Monasticism
The liturgical and, to a certain degree, the artistic developments in Orthodoxy
are connected with the history of monasticism. Christian monasticism first began
in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor and, for centuries, attracted the elite
of Eastern Christians into its ranks. Based on the traditional vows of celibacy,
obedience, and poverty, it took different forms, ranging from the disciplined
communal life of monasteries such as the Stoudios, in Constantinople, to the eremitic
and individual asceticism of the Hesychasts (from Greek υσιχεία,
"quietude"). Today, the monastic republic of Mount
Athos,
in Macedonia (northern Greece), where more than 1,000 monks live in 20 large communities
as well as in isolated hermitages, bears witness to the permanence of the monastic
ideal in the Orthodox church.
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