Born circa A.D. 287 in Esna, Upper Egypt; died May 14, 347, in Pebou, Upper Egypt. Founder of cenobitism, a communal form of monasticism.

The son of a Coptic peasant, Pachomius served in the Roman Army. After adopting Christianity, he became a hermit (c. 308; some sources, 314). Between 320 and 325 he founded a monastic community in Tabennisi, Upper Egypt, consisting of nine monasteries for men and two for women, with several thousand members. The monasteries of Pachomius raised and sold agricultural produce. Pachomius formulated the principles of the new type of monasticism in his Rules (written in Coptic and translated into Greek and in 404 from Greek into Latin). The Rules of Pachomius exerted a great influence on the development of monasticism.