live exclusively for this end, or, at least, devote themselves in a special manner to this work. In fact, from the earliest ages of Christianity, we find that religious took a special interest in the education of youth. The celebrated historian Dr. Neander of Berlin, who can not be accused of any undue leaning towards Catholicism, praises the early monks for their labor in this direction. He points out that the duties of education were particularly recommended to the monks of St. Basil. They were enjoined to take upon themselves voluntarily the education of orphans, and the education of other youths when entrusted to them by their parents. It was by no means necessary that these children should become monks; they were early instructed in some trade or art, and were afterwards at liberty to make a free choice of their vocation.[1]
St. John Chrysostom most earnestly recommended to parents to employ the monks as instructors to their sons; to have their sons educated in monasteries, at a distance from the corruption of the world, where they might early be made acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, be brought up in Christian habits, and where the foundation of a true Christian character might be laid, the fruits of which would afterwards manifest themselves in every station and circumstance of life. Dr. Neander thus comments on the appeals of St. Chrysostom: "Where men truly enlightened were to be found among the monks, as was often the case, the advice of St. Chrysostom was undoubtedly correct; and even where too great attention to outward forms,
- ↑ The Life of St. Chrysostom, by Dr. Neander. Translated from the German by the Rev. J. C. Stapleton, London 1845, p. 92.
