Scepusio, Diocese of

SCEPUSIO, DIOCESI di – Cathedral of S. Martino, standing in the center of Spišská Kapitula (13th–14th centuries). At the rear, the castle of S. (13th century).

tion of asceterio: ἀπὸ τῆς ἀσκήσεως τῆς εὐσάβειας, that is, from the monks’ exercise in practices of piety: a true and great ἀσκητήριον, where the hermits devoted themselves to contemplation and penance.

Almost a continuation of the solitudes of Nitria, toward Libya, where penance reached the utmost rigor, the region of Σκήτη was designated by the name τῆς ἐρήμου τῆς ἐνδοτάτιο (the innermost solitude in the desert) and τῆς πανερήμου (= entire desert +), that is, a place of absolute desert, far from all human society. Therefore those monks were called skeitioti (σκητιῶται). V. LAURA.

Igino Cecchetti