century, John Cassian described their life as prayerful and shaped by contemplation of God and Evagrius Ponticus wrote extensively on pure prayer and the Sayings of the Desert Fathers appeared thereafter. The "prayer of fire" that emerged in this period, was said to have been driven by the love for God, which was to shape a life of meditation and contemplation in the East. However, these "desert meditations" are not equivalent to the modern methods of reflection and meditation. The desert monks gathered to hear scripture recited in public, and would then recite those words privately in their cells. For them meditation was a memorization and recitation of scripture, primarily as a verbal exercise. Early Middle Ages By the end of the 4th century, Martin of Tours had introduced monasticism to the West and the western monastic traditions began to take shape. By the 6th century, the Rule of Saint Benedict included three elements: public prayer, manual labor and lectio divina.Christian Spirituality: Origins to the twelfth century, Vol 1 by Bernard McGinn 1986 pages 415-424 The emergence of the Christian monastic tradition included the development of an austere and secluded lifestyle and practices that were intended to help meditation by freeing the mind from worldly matters, e.g. in his Rule for monastic life, Gregory the Great developed 12 steps towards asceticism based on abstinence and mortification of the flesh and search for humility. In order to avoid worldly contamination by seculars (i.e. not monks or clergy) the Rule of Saint Benedict forbade a monk from eating with them unless the monk was so far away that he could not return to the monastery that day. The Rule of Saint Benedict (chapter #48) stipulated specific times and manners for Lectio Divina - a meditative reading of Scripture. Due to its specific blending of spirituality with moderation and balance, the Benedictine Rule became widely used by the 10th century, and became the de facto standard for Western monastic life in the Middle Ages. After the 10th century, during the Byzantine Empire, the traditions of the Desert Fathers led to a style of life and prayer in the Eastern Church called hesychasm, developed particularly on Mount Athos in Greece. St. Gregory of Sinai is generally considered by most to be the founder of the hesychastic approach to prayer in early 14th century. Although controversies appeared thereafter between Barlam and St. Gregory Palamas, hesychasm