With the appearance of coenobitic monasticism and the foundation of the first great coenobia in Egypt by Saint Pakhomios, things became increasingly organized. The first coenobium- and this is of great symbolic importance- took the Greek name of “Κοινωνία”, i.e. “Community”. Everything was common: common work, common financial management, common liturgical life, common refectory, common instruction. Work was divided and specialized, with overseers responsible for its co-ordination. At the end of every year, there was a financial report and the monasteries with a surplus met the financial shortfalls of the monasteries with a deficit. The fundamental element however, was that the founder of this “Community”, Saint Pakhomios the Great, conceived and understood it with spiritual characteristics, as a visible expression ...
