Byzantine Monastic Communities: Alternative Families?

Abstract

Byzantine monks addressed each other as fathers, sons or brothers, and monastic texts from the Middle Byzantine period are replete with terms and concepts that have the family as their original context. This chapter presents evidence for such spiritual' relationships within Byzantine monasteries and asks whether one can consider them as alternative families. It demonstrates that even after tonsure the relationship between spiritual fathers and their sons remained an important feature of monastic life. In late antiquity the lavra was only one of a range of social settings within which men could pursue a monastic lifestyle. The chapter then explores monastic rules from the late tenth and eleventh centuries, in order to assess whether this status quo underwent changes over time. It argues that the relationship between mentor and disciple reflects a broader culture of social networking, which shares important traits with the nuclear family but cannot be reduced to it.