was only disturbed for holy days, weekend Mass, and if his manual labor made change necessary. On Saturday and Sunday, the monks would gather at their communal church. At these gatherings, the monks would pray together, with one monk leading and the rest chanting back the offices of the day. Next would be a reading from the New Testament and possibly additional readings. The monks would celebrate the Eucharist on both Saturday and Sunday. The time of the Saturday Eucharist is not clear but on Sundays it occurred at the third hour (after sunrise). Sunday was also the occasion of the communal agape meal, where monks shared bread, wine, and their one cooked meal of the week. These gatherings were a time for social interaction and connection with their fellow monks. At the end of the meal they would pick up their supplies for the week, including food and materials needed for their day labor and return to their cells. Political hierarchy Because of the nature of the Skete-style monastic system political hierarchy in the earliest days the monasteries were not necessary. Most monks worked and prayed alone all week and only gathered on the weekends for group prayers and the Eucharist. New monks would often attach themselves to older monks (called an Abba) to learn the basics of monastic life and if needed a skill for their day job such as basket weaving or rope making. Some monks would gather a large cluster of monks around him as his disciples. How these small groups worked is unknown but many disciples followed their leader monks until they died. After the death of Macarius in 390, four distinct congregations formed in the Scetis Valley. These four congregations had their own church, kitchen and served the monks living in the cells around these central structures. These congregations had their own monk priests who were in charge of the weekly Eucharist and in organizing the new monks as they joined the community. For larger matters some of these congregations formed councils that acted in judicial matters even wielding the power of excommunication in extreme cases. Eventually these monk priests would become known as a “Father of Scetis”. These men would be responsible for their congregations and it would become customary for them to report to the patriarch of Alexandria. Economies of the early Skete communities Monks labored almost continually in their small cells