It is important to note that monasticism is not by any means limited to Christianity. Forms of monasticism existed long before the birth of Jesus Christ. For Hindus, the laws of Manu say that after a man or woman has completed their duties to their family, if he or she is a member of one of the three upper castes, he or she may retire to a hermit life and seek truth in contemplation. Buddha also created a monastic order; many of the rules he laid out for it have similarities in later Christian beliefs. The Greek members of the Orphic brotherhood lived in solitude; followers of various Greek philosophers, such as Pythagoras, also followed monastic tendencies. In the early Jewish orders (pre-Jesus), there were the Essenes, who had many of the characteristics of religious orders. Later, among the followers of Islam, some communities of Sufis settled in monasteries as early as the 8th century CE.
The first Christian hermits established themselves on the shores of the Red Sea, where in pre-Christian times the Therapeutae, an order of Jewish ascetics, lived and worshipped. Soon the deserts of Upper Egypt became a retreat for those who fled from the Roman persecutions of the early Christians. The earliest form of Christian monasticism was, probably, that of the anchorites or hermits; a later development is found in the pillar saints, called Stylites, who spent most of their time on the tops of pillars in order to separate themselves from the world and to mortify the flesh. After a time, however, the necessities of the religious life itself led to modifications. There were economic concerns-- how was the new Church, its ranks swelled by converted barbarians, to pay for all of its expenses? It needed to start owning land. In order to combine the personal seclusion of individuals with the common exercise of religious duties, and caring for land, the early hermits had an aggregation of separate cells called laura, to which they could retire after their communal duties had been discharged. The name cenobite (Greek koinos bios, "common life"), means a life divided between prayer and common work, and this term is how a certain class of monks is distinguished.