This article examines the daily life and social organization of monks in
early and medieval Christian monasticism, with particular attention to the Egyptian
monastic tradition of the fourth and fifth centuries. It describes the regime of communal
and individual worship, the canonical hours of prayer and the methods used to determine
them, manual labor as a form of asceticism, the organization of monastic assemblies
and discipline, the distinction between the anchoritic and cenobitic ways of life, and the
monks’ food, dwellings, health care, and burial customs. It concludes with observations
on how Christian asceticism has changed in modern times.
