Studites

STUDITES. - Greek monks of the ancient cenobium of Constantinople called Studion (an odd name, whose true form was definitively established by H. Delehaye in Anal. Bolland., 52 [1934], pp. 64-65): founded, it seems, around 462 by the former consul of Rome

Studion as a chapel and small church, it housed a century later the Acoemeti monks (v.).

Among the very numerous monasteries of the Byzantine capital at that time (Marelli counts 81 of them, Kalendarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae C., II, Rome 1788, p. 215), that of Studion stood out for its prominence, so much so that its hegumen, in the public assemblies of the 8th century, occupied the first place after the bishops. The number of the Studites also favored such distinction, since, greatly reduced in the other monasteries during the iconoclastic persecutions, monks from everywhere stopped at Studion, better situated near the Golden Gate, as in an oasis of refuge. When around 800 the famous St. Theodore (v.) was elected hegumen, nearly 700 Studites dwelt there, who during that period of ascetic flourishing under such a guide rose to as many as a thousand. But even more than the number of monks, Studion was made famous by the wise prescriptions of its true organizer and legislator St. Theodore, concerning psalmody, fasting, manual labor, obedience and hospitality, and especially the attached boarding school for boys who there prepared for the religious life and for the cultivation of the arts and sciences, as well as the great Library with the added workshop for the transcription and composition of precious codices. The Studites were not spared by the iconoclastic emperors, but they spread their civilization in exile.

A new period of alternating fortunes opened for the Studites when Constantinople was taken by the Latins (1204); this was followed by the total dispersion of the monastery as soon as the Turks occupied Byzantium (1453). Studion became the so-called mosque of the Cavalier (Imbrahar-Dgiumi).

Among the most distinguished Studites, mention must be made principally of the saints venerated in the Byzantine Church, Plato, Theophanes, Nicholas, or even in the universal Church, such as the founder Theodore, and not a few men of learning, such as his brother Joseph the Hymnographer and, after the schism, the writers Nicetas Pectoratus and Joseph Bryennios.

At the beginning of the 20th century there was a revival of Studite monasticism among the Ruthenians, organized by Metropolitan Andrew Szeptyckyj and then led by his brother Count Casimir, who in his religious profession took the name Clement. To the intense liturgical life and obedience, legacy of the ancient Studion, the new Studites added assistance to orphans and peasants. A characteristic of the Order is the abolition of the ancestral difference between hieromonks, hierodeacons and simple religious; the priestly character is, however, distinguished. At present the Ruthenian Studites of the various cenobia share in the most painful vicissitudes of their lands.

Emmanuele Candal