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[German Version] I. Western Churches – II. Orthodox Churches I. Western Churches …

[German Version] (c. 1020 – c. 1101) came from Asia Minor near Nicea and became a young monk on Mount Olympus there. In 1043, he became acquainted with the Cluniacensian reform (Cluny) in Rome. In a tumultuous and dangerous time, he lived in several monasteries on the Jordan, in the Anatolian Miletus, on Mount Latros, on the island of Cos, and in Thessalia. Finally, in 1088, he received the island of Patmos as a gift from emperor Alexios I, to found the Monastery…

[German Version] (born on Cyprus – c. 620, Cyprus), feast day Nov 12. John was married and had children, but after the death of all the members of his family he withdrew to asceticism and, in 610, became patriarch of Alexandria as John V. With him, the imperial church, unpopular in Egypt since the Schism, gained strength, particularly since Heraklios had become emperor and Sergius patriarch of Constantinople at the same time. John gained a reputation especially for his extraordinary benevolence – hence the epithet …

[German Version] Metéora Monasteries, named after the rock formations of Metéora in Greek Thessaly, which rise steeply like pillars above the Pineios Valley. Probably because of its safe and protected location, hermits began settling there from the 11th century, hiding on the steep rock pinnacles and in caves. The first written evidence is the mention of a Mother of God Monastery from 1336, referring to an originally loose community of hermits which, as a sect of Stagon, stood under the authority of a certain Protos. The organized life of a cenobitic monastery (Cenobites) begins with the Athonite hermit Athanasius (1302–1380); influenced by Hesychasm, he sought quietude and safety on the rock pinnacles. He gave Metéora its name. The fact that the Serbian-Byzantine prince and monk Joasaph (Uroš) became his successor and the community's second founder secured privileges, benefits, and rich gifts for the monasteries. As many as 24 monasteries, accessible only by rope ladders, prospered in spite of the Turkish conquest of 1393. At the beginning of the 15th century, Patriarch Euthymios II of Constantinople detached the Metéora monasteries from the jurisdiction of the local bishops, and Patriarch Jeremias I granted them ecclesial independence on the model of Athos in 1545. The cross-vaulted churches in Athonite style as well as their painted decorations almost all date to the 16th century. Several manuscripts were produced by the scriptoriums of this time. Six monasteries are currently still inhabited: the Holy Monastery of Great Metéoron: Church of th…

[German Version] (Gk) is a cloth on the altar on which plate and chalice are placed in the Orthodox liturgy for consecration. It is understood as a symbol of Christ's burial. The antimension was also originally an eileton with relics and a portrayal of the burial sewn in for use in celebrations of the Eucharist on unconsecrated altars. Today the eileton is used as a cover for the antimension. Martin Petzolt Bibliography S. Heitz, Mysterium der Anbetung, 1986, 359 A. Kallis, Liturgie, 1989, 88, 90, 251.

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[German Version] (Gk κομποσχοίνι/ komposchoíni, Russ. čëtki) is used in Orthodox churches when reciting the Prayer of the Heart (Heart, Prayer of the). It is intended to aid concentration and help keep count of repetitions, for instance during more intense exercises including bows or prostrations (metanies). A prayer cord is made from a twisted cotton cord, with 100, 50, 300, or 33 knots along its length, often with pearls set between. The two ends come together in a cross, with a tassel attached. The…

[German Version] Greek monasteries emerged in the 1st millennium ce mainly in Asia Minor, particularly in Cappadocia, Palestine, Egypt and Constantinople. The monasteries in modern-day Greece were founded from the 10th century onwards: Hosios Lukas (1st half of the 10th cent.), Athos (963), Daphni (11th cent., but dat…

[German Version] I. Catholic Church It seems that there was a synagogue tradition in antiquity of lay persons undertaking the reading in public worship of lessons other than those taken from the Gospels. From the early Middle Ages, readers were given clerical status (Clergy and laity), and assigned to one of the so-called minor orders at the preparatory stage before ordination of priests. Since the reordering of liturgical services by Paul VI’s apostolic decree Ministeria quaedam (Aug 15, 1972), readers are assigned to the laity (as they were orig.), the office of reader still being restricted to me…

[German Version] Philotheus was the hēgoumenos (“superior”; Monasticism: III) of the monastery of the burning bush (Sinai, St. Catherine’s monastery), though not a bishop. Local tradition dates him to the 9th century; in any case he probably lived before 1100. As a spiritual disciple of John Climacus informed by Sinaitic Hesychasm, he wrote on monastic spirituality and achieved great renown. His 40 νηπτικὰ κεφάλαια/ nēptiká kephálaia (“chapters on sobriety”) were inc…

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[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Sociology – VI. Systematic Theology – VII. Law – VIII. Practical Theology – IX. Judaism – X. Islam I. Religious Studies The term marriage denotes a relationship entered into between two or more persons of different sex, ritually formalized, intended to be permanent, and recognized by society. In all cultures, definitions of economic and sexual rights and the conveyance of social status to children (Child/Childhood) are part of the socially ¶ defined framework of marriage…

[German Version] I. Ptolemaic Period – II. Ancient Judaism – III. Early Church – IV. Patriarchate I. Ptolemaic Period Egypt. Rhakotis, Arab. Iskandariya, on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, established 332/31 bce by Alexander the Great west …

[German Version] (Gk) is a large cloth, embroidered with the burial of Christ, as an icon. In the Orthdox Good Friday vespers, the epitaphios is displayed for veneration in the middle of the church on a table, a symbolic grave decorated with flowers. In the evening service of mourning, it is borne around the church in a procession and in some places also through the streets. During the Easter season, it…

[German Version] I. History and Signifiance – II. The Jugendbewegung and the Protestant Church – III. The Catholic Jugendbewegung – IV. Young Wo…

[German Version] one of the Princes' islands in the Marmara Sea opposite Istanbul (Constantinople). With the establishment of Chalki Theological College in Holy Trinity monastery in 1844, Chalki became an important training center for monks, bishops and professors. In 1971 the Turkish state closed the accommodation, the grammar school and the theological college, which through its guest students had in the meantime become a place of ecumenical en…

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[German Version] was the author of a Sinai story, probably from the end of the 4th century. In this autobiography, which reads like fiction, with detailed topographical references, he tells how he and his son became monks on Moses’ mountain, and fell under Saracen attack. Since Nilus of Ancyra (end of 4th cent. – c. 430) in a letter ( Ep. IV 62) reports a similar event in a eulogy of St. Platon, the two have been identified as one and the same person, and this monk from Galatia was wrongly named “Sinaites.” In his monastic and exegetical writings, Nilus …

[German Version] I. Catholic – II. Orthodox I. Catholic 1. General Introduction and History The binding nature of its basic elements (Scripture reading, the breaking of bread [Eucharist/Communion]) notwithstanding, the liturgy was initially celebrated quite freely with improvised prayers by the presiding priest (Just. 1 Apol. 67). Later on, model texts (Hipp., Traditio Apostolica ) served as points of reference. From the 4th century onwards, the major ecclesiastical centers (Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, Jerusalem, Byzantium…

[German Version] (1714, Central Greece – Aug 24, 1779, Epirus), a saint in the Greek Orthodox Church, “teacher of the nation,” “apostle-equal,” and “neo-martyr,” whose feast day is August 24. He studied in Sigditsa and the Athos School, and became a monk in the Athos monastery of Philotheou with the name Cosmas (baptismal name: Constas). He was ordained to priesthood in 1759. With the permission of the monastery, he went to Constantinople, taught at the Patriarch…