Pachomius (3rd century)

Biography

As a monk, he was so attracted by the charity of Christians that he wanted to know their religion. A priest instructed him about the Gospel and baptized him. He became a disciple of a holy hermit named Palamon and lived with him for seven years. Following an inner impulse, he dedicated himself to founding monasteries of anchorites, who once grouped into communities could consecrate their souls to God, free of material ties. After several disappointments, he was able to gather an increasingly large number of men who did desire to be sanctified in common. The community numbered more than a thousand, and the other eight monasteries founded by Pachomius in the Thebaid also had several hundred monks. The rule that he wrote for them was so wise and revealed such knowledge of the human heart that it inspired all those that were made later. Shortly before his death, Saint Anthony the Great said of him that he was the holiest soul he had ever known.