What is the nature of a ruler or leader?

St. Pachomius was a military man and known for the extreme strictness with which he governed his monastic communities. He founded more than ten monasteries for men in Upper

Egypt, along with three convents for nuns, and the number of monks in his main monastery in Pbow was about fifteen hundred. He was the abbot superior over all these monasteries.

One day, when St. Pachomius was waiting for the arrival of a group of solitary monks with whom he was to meet, his personal disciple Theodore noticed that his clothes were very old and tattered, and unsuitable for company. Theodore was the one responsible for caring for the clothing of the monks. The disciple asked his teacher to change his robe before he met the guests, but the father paid him no heed. He repeated his request a second time, and a third, but still the father would not change his clothes. Later, when the father examined his own behavior in his cell, he wept bitterly that he had not obeyed his disciple. He went and confessed his sin before his disciples, the monks. Thus, did the founder of the communal monastic life consider falling into disobedience a great defeat. To his mind, obedience is not something practiced by one party alone. For those who live in love and the new life, it is exchanged by both parties with wisdom and discernment.