Hermits
The first monks in history were hermits. Hermits, also known as eremites and recluses, were people who went to live alone in the wilderness to dedicate their lives to God. In so doing, they imitated Jesus, who spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert – as well as John the Baptist. Living alone and in the most unpleasant place possible focused the mind on God, though hermits were subject to Satan tempting them to give up and go home. The earliest hermit was either St. Antony the Great (251-356) or Paul of Thebes (c.227-c.342), depending on which biographer you believe.
These men lived a truly horrible, if self-sufficient, life in caves and ruined buildings of the Egyptian desert, subject to the caprices of the weather and the danger of their own thoughts (and Satan). Thus, it is no surprise that many wanted to share in all the fun, and soon, the desert was full of people living alone, but nearby. In the words of Athanasius of Alexandria (c.296-373), ‘the desert became a city’. It takes a certain type of maniac to live like this, however, and many hermits found themselves relying on each other for help and support.
Soon, hermits were essentially living together, meeting for meals and helping each other to grow crops when they weren’t praying on their own. Seeing the need for uniformity amongst these hermits, Pachomius (292-348) developed the first rule of life for the communities to live under. Thus the first monastery was born. But some people still preferred living in imitation of Antony and Paul, and there were hermits throughout the Middle Ages. They lived alone under extreme conditions, and had precious little to do with other people, but had an affiliation to an order and relatively nearby institution.