Although Benedict has dominated the monastic tradition of the west, largely due to the Carolingian reforms of the xx century, it is important for our purposes - i.e. establishing a Benedictine monastic life in which the eremitical life is normatively, but not exclusively, practised - to look at the tradition from which he sprang. What were his inbuilt assumptions about the norms of monastic life, based on what he saw around him?

St. Athanasius’ biography of the Egyptian hermit Anthony was a big inspiration to European ascetics in the fourth century. At about the same time, Ambrose of Milan was actively encouraging the Consecration of virgins. He outlined the code of discipline which still underlies the lives of enclosed nuns today. Both Ambrose’ sister and Benedict’s sister were consecrated virgins.

  The monks who shaped western monasticism from the fourth century all seem to have been Roman citizens - Martin of Tours, Ninian, Cassian and Benedict. Their great gift seems to have been to implement the monasticism of the east as the western Empire broke up around them. Particularly influential foundations were those of Martin of Tours at Liguge and Marmoutier. According to tradition, Martin entered monastic life in Milan, followed by a stint at a hermitage on the Isola d’Albenga. His monasteries at both Liguge and Marmoutier were very much in the Northern Egyptian tradition - a Kellia translated into the colder climate of France. A monk of his, Ninian, took this way of monasticism to Scotland.

  Around the beginning of the fifth century, Cassian, a hermit monk from Bethlehem, who had visited the Egyptian monasteries was invited to found an Egyptian style monastery in Gaul, which he established at Marseilles (Abbaye St. Victoire). That Cassian’s teaching on overcoming the eight evil tendencies (Institutes 5-12) was the inspiration behind Irish asceticism, is demonstrated in the Irish penitentiaries.

  Other foundations to have a decisive influence in shaping monastic life were Lerins and Auxerre. Lerins, an island monastery, was founded in the opening years of the fifth century by some hermits who followed monastic models they had seen in Syria and Egypt. The monastery retained close contact with Egypt, numbering some Egyptian monks among its members. Cassian mentions that it as a big community with an emphasis on eremiticism and austerity. The monastery at Auxerre, in contrast, was primarily cenobitic, founded by Germanus, the bishop of Auxerre.

   From these sources the early western monasticism developed. Patrick of Ireland was a catalyst - he was a monk who, after training at Tours visited a number of monastic settlements, including Auxerre (four years) and Lerins (nine years). The contact with Egyptian monasticism at Lerins was decisive, and both the early Irish church and the earliest northern European monasteries have a distinctive character which can be traced to Coptic precedents.

  An African influence was the very short rule written by Augustine of Hippo, at the turn of the fourth century. Originally written for laymen and priests living in community, it was also used by the local  African nuns. Its chief value lay in it’s brevity and adaptability -by the fifth century it was in circulation among both diocesan clergy and small groups of hermit monks and nuns. 

  A feature which should be noted, in passing, is the prevalence of double monasteries. St. Pachomius in Southern Egypt had had nuns under his care. St. Basil of Caesarea had founded a double monastery with his sister. Cassian’s foundation at Marseilles was a double monastery. They became relatively common in Northern Europe, the proximity of the monks affording a certain protection to the women in rough times, as well as the sacraments and facilities for religious studies. (Interestingly enough, it is in the monasteries of Solesmes today  which - by ruling that nuns monasteries must always be founded at a place where a monastery of men has been established - retain the advantages advocated in the earlier tradition.) 

  All this is in place in Europe before the young Italian, Benedict, condensed and re-arranged the cenobitic Rule of the Master for his foundations in the early 6th century. Only a few years later, the Irish monk Columban wrote a two part rule for his monasteries around Luxeuil. The first part of Columban’s Rule was on the way of life of the monks and the second part, on the penalties for not following it. Scoring highly as a spiritual treatise, Columban’s rule lacked the practicality and moderation of the Italian’s Rule, which eventually became the norm for the Roman Patriarchate in western Europe.

  When we have set Benedict in context of the rich monastic culture which was his milieu, the question must be asked - did Benedict intend to found the ‘closed circle’ cenobitic life, exclusive of the hermit life, which is typical of the west today, or did he intend - as Adelbert de Vogue suggests - an ‘open cenobitism,’ which opens out into the hermitage? I would posit that the weight of evidence from his milieu would indicate the latter.

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