Monasticism

The monastic life: withdrawal from the world for unceasing prayer and repentance. It began in the Egyptian desert in the late third century with St. Anthony the Great, and received communal form from St. Pachomius and St. Basil the Great. Orthodoxy has no separate religious orders - there is a single monastic state in three forms: the hermit’s solitude, the coenobitic community, and the skete between them. Entry is by tonsure, and the vows are for life.