of Egypt, St Basil the Great and St Pachomius built upon traditional Jewish and early Christian asceticism” and formulated the first communal or eremitical forms of religious life. Desiring to live gospel perfection “by observing the evangelical counsels, and horrified by the vice and disorder that prevailed in a pagan age, the early men and women religious renounced the materialism of their age and often fled to the desert in imitation of Christ and His apostles, supporting one another in Christian community (koinonia) while pursuing an ascetic and penitential life. For the first 1,300 years of the Church’s life, practically all these religious orders were comprised of brothers or sisters. Certainly, founders such as St Benedict and St Francis saw their followers as brothers, a few of whom were ordained for the sacramental needs of the members of the brotherhood. Diocesan or secular clergy served the sacramental needs of the Christian community at large. During that period, there was no anxiety among religious about what today is often apologetically described as the apostolate. In fact, up until the twelfth century, the word apostolic carried no connotation of formal preaching of the gospel or discharging of pastoral or social duties. The following of Christ and His Apostles, or discipleship, was considered well within the format of their religious, contemplative or even eremitical way of life. Thus, the aim of the penitential and ascetical communities was to imitate the life of the apostolic community in Jerusalem, in poverty, simplicity and mutual charity. Only in later years in the West, as a result of a series of gradual ecclesiastical and social changes, were the