ORTHODOX MONASTIC COMMUNITIES

[updated 2-5-00]

(Some monasteries have retreat and/or pilgrimage facilities;
women visitors should wear headdress.  One should come with
a gift--olive oil, sweets, fruit, brandy, beeswax candles--and
at the end of a stay leave a contribution of about half of
what an inexpensive motel would charge.  For titles
and how to greet monastics, CLICK HERE.)

This beautiful,  inspiring, and learned book
can be highly recommended:
Monasteries of Greece [and other places in the East],
by Chris Hellier (1996, Tauris Parke Books; London)
[some of the ecclesiastical terminology is incongruously Latinate-Western]

     Orthodox monasticism is not organized into "orders" like the Western Benedictines, Franciscans, etc.  Nor is there a division between contemplatiive and active monastics:  The Orthodox teach that theoría ("vision, contemplation")  without prãxis, like prãxis without theoría loses its life or energy; St. Maximos said that contemplation without activity is fantasy, whereas activity without contemplation is as sterile as a statue.  A lavra (laûra) is a large monastery having the right to call itself such; the term mandra (mántra, mándra "[sheep]fold") is not in use nowadays.  There are two or three kinds of skete or monastic establishment.  The coenobitic kind consists of  monks or nuns living communally.  An idiorrhythmic skete allows the monastics to have certain possessions; it consists of huts grouped around a central temple, each hut housing three or four monks with a spiritual advisor or elder; the hut will have an icon corner for such prayers as are not offered in the main temple.    Semi-idiorrhythmic sketes exist.  A hermitage is where a solitary lives.   A daughter skete or farm of a lavra is called a metochion; it is supervised by the lavra.  An abbot or abbess is called a (h)egumen/issa; a higher-ranking abbot, especially one supervising more than one monastery, is called an archimandrite.  (This may be a honorary title for an unmarried priest; a monastery can have several honorary archimandrites.)   For the monastic grades--rasophore, stavrophore (also called the lesser schema or the lesser habit), and the great schema (or great habit--or simply "schema" monks and nuns), CLICK HERE.   The Synodical rule of stability (isóbios áskesis), according to which monastics should stay in the monastery in which they have been professed is observed more in the breach than in the observance.

NORTH AMERICAN MONASTERIES
(by jurisdiction and also by state location)

CLICK HERE FOR THE HOLY MOUNTAIN:  MT. ATHOS

Video Tour of Mt. Athos

MONASTERIES ONLINE
    (in the New World & on Mt. Athos)

HOLY TRINITY MONASTERY (METEORA)   IN THESSALY

THE ANCIENT AND GLORIOUS MONASTERY
OF ST. CATHERINE ON MT. SINAI

PICTURES OF THE OLDEST SKETE IN PALESTINE
ST. CHARITON'S (caves in a steep cliff)

CONVENT OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE 
EQUAL TO THE APOSTLES IN THE
GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE ON 
THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 
IN JERUSALEM
(see immediately above the icon of the Hodigitria 
miracle-working Icon of the most holy Theotokos; 
donations for necessary restorations of the 
monastery can be sent to the
Very Reverend Abbess Anna,
POB 19190, 91191 Jerusalem, Israël)

DECANI MONASTERY IN KOSOVO

MONASTERY OF ST. JOHN
& DIVINE ASCENT (journal)

"Holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting GOD, Who have ordained that
the labors of bees should be formed into wax to serve Your Glory
and with the created light of candles to reflect Your uncreated 
Light:  From Your holy Heaven and the throne of Grace, 
hear the voice of Your people, as we devote candles
to the increase of Your Glory and honor."

MARY & MARTHA MONASTERY FOR WOMEN
Wagener, SC

HOLY MYRRHBEARERS MONASTERY (for women)
Ask for their catalogue of handsome black-and-white
greeting cards, prayer books, and Church supplies:
144 Bert Washburn Rd., Otego, NY   13825-2265

HOLY APOSTLES CONVENT
Ask Mother Mariam about obtaining the 2d ed. of
the two-volume ORTHODOX NEW TESTAMENT
translated by the sisters--the only adequate
Orthodox New Testament in English

ST. GREGORY PALAMAS MONASTERY

MONASTERY OF THE GLORIOUS ASCENSION
(Resaca, GA, USA)

DORMITION SKETE
(Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)

UKRAïNIAN ORTHODOX MONASTERY OF
SS. TAXIARCHIS & DEMETRIOS

HERMITAGE OF THE HOLY CROSS