobitic form oriented towards the outside world of nearby Christian laity and welcoming visitors, larger spaces were built, and it is here, over and above the individual dwellings with their pious or personal-name graffiti, that many of the most interesting inscriptions were found.
When Giustiniani and Querini chose to enter the Camaldolese Order as hermits, they were not simply entering into the communal (or
cenobitic) form of monasticism introduced to European Christianity by the Benedictines, but were instead choosing an order that was founded in the eleventh century to encourage a more solitary form of religious life.
