sentences:  In the early Christian literature evidence is found of individuals who embraced lives of celibacy and mortification for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, these individuals were not yet monks, as they had not renounced the world, but lived either in towns or near the outskirts of civilization.We also read of communities of virgins living a common life committed to celibacy and virtue.The accounts of some of these virgins are preserved in the martyrologies of the day.