Monasticism. I am fond of saying that our beloved monastics are the heart of the Church because they have separated themselves from the world to focus on praying for those of us stuck here in the world. That said, there is a lot of confusion about what monastics are, what they do, and how we ought to best understand their role within the Church and in our spiritual lives. To that end, I’m going to focus over the next several weeks on various aspects of monasticism, to include their ranks and the process of becoming a monk or a nun of the Orthodox Church. This is in no way comprehensive or exhaustive, but it should provide a well-rounded picture of the overall idea; NB: if you do want an exhaustive treatment of the subject, we have a few copies of The Angelic Life available in the bookstore (and cheaper than Amazon). So for this week, a general overview:
Becoming a monk is a reasonably slow process, as you might expect given that it’s a serious decision to make a life-long commitment to the service of God and His Holy Church. Because of this it is undertaken in stages and each of these is represented by the addition of garments to eventually form the full monastic habit, most recognizable to us in the form of the Great Schema. The head of the monastery is known as the abbot (or abbess), from the Aramaic “abba - Father” (not to be confused with a cringey Swedish rock band), generally appointed by the bishop. Abbots are sometimes referred to also as an igumen, literally, “head man,” or an achimandrite, literally “chief of the sheepfold.” Someone who desires of their own free will to become a monk presents themselves to the abbot, and if accepted as a novice, the process begins. More on the novitiate next week, but now on to some other helpful things to know…
Monks, regardless of their rank or ordination, should be addressed as “Father,” with the exception of novices who are called “brother.” For nuns, stavrophore (more on this in a few weeks) nuns are called “Mother,” with novices and rassophore nuns called “sister.” All monks are tonsured; as the needs of the community dictate, some monks are ordained to the diaconate, and we call them hierodeacons (hiero as a prefix meaning “priestly”), and others to the priesthood as hieromonks. In the Slavic tradition we refer to elder monks of advanced spiritual lives as “starets,” whereas in the Greek practice the rough equivalent is “geronda” - both simply mean “elder.” Regardless of where you are on your personal spiritual development journey, you should make a concerted effort to meet with and speak with our wonderful monastics as often as you can!