<P> Among these earliest recorded accounts was the Paradise, by Palladius of Galatia, Bishop of Helenopolis (also known as the Lausiac History, after the prefect Lausus, to whom it was addressed). Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (whose Life of Saint Anthony the Great set the pattern for monastic hagiography), Saint Jerome, and other anonymous compilers were also responsible for setting down very influential accounts . Also of great importance are the writings surrounding the communities founded by Saint Pachomius, the father of cenobiticism, and his disciple Saint Theodore, the founder of the skete form of monasticism . </P> <P> Among the first to set forth precepts for the monastic life was Saint Basil the Great, a man from a professional family who was educated in Caesarea, Constantinople, and Athens . Saint Basil visited colonies of hermits in Palestine and Egypt but was most strongly impressed by the organized communities developed under the guidance of Saint Pachomius . Saint Basil's ascetical writings set forth standards for well - disciplined community life and offered lessons in what became the ideal monastic virtue: humility . </P> <P> Saint Basil wrote a series of guides for monastic life (the Lesser Asketikon the Greater Asketikon the Morals, etc .) which, while not "Rules" in the legalistic sense of later Western rules, provided firm indications of the importance of a single community of monks, living under the same roof, and under the guidance--and even discipline--of a strong abbot . His teachings set the model for Greek and Russian monasticism but had less influence in the Latin West . </P> <P> Of great importance to the development of monasticism is the Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt . Here the Ladder of Divine Ascent was written by Saint John Climacus (c. 600), a work of such importance that many Orthodox monasteries to this day read it publicly either during the Divine Services or in Trapeza during Great Lent . </P>

Who developed the rules for western monastic living