Monasticism, also called monachism or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially in the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican traditions as well as in other faiths such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. In other religions, monasticism is criticized and not practiced, as in Islam and Zoroastrianism, or plays a marginal role, as in modern Judaism.
Pachomius, also known as Saint Pachomius the Great, is generally recognized as the founder of Christian cenobitic monasticism. Coptic churches celebrate his feast day on 9 May, and Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches mark his feast on 15 May or 28 May. In the Lutheran Church, he is remembered as a renewer of the church, along with his contemporary, Anthony of Egypt on 17 January.
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an oratory, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary, and outlying granges. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may also include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community. These may include a hospice, a school, and a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge, or a brewery.
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent. The term is often used interchangeably with religious sisters who do take simple vows but live an active vocation of prayer and charitable work.
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism by living a monastic lifestyle, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedicate his life to serving other people and serving God, or to be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions and in philosophy.
Christian monasticism is the devotional practice of Christians who live ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship. It began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modeled upon scriptural examples and ideals, including those in the Old Testament. It has come to be regulated by religious rules and, in modern times, the Canon law of the respective Christian denominations that have forms of monastic living. Those living the monastic life are known by the generic terms monks (men) and nuns (women). The word monk originated from the Greek μοναχός, itself from μόνος meaning 'alone'.
In Christianity, an oblate is a person who is specifically dedicated to God and to God's service.
A skete is a monastic community in Eastern Christianity that allows relative isolation for monks, but also allows for communal services and the safety of shared resources and protection. It is one of four types of early monastic orders, along with the eremitic, lavritic and coenobitic, that became popular during the early formation of the Christian Church.
The Stavropegial Institutions are churches, monastic communities, and theological schools which are stauropegions of the Orthodox Church in America, meaning they are under the direct supervision of the Orthodox Church in America's primate. The Stavropegial Institutions are located in three states in the United States and one Canadian province – California, New York, Ontario, and Pennsylvania.
Divine Canine is a television series on Animal Planet. The show premiered on April 16, 2007.
Eastern Christian monasticism is the life followed by monks and nuns of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Church of the East and Eastern Catholicism. Eastern monasticism is founded on the Rule of St Basil and is sometimes thus referred to as Basilian.
The degrees of Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic monasticism are the stages an Eastern Orthodox monk or nun passes through in their religious vocation.
Laurence Mancuso was the founding abbot of the New Skete Eastern Orthodox monastic community in upstate New York.
The Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist is a monastic community for both men and women, directly under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It is located in Tolleshunt Knights, near Maldon, Essex, in England, and is the oldest Orthodox religious community in the UK.
Holy Resurrection Monastery is an American monastic community of men. Under the canon law of the Eastern Catholic Churches the brotherhood is a self-governing monastery within the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St George's in Canton, Ohio, and located in St. Nazianz, Wisconsin. The ruling hierarch is Bishop John Michael Botean; the current Abbot of the monastery is Hierodeacon Moses (Wright). He replaced the founding Abbot Nicholas Zachariadis in February of 2023. Abbot Nicholas retired in late 2022.
Coptic monasticism was a movement in the Coptic Orthodox Church to create a holy, separate class of person from layman Christians.
Chariton the Confessor was an early Christian monk. He is venerated as a saint by both the Western and Eastern Churches. His remembrance day is September 28.
St. Paisius Orthodox Monastery is an Eastern Orthodox Christian women’s coenobitic community in Safford, Arizona which follows the traditional rule of Serbian monastic life. The monastery is situated in the High Sonoran Desert at the base of Mount Graham. The English-speaking monastery is now also under the jurisdictions of Kyrill of the Western American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). It has 320 acres of land, making it the fifth largest monastery among the 80 American Orthodox Christian monasteries.
St. Nilus Skete, founded in 1999, is a women's monastic institution of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America, under the omophorion of Bishop Maksim Vasiljević of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Western America. It is located on Nelson Island near Ouzinkie in Alaska, less than an hour's boat ride from Kodiak Island. St. Nilus Skete is the most remote of all 80 Orthodox Christian monasteries in North America. Their 50-acre island is inhabited only by the monastics. In the winter months when the ocean becomes rough, the nuns on St. Nilus Island can be left isolated from the rest of civilization for days and weeks at a time.
The monastic community of Mount Athos is an Eastern Orthodox community of monks in Greece who hold the status of an autonomous region with its own sovereignty within Greece and the European Union, as well as the combined rights of a decentralized administration, a region and a municipality, with a territory encompassing the distal part of the Athos peninsula including Mount Athos. The bordering proximal part of the peninsula belongs to the regular Aristotelis community in Central Macedonia.
