- Acoemetae
Acoemetae (or "Acoemeti") was an order of
monk s in the5th century , who by turns, kept up a divine service day and night. The order was founded about the year400 , by one Alexander, a man of noble birth, who fled from the court ofByzantium to the desert, both from love of solitude and fear of episcopal honours.When Alexander returned to
Constantinople to establish the "laus perennis", he brought with him the experience of a first foundation on theEuphrates , and three hundred monks. The enterprise, however, proved difficult, owing to the hostility ofPatriarch Nestorius and EmperorTheodosius II . Driven from the monastery of St. Mennas, where he had been reared in the city, and thrown with his monks on the hospitality of St. Hypathius, Abbot of Rufiniana, he finally succeeded in building at the mouth of theBlack Sea , the monastery ofGomon , where he died, about440 .His successor, Abbot John, founded on the eastern shore of the
Bosphorus , opposite Sostenium or Istenia, theIrenaion , always referred to in ancient documents as the "great monastery", or motherhouse of the Acoemetae. Under the third abbot, St. Marcellus, when the hostility of Patriarch and Emperor had somewhat subsided, Studius, a formerConsul , founded in the city, the famousStudion . Chiefly under Abbot Theodore (759 -826 ), theStudion became a centre of learning, as well aspiety , and brought to a culmination, the glory of the order. On the other hand, the very glamour of the new "Studites" gradually cast into the shade, the old Acoemetae.The feature that distinguished the Acoemetae from the other
Basilian monk s was the uninterrupted service of God. Their monasteries, which numbered hundreds of inmates and sometimes went into the thousand, were distributed in national groups,Latin s,Greeks , Syrians, and Egyptians; and each group, into as many choirs as the membership permitted, and the service required. With them, the divine office literally carried out Psalm cxviii, 164: "Seven times a day have I given praise to Thee," consisting as it did, of seven hours: "orthrinon, trite, ekte, enate, lychnikon, prothypnion, mesonyktion", which throughSt. Benedict ofNursia , passed into the Western Church under the equivalent names of prime,terce ,sext , none,vespers ,compline ,matins (nocturns ), andlauds .The influence of the Acoemetae on Christian life was considerable. The splendour of their religious services largely contributed to shape the
liturgy . Their idea of the "laus perennis" and similar institutions passed into the Western Church with St. Maurice ofAgaune and St. Denys. Our modern perpetual adoration is a remnant of it.Even before the time of the Studites, the copying of manuscripts was in honour among the Acoemetae, and the library of the "Great Monastery", consulted even by the Roman
Pontiff s, is the first, mentioned by the historians of Byzantium. The Acoemetae took a prominent part — and always in the sense oforthodoxy — in the Christological discussions raised byNestorius andEutyches , and later, in the controversies of theIcons . They proved strong supporters of theApostolic See , in the schism ofAcacius , as did the Studites in that of Photius.In the
sixth century , while trying to combat the Eutychian tendencies of the Scythian monks, they themselves fell into theNestorian error, and had to beexcommunicate d byPope John II . But this acceptance of Nestorianism was limited to only a comparatively small number of their members ("quibusdam paucis monachis", says a contemporary document), and it could not seriously detract from the praise, given their order, by the RomanSynod of484 : :"Thanks to your true piety towards God, to your zeal ever on the watch, and to a special gift of theHoly Ghost , you discern the just from the impious, the faithful from themiscreant s, theCatholic s from the heretics."Etymology
Greek "akoimetai", from:
*"a": privative or lack of what is needed for existence
*"koiman": to rest "Akoimetai" therefore means "without rest, unceasing".The term is sometimes used as an appellation for all Easternascetic s, known by the rigour of theirvigil s. Usually, however, the name is used for a special order of Greek or Basilian monks, devoting themselves to prayer and praise without intermission, day and night.ee also
*
Degrees of Eastern Orthodox monasticism
* StuditesReferences
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