Monastery From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Monastery (plural: monasteries) denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer (e.g. an oratory) as well as the domestic quarters and workplace(s) of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone (hermits).
The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the first century AD Jewish philosopher Philo (On The Contemplative Life, ch. III).
Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only a hermit, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only a one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds.
In English usage, the term "monastery" is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. The name convent tends to be used (inaccurately) for the buildings accommodating female monastics (nuns). (The term "nunnery" for the latter is outmoded and considered offensive). It may also be used to reflect the Latin usage for houses of friars, more commonly called a friary, or for communities of teaching or nursing Religious Sisters. Various religions may use these terms in more specific ways.
In most religions the life inside monasteries is governed by community rules that stipulates the gender of the inhabitants and requires them to remain celibate and own little or no personal property. The degree to which life inside a particular monastery is socially separate from the surrounding populace can also vary widely; some religious traditions mandate isolation for purposes of contemplation removed from the everyday world, in which case members of the monastic community may spend most of their time isolated even from each other. Others are focused on interacting with the local communities in order to provide some service, such as teaching, medical care, or evangelism. Some monastic communities are only occupied seasonally, depending both on the traditions involved and the local weather, and people may be part of a monastic community for periods ranging from a few days at a time to almost an entire lifetime.
The life within the walls of a monastery may be supported in several ways: by manufacturing and selling goods, often agricultural products such as cheese, wine, beer, liquor, and jellies[citation needed]; by donations or alms; by rental or investment incomes; and by funds from other organizations within the religion which in the past has formed the traditional support of Monasteries. However, today Christian monastics have updated and adapted themselves to modern society by offering computer services, accounting services, management as well as modern hospital administration in addition to running schools, colleges and universities.
An abbey (from Latin abbatia, derived from Syriac abba, "father"), is a Christian monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community. The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey, but continues to carry the name—in some cases for centuries.
The earliest known Christian monastic communities consisted of groups of cells or huts collected about a common center, which was usually the house of some hermit or anchorite famous for holiness or singular asceticism, but without any attempt at orderly arrangement. This arrangement probably followed the example set in part by the Essenes in Judea.
In the earliest age of Christian monasticism the ascetics were accustomed to live singly, independent of one another, not far from some village church, supporting themselves by the labour of their own hands, and distributing the surplus after the supply of their own scanty wants to the poor. Increasing religious fervour, aided by persecution, drove them farther and farther away from the civilization into mountain solitudes or lonely deserts. The deserts of Egypt swarmed with the "cells" or huts of these anchorites. Anthony the Great, who had retired to the Egyptian Thebaid during the persecution of Maximian, A.D. 312, was the most celebrated among them for his austerities, his sanctity, and his power as an exorcist. His fame collected round him a host of followers imitating his asceticism in an attempt to imitate his sanctity. The deeper he withdrew into the wilderness, the more numerous his disciples became. They refused to be separated from him, and built their cells round that of their spiritual father. Thus arose the first monastic community, consisting of anchorites living each in his own little dwelling, united together under one superior. Anthony, as Johann August Wilhelm Neander remarks,[1] "without any conscious design of his own, had become the founder of a new mode of living in common, Coenobitism." By degrees order was introduced in the groups of huts. They were arranged in lines like the tents in an encampment, or the houses in a street. From this arrangement these lines of single cells came to be known as Laurae, Laurai, "streets" or "lanes."
The real founder of cenobitic (koinos, common, and bios, life) monasteries in the modern sense was Pachomius, an Egyptian of the beginning of the 4th century. The first community established by him was at Tabennae, an island of the Nile in Upper Egypt. Eight others were founded in the region during his lifetime, numbering 3,000 monks. Within fifty years from his death his societies could claim 50,000 members. These coenobia resembled villages, peopled by a hard-working religious community, all of one sex.
The buildings were detached, small and of the humblest character. Each cell or hut, according to Sozomen (H.R. iii. 14), contained three monks. They took their chief meal in a common refectory or dining hall at 3 P.M., up to which hour they usually fasted. They ate in silence, with hoods so drawn over their faces that they could see nothing but what was on the table before them. The monks spent the time not devoted to religious services or study in manual labour.
Palladius, who visited the Egyptian monasteries about the close of the 4th century, found among the 300 members of the coenobium of Panopolis, under the Pachomian rule, 15 tailors, 7 smiths, 4 carpenters, 12 cameldrivers and 15 tanners. Each separate community had its own oeconomus or steward, who was subject to a chief steward stationed at the head establishment. All the produce of the monks' labour was committed to him, and by him shipped to Alexandria. The money raised by the sale was expended in the purchase of stores for the support of the communities, and what was over was devoted to charity. Twice in the year the superiors of the several coenobia met at the chief monastery, under the presidency of an archimandrite ("the chief of the fold," from miandra, a sheepfold), and at the last meeting gave in reports of their administration for the year. The coenobia of Syria belonged to the Pachomian institution. We learn many details concerning those in the vicinity of Antioch from Chrysostom's writings. The monks lived in separate huts, kalbbia, forming a religious hamlet on the mountain side. They were subject to an abbot, and observed a common rule. (They had no refectory, but ate their common meal, of bread and water only, when the day's labour was over, reclining on strewn grass, sometimes out of doors.) Four times in the day they joined in prayers and psalms.
Christianity From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
According to tradition, Christian monasticism began in Egypt with St. Anthony. Originally, all Christian monks were hermits seldom encountering other people. But because of the extreme difficulty of the solitary life, many monks failed, either returning to their previous lives, or becoming spiritually deluded.
A transitional form of monasticism was later created by Saint Amun in which “solitary” monks lived close enough to one another to offer mutual support as well as gathering together on Sundays for common services.
It was St. Pachomios who developed the idea of having monks live together and worship together under the same roof (Coenobitic Monasticism). Soon the Egyptian desert blossomed with monasteries, especially around Nitria, which was called the "Holy City”. Estimates are the upwards of 50,000 monks lived in this area at any one time.
Hermitism never died out though, but was reserved only for those advanced monks who had worked out their problems within a cenobitic monastery. The idea caught on, and other places followed:
Saint Eugenios founded a monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis in Mesopotamia (~350), and from this monastery the cenobitic tradition spread in Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Georgia and even India and China.
Saint Saba organized the monks of the Judean Desert in a monastery close to Bethlehem (483), and this is considered the mother of all monasteries of the Eastern Orthodox churches.
St. Benedict of Nursia founded the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy (529), which was the seed of Roman Catholic monasticism in general, and of the order of Benedict in particular.
'La Grande Chartreuse' the mother house of the Carthusian Order founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne was established in the 11th century as an eremitic community. The documentary "Into Great Silence" allows viewers a sense of life within the Western Church's most austere religious order.
Kecharis Monastery is a 13th century monastery, located 60 km from Yerevan.
Western Medieval Europe
At the monastery gate (Am Klostertor) by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller.The life of prayer and communal living was one of rigorous schedules and self sacrifice. Prayer was their work, and the Office prayers took up much of a monk's waking hours - Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, daily Mass, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline. In between prayers, monks were allowed to sit in the cloister and work on their projects of writing, copying, or decorating books. These would have been assigned based on a monk's abilities and interests. The non-scholastic types were assigned to physical labour of varying degrees.
The main meal of the day took place around noon, often taken at a refectory table, and consisted of the most simple and bland foods i.e. poached fish, boiled oats. Anything tastier, which appeared on occasion, was criticized. While they ate, scripture would be read from a pulpit above them. Since no other words were allowed to be spoken, monks developed communicative gestures. Abbots and notable guests were honoured with a seat at the high table, while everyone else sat perpendicular to that in the order of seniority. This practice remained when monasteries became universities after the first millennium, and can still be seen at Oxford University and Cambridge University.
Monasteries were important contributors to the surrounding community. They were centres of intellectual progression and education. They welcomed aspiring priests to come study and learn, allowing them even to challenge doctrine in dialogue with superiors. The earliest forms of musical notation are attributed to a monk named Notker of St Gall, and was spread to musicians throughout Europe by way of the interconnected monasteries. Since monasteries offered respite for weary pilgrim travellers, monks were obligated also to care for their injuries or emotional needs. Over time, lay people started to make pilgrimages to monasteries instead of just using them as a stop over. By this time, they had sizeable libraries which were sort of a tourist attraction. Families would also donate a son in return for blessings. During the plagues, monks helped to till the fields and provide food for the sick.
A Warming House is a common part of a medieval monastery, where monks went to warm themselves. It was often the only room in the monastery where a fire was lit.
Orthodox Christianity
St. Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai, early 6th century ADIn the Eastern Orthodox Church, both monks and nuns follow a similar ascetic discipline, and even their religious habit is the same (though nuns wear an extra veil, called the apostolnik). Unlike Roman Catholic monasticism, the Orthodox do not have separate religious orders, but there is one form of monasticism throughout the Orthodox Church. Monastics, male or female, live away from the world, in order to pray for the world. They do not normally run hospitals and orphanages, they do not consider teaching or caring for the sick a part of their vocation, though they are obligated by Christian charity to provide help when needed.
Monasteries vary from the very large to the very small. There are three types of monastic houses in the Orthodox Church:
When monks live together, work together, and pray together, following the directions of an abbot and the elder monks, this is called a cenobium. The concept of the cenobitic life is that when many men (or women) live together in a monastic context, like rocks with sharp edges, their “sharpness” becomes worn away and they become smooth and polished. The largest monasteries can hold many thousands of monks and are called lavras. In the cenobium the daily office, work and meals are all done in common.
Sketes are small monastic establishments which usually consist of one elder and 2 or 3 disciples. In the skete most prayer and work are done in private, coming together on Sundays and feast days. Thus, skete life has elements of both solitude and community, and for this reason is called the "middle way".
The highest level of asceticism is practised by monks who do not live in monastic communities, but in solitude, as hermits.
Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, Russia.One of the great centres of Orthodox monasticism is Mount Athos in Greece, an isolated, self-governing peninsula approximately 20 miles (32 km) long and 5 miles (8.0 km) wide (similar to the Vatican, being a separate government), administered by the heads of the 20 monasteries. Today the population of the Holy Mountain is around 2,200 men only and can only be visited by men with special permission granted by both the Greek government and the government of the Holy Mountain itself.
The leading monasteries of the Holy Mountain are:
Great Lavra
Vatopedi
Iviron (Georgian)
Dionysiou
Koutloumousiou
Cheropotamou
Zograf (Bulgarian)
Dochiariou
Simonos Petra
Stavronikita
Xenophontos
Gregoriou
St. Panteleimon (Russian)
Esphigmenou
Philotheou
Konstamonitou
Chilandariou (Serbian)
The Svirsky monasteries are an example of twin monasteries that face each other. Other famous Orthodox monasteries include:
Meteora, Greece
St Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
The Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Russia
Kiev Monastery of the Caves, Ukraine
Rila Monastery, Bulgaria
Putna Monastery, Romania
Solovetsky Monastery, Russia
Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, Russia
Alexander Nevsky Lavra, St Petersburg, Russia
Novodevichy Convent, Moscow
Pochayiv Lavra, Ukraine
Valaam Monastery, Russia
Studenica Monastery, Serbia
Sopocani Monastery, Serbia
Visoki Decani Monastery, Serbia
Gračanica Monastery, Serbia
Ostrog Monastery, Montenegro
Kykkos Monastery, Cyprus
Monastery of the Cross, Jerusalem
Monastery of the Temptation, Jericho, Palestinian territories
Mar Saba, Kidron Valley, Palestinian territories
Curtea de Argeş Monastery, Romania
Voroneţ Monastery, Romania
Horezu Monastery, Romania
Neamţ Monastery, Romania
Monastery of Saint John the Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Island of Pátmos, Greece
Oriental Orthodox Churches`
The Oriental Orthodox Churches, distinguished by their Myaphisite beliefs consist of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (whose Patriarch, is considered first among equals for the following churches), as well as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Indian Orthodox Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. The now extinct Caucasian Albanian Church also fell under this group.
St. Anthony's (Deir Mar Antonios) is the oldest monastery in the world and under the patronage of the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church
Santa María de El Paular Benedictine Monastery near Madrid (Spain). A number of distinct monastic orders developed within Roman Catholicism (Eastern Orthodoxy does not have a system of individual Orders, per se):
Canons Regular ('The Black Canons'), which evolved from the Priests Canon who would normally work with the Bishop: now living together with him like monks under St. Augustine's rule
Benedictine monks ('The Black Monks'), founded by St. Benedict, stresses manual labour in a self-subsistent monastery. See Cluniac Reforms.
Cistercian monks ('The White Monks') / *Trappist
Camaldolese
Bridgettine sisters
Carthusian monks
Gilbertine
Poor Clares
Byzantine Discalced Carmelites
Premonstratensian canons ('The White Canons')
Tironensian monks ('The Grey Monks')
Valliscaulian monks
Famous Christian monasteries include:
Monte Cassino
El Escorial
Melk Abbey
Pannonhalma Archabbey
Buckfast Abbey
Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos
Taizé Community
Mont Saint-Michel
Abbey of St. Gall
Dissolved Communities and Famous Dissolved Monasteries:
Fountains Abbey
Cluny Abbey
Lindisfarne
Whitby Abbey
Rievaulx Abbey
Glastonbury Abbey
Westminster Abbey
St Michael's Mount
Glendalough
St Andrews Abbey
Cluniac monks
Celestines
The last years of the 18th century marked in the Christian Church the beginnings of growth of monasticism among Protestant denominations. The centrus of the this movement was in the United States and Canada beginning with the Shaker Church, which was founded in England and then moved to the United States. In the 19th century many of these monastic societies were founded as Utopian communities based on the monastic model in many cases. Aside from the Shakers, there were the Amanna, the Anabaptists et al. Many did allow marriage but most had a policy of celibacy and communal life in which members shared all things communally and disavowed personal ownership.
In the 19th century monasticism was revived in the Church of England, leading to the foundation of such institutions as the House of the Resurrection, Mirfield (Community of the Resurrection), Nashdom Abbey (Benedictine), Cleeve Priory (Community of the Glorious Ascension) and Ewell Monastery (Cistercian), Benedictine orders, Franciscan orders and the Orders of the Holy Cross, Order of St. Helena. Other Protestant Christian denominations also engage in monasticism, particularly Lutherans in Europe and North America. For example, the Benedictine order of the Holy Cross at St Augustine's House in Michigan is a Lutheran order of monks and there are Lutheran religious communities in Sweden and Germany. In the 1960s, experimental monastic groups were formed in which both men and women were members of the same house and also were permitted to be married and have children—these were operated on a communal form. The Jewish Kibutz is a form of monasticsm operating on a communal basis.
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