CHRISTIANIZATION AND ITS CHALLENGESphenomenon, even though the ascetic idea of retirement from the world might
make a rural or desert environment seem particularly appropriate. Fleeing into
the farther desert is a topos in the monastic literature. When most would-be
ascetics fl ed to the desert, however, whether in Upper Egypt, Judaea or Syria,
they tended not to go very far from the settled areas on which they depended
for food and sustenance. Archaeology reveals that the Judaean desert was
crossed by a network of paths linking the monasteries together, and we know
that in many cases the monks retained close relations with the organized
church and the patriarch in Jerusalem. The staple diet of the Judaean monks
seems to have been bread, for which it was necessary to buy wheat, some-
times from far afi eld since it could not be grown in the desert environment.
Other activities of the monks, such as basket-weaving, also involved them in
market transactions with the outside world, while the actual building of the
monasteries implied a major investment and had a considerable effect on the
local economy. The monasteries of the fi fth and sixth centuries in the Judaean
desert north and south of Jerusalem were themselves part of the process of
settlement of population on marginal land which is a striking feature of Pales-
tine and Syria in that period (Chapter 7).
Hospitality was seen as a central part of monastic duty. The coenobitic
monastery of Martyrius not far from Jerusalem had a large hospice for visi-
tors, with its own church and stables. Some solitaries fl ed to remoter places in
order to escape the numbers of visitors, but it was part of the holy man’s role
to interact with the rest of society, as indeed Antony had done; thus, like many
others, Amoun, an early monk at Nitria in Egypt, received visitors and per-
formed miracles. The monks needed other people on whom to practice their
charity, and to demonstrate the ascetic ideal, and hospitality was an important
part of their way of life. The Lives of the Desert Fathers record many such visits:
We also put in at Nitria, where we saw many great anchorites. Some of
them were natives of that region, others were foreigners. They excelled
each other in the virtues and engaged in rivalry over their ascetic practices,
struggling to surpass each other in their manner of life. Some applied
themselves to contemplation, others to the active life. When a group of
them saw us approaching from a distance through the desert, some came
to meet us with water, others washed our feet, and others laundered our
clothes. Some of them invited us to a meal, others to learn about the vir-
tues, and others to contemplation and the knowledge of God. Whatever
ability each one had, he hastened to use it for our benefi t.
(Russell, Lives of the Desert Fathers, 105)It suited the monks to complain about the visitors who disturbed their prayer,
while actually encouraging them to come. Similarly, though, as we saw, ascet-
ics did often enough live in towns, it was debated whether one could in fact
practise holiness while living in the city. But it is a mistake to pose the issue
too much in terms of urban versus rural life, for in the monastic discourse