STUDITES. – Greek monks of the ancient coenobium of Constantinople known as Studion (a strange name whose true form was definitively established by H. Delehaye in Anal. Bolland., 52 [1934], pp. 64-65): founded, it seems, around 462 by a former consul of Rome.
A STUDY WITH THE CHARACTER OF A CHAPEL AND SMALL CHURCH, a century later it housed the singing monks (v.).
Among the very numerous monasteries of the Byzantine capital at that time (Marelli counts 81 in Kalendarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae C., II, Rome 1788, p. 215), that of Studion stood out for its prestige, to the extent that its hegumen, in the public assemblies of the 8th century, occupied the first place after the bishops. The number of monks also favoured this distinction, since, greatly reduced in other monasteries during the iconoclastic persecutions, monks from everywhere gathered at Studion, better situated near the Golden Gate, as in an oasis of refuge. When around 800 the celebrated St THEODORE (v.) was elected hegumen, there were nearly 700 monks there, who during that period of ascetic flourishing under such guidance rose to a thousand. But more than the number of monks, it was the wise regulations of its true organiser and legislator, St Theodore, concerning psalmody, fasting, manual labour, obedience and hospitality, and especially the attached boarding school for young men preparing for the religious life and the cultivation of the arts and sciences, as well as the great library with its attached scriptorium for the transcription and composition of precious codices, that made Studion famous. The monks were not spared by the iconoclastic emperors, but they spread their civilisation into exile.
A new period of fluctuating fortunes opened for the monks when Constantinople was taken by the Latins (1204); this was followed by the total dispersal of the monastery as soon as the Turks occupied Byzantium (1453). Studion became the so-called “Cavalier’s Mosque” (Imbrahar-Digumi).
Among the most notable monks, mention should be made especially of those venerated in the Byzantine Church: PLATO, THEOPHANES, NICHOLAS, or even in the universal Church, such as the institute of 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 BRYENNIUS.
At the beginning of the 20th century there was a revival of the Studite monasticism among the Ruthenians, organised by Metropolitan ANDREW SHEPTYTSKY and later guided by his brother Count CASIMIR, who in religious profession took the name of CLEMENT. To the intense liturgical life and obedience, the legacy of ancient Studion, the new monks added assistance to orphans and peasants. A characteristic of the Order is the abolition of the ancient distinction between hieromonks, hierodeacons and simple religious; however, its priestly character is maintained. At present the Ruthenian monks of the various coenobia share in the painful vicissitudes of their lands.