"The birth of Christian monasticism in the deserts of Egypt in the 3rd century, which initially operated outside the episcopal authority of the Church, would become so successful that, by the 8th century, it penetrated the Church and became the primary Christian rule within ...
The need for some form of organized spiritual guidance was obvious; and around 318 Saint Pachomius started to organize his many followers in what was to become the first Christian cenobitic or communal monastery. Soon, similar institutions were established throughout the Egyptian desert as well as the rest of the eastern half of the Roman Empire.
Mar Awgin founded a monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis in Mesopotamia (~350), and from this monastery the cenobitic tradition spread in Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Georgia and even India and China.
St. Sabbas the Sanctified organized the monks of the Judean Desert in a monastery close to Bethlehem (483), now known as Mar Saba, which is considered the mother of all monasteries of the Eastern Orthodox churches.
[wiki]Saint Catherine's Monastery[/wiki] was founded between 527 and 565 in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt by order of Emperor Justinian I.
In the West, the most significant development occurred when the rules for monastic communities were written, the Rule of St Basil being credited with having been the first.
St. Basil drew up his Asketikon for the members of the monastery he founded about 356 on the banks of the Iris River in Cappadocia
A good overview of the beginning of the movement, and of its interactions with and influence on Christians outside of monasteries (to say nothing of "pagans"), is Peter Brown's The Body and Society. In his 2008 edition he adds a long introduction in which he states how his own views evolved since the 1988 edition of the book.
St. John Chrysostom is one whom Brown does not portray as someone you'd want to have a beer with.
Pachomius started to organize his many followers in what was to become the first Christian cenobitic or communal monastery. Soon, similar institutions were established throughout the Egyptian desert as well as the rest of the eastern half of the Roman Empire.