CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Jugănaru, Andra |
|---|---|
| Title | DAILY LIFE IN THE MIXED AND DOUBLE MONASTERIES OF THE LATE ANTIQUE NEAR EAST |
| Summary | The thesis deals with a special type of ascetic life marked by the association of men and women that emerged parallel with the rise of cenobitism in the fourth century. Monks and nuns shared their vocation in close proximity or even in cohabitation under the umbrella of a single monastic unit. Scholarship distinguishes between “double monasteries,” where brothers and sisters in Christ live separately, and “mixed monasteries,” where they live in the same buildings. Given the fact that proximity between men and women aiming to re-establish Paradise on earth was intriguing, why did these persons opt for double-gender communities? How did brothers and sisters live close to each other? What were the factors that triggered the foundation of double monasticism and what were the causes that led to its decline? These are the questions that this thesis seeks to answer. Following a theoretical introduction into the problem and the sources related to the three monasteries to be analyzed, the first chapter presents the context of the rise of double communities as the preferred solution chosen by men and women seeking to live a God-pleasing live in proximity. It introduces three “family double monasteries” that are examined as case-studies in the thesis: Tabennesi (Upper Egypt), founded by Pachomius and his sister, Maria; Annisa (Cappadocia), founded by Macrina and her brothers; Bethlehem, founded by Paula and her daughter, Eustochium, together with their spiritual father, Jerome and his brother, Paulinianus. The last two chapters examine the course of everyday life in these monasteries, the interdependence of the communitarian organization and their religious practices, focusing on issues such as segregation and unity, private and public, individuality and community. The paradox of double monasticism is that while their founding fathers – Pachomius, Basil, and Jerome, perfectly orthodox chief legislators of monastic life and unquestionable authorities on monasticism in the centuries to come – considered that it was possible for men and women to live an angelic life in close proximity, the interest in founding double monasteries did not only rapidly decrease, but their very existence came to be rejected as non-orthodox. The thesis argues that this decline can be explained by the family nature of these communities on the one hand and by the Origenist controversy on the other. |
| Supervisor | Sághy, Marianne; Menze, Volker |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/juganaru_andra.pdf |
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