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St. Pachomius was born in 292 A.D. in Thebes (Luxor) from pagan parents, who forced him to worship idols. He rejected and mocked this worship. He was a soldier before his baptism in 314 A.D., then became a [[monk]] in 317 A.D. with St. Palaemon (Balamon). He lived in submission to him for many years, and he mastered well the ways of the monastic life.  Then the [[angel]] of the Lord appeared to him and commanded him to establish a communal and holy monastic life. He established his first [[monastery]] around 323 in Tabennae (or Tabenna, an island in the Nile). Many monks gathered together to him, and he built for them many monasteries and established for them a system of manual labor, the times of prayers (both corporate and private), and eating, i.e., a rule that balances the communal life with the solitary life. The monks would live in individual cells, but would also work together for the common good of the community. He was the father of them all, with an Abbot in every monastery. He visited all the monasteries, from Aswan to Edfu to Donasa to the end of Upper Egypt to the North. He did not permit any one anyone of his sons to become a priest for the sake of the vainglory of this world, or to overlook the purpose of their monastic life of worship by being away from the world. He invited a priest from outside for each monastery to officiate the Divine Liturgy.  When Pope [[Athanasius the Great|Athanasius]] wanted to ordain him a priest, he fled from him. St. Athanasius asked his disciples to tell him that he who built his house on the rock Rock that cannot be shaken, and fled from the vainglory of the world, is blessed, and his disciples are also blessed.