Canonical Life

Ever since its very origins, the Church has attracted men and women so fascinated by the Mystery of God and Salvation that they decided to take a step back from the world and live in the desert of the Middle East. Around the year 350, life in a community was organized around an "abbas", an abbot. The way of life of these lay monks spread all the way to Gaul.

Meanwhile, bishops gathered priests and others around them to live in a community so that they might form one "soul" to pray and evangelize, as famously demonstrated by St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo in north Africa around the year 400. He devised a rule of life for his "brothers" that would serve as model for many other religious orders to come.