Saint Pachomius

Life story

Pachomius was born around 292 in Upper Egypt to a pagan family. As a young man he was drafted into the Roman army. Tradition says he was moved by the kindness of local Christians who brought food to the recruits, so after leaving the army he asked for instruction and was baptised.

He then joined the hermit Palamon to learn the ascetic life. Around 320, according to the early biographies, he founded a community at Tabennisi, an abandoned village on the Nile. Unlike hermits living alone, the monks here lived together under one superior, shared meals and work, and followed a common rule. He is therefore regarded as the founder of communal monasticism, called koinonia in Greek.

The community grew, and Pachomius founded further monasteries in Upper Egypt and helped establish a house for women. He composed a rule that Jerome later translated into Latin, which gave it influence on monastic life in the West. The monks practised crafts such as mat weaving and held labour, property and meals in common.

He died around 348, according to sources during a severe plague in the monasteries. The Copts keep his feast on 9 May, the day also given in the Roman Martyrology. Eastern churches and some calendars use 15 May. The Coptic and Greek biographies of him differ on many details. The Pachomian communities continued after his death under his successors Petronius, Horsiesius and Theodore, and the movement spread beyond Egypt through translations of the Rule and the Lives. His approach, with a common rule, shared work and obedience to a superior, became a model that later monastic founders in East and West drew on.

Works and witness

• Born in Upper Egypt, served in the Roman army as a young man
• Learned the ascetic life from the hermit Palamon
• Founded a shared-life monastery at Tabennisi around 320
• Wrote a monastic rule later translated into Latin by Jerome
• Died around 348, remembered in Rome on 9 May

Saints from the same country

Saint Anthony of Egypt, Saint Athanasius, Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Saint Catherine of Alexandria

References

• Vita prima Graeca and Coptic Lives of Pachomius
• Martyrologium Romanum
• Britannica – St. Pachomius

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.