we suggest You to visit presentation of Ecoumenical Patriarchate to find more information on monastic life, or to visit our Real Audio and Video gallery on Mount Athos

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.