The Nicene Age · AD 313–400
Pachomius the Great
c. 292 – 348 · Founder of cenobitic (communal) monasticism · the Thebaid, Egypt
The Nicene Age
Who Pachomius the Great was
A conscript in Constantine’s army, imprisoned and struck by the kindness of local Christians, Pachomius was baptized on his discharge and, after years as a hermit under the elder Palamon, founded around 320 at Tabennisi the first true monastery — not scattered hermits but a walled community of brothers living under a common Rule, with fixed hours of prayer, work, and meals. By his death he governed nine monasteries and two convents housing thousands. His Rule, translated into Latin by Jerome, shaped Basil, Benedict, and all Western monasticism. Where Anthony gave the desert its solitary saint, Pachomius gave it the common life.
Also listed in desert fathers & mothers.
Common questions
When did Pachomius live?
Pachomius the Great is dated c. 292 – 348 in the archive, which places Pachomius in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
What did Pachomius write?
Pachomius the Great has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: The Rule of Pachomius (Praecepta).
Which early sources mention Pachomius?
Pachomius the Great is named in 4 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from The Pachomian tradition, Jerome of Stridon, Palladius and Gennadius of Marseilles. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Pachomius from?
The archive associates Pachomius the Great with the Thebaid, Egypt. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Writings (1)
The Rule of Pachomius (Praecepta)
c. 330–345Let no one eat apart from the others… When the signal is given, let him leave his cell and, meditating on some passage of Scripture, go to the assembly.Read the interlinear source text →
Primary-source mentions (4)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
The Pachomian Lives (the koinonia's own memory of the founder)
c. AD 390Jerome's preface to the Rule of Pachomius (the Rule carried into Latin)
c. AD 404Lausiac History 32
c. AD 420Pachomius… was the first to establish what is called a coenobium, and an angel gave him a tablet on which was written the rule of the monastic life.Palladius · 32 · source text
Gennadius, On Illustrious Men 7 ('a man of apostolic grace')
c. AD 480Pachomius the monk, a man endowed with apostolic grace both in teaching and in working miracles, wrote a Rule suited to both classes of monks.Gennadius of Marseilles · On Illustrious Men 7 · source text
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 301 · Hripsime and her company, AD 301
- AD 303 · The Great Persecution begins, AD 303
- AD 303 · The search of the church at Cirta, AD 303
- AD 306 · The Council of Elvira, AD 306
- AD 311 · Galerius’ edict of Serdica, AD 311
- AD 313 · The Edict of Milan, AD 313
- AD 314 · The Council of Arles, AD 314
- AD 320 · Silvanus tried before Zenophilus, AD 320
- AD 325 · The Council of Nicaea, AD 325
- AD 339 · The persecution of Shapur II, AD 339
- AD 343 · The Council of Serdica, AD 343
Place
Places served
The 2 places the sources put Pachomius, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.
- 1the Thebaidprovince only
- 2Egyptprovince only