Church of Dar al-Suriyan, Egypt

Born to pagan parents, Pachomius was converted to Christianity after service as an army conscript. He pioneered cenobitic monasticism when he founded a monastery along the banks of the river Nile about 320. Others copied his example, and Pachomius eventually became the superior of several monasteries for both men and women. He influenced later monastic traditions in both eastern and western Christianity. Evidence of his teaching appears, for example, in the Rules of both Basil the Great in the East and Benedict in the West.