X-Nico

Christian monasticism before 451

Voluntary poverty, in the complete renunciation of all worldly possessions, would be difficult till there were monasteries; the examples of Origen, St. Cyprian, and Pamphilus were necessary to show that a monastic life was possible.

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Forty of them were massacred in 373, and on the same day another group of solitaries at Raithe (supposed to be Elim) were killed by a second band of barbarians.

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Further into the desert was a place called "The Cells", or Cellia, whither the more perfect withdrew.

see also