according to their outstanding traits, and designating each
group with an alphabetical designation such as ‘iota’, ‘exsi’,
etc.^20 The letter marking each group was an index to its
level of education and the kind of work that would be
assigned to each group – manual, tutorial, professional, etc.
Pakhom laid down rules that regulated all. aspects of
communal monastic life – the probationary period for
novices, their final acceptance into the monastery after
passing the tests prepared for them, how they were to dress,
occupy themselves, eat together, worship together, etc.
Work was mandatory because it was both a means of self-
support and a factor contributing to mental and spiritual
well-being. Moreover it was to be considered an integral
part of the life, undertaken not merely for an occupation but
also for its own sake. For each monastery was to be a sort
of agricultural and industrial colony^21 – self-sufficient as well
as contributing to the needy who would seek its help.
Public communal worship was required and – except
for reason of sickness – attendance at services obligatory.
Private worship was personal and each monk was free to set
his own rules for it.
- The Pakhomian type of monastery appealed greatly
to many of the men who sought the ascetic life. This led
Pakhom to establish other monasteries modelled after his
first one in other parts of Egypt. Altogether he established
during his life nine monasteries for men and one convent for
women". They all came to be known as the Pakhomian
monasteries, and he instituted a method for their governance
and for linking them together so that in modern terms, it
could be described as democratic.
Although each monastery was a self-contained,
independent unit, it was also a member in a group of
monasteries in a geographical area. This group formed a