The father of cenobitic monasticism 

Founder of cenobitic monasticism and the first to have written a rule for religious  community life, Pachomius was born to a pagan family around the year 292 A.D., in the Thebaid region of Upper Egypt. At age twenty, he was enlisted against his will in the imperial armies of the Emperor Constantine to fight the Persian incursions. Locked in the  barracks in Thebes with other soldiers and left without food, he was fed by the local Christians. Struck by their charity, Pachomius prayed to the God of the Christians, promising that if he were freed from this bondage  he would dedicate his life to the service of his brothers. In fact, as soon as he was free, he converted and was baptized.