o All monks are pledged to the “angelic life,” meaning that they
make vows of celibacy, poverty, and obedience. Their life apart
enables them to cultivate both scholarship and a life of prayer
in a manner unavailable to the local clergy caught up in family
and pastoral concerns.o Because ordination to bishop or patriarch requires celibacy,
for the most part, leaders are drawn from the ranks of monks;
hence, the tradition carries a strongly monastic character:
Virtually all the great theologians and spiritual writers of the
Byzantine period were monks.• An impression of the popularity and prestige of monasticism can be
gained from the splendor of certain important centers and from the
sheer number of monastic sites in the Byzantine Empire.
o Among the most renowned monastic sites are Saint Catherine
on Mt. Sinai, founded by Justinian in the 6th century, and Mt.One of the most important manuscripts in the history of Christianity, dating to
the 4th century, was discovered at the monastery of Saint Catherine in the late
19 th century.
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