Monastic orders

[Terence]

What are the different Orders of monasticism in the Orthodox church?

[Christopher Huckabay]

There are no different order;s within Orthodox Monasticism. The monks or nuns may come from different traditions of Orthodoxy, i.e.: the Russian, Greek, or Antiochian churches, but all are equal and the same.

[Justin]

Well, I don't know if I'd say the same. Certainly there is variation from monastery to monastery, and differently "styles" of monasticism, even if we don't have things systemized.

[David Galloway]

There aren't any orders in the sense of Benedictine or Cisterian orders, but there are different types of monasteries. I think the usual division in cenobitic(living in community), anchoritic(living as hermits), and lavra(living apart but joining others at services). Different monasteries also follow different typikons. One advantage Roman Catholics have(had?) is that it is easy to categorize their monasteries in that they were all under the same authority. So far, in my limited experience of Orthodoxy, I haven't found too many similar monasteries.

[Richard Maybrew]

There aren't any orders in the sense of Benedictine or Cisterian orders, but there are different types of monasteries. I think the usual division in cenobitic(living in community), anchoritic(living as hermits), and lavra(living apart but joining others at services). Different monasteries also follow different typikons. One advantage Roman Catholics have(had?) is that it is easy to categorize their monasteries in that they were all under the same authority. So far, in my limited experience of Orthodoxy, I haven't found too many similar monasteries.

What about the different kinds of "typikons" that different monsteries adhere to? I've heard that these are sometimes used to categorize them into different "styles" of monasticism.

---Richard

[David Galloway]

Richard,

There are in fact different typikons. Many monasterys follow the Athonite typikon, which is a very intense spiritual discipline. I'm really not as well read in this subject as I should be. After a brief web search, I was not able to find any helpful documents. I will search again and get back to you.

[Martin]

What are the different Orders of monasticism in the Orthodox church?

There aren't any orders... but, perhaps there are as many 'orders' as there are monasteries. Each follows its own particular rule of life, embodied in its own typikon, which is usually based on a traditional typikon from one of the monastic centers (Athos, Palestine, Syria, et cetera). But there is a lot of variation even in monasteries which follow similar (read, "Athonite") typikons.

Martin