Eastern Christian monasticism

[citation needed] We also read of communities of virgins living a common life committed to celibacy and virtue.

Like the Byzantines, monasticism has continued to play a crucial role in the life of the church, and bishops are always chosen from among the ranks of monks.

However, despite persecutions and intense pressure to convert, Coptic monasticism has survived, and some of the most ancient monastic communities in the history of Christianity continue to be inhabited to this day.

The monastics of Armenia, Chaldea, and of the Syrian countries in general were influenced by neither the ecclesiastical nor imperial authority of Byzantium, and continued those observances which were known among them from the time of St. Anthony.

Monasticism was very popular in early Syrian and Mesopotamian Christianity, and originally all monks and nuns there were hermits, like the notable Isaac of Nineveh.

About 350 Mar Awgin founded the first cenobitic monastery of Mesopotamia on Mount Izla above the city of Nisibis and monastic communities began to thrive.

An important personality was Saint Simeon Stylites, an ascetic who lived for 37 years on pillar close to Aleppo.

Under pressure from their Zoroastrian rulers, the Synod of Beth Lapat in 484 declared that the teaching of Nestorius was to be the official doctrine of the Assyrian Church of the East, and decreed that all monks and nuns should marry.

[4] St. Gregory soon withdrew to the desert to live as a hermit, and his youngest son, Aristakes, was appointed bishop and head of the Armenian Church.

Over the centuries of waxing and waning influence, persecution, and independence of the Armenian nation, monasticism remained a central aspect of their spiritual life.

A Hieromonk, or celibate priest, declares a vow of celibacy the evening of the same day he is ordained and is given a veghar (Armenian: վեղար), a special head-cover, which symbolizes his renunciation of worldly things.

Upon successful completion and defense of a written thesis, on a topic of his choosing, the Monk receives the rank of Archimandrite (Armenian: վարդապետ vardapet).

A higher rank of Senior Archimandrite (Dzayraguyn Vardapet) can be granted after completing and defending a doctoral thesis.

Ironically, St. John of Damascus, living in a Moslem nation was independent of the iconoclast emperors and could defend the faith from afar.

But to effect this, and to give permanence to the reformation, he saw that there was need of a more practical code of laws to regulate the details of the daily life, as a supplement to St Basil's teachings.

At the same time the monastery was an active center of intellectual and artistic life and a model which exercised considerable influence on monastic observances in the East.

Mount Athos is the site of innumerable priceless cultural and spiritual treasures, and up to this day it is considered the capital of Orthodox monasticism.

Probably the most well-known item to come from the monastery is the Codex Sinaiticus (now mostly in the British Library), a 4th-century (possibly early 5th century) manuscript of the Septuagint which is of enormous value for textual research of the scriptures.

Notable Byzantine monks include: The Byzantine monasteries furnish a long line of historians who were also monks: John Malalas, whose hronographia[8] served as a model for Eastern chroniclers; Georgius Syncellus, who wrote a "Selected Chronographia"; his friend and disciple Theophanes (d. 817), Abbot of the "Great Field" near Cyzicus, the author of another Chronographia;[9] the Patriarch Nikephoros, who wrote (815 – 829) an historical Breviarium (a Byzantine history), and an "Abridged Chronographia";[10] George the Monk, whose Chronicle stops at 842 AD.

Among the authors of hymns may be mentioned: St. Maximus the Confessor; St. Theodore the Studite; St. Romanus the Melodist; St. Andrew of Crete; St. John Damascene; Cosmas of Jerusalem, and St. Joseph the Hymnographer.

These monasteries, and others as well, were studios of religious art where the monks toiled to produce miniatures, manuscripts, paintings, and goldsmith work.

Following the Union of Brest and partitions of Poland, the Ruthenian Church was catholicized and later dissolved by the Russian authorities.

Following the Union Brest which catholicized the Ruthenian Church, there was established a religious order of Basilians by Jazep Rutsky.