isidora's birthdate is unknown, as is her age at the time she joined the tabenna monastery in egypt. tabenna, or tabennesi, was the original monastery established by st. pachomius sometime after 325 ad. prior to that time, the tradition was for monastics to live alone as hermits or anchorites, each devoted to a monastic rule they had individually received from god. st. pachomius believed that groups of monastics living together would be able to better support each other in their devotion to monastic rules and under the guidance of the holy spirit and his elder palaemon, traveled to tabennesi to establish his monastery. subsequently, pachomius's sister maria, with his help, established a woman's monastery near her brother's, creating the first full community for women in egypt.