Monastic Communities and Nature Conservation: Overview of Positive Trends and Best Practices in Europe and the Middle East Josep-Maria Mallarach
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
156 Monastic communities and nature conservation: Overview of positive trends and best practices in Europe and the Middle East Josep-Maria Mallarach The origin of a resilient lifestyle cism, under harsh conditions – was close to nature sought so that an aspirant might pro- gress spiritually and attain to holiness, The origin of Christian monasticism is developing a deep harmony with na- to be found eighteen centuries ago in ture by approaching, or even recover- the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and ing, ‘the Adamic state’. The idea ex- Syria, during the time these countries pressed by St John Damascene, a formed part of the Roman Empire. In- Church Father, that ‘Nature is the icon deed, it is in the Egyptian deserts of the face of God’ is highly significant where the oldest Christian monasteries when one recalls the sacramental na- are still thriving. From the earliest ture accorded to icons in the Eastern times, the ideal of the monastic life was Christian Churches and the veneration closely connected to an aspiration to they receive. return to the terrestrial Paradise. More or less complete solitude in the wilder- From the first centuries of monasti- ness – usually associated with asceti- cism, two main lifestyles developed, < Rila Natural Park, Bulgaria. The outstanding alpine forests around the Rila Monastery bear testimony of the long-lasting ‘holy unity between Nature and the monastery’, wished for by its founder Saint Ivan of Rila. 157 Well tended vegetable gardens and orchards like those near the monastery of Xenophontos, Athos. which have remained almost un- ena are found in Asia, where monasti- changed until the present day: com- cism, both cenobitic and heremitic, munity life – cenobitic – and isolated developed much earlier within different life – hermitic. Hermitism and cenobit- branches of Buddhism and Hinduism. ism are usually seen as complementa- The expansion of monastic settlements ry paths. Hermits are often fed by mo- occurred rapidly, and by the end of the nastic communities, and in some mon- first millennium thousands of monas- asteries all monks become hermits teries were thriving in Europe and the during some part of their lives. In other Middle East. The impact of these mo- communities, a hermitic life is an op- nastic communities on spirituality, art, tion only for those who feel attracted to science and culture has been widely it. In any case, a hermit devoted to si- acknowledged and documented lent prayer and contemplation in soli- (Krüger et al. 2007; Kinder, 2002, etc.), tude is the prototype of the human be- and their legacy has been, and still is, ing in deep harmony with nature. In a research topic for numerous journals. the words of one hermit, ‘hermits live a However, the positive impact of these cosmic experience of communion with communities in the management of nature’ (Mouizon, 2001). No wonder, natural resources and nature conser- therefore, that from the fourth century vation has received much less atten- onwards numerous historical records tion, despite the fact that the monas- describe the lives and feats of holy teries often developed very success- monks and hermits who befriended fully what we would currently call ‘sus- wild animals, such as lions, bears, tainable practices’. wolves or poisonous snakes, and it is recorded that some were even fed by Given the fact that the founders of mon- them (Macaire, 1993). Similar phenom- asteries deliberately sought out solitary 158 or ‘wild’ terrain, the longevity of many Carpathian mountains to the coastal communities is impressive. Obviously, wetlands of the Mediterranean, many in desert or arid areas, the survival of of which have been well conserved un- the community depended on the devel- til the present day. In actuality, hun- opment of highly sophisticated and ef- dreds of modern protected areas have ficient water management and garden- been established over ancient monas- ing techniques. The first Christian tic landscapes that still retain their monastery, St Catherine’s, founded in quality and biodiversity. Most of these 337 AD, is located at the foot of Mount protected areas are managed as Pro- Sinai, an extremely arid region. It has tected Landscapes, equivalent to the been continuously active ever since, IUCN category V, which is the most coming under the protection of Islamic common category of protected areas law in the seventh century. In 2002 the of Europe (Mallarach, 2008). This monastery itself was included in the noteworthy fact provides an additional Saint Katherine Protectorate, one of the proof of the effectiveness of these largest protected areas of Egypt types of community-conserved areas. (Grainger and Gilbert, 2008). A further Almost 50 monasteries (usually includ- example is St Anthony’s, founded in ing part of the lands they historically 356 AD, shortly after the saint’s death. managed) have been inscribed in the Situated on al-Qalzam Mountain near UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites Al Zaafarana, Egypt, the monastery to this day, additional evidence of the has enjoyed continual occupancy and global significance of these monastic today is a self-contained village with settlements. Even though most of gardens, a mill, a bakery, and five these sites are classified as ‘Cultural’, churches. Similarly to other Egyptian some are Mixed – ‘Natural and Cultur- Coptic monasteries, St Anthony’s is al’ – such as Mount Athos, Greece, or currently experiencing a revival; its mo- Studenica, Serbia; and in fact, more nastic population has grown consider- could also be classified as ‘Mixed’, as ably in recent years, attracting a large most of the remaining sites retain sig- number of pilgrims. Many monks of St nificant natural heritage value at either Anthony’s monastery nowadays spend global or national levels. the last part of their lives as hermits in Indeed, sustainability went hand in nearby caves. hand with monasticism from an early Such examples are not unique. The re- time. Among the Benedictines, for ex- sult of centuries of prudent resource ample, whose order was established management by monasteries was the by St Benedict in the sixth century creation of a wide variety of extensive (and whose flourish from the eleventh and harmonious monastic landscapes, to the fourteenth centuries led to the well adapted to different ecosystems, birth of orders such as the Cistercians, from the taiga of Siberia to the North Camaldolensians, Carthusians, etc.), African deserts, from the Alps or the agricultural and forestry management 159 practices were sophisticated and di- Because of the alms and donations verse. St Benedict set an early exam- they received, coupled with careful ple of sustainability; the Benedictine and efficient management, many mon- communities had to pass on their asteries ended up managing large lands in at least as fertile a state as tracts of land and water reserves, when they found them. Experts nowa- sometimes hundreds of square kilome- days can single out a forest which was tres in size. It is estimated that in many managed by a Benedictine, Cistercian European and Middle East countries or Camaldolensian monastic communi- monastic communities were responsi- ty identifying good-practice tech- ble for 10 to 25 per cent of the produc- niques that were used. In fact, the tive area. Moreover, medieval monas- sustainable forest practices of the Ca- tic gardens set the example for the es- maldolensians, in the extensive forest tablishment of botanical gardens and lands of the Apennines, were the foun- pharmaceutical gardens in post-medi- dation of the Italian legislation on for- eval European and Middle Eastern estry (Fr. P. Hughes, pers. comm.), and towns (MacDougall, 1986). Following the area around the monastery of Ca- the rule of ‘Ora et Labora’ (Pray and maldoli, including its Sacro Eremo – Work), monastic communities have al- hermitage – has been included in the ways been eager to develop efficient National Park of the Casentine Forests. self-sufficient strategies which allow Cistercians, on the other hand, estab- them to devote most of their time to lished their settlements in lowlands, prayer, meditation and contemplation. usually next to rivers and water bodies, Hermitages, on the other hand, have developing sophisticated systems for been traditionally located in wild or harnessing the renewable energy of rugged country, providing solitude and water (Leroux-Dhuys, 1999). The Miracle Monastery, Spain. The spring blessing of water is held at dawn, after a long silent walk listening to the birds singing, during the spring session of the course on Nature and Spiri- tuality, in El Miracle Nature Reserve. 160 natural shelter, such as in caves. The course, one of steady evolution. Aside hermitic domains can be considered a from occasional disruptions due to kind of nature reserve, i.e. IUCN pro- wars or pillage, the worse setbacks tected area categories I or III. The in- suffered by monastic communities of clusion of some of these hermitages Europe came after the French Revolu- on the periphery of the monastic pro- tion (and the secularisation move- tected landscapes resulted in a very ments), leading into the nineteenth and balanced ecological pattern, which twentieth centuries. For political or can be still found in many regions. economic reasons, the governments of Monastic settlements containing scat- many European countries – liberal or tered small monasteries of different communist – banned religious organi- sizes, with assorted hermitages and sations or enforced severe prohibitions monks’ cells, in some cases created or on their activities, usually confiscating maintained astonishing landscapes, monastic properties. As a result, many like those of Cappadocia in Turkey, monasteries were abandoned, sacked and in other cases led to the construc- or destroyed. These measures had se- tion of imposing buildings in the midst vere repercussions not only on monas- of almost pristine natural areas, like the ticism itself, as is well known, but also Grand Chartreuse, France.