The chapter begins with a definition of monasticism and a description of its origins in the deserts of Egypt and Syria. The fourth-century fathers of the Egyptian desert set standards for the ascetic life that have inspired monks and lay people alike from that day to this. The primary task of monastics has always remained a life of prayer but from earliest times thay have also fulfilled a role in the community as physicians not only of the soul but also of the body. By the ninth century, when Orthodoxy celebrated its triumph over iconoclasm, monasticism was firmly established also as an urban phenomenon. St Theodore restored the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople and established a rule that governed every aspect of monastic life and formed the basis for the administration of monasteries throughout the Orthodox world. Monastic missionaries to the Slav world provided not only an alphabet but also vernacular translations of the scriptures and the liturgy, bringing large parts of the Balkans within the sphere of the Byzantine Commonwealth. Monks also worked as scribes and scholars, artists and musicians, and some monasteries acquired wealth from their endowments and from trade, sowing the seeds of future controversy.