Tabennèse – WikiPédia

Tabennèse or Tabennêsis is a Christian community founded in Haute-Égypt around 320 by Saint Pacôme. It was the parent company of a network which, when he died in 346, already had nine establishments of men and two of women in the same region, with two or three thousand “Tabennesiotes”. It is the first big model of cenobitism in the Christian Church.

The name and location of this monastery have long been the subject of great uncertainty. In the various manuscripts of the Lausiac History De Palladios (§ 32), who is Truete GRANDQUASS: ταέννης, τσβένην dτ0ιίνίίσιος et ταένη. Kick îleν τν τέ points “, butout a portuguese or έν ααέν ῆ لchῆσ ν цῆσ ν لαῆσ ν цῆσ ν ῆῆσ ν ῆῆσ ν ῆῆσ ν ῆῆσ ν цῆσ. There are appallement / Cotographie Qui to inspired Christmas Years Calliste Xanthopoulic ( XIV ^{It is} century) The following turn: “ἔν τινι νήσῳ, ἣ ταϐέννη ώνόμαστο”, “in a certain island called Tabennê”. From there comes the tradition that the monastery was installed on an island, which does not actually appear in any old document ^{[ first ]} .

In Coptic manuscripts, the forms are as follows: Tabennêsi (the most frequent), Tabside , Tabnon , Tabsinêse , Tabsên and even more. In Arabic texts, we find: Tabanessin , Tafnis , Tafânis , Tafnasa , and also Dounasa . In Latin, we have the shape Tabennense in the Latin Pacôme life de Denys the little ^{[ 2 ]} . I am Asu deergant of dieu occuliants of the Lieu, ie Re Re Revalt ταtesννηνηνην ςς_sσώώτς, ταββώώτης; in Latin Tabennensis (with the usual suffix -ensis ), Tabennesiota (Greek layer), Tabennensiota (mix of the two).

As for the location of the convent, it can be identified by two passages from the Pacome life : a woman from Dendérah, sick, gets it in the hope of being healed, and she borrows a boat that “descends” the river, which supposes that Tabennêsis is downstream from Dendérah and on the other river of the river (that is to say on the right bank); A little further it is indicated that in the north of the convent is a deserted village named Phbôou , which is unanimously identified with the current Faou (or Faou guebli ) ^{[ 3 ]} , therefore in the 6 ^{It is} Nome of Haute-Égypt.

Pacôme installed his establishment in an abandoned village. The organization was inspired by that of the Egyptian rural communities of the time, but also of the Roman military camps, because Pacôme had been a soldier in his youth. The monastery is a set of buildings surrounded by a surrounding wall. The sharing of goods is integral, each abandoning everything they have in the monastery and can only have what the rule concedes to him (especially the monastic habit: a sleeveless tunic, a hood, a hug in sheep skin and a belt). Meal and diet are common. Prayer brings together the monks twice a day, the sermons several times a week. Manual work is organized according to everyone’s capacities and the needs of the community: within the grounds, “houses” bring together the brothers according to their profession, three of them ensuring the common services. The discipline is very strict, providing for bodily punishment, and obedience to the superior is considered to be the cardinal virtue of the monk.

In the fall 329, the monks received the visit of the new archbishop Athanase d’Alexandria, who orders pacôme as a priest. Shortly after, a second establishment was founded in the neighboring village, also abandoned, of Phbôou. Pacôme himself settled there in 336-37, and Phbôou becomes the most important establishment with 600 monks to the death of the founder (346). After 340, other monasteries are established between Esna and Akhmîm. The whole constitutes a real order, with a superior general which circulates between the monasteries and names the superiors. A gathering of all the monks takes place twice a year, at Easter and the August 13 , in the parent company of Tabennêsis; On this occasion, superiors must report on their material management to the general economy.

After the death of Pacôme ( May 9 346 ), the superior general was Pétronios, appointed by him, but which died three months later. Horsesisse (Orsisios) replaced him, but in 351, following the revolt of a monastery, Théodore, one of the first disciples of Pacôme, had to take matters into his own hands, and he assured the direction until his death in 368 , while saying to himself the “vicar” of outline. On this date there were twelve men’s monasteries and three women. Outfit then resumed his duties until his death after 386. In 390, Archbishop Théophile d’Alexandrie favored the installation of a monastery of the Order in Canope, east of his metropolis, on the location of an old temple of Sérapis: this monastery of the Methanoia , which counted Latin monks, played an important role in the influence that his rule exercised in the West. Around the year 400, according to Palladios, the “tabennesiotes” or Pachômiens were around 7,000. At IN ^{It is} century, the order accepted the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (it notably provided the Patriarchs Timothy III Salophaciole and John I ^is Talaia), and he only experienced divisions on this subject from the WE ^{It is} century.

• Paulin Ladeuze, Pakhômian cenobitism studies during IV ^{It is} century and the first half of the V ^{It is} (Dissertation for obtaining the degree of doctor), Louvain, 1898.
• Henri Gauthier, “New geographic notes on the Nome Panopolite”, Review of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology of Cairo X, 1912, p. 89-130.
• Pierre Maraval, Constantine’s Christianity to the Arab conquest , New Clio, PUF, 1997 ( p. 257-58).