What the Early Church Believed: Monks and Nuns

The biblical roots

The Nazirites ("consecrated ones") were men and women who took vows of self-denial (Numbers 6:2-4, 6-8) and had a distinctive appearance (Numbers 6:5). John the Baptist (Luke 1:15), Samson (Judges 13:5-6) and Samuel (1 Samuel 1:11) were among them, and the prophetess Anna lived like a cloistered nun (Luke 2:36-37). Paul took a temporary Nazirite vow (Acts 18:18), recommended celibate lives consecrated to God (1 Corinthians 7:32-38), especially for ministers (1 Timothy 2:3-4), and set up an order of widows (1 Timothy 5:3-12), warning against enrolling those likely to break their first pledge (1 Timothy 5:12).

The early Church continued this in orders of widows, virgins of Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:34) and deaconesses, women who assisted in certain duties but were not ordained. These later merged into the modern nun; consecrated men became known as monks.

The witness of the early Church

• Justin Martyr (151), citing Matthew 19:11-12, says many Christians remain pure from childhood to sixty or seventy.
• Hippolytus (200) lists monks among those who will fall away in the last days.
• The Narrative of Zosimus (225) speaks of the monks gathered in the desert.
• The Liturgy of Mark (250) prays for monks, virgins and widows.
• Cyprian (253): consecrated virgins should persevere; if they cannot, it is better to marry than to sin and cause scandal; Christ is angered by unchastity in his dedicated virgin.
• The Martyrdom of Shamuna, Guria, and Habib (300) records the punishment of priests and monks in Diocletian's persecution.
• The Council of Ancyra (314) imposes penance on those who break a profession of virginity and forbids virgins to live with men as sisters.
• The Council of Nicaea I (325): deaconesses, having no imposition of hands, are counted among the laity.
• Athanasius (318–359) points to Christ's virgins as proof of the true religion, calls them brides of Christ, recounts how St. Anthony gave away his property (Matthew 6:34) and placed his sister with virgins in a convent, and praises the spread of monasteries.
• The Council of Hippo (393) places virgins under the care of older women.
• Jerome (396), a monk, says monks differ from the clergy: the clergy feed Christ's sheep, and the monk is fed by them.
• Augustine (401–412) warns virgins not to despise married people, defends monks despite false ones, and says faithful monks are chosen for the clergy.
• The Council of Chalcedon (451) forbids dedicated virgins and monks to marry.
• Patrick (452) rejoices that sons and daughters of the Irish become monks and virgins of Christ, even against their parents' wishes.