The Death and the Succession

In 348 a plague swept the Koinonia, carrying off many of the brothers — and Pachomius himself. He died, by tradition on 15 May 348, having first appointed a successor, Petronios; but Petronios died within months, and the leadership passed to Horsiesios, under whom a grave crisis nearly broke the federation apart, until Theodore — Pachomius’s beloved disciple — rallied the houses and held the Koinonia together. This file narrates the founder’s death and the troubled but ultimately successful succession that carried his institution beyond him.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Desert Father; father of cenobitic monasticism)

The Plague of 348

The Lives report that toward the end of Pachomius’s life a pestilence struck the Koinonia, sweeping through the crowded houses and killing many of the brothers — among them some of Pachomius’s closest companions and most capable leaders (Bohairic Life 114–123; First Greek Life 114–116; trans. Veilleux 1980; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7; Chitty 1966, ch. 3). The communal setting that was the Koinonia‘s strength was, in an epidemic, also its danger: an illness that reached one house could pass through a population living, eating, and praying in close quarters. The plague carried off a significant part of the federation’s leadership and at last reached Pachomius himself.

The Death of Pachomius

Pachomius fell sick in the same epidemic and, after some weeks of illness, died — by the tradition of the Church on 15 May 348, the date on which his feast is kept (Bohairic Life 117–123; First Greek Life 116–117; trans. Veilleux 1980; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7; on the feast, see Feast and Cult). He was about fifty-six. The Lives give the deathbed its due solemnity: the dying father gathering the brothers, exhorting them to keep the Rule and the common life, warning against pride and division, and — crucially for the institution — providing for the succession so that the Koinonia should not be left headless (Bohairic Life 117–123; Veilleux 1980; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7).

[Disputed: the year 348 for Pachomius's death is the figure given in the standard modern reconstructions (Chitty 1966; Rousseau 1985) and is widely accepted; a small number of older or alternative reckonings place the death a year or two earlier or later (c. 346–348), the uncertainty arising from the way the internal chronology of the Lives must be correlated with external events. The traditional liturgical date of 15 May is firm in the Church's commemoration.]

Petronios and the First Succession

Pachomius had designated as his successor not Theodore — his most beloved disciple, who had earlier been disciplined and set aside (see below) — but Petronios, a capable and respected leader of one of the houses (Bohairic Life 117, 130; First Greek Life 114, 117; trans. Veilleux 1980; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7; Chitty 1966, ch. 3). But Petronios was already mortally ill with the same plague, and he survived Pachomius by only a short time — a matter of months — before he too died, having in his turn appointed Horsiesios (Orsiesius) to lead the Koinonia (Bohairic Life 130; First Greek Life 117; Veilleux 1980; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7). In the space of a single year, then, the federation lost its founder and his first successor, and passed to a third leader — a sequence that put the young institution to its first and severest test.

Horsiesios and the Crisis

Horsiesios was a holy and learned man — the author of the Book of Horsiesios (the Liber Orsiesii), one of the theological monuments of early cenobitism (see Community as the Way of Salvation) — but he proved unable to hold the strong and increasingly independent superiors of the larger houses. A crisis broke out: the head of one of the great monasteries (the Life names Apollonios of Thmoušons) resisted the central authority and threatened to lead his house out of the Koinonia, and the federation stood in danger of fragmenting into a set of independent monasteries — the very dissolution Pachomius’s whole structure had been built to prevent (Bohairic Life 139; First Greek Life 127–129; trans. Veilleux 1980; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7; Chitty 1966, ch. 3). Unable to master the revolt, Horsiesios withdrew from the leadership.

Theodore Holds the Koinonia Together

The man who saved the federation was Theodore (Theodore of Tabennesi), Pachomius’s most beloved disciple. Theodore had been marked out early for his fervor and ability, but in Pachomius’s lifetime he had been disciplined and set aside after an episode in which he had, prematurely and presumptuously, allowed himself to be regarded as the founder’s heir-apparent; Pachomius, to break his pride, had humbled him and withdrawn his trust for a time (Bohairic Life 90–94; First Greek Life 106; trans. Veilleux 1980; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7). This is why Pachomius had passed him over for Petronios. But in the crisis under Horsiesios, Theodore — now humbled and proven — stepped forward, took up the practical leadership of the federation (at first as Horsiesios’s deputy and de facto head), traveled among the houses, reasserted the Rule and the central authority, and held the Koinonia together through its most dangerous hour (Bohairic Life 142–149; First Greek Life 127–130; Veilleux 1980; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7; Chitty 1966, ch. 3).

Theodore governed the federation for some eighteen years (c. 350–368), restoring its unity and discipline and even expanding it, in close cooperation with Horsiesios, whom he honored and to whom, on his own death, he returned the leadership. Horsiesios resumed the headship after Theodore’s death (368) and governed the Koinonia into the 380s, a venerable elder whose writings transmitted the Pachomian spirit to a new generation (Chitty 1966, ch. 3; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7; Veilleux 1980). The succession, troubled as it was, had held: the institution Pachomius designed proved able — just — to survive the loss of its founder, the death of his first heir, and a near-fatal revolt, and to pass intact to a second and third generation.

The Disciplining of Theodore Reconsidered

The episode of Theodore’s earlier humbling repays a second look, for it shows the Pachomian understanding of authority at work. Theodore was the ablest and most fervent of the disciples, and a faction of the brothers had begun, in Pachomius’s own lifetime, to look on him as the heir-apparent and even to defer to him as though he already led the Koinonia. Pachomius’s response was not to encourage the promising successor but to break his pride: he withdrew his confidence, set Theodore aside, and left him for a long period in humiliation and uncertainty, until the younger man had thoroughly repented of having let himself be exalted (Bohairic Life 90–94; First Greek Life 106; Veilleux 1980; Rousseau 1985, ch. 7). The severity was deliberate and, in the event, providential. The Theodore who rose to save the federation in the crisis under Horsiesios was not the self-assured favorite of the early years but a man chastened and proven, who took up the leadership not as his right but as a burden laid on him — and who, tellingly, governed in deference to Horsiesios and returned the headship to him at the end (Rousseau 1985, ch. 7; Chitty 1966, ch. 3). The whole sequence is a case study in the Pachomian conviction that authority in the common life must be purified of self-will, and that the cutting-off of ambition is the precondition of fitness to lead (see Community as the Way of Salvation).

Why the Succession Matters

The succession crisis is more than an episode of monastic politics; it is the test of Pachomius’s whole achievement. A charismatic movement that depends wholly on its founder dies with him; an institution that has a constitution, a rule, an office of leadership, and a means of succession can outlive him. The Pachomian Koinonia came close to failing the test — the revolt under Horsiesios nearly dissolved it — but it passed, because the structures Pachomius had built (the Rule, the central authority, the assemblies, the office of the head) gave Theodore something to rally the houses to (Rousseau 1985, ch. 7; Chitty 1966, ch. 3). That the federation survived its founder’s death and continued for generations (see The Pachomian Legacy in the East) is the final proof that Pachomius had created not merely a holy community but a durable institution — the first monastic order.

References

Veilleux, Armand, trans. Pachomian Koinonia, Vol. 1: The Life of Saint Pachomius and His Disciples. Cistercian Studies 45. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1980. (The plague and the death of Pachomius at Bohairic Life 114–123 / First Greek Life 114–117; Petronios at Bo 130 / G1 117; the crisis under Horsiesios at Bo 139 / G1 127–129; the disciplining of Theodore at Bo 90–94 / G1 106; Theodore’s rescue of the Koinonia at Bo 142–149 / G1 127–130.)
Rousseau, Philip. Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth-Century Egypt. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985; rev. ed. 1999. (Ch. 7 on the death and the succession.)
Chitty, Derwas J. The Desert a City. Oxford: Blackwell, 1966. (Ch. 3 on the succession, Horsiesios, and Theodore.)