St. John Chrysostom lived for a while in the very area in Syria now ravaged by civil war.
http://boyerwrites.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/oldest-christian-monasteries-in-syria-under-attack/
He had an interesting take on monasteries. He thought that if one could become perfect in the world, as God had called all Catholics to become, one did not have to enter a monastery.
The monastery was created because it was getting too hard to become perfect while in the world.
St. John Chrysostom had to leave to go to Antioch and serve the Church at large.
Here is one commentator on this desire for finding perfection in a monastery:
Chrysostom's preference is not a contradiction to his teaching that Christian perfection is also possible in the world, because the superiority of virginity is not ethical but rather in its way and method. The sacred father concludes this from the following: Because life in the cities has been equated with the "goings on of Sodom", and because the prevailing corruption has eclipsed the necessary conditions to exercise Christian perfection. Because cities have, in his opinion, ended up in a satanic fire, a monastic community is safer. It was a prayer for Chrysostom to have a perfect society, so that monasteries were not necessary; that is, if society identified with the Church and the world identified with the kingdom of God. That is, if monks ruled, or kings "philosophized", there would be no need for monasticism. Worthy critics of the situation as it is in reality are not the monks, but those who make cities a rugged terrain of the virtues.
http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2013/09/saint-john-chrysostom-and-syrian.html
and more here
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