IDIORRHYTHMIC INQUEST: SYLVESTER, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA, JEREMIAH II, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND THE MISSION TO RESTORE COMMUNAL MONASTICISM ON MOUNT ATHOS IN THE 1570s
IDIORRHYTHMIC INQUEST: SYLVESTER, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA, JEREMIAH II, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND THE MISSION TO RESTORE COMMUNAL MONASTICISM ON MOUNT ATHOS IN THE 1570s

Summary/Abstract: Over the second half of the sixteenth century a new form of monasticism, idiorrhythmia (“living according to one’s own devices”), seemed to be spreading across the Orthodox monasteries of the Eastern Mediterranean. The communal regime practiced for centuries in the venerable monasteries of the East was gradually collapsing: first at St. Catherine’s on Sinai around 1557, then at the monasteries of Palestine, including the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem. When the patriarchs of Alexandria (Sylvester [1569-1590]) and Constantinople (Jeremiah II [1572-1579; 1580-1584; 1587-1595]) came together to celebrate Christmas at Thessaloniki in 1573, Sylvester was tasked with travelling to Mount Athos to investigate the state of the monastic life there. His inquest revealed a shocking state of affairs: monks moving without hindrance to and from Athos and engaging in the sale of goods to the outside world, including spirits which they drank themselves. Beardless youths and laypersons lived in monasteries; livestock were allowed to pasture on the Holy Mountain. This contribution will examine Patriarch Sylvester’s inquest and the subsequent effort to restore communal life at the major monasteries on Athos.

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