What celibate traditions say about money and property
A vow of celibacy usually came with a second vow attached, and the second one was about property. The concepts below follow that from the Buddhist monk's three robes to the Shaker village economy, and they finish somewhere unexpected: with Roman priestesses whose vow bought them property rights no other woman in the city could hold. These traditions do not agree about what owning nothing is for, and the list is arranged so that the disagreement is visible.
A wandering monk owns three robes and a bowl, and calls no single dwelling or person truly his own
A monk's possessions can be listed in a breath. The rule severs ties to household and place as firmly as it severs ties to property.
Vinaya Pitaka
A sannyasin carries only a staff, a begging bowl, and a single cloth, having already given away every other tie to family and household
The Hindu renunciate's inventory is shorter still, and every family tie has already been given away before the list is drawn up.
A digambara Jain monk owns nothing at all, not even clothing, having relinquished every last possession including modesty's usual coverings
One branch of Jain monasticism carries this to its end and keeps nothing whatsoever, including clothing, which almost every other tradition still allows.
The Acharanga Sutra teaches that attachment to the body itself is the final attachment to release, deeper even than attachment to family or wealth
Jainism's oldest surviving text argues that the last thing to let go of is the body itself, which is harder to release than either wealth or family.
Acharanga Sutra
Anthony of Egypt withdrew alone into the desert at twenty, giving away his inheritance to live a life of total simplicity and prayer
Antony of Egypt heard a verse read at a Sunday liturgy, gave away what he had inherited, and went into the desert at twenty. The account became the template for a great deal that followed.
Matthew 19:21, as read at the liturgy Antony attended, recounted in The Life of Antony
Francis of Assisi renounced his father's wealth in the town square, stripping off his fine clothes to wear only sackcloth
Francis of Assisi stripped off his fine clothes in the town square before the bishop. Doing it publicly converted a private decision into one his family could not quietly reverse.
Clare of Assisi cut off her own hair the night she fled her family home to join Francis's new way of poverty
Clare of Assisi left her noble family at night and cut her hair in front of Francis, the one act her relatives could not simply undo the next morning.
Legend of Saint Clare
The Shakers built their whole communal economy, their furniture, their farms, their worship, around the discipline of celibate brotherhood and sisterhood
A celibate community cannot inherit or reproduce its own labour force, so the Shakers had to design an entire economy from first principles around shared rather than family property.
Shaker community tradition
The Shaker communities, though celibate, grew for over a century through conversion and the adoption of orphaned children, proving devotion alone could sustain a whole society
They kept going for more than a hundred years on conversion and adoption alone, which is about as close to a practical test of the idea as history provides.
The Vestals alone among Roman women could own property, make a will, and give testimony in court without a male guardian's consent
The Roman Vestals ran the opposite way. Their vow lifted them out of guardianship law, and they alone among Roman women could hold property, make a will and testify in court.
Two opposite things are happening in this list. For the monastics, owning little is the point and the freedom gained is an inward one. For the Vestals, the vow was the price of a legal freedom that money and marriage could not buy. Both are celibate traditions, and they are answering completely different questions.