Welcome to Monachos.net

Welcome to Monachos.net, a web site dedicated to the study of Orthodox Christianity through its patristic, monastic and liturgical heritage. This introduction describes the site's nature and focus, with a brief overview of its main content areas.

Icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos, St. Kyrill Monastery (15th century)

Icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God. Click here for texts.

Click the menu options at the top of the page for access to hundreds of patristic texts in English, studies on the Fathers, articles and reflections on the liturgical services, and documents relating to the Orthodox monastic life.

Visit our active Discussion Community forum - If you've not yet done so, take some time to explore one of the key resources of Monachos.net: our extensive Discussion Community with over 78,000 posts pertaining directly to the legacy of the Church Fathers and monastic traditions. Read the collected archives, and join in the discussion yourself.

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A Word From the Holy Fathers is our web start-page, providing random quotations from the Church Fathers, drawn from an ever expanding database of over 420 passages. This area, which we have offered for several years, has recently been updated to provide for additional quotations and user submission.

What's new? Start here for the newest materials on the site, including new studies, broadcasts and texts.

Featured content...

Papias ('The Elder'), Fragments 13 August, 2008 Patristic Source Texts
Papias ('The Elder'), Fragments
Fragment 1, From the Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord.This fragment is found in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3.39. [The writings of Papias in common circulation are five in number, and these are called an Exposition of the...
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians - 12 August, 2009 Patristic Source Texts
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians -
This text is currently hosted off-site, and can be viewed here: John Chrysostom, Homilies on...
Dionysius the Areopagite, Letter 6, to Sopatros the priest 14 July, 2008 Patristic Source Texts
Dionysius the Areopagite, Letter 6, to Sopatros the priest
Do not imagine this a victory, holy Sopatros, to have denounced a devotion, or an opinion, which apparently is not good. For neither—even if you should have convicted it accurately—are the (teachings) of Sopatros...
Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 26 February, 2010 Patristic Source Texts
Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans
CHAPTER 0 (PREAMBLE)This is the so-called 'shorter version' of St Ignatius' Epistle to the Smyrnaeans. There exists a 'longer version', though the extra content is generally considered to be later interpolation. The...
Tikhon, Metropolitan of Moscow, Farewell sermon on the Sunday of Orthodoxy
St. Tikhon of Moscow’s Last Sermon during His Years of Ministry (1898 to 1907) as the Archbishop of the American Missionary Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Given on the Sunday of Orthodoxy (the First Sunday of Great...