“The Holy Scriptures do not know any distinctions.
They enjoin that all lead the life of monks.”
– St. John Chrysostom
Throughout Church history, Christian monasticism has taken many forms and it continues today to attract followers from among all Christians--Catholic and non-Catholic. Yet most present-day monastics are not clergy or consecrated religious, and many are coming from outside the Catholic Church where monasticism originated.
The phenomenon we are witnessing is the great numbers of “new monastics” who are former and still practicing mainline, evangelical, and charismatic Protestants (often referred to as “Emergent”) enchanted by and drawn to the depth and proven value of tradition, the structure and beauty of liturgical worship and the sacraments, the eternal other-worldliness of chant, icons, and sacramentals, the discipline and accountability of a monastic rule, and a closer communion with the ancient Church of the apostles, saints, martyrs, and monks they seek to imitate.
Though these “new friars” and “ordinary radicals” freely adapt or even explicitly reject many elements of Catholic monasticism, they seem to manifest the DNA of their monastic ancestors--namely a sincere desire to imitate Jesus and to see Him in others. Nevertheless, there is still much more that divides us than unites us. Not unlike the disciples on the road to Emmaus, their “hearts are burning” but they have yet to recognize Christ in His mystical and sacramental Body.
Yet what is common between Catholic and non-Catholic monastics is that the majority of them are of the laity--even those who are married with children. In fact, Third Orders (such as Secular Franciscans and Benedictine Oblates) outnumber their First and Second Orders 3 to 1. To those who know the history of the Church and the development of the monastic movement, this is not surprising.
Monasticism did not originate in monasteries. Monasticism began within homes. Also, the first monastics were not clergy or consecrated religious. They were lay people. At first, the vocation of a monastic carried no special class within the Church. It required no religious ceremony, no vows were taken, no special garb was needed, and for centuries they were even prohibited from becoming bishops, priests, or deacons. Monasticism was considered more of a way of life rather than a formal affiliation to an organized body––a lifestyle available to any Christian who wanted to give an authentic witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As St. John Chrysostom said, “The Holy Scriptures do not know any distinctions. They enjoin that all lead the life of monks.”
Monastics were identified simply as ordinary Christians seeking union with God and spiritual perfection––Christians living in the perpetual state of penance (metanoia), i.e., conversion. According to the monastic, the most perfect life on earth, namely, is that of a man who obeys the command to “do penance, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Thus monastics were often described as penitents (metanoountes), an ideal which would later inspire the movement of St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th Century.
LAY MONASTICISM