foundation · 270 · Egypt
Around 270 Anthony of Egypt heard 'sell what you have' read in church and obeyed, withdrawing by stages into the desert. What began as one man's renunciation became, through Athanasius' Life of Anthony, the founding pattern of Christian monasticism — the desert's answer to the empire's peace.
A movement, not an act: within two generations the desert was a city of monks, and the Life of Anthony carried the pattern to the West.