Editing Abbey (section)

=== Ascetics and anchorites ===
The earliest known Christian monasteries were groups of huts built near the residence of a famous [[ascetic]] or other holy person. Disciples wished to be close to their holy man or woman in order to study their doctrine or imitate their way of life.<ref name=birt>{{harvnb|Birt|1907}}</ref>

In the earliest times of Christian monasticism, ascetics would live in social isolation but near a village church. They would subsist whilst donating any excess produce to the poor. However, increasing religious fervor about the ascetic's ways and or persecution of them would drive them further away from their community and further into solitude. For instance, the cells and huts of [[anchorite]]s (religious recluses) have been found in the deserts of [[Egypt]].<ref>{{cite EB9 |wstitle = Abbey |volume= I |last= Venables |first= Edmund |author-link= Edmund Venables |pages=10-22 |short= 1}}</ref>

In 312 AD, [[Anthony the Great]] retired to the [[Thebaid]] region of [[Egypt]] to escape the persecution of the Emperor [[Maximian]]. Anthony was the best known of the anchorites of his time due to his degree of austerity, sanctity and his powers of [[exorcism]]. The deeper he withdrew into the wilderness, the more numerous his disciples became. They refused to be separated from him and built their cells close to him. This became a first true monastic community. According to [[August Neander]], Anthony inadvertently became the founder of a new mode of living in common, [[Cenobitic|Coenobitism]].<ref>{{harvnb|Venables|1911}} cites  ''Church History'', iii. p. 316, Clark's translation.</ref>