Monastic Typikon 2014

HOLY RESURRECTION
MONASTERY
MONASTIC TYPIKON
HOLY RESURRECTION MONASTERY
300 S 2nd Ave
Saint Nazianz, WI 54232
May 2014
4 MONASTIC TYPIKON OF HOLY RESURRECTION
Contents
Reference to Canons...............................................................................................................................7
Title I: Basic Principles...............................................................7
Patronage............................................................................................................................................... 8
Title II: Legal Identity.................................................................9

Chapter 1 Identity in Canon Law..............................................................................9
Chapter 2 Identity in Civil Law................................................................................. 9
Title III: The Role and Purpose of Monastic Life..................9
Title IV: The Vows ....................................................................11

Chapter 1 Consecration ............................................................................................11
Chapter 2 Obedience ................................................................................................ 11
Practical Norms ..................................................................................................................................12
Chapter 3 Chastity .................................................................................................... 12
Practical norms ...................................................................................................................................13
Chapter 4 Poverty ..................................................................................................... 13
Practical norms ...................................................................................................................................14
The Monastery’s Goods ...................................................................................................................... 14
Title V: Church Hierarchy .......................................................15

Chapter 1 Eparchial Bishop .....................................................................................15
Specific Rights and Obligations of Eparchial Bishop ......................................................................... 15
Hegumen .............................................................................................................................................15
Monks in Holy Orders ........................................................................................................................16
Monastic Profession ............................................................................................................................16
Privileged Communications ............................................................................................................... 16
Role of the Monastery in the Eparchy ................................................................................................ 16
Chapter 2 Metropolitan ............................................................................................16
Chapter 3 The Apostolic See ................................................................................... 17
Title VI: Superiors and Offices in the Monastery ...............17

Chapter 1 Hegumen ................................................................................................. 17
Father of the Monastery ......................................................................................................................17
Legal Status ........................................................................................................................................ 17
Specific Rights and Responsibilities ................................................................................................... 18
Admission of New Monks ...................................................................................................................18
TABLE OF CONTENTS 5
Promotion to Holy Orders ..................................................................................................................19
Election by Synaxis .............................................................................................................................19
Resignation or Removal ......................................................................................................................19
Chapter 2 Spiritual Fathers ......................................................................................19
Chapter 3 Other Offices ........................................................................................... 20
Protos .................................................................................................................................................. 20
Economos ............................................................................................................................................20
Ecclesiarch ...........................................................................................................................................21
Cantors ................................................................................................................................................21
Other ...................................................................................................................................................21
Chapter 4 Council and Synaxis ...............................................................................21
Synaxis ................................................................................................................................................22
Council ................................................................................................................................................22
Voting ................................................................................................................................................. 23
Title VII Admission to the Monastery ..................................23

Chapter 1 Discernment Process .............................................................................. 23
Chapter 2 Observership ...........................................................................................23
Chapter 3 Admission as Postulant ......................................................................... 24
Appointment of a personal spiritual father .........................................................................................24
Chapter 4 Application to Join the Monastery .......................................................24
Men who are canonically ineligible to be monks ................................................................................ 24
Documents Required .......................................................................................................................... 25
Chapter 5 Admission as a Novice .......................................................................... 25
Length of Novitiate .............................................................................................................................26
Chapter 6 Leaving the Monastery while in Formation ....................................... 26
Chapter 7 Formation of Novices and Postulants ................................................. 26
Formation Master ............................................................................................................................... 26
Spiritual Father ...................................................................................................................................27
Financial Arrangements .....................................................................................................................27
Chapter 8 Final Profession to the Monastic State .................................................27
The three degrees .................................................................................................................................28
Title VII: Details of the Life ....................................................28

Chapter 1 Limitations on Growth .......................................................................... 28
Chapter 2 Liturgical and Prayer Life ..................................................................... 28
Chapter 3 Silence & Private Prayer ........................................................................30
Distractions ........................................................................................................................................ 30
Chapter 4 Community Life ......................................................................................30
Chapter 5 External Signs of the Monk ................................................................... 31
Habit of a Novice ................................................................................................................................ 31
Lesser Schema ..................................................................................................................................... 31
Great Schema ...................................................................................................................................... 31
6 MONASTIC TYPIKON OF HOLY RESURRECTION
Wearing the Habit .............................................................................................................................. 32
Beard ................................................................................................................................................... 32
Forms of Address and Signature ........................................................................................................ 32
Monastic name ....................................................................................................................................32
Chapter 6 Fasting ......................................................................................................32
Chapter 7 The Kitchen and Trapeza ...................................................................... 35
Chapter 8 Meals ........................................................................................................ 35
Chapter 9 Work .........................................................................................................35
Chapter 10 Debts .......................................................................................................36
Chapter 11 Hospitality .............................................................................................36
Almsgiving ......................................................................................................................................... 36
Chapter 12 Study .......................................................................................................37
Formal education ................................................................................................................................ 37
Chapter 13 Going outside the Monastery ............................................................. 37
Chapter 14 Penalties and sanctions ........................................................................37
Chapter 15 Precedence in the Monastery ..............................................................37
Chapter 16 Interpreting the Typikon .....................................................................38
Title IX: Death of a Monk ........................................................38
Title X: Exclaustration and Leaving the Monastery ...........39

Chapter 1 Transfer to Another Monastery ............................................................39
Chapter 2 Voluntary leaving ...................................................................................39
Chapter 3 Dismissal ..................................................................................................40
Title XI: Eremitic Life ...............................................................40
Title XII: Other Monasteries ...................................................41

Chapter 1 Metochia ...................................................................................................41
Chapter 2 Federation ................................................................................................41
Title XIII The Idiorhythmic Monk ........................................41
Title XIV Lay Association ........................................................43

Endnotes .....................................................................................................................44
TITLE I: BASIC PRINCIPLES 7
Master give the blessing! In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
This is the monastic Typikon written by the brotherhood of Holy Resurrection Monastery.
It sets out, to the best of our ability, the kind of life we wish to live under God and for His
glory, including some important practical norms for this purpose. It replaces the
“Provisional Typ- ikon” approved on August 4th, 1995 by Kyr George (Kuzma), Eparchial
Bishop of Van Nuys of the Ruthenians and the Monastic Typikon approved by the latter in
2000.
Reference to Canons
Unless otherwise stated, all references to Canons in this Typikon are to the Codex Canonum
Ecclesiarum Orientaliam, (Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, or CCEO) promulgated
18 October, 1990 by His Holiness, John Paul II, Pope of Rome.
Title I
Basic Principles
§1 Holy Resurrection Monastery is a monastic community of men dedicated to the tradi-
tional monastic life of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.
§2 The brotherhood of Holy Resurrection Monastery exists for the salvation of its members
by living in common the evangelic life: the renouncing of sin and sinful passions in favor of
the Kingdom of the Father revealed in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit poured forth in the
Church. To this end, the monks:
a. profess the vows of obedience, chastity and

poverty,
b. serve together the Divine Praises, Divine Liturgy and other liturgical services of the
Byz- antine Church,
c. strive for ceaseless prayer and for the perfection of the Gospel by constant repentance
(metanoia), the practice of virtues (praxis) and seeking the gift of divine contemplation
(theoria),
d. practice hospitality as far as they can toward all

visitors,
e. minister, insofar as they are able, to the spiritual and temporal needs of all who ask
their help, and
f. support this lifestyle as far as possible by the labor of their hands.
§3 In living this vocation, the monks of Holy Resurrection Monastery also serve the whole
Church by their prayers and by providing a model of living the Gospel. Many times the
Church’s saints and pastors have emphasized the importance of the monastic witness for
the whole Church. Canon 410 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, states that
monasticism:
8 MONASTIC TYPIKON OF HOLY RESURRECTION MONASTERY
“... is a stable mode of common life in an institute approved by the Church, in which
the
Christian faithful, by closer following Christ, the teacher and examplar of holiness, un-
der the action of the Holy Spirit, totally dedicate themselves by a new and special title
through public vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, observed according to the
norms
of the statutes under a lawful superior, they renounce the world and totally dedicate
themselves to the acquisition of perfect charity in service to the Kingdom of God for
the
building up of the Church and the salvation of the world as a sign of the foretelling of
heavenly glory.”1
Patronage
§4 The Monastery is dedicated to the Holy Resurrection of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
§5 The principal feast of the Monastery is September 13th, the Commemoration of the Re-
dedication of the Church of the Holy Resurrection in Jerusalem in the Year of our Lord,
335.
§6 The second feast of the Monastery is that of the All-Holy Mother of God, Searcher for
the Lost, to which the main altar of the Monastery Katholikon is dedicated. We observe this
feast on February 5th, but by leave of our Bishop we celebrate the main observance of this
feast annually on the date appointed each year for the main public pilgrim- age to the
Monastery.
§7 The other feast days to be observed as feasts of the Monastery (ie. with the celebration
of a Vigil) are to include:
a. in Great Lent, the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt,
b. the commemorations of all saints and other feasts to which any Altar is dedicated in a
Temple within the Monastery;
c. December 6th, our holy Father among the Saints, Nicholas the Wonderworker,
Arch- bishop of Myra in Lycia, patron of the Byzantine Catholic Church;
d. December 12th, the Feast of the Appearance of the Mother of God at Guadalupe in
Mexico, patroness of the Americas;
e. the Name Days of the ruling Metropolitan, Bishop and Hegumen.
§8 DELETED.
TITLE III: ROLE & PURPOSE OF MONASTIC LIFE 9
Title II
Legal Identity
Chapter 1
Identity in Canon Law
§9 Holy Resurrection Monastery is subject to the Eparchy of St. George in Canton for
Romanian Catholics.
§10 As such, the monks are members of the Romanian Greek Catholc Church sui iuris and
in union with the Pope of Rome.
§11Holy Resurrection Monastery is a monastery of eparchial

right.
§12 Holy Resurrection Monastery is a juridic person with full capacity to acquire, posses,
administer or alienate temporal property subject to canon law, Eparchial particular law,
civil law and this Typikon.
Chapter 2
Identity in Civil Law
§13 A nonprofit corporation, Holy Resurrection Community, has been established accord-
ing to the laws of California and the United States. The corporation is the servant of the
Monastery and enables it to function as a legal person under the prevailing civil law.
§14 Copies of the Articles of Incorporation, By-laws and other corporate records required
by civil law shall be kept by the Hegumen of the Monastery who shall send them to the
Eparchial Bishop and make them available to all other competent authorities on request.
Title III
The Role and Purpose of Monastic Life
§15 Christ tells us, “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”2 To the rich young
man, He says: “if you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to
the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”3
§16 It was this Gospel that St. Antony of Egypt heard read in the church and which, in a
single instant, changed his life as “the blessed man received the word of the Gospel as a
sign to himself”4. So too have countless other men and women taken up the struggle for
personal perfection, so that they might find heaven even now in this earthly life. The
Eastern Churches have always called monasticism the ‘angelic life’, for in it men and
women may begin to take up their eternal destiny of unending participation in the life and
glory of the All-Holy Trinity. Archimandrite Aemilianos writes that,
“for the monk the monastery is the place of his crucifixion and burial, the unique place
where he can live out heaven on earth—for every monastery is, in itself, the New
Jerusa- lem, ‘coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God’ (Rev.
21:10–11).”5
§17 The monks of Holy Resurrection Monastery, then, are above all else, patients of the
physician Christ, “Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit, Who
crowns you with his steadfast love and mercy....”6 Every monk is to be absolutely
committed to the perfection available to him through faith in Christ by the power of his
holy Church.
§18 In the Christian East, and especially in the traditions of the Byzantine Church, monas-
ticism is seen not merely as one kind of ‘vocation’ among many in the Church. Rather, the
‘angelic life’ is seen to be a distillation of all that is most important in the life of the Gospel.
It is what His Holiness Pope John Paul II calls, “the very soul of the Eastern Churches”. It
is viewed not as a “separate condition, proper to a precise category of Christians, but
rather a reference point for all the baptized...a symbolic synthesis of Christianity.”7
§19 Byzantine monasticism has thus a paradigmatic quality. It draws its inspiration from
other historical paradigms of Gospel living: the ideal Church community of Acts8, and the
self-emptying witness of Christ, the martyrs and confessors. Together with these, the
monastic order stands in the place of the prophets, pointing always away from the
secular, away from the world. It is a sign of the reality of the Kingdom which is already
enjoyed by the saints but is yet to be realized on earth in its fullness. The Church pours out
her mystical life in the praise, worship and unsleeping vigilance of her monastic order. In
turn, monastics, “remind the Church, by [their] very existence in her bosom, of her
primary contemplative dimension....”9
§20 Yet in monasticism the Church does not merely venerate a passive image of herself.
She actually derives many tangible benefits from the incarnation of the monastic ideal in
her historical life. Foremost among these, of course, is that all Christians are upheld and
strength- ened by the constant intercessions of monks and nuns. Byzantine lay people have
traditionally flocked to monasteries to participate in the liturgical life and seek spiritual
counsel. In so many ways, Eastern monasticism in all its forms—even the most eremitic—
proves true the statement of Evagrius of Pontus that, “the monk is he who is separated
from all and united to all.”10
§21 Finally, Eastern monasticism is passionately concerned with the Church’s

ecumenical dynamism. As a “symbolic synthesis” of the Church, monastic life shares that
drive toward unity that marks all authentic elements of the Body of Christ.11 As Pope John
Paul II puts it: “To believe in Christ means to desire unity; to desire unity means to desire
the Church; to desire the Church means to desire the communion of grace which
corresponds to the Father’s plan from all eternity.”12
§22 Obviously prayer must be the monk’s primary contribution to the realization of genu-
ine ecumenism. But, just as every other aspect of his life (labors, recreation,
correspondence, preaching) must radiate all that is true and good about the life in Christ,
so must the monk’s life reveal the unity that lies at the heart of the Church, and which
she is ever straining to realize in history.
TITLE IV: THE VOWS 11
Title IV
The Vows
Chapter 1
Consecration
§23 Canon 462 states: “The monastic state is definitively assumed with perpetual profes-
sion, which includes the three perpetual vows of obedience, chastity and poverty.”
§24 The Eastern Churches emphasize the sacramental nature of monastic consecration. In
fact many Byzantine writers, including St. Theodore the Studite and St. Nicholas Cabasilas,
include monastic tonsure among the major sacraments.13 Perhaps it is enough to say that
in Byzantine theology the distinction between sacraments and sacramentals is not greatly
emphasized. Our tradition sees in every sacred and holy act a direct and forceful
encounter between man and God’s uncreated Energies.
§25 For this reason the induction into Eastern monastic life may also be called a kind of
consecration. When one speaks of a consecrated monk, one is emphasizing the operation of
grace. One means that the monk has been set aside for a life of holiness. What is
emphasized is God’s mysterious and active presence.
§26 The monastic profession is a kind of synergia, a cooperative effort between God and
the monk. God calls, and consecrates by the outpouring of his uncreated Energies. The
monk freely chooses to conform to the Divine Will, and accepts the call to participate in the
process of his divinization by grace. In this way is traced in monastic life an icon of the
entire sacred economy, all the sacred movement of theosis.
§27 The Rites of Monastic Tonsure are taken from the service books.14 Each monk
will receive a copy of the services for his cell and should often return to them and ponder
them in his prayer.
Chapter 2
Obedience
§28 Voluntary obedience reveals the true nature of freedom in Christ, the freedom of
“sonship” as opposed to the slavery of death.15 Obedience is trust in the plan of God. It is
faith and hope and love realized in the daily grind of life. Obedience is the key to
understand- ing all the vows, indeed all the monastic life, for it is the means by which
everything we do is oriented to the will of God. Obedience is the death of your own will,
but the resurrection of humility, 16 for it is to the humble of heart that the Kingdom of God
belongs.17
§29 The sin of Adam and Eve was that of disobedience. Authentic obedience is thus based
on the fundamental reality of inequality between the monk and God, a relationship embod-
ied in an iconic way between the monk and the Hegumen and again between the spiritual
son and the spiritual father. Against the false individualism of the secular world, we monks
assert our absolute dependence on the Lord, that dependence which is true freedom in
love.
§30 If disobedience was the first sin, the primary effect of that sin was to make man hide
from God.18 Nothing is so incompatible with true obedience as secrecy. An absolute
condition for the monastic life is therefore openness in all things with the Hegumen and
the spiritual father. “Mention to your abba the thought that lingers with you and makes
war upon you, and he will heal you through God.”19
§31 In the first place, every monk is under obedience to the Hegumen, who in turn is
answerable for every monk before the Throne of Judgment. Subject to law, this obedience
is absolute, and just as absolute is the rule of charity with which the Hegumen must
exercise it. Indeed, Christian love—which is a virtue, not an emotion—must always be the
foundation of the relationship from which obedience flows. As St. Maximos the Confessor
teaches:
“...the one who has observed a commandment out of obedience has both fulfilled righ-
teousness and has also preserved unbroken the union of love with the giver of the
com- mandments. But the one who out of disobedience transgresses a commandment
has both committed sin and separated himself as well from loving union...”20
§32 Secondarily, every monk is obedient to the community. He gives freely of his whole
time, energy, enthusiasm and talents to the building up of the spiritual and material well
being of the brotherhood.
Practical Norms
§33 All tasks and responsibilities in the monastery are referred to as

“obediences.”
§34 Obedience which is grudging or temporary is pointless. It is simply laying the “bur-
den on your own shoulders” as St. John Climacus teaches, instead of freeing yourself by
obedience. The perfect model here is that of the All-holy Mother of God.21 She was not shy
in asking even the archangel to explain God’s will, but this was far from the protest for
which Zechariah was struck dumb.
Chapter 3
Chastity
§35 A defining mark of the monk is that he lives without a spouse, foregoing wife and
children for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.22 From this fact comes the very name by
which we call ourselves: “monk”, from the Greek, monachos, one who is alone.
§36 Monastic chastity is an icon of the eschaton. “In heaven they neither marry nor are
given in marriage.”23 As Pope John Paul II puts it:
“As a living sign of this [eschatological] expectation, the monk continues and brings to
fulfillment in the liturgy the invocation of the Church, the Bride who implores the
Bridegroom’s return in a maranatha constantly repeated, not only in words, but with
the whole of his life.”24
§37 Monks are called to be alone. But this is not the same thing as loneliness, and even
less
is it emptiness. It is the aloneness of the martyrs, “robed in white with palm branches in
their hands.”25 It is an aloneness of the personal witness before God that moves always
toward its fulfillment in the koinonia of the multitude of saints gathered before his
Throne.26
§38 It follows that we should always think of chastity in connection with our liturgical
life. In the Church’s worship we enter, body, soul and spirit into the reality of the Father’s
King- dom. Divorced from the liturgy neither chastity, nor indeed poverty and
obedience, make any sense. The participation of the whole person in the Trinity’s sacred
life, which is antici- pated in the monk’s consecration and ascetic struggle, finds its end
and fulfillment in the sacramental world that the Holy Spirit opens for him in the
Church. Chastity, therefore, is possible only through participation in the Church’s worship
by which every sense, whether physical or spiritual is fed and embraced.
§39 Genuine chastity is the abundance of life in Christ.27 “To be chaste, is to put on the
nature of an angel.”28 “Like someone who very avidly goes after money, so afire with
desire and love should a person be in pursuit of chastity.”29 The monk should never fear
that chastity will make him grow cold, aloof, numb. St. Gregory the Theologian says: “to
others I leave the perfect mastery of the body, which they practice without love of God.
This is not what I call chastity.”30 And if we love God we must love one another, “for
those who say, ‘I love God’, but hate their brothers, are liars.”31
Practical norms
§40 The Hegumen is to ensure that the monk’s sleeping quarters are kept private, espe-
cially from women. The boundaries of the enclosure must be clearly marked. These private
areas are closed to guests (cf. Canon 477).
§41 No monk may stay outside the Monastery without express permission.
Chapter 4
Poverty
§42 Monastic poverty is primarily an inner renunciation of all created things, a preference
for the Creator over creatures. This must be expressed through external commitment to a
life free of material possessions and bodily vanity. As St. Basil the Great teaches:
“Perfect renunciation, therefore, consists in not having an affection for this life and
keeping before our minds the ‘answer of death, that we should not trust in
ourselves.’[32] But a beginning is made by detaching oneself from all external goods:
property, vainglory, life in society, useless desires, after the example of the Lord’s holy
disciples, James and John, who left their father Zebedee and the very boat upon which
their whole livelihood depended.”33
§43 In the desert wilderness the Israelites went hungry, yet still they gave way to anger
and impatience, even idolatry. This is not the poverty for which we strive. Rather we look
for the grace to live the kind of poverty Christ praised in the Beatitudes: poverty of spirit,
mourn- ful, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, pure, peacemaking, long suffering
and child- like.
“Let us not imitate the merciless rich man who was thrown into the eternal fires.
Rather, let us imitate the patience of Lazarus in his misery, so that Jesus may in turn
comfort us and make us partakers of the kingdom of heaven.”34
Practical norms
§44 All goods belonging to the Monastery are held in common.
§45 The canonical obligation to dispose of all worldly goods arises upon perpetual profes-
sion. At some time within the sixty days prior to the day on which a novice-monk is due to
be professed, he must renounce his property in favor of whomever he pleases, be it the
Monas- tery, his family, the poor, or for any other admirable purpose (cf. Canon 467 §1).
§46 As soon as the perpetual profession has taken place (but not before) this renunciation
must be made effective according to civil law (Canon 467 §2).
§47 If any property accrues to a perpetually professed monk it automatically becomes, by

virtue of canon law, the property of the Monastery. The monk concerned is to do all
things necessary to give effect to this obligation under civil law (Canon 468 §1).
§48 Postulants and novices are not to renounce their property earlier than specified in this
Typikon. Any attempt to do so is canonically invalid (Canon 467 §1). While in the
Monastery, these individuals should entrust the management of their goods to trusted
family or friends in the world. Any cash or other valuables they bring with them to the
Monastery must be lodged with the Hegumen, who is to ensure their safe keeping. They
are to be returned to their owner if he leaves the Monastery.
The Monastery’s Goods
§49 The Monastery is to provide adequate food, shelter, clothing and health care for the
monk, and to supply such other reasonable needs as it can. Fructification of monies belong
to the Monastery and not the individual (cf. Canon 421).
§50 The Hegumen is to ensure that the community eschews luxury. There is no place for
ostentation or excess in anything owned by the Monastery, especially as regards what
the monks eat and wear and how they live and travel. Always we are to live the spirit of
poverty so often taught by the fathers:
“Just as we have said concerning food and beverages that it is good to select the simple
and unexcessive and to do everything in keeping with the counsel of the spiritual
superior; [so too] have the clothing that is necessary, simple, very mean, and
appropriate for the place and climate...”35
It follows that the monks’ cells are to be sparsely furnished with only the most necessary
goods: bed, desk, storage for clothes, holy icons for prayer and so on.
TITLE V: CHURCH HIERARCHY 15
Title V
Church Hierarchy
Chapter 1
Eparchial Bishop
§51 The Eparchial Bishop is revered as the father of all monks and nuns under his holy
omoforion. Like the Hegumen, his relationship with the monks is governed above all by his
place as their father.
§52 It is the Bishop’s right to celebrate the Divine Liturgy and other services in the Monas-
tery church.
Specific Rights and Obligations of Eparchial Bishop
§53 The Eparchial Bishop has those rights and obligations set out in Canon Law. Among
the most important are:
a. To preside at the Synaxis of election of the Hegumen in person or through a delegate

(Canon 443 §1);
b. To grant dispensations beyond the capacity of the Hegumen (Canon 414

§1);
c. To approve changes in the Typikon (Canon 414

§1);
d. To make canonical visitations as provided for in Canons 414 §1 and

§2;
e. To regulate the public liturgical worship of the Monastery (Canon 415

§1);
f. To regulate the catechetical instruction of the faithful undertaken in the Monastery and
by its monks (Canon 415 §1)—this includes the right to require the Hegumen to
organize the catechetical instruction referred to in Canon 479;
g. To receive from the Hegumen every five years a report on the state of the Monastery in
accordance with Canon 419 §1.
§54 According to canons 1007–1054 the Eparchial Bishop is not responsible for the finan-
cial or other temporal needs of the Monastery.
Hegumen
§55 Should the Bishop be absent, the Hegumen shall forthwith inform the Eparchial
Bishop of his election. The Bishop’s consent is not needed, however, for the validity of the
election (Canon 443). The same applies to the resignation of the Hegumen (Canon 443 §3).
§56 Without prejudice to the foregoing, only the Eparchial Bishop, or some other delegated
hierarch, may perform the ritual blessing of the Hegumen set out in the liturgical books.
Monks in Holy Orders
§57 Only the Eparchial Bishop, or with his consent some other hierarch, may ordain to the
sacred diaconate or priesthood those monks proposed by the Hegumen for such orders.
Monastic Profession
§58 The Hegumen shall inform the Eparchial Bishop of the admission of brothers to the
novitiate and subsequent stages of monastic consecration. Likewise shall the Bishop be in-
formed of such monks as the Hegumen properly ordains as readers and sub-deacons for
the Monastery’s churches.
§59 It is the right of the Eparchial Bishop to tonsure monks and clothe them in the habit,
even when the Hegumen is present.
Privileged Communications
§60 Those letters written by monks to the Eparchial Bishop, and also to the Apostolic See
and its representatives, are not subject to inspection by anyone but the recipient (Canon
429).
Monastery sui juris
§61 The Eparchial Bishop may not require anything of the Monastery or its members that
the Hegumen deems to be detrimental to the Monastery, apart from those matters
expressly provided for in this Typikon or in Canon Law. This includes, without
limitation, requiring monks to engage in pastoral work in parishes without the consent of
the Hegumen (cf. Canon 415 §3).
Role of the Monastery in the Eparchy
§62 The Monastery is intended to be a spiritual center for the Eparchy, and indeed for the
entire Byzantine Catholic Church. To the best of their ability the monks should provide a
facility for retreats—especially for priests, other clerics and monastics. In addition, the
Mon- astery should strive to provide host pilgrimages, at least annually.
Chapter 2
Major
Archbishop
§63 Under the omoforion of the Eparch of Van Nuys, we are in communion with the head of
our particular Church sui juris, the Major Archbishop and Metropolitan of Glaj. We are
therefore inserted into, and become a part of, the history of this particular Church and
participate in a heritage now firmly rooted in America.
TITLE VI: SUPERIORS AND OFFICERS 17
§64 The monks revere the Major Archbishop as a father and as head of our Church.
§65 In all liturgical celebrations at the Monastery the Hegumen defers to the Major
Archbishop, as he does to the Eparchial Bishop.
Chapter 3
The Apostolic See
§66 Through the bonds of hierarchical communion between our Bishop and Metropolitan,
we are also in blessed communion with the Bishop of Rome and thus with the entire
Catholic Church.
§67 The monks revere the Pope as their father and superior in all things. They are
obedient to him by virtue of their monastic vows (Canon 412 §1). Communications
between each individual monk and the Apostolic See are privileged (see Canon 429).
§68 Only the Apostolic See can suppress the Monastery (canon 438
§2).
§69 The Hegumen must send to the Apostolic See a copy of each five-yearly report on the
state of the Monastery prepared for the Eparchial Bishop (Canon 419 §2).
Title VI
Superiors and Offices in the Monastery
Chapter 1
Hegumen
Father of the Monastery
§70 The Hegumen stands among the brothers in the place of Christ in accordance with the
ancient monastic tradition, and to him the monks owe their voluntary obedience as sons.
Legal Status
§71 The Hegumen is responsible for all the activities of the Monastery. All other officers
act as his delegates, even where they are elected by the brothers.
§72 The Hegumen is the chief executive officer of the Monastery and supervises the
affairs of the Monastery. He shall perform all duties incident to his office and such other
duties as may be required by civil and canon law and by the Typikon.
§73 Except as otherwise expressly provided by civil and canon law or by the Typikon, he
shall, in the name of the Monastery, execute any documents as may be approved by him. In
certain cases this approval requires the consent of the Eparchial Bishop, the Synaxis and/or
the Council: see articles 100 and 102 below.
Specific Rights and Responsibilities
§74 Among the Hegumen’s most important rights and responsibilities are the following.
a. He must care for the spiritual, mental and physical well being of the brotherhood of
the Monastery and “by example and exhortation” help the brothers pursue the
purpose of the monastic state, and to “make suitable provision for [the monks’]
personal needs, to care zealously for the sick and to visit them, to reprove the unruly,
to console the faint- hearted, and to be patient towards all” (Canon 421).
b. He must see that each monk has a personal spiritual father (pneumaticos) with due
regard to canon 734 §2.
c. Ideally the Hegumen should be a priest. It best reflects his spiritual fatherhood of the
Monastery when he can himself provide it with the Sacred Mysteries. If the Hegumen
is not already a priest when elected, he is encouraged to approach the Eparchial Bishop
for ordination. If he elects not to seek ordination, he must request the Bishop for the
appointment of the necessary priests to serve the sacramental needs of the
Monastery (Canon 475 §2).
d. He must appoint the other monastic officials, and to convene the Council and the
Synaxis as provided for in this Typikon or in Canon Law.
e. Each year on the Feast of the Indiction (September 1st), or at any other time as
necessary, he must assign to each monk his regular obedience.
f. He must administer and dispose of the Monastery’s temporal property, subject to the
obligation to seek the advice or consent of the Eparchial Bishop, Council and/or
Synaxis as provided in this Typikon.
g. He must reside at all times in the Monastery, and not be absent from it except
when necessary. For absences of longer than three days, the Hegumen must first seek
the advice of the Council (cf. Canon 446).
h. He must determine, with the consent of his Council, what areas of the Monastery are to
be kept private and which are to be public (Canon 477).
i. He must render a five-yearly report to the Eparchial Bishop and the Apostolic See on
the state of the Monastery.
j. He must keep the archives of the Monastery in good order.
Admission of New Monks
§75 Only the Hegumen may admit new monks, having followed the procedures set out
in the relevant section of this Typikon.
Promotion to Holy Orders
§76 It is for the Hegumen to determine, with the consent of the Council, when—and if—
monks should be submitted to the Eparchial Bishop for ordination to holy orders.
Election by Synaxis
§77 To be canonically eligible for election to be Hegumen, a monk must have been pro-
fessed at least ten years and be at least forty years old (Canon 442).
§78 The Hegumen shall be elected by the monks in the Synaxis whenever the office be-
comes vacant. The Bishop or his delegate will preside at the election of the Hegumen or, if
not, the Synaxis shall elect a president pro tempore. A simple majority is sufficient for
election, provided sufficient notice of the meeting has been given to all monks, and at least
two thirds of all eligible monks are present in the Synaxis.
§79 The Hegumen assumes office immediately upon accepting election from the Synaxis.
He should ask the Bishop’s blessing, though this is not necessary for the valid exercise of
his office.
Resignation or Removal
§80 Subject to the following articles, the Hegumen is elected without term.
§81 The Hegumen shall hold office until the earlier of the following:
a. his resignation to or deposition by a duly convened meeting of the Synaxis;

and
b. he reaches the age of seventy–five in accordance with Canon 444

§3.
§82 The Hegumen may be deposed for a grave reason by the Eparchial Bishop with the
consent of a two-thirds majority of the Synaxis.
Chapter 2
Spiritual Fathers
§83 A monk’s association with his spiritual father (pnevmaticos) is the central relationship
of his ascetic life. The authority of the spiritual father is charismatic and personal (though it
lacks the legal force of the Hegumen’s authority). Keep in mind what St. John Cassian says:
“Everything must be told openly to our elders. From them must come the cure of
injury and the example of a life lived in all faith. There will be help and profit there
for us, provided we do not undertake anything on our personal decision and
initiative.”36
§84 The monk should reflect often on God’s desire that we should be brought to Him
through the wisdom and example of our elders. Think of the prophet Samuel who told Eli
everything and hid from his elder nothing of his encounter with God,37 or of St. Paul
whose
conversion on the way to Damascus was sealed through the ministry of the elder
Ananias.38
§85 Scripture and the fathers also teach us the peril of trying to live this life without guid-
ance and help. As the Preacher says: “Two are better than one, because they have a good
reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone
and falls and does not have another to help.”39
§86 From postulancy, every monk is to have a spiritual father (cf. Canon 475 §1). The
Hegu- men may appoint himself as a spiritual father, especially while the community is
small and young, but with due regard to canon 734 §2.
§87 The spiritual father should be a member of the Monastery, or at least so closely associ-
ated with it that the monk will have regular contact with him, preferably daily. If possible,
the monk should be assigned a cell in close proximity to that of his elder.
§88 Ideally the relationship between the spiritual father and son is life-long. However, for
grave reasons, the Hegumen may, having consulted all persons involved, remove a monk
from the care of one elder and give him to another.
§89 There should be harmony between the Hegumen and the elders of the Monastery. For
the avoidance of doubt, however, even the spiritual father is under obedience to the Hegu-
men as the ultimate authority in the Monastery, just as in the Church the hierarchical
authority always judges the charismatic.
§90 The spiritual father may also be the principal confessor of his spiritual sons if he is a
priest. If not, the Hegumen must also ensure that each monk is able to avail himself of the
Mystery of Holy Confession regularly to a priest in the Monastery, with due regard to
the right of every monk to receive the holy Mystery from any priest with the necessary
faculty (Canon 474 §2).
Chapter 3
Other Offices
Protos
§91 The Hegumen may, with the consent of the Council, appoint a Protos (Vicar) who
acts as the Hegumen's deputy. The Protos has all the powers and duties of the Hegumen
in the absence of the Hegumen, subject to the direction (if any) of the Hegumen. He can be
removed from office at any time by the Hegumen, or by the Synaxis.
§92 Unless another is appointed to the position, the Protos also acts as secretary of the
Monastery, with special responsibility for the records, archives and official
correspondence under the Hegumen’s direction.
Economos
§93 The Economos is appointed for a three year term by the Hegumen, and acts as trea-
surer of the Monastery. The Economos is responsible for the administration of the
temporal property of the Monastery under the direction of the Hegumen. In particular, the
Economos shall:
a. Have charge and custody of, and be responsible for, all funds and securities of the
Mon- astery, and deposit all such funds in the name of the Monastery in such
banks, trust companies, or other depositories as shall be selected by the Hegumen in
consultation with the Council.
b. Receive, and give receipt for, monies due and payable to the Monastery from any
source whatsoever.
c. Disburse, or cause to be disbursed, the funds of the Monastery as directed by the

Hegu- men in accordance with this Typikon.
d. Keep and maintain adequate and correct accounts of the Monastery's properties and
business transactions, including accounts of its assets, liabilities, receipts,
disbursements, gains and losses.
e. Provide an annual financial report to the Synaxis and the Eparchial

Bishop.
Ecclesiarch
§94 The Ecclesiarch is responsible for the good running of the Church services under the
direction of the Hegumen. In particular he takes charge of the furnishings and linens in the
Church, and he should study and understand the Typikon and other service books as well
as the liturgical calendar to ensure that the services are properly celebrated.
Cantors
§95 The Cantor assists the Ecclesiarch, having special responsibility for the proper singing
of the Divine Liturgy and Praises. He should study especially the chant of the Carpatho-
Rusyn tradition and understand the directions of the service books with respect to the
proper execution of the liturgical chant.
§96 If the community is large enough, the right choir is led by the Protopsaltes, and the left
choir by the Lampadarios.
Other
§97 The Hegumen may appoint a brother to take charge of any aspect of Monastery life,
including guestmaster, secretary, archivist, librarian, cantor, cook or business manager.
Chapter 4
Council and Synaxis
§98 There are two governing bodies in the Monastery: the Synaxis and the
Council.
Synaxis
§99 The Synaxis consists of all monks who have made perpetual profession. Novices have
the right to attend and be heard, but not vote. This body may be convened by the Hegumen
at any time provided he gives sufficient notice to all monks. The quorum is two-thirds of
all voting monks, one of whom must be the Hegumen, or in his absence and with his
consent, the Protos. If at least two brothers petition the Hegumen for a meeting of the
Synaxis the Hegumen must convene it.
§100 The consent of the Synaxis is required for the

following:
a. election, resignation or deposition of the Hegumen (a two-thirds majority is required to

consent to the Hegumen’s deposition by the Eparchial Bishop—Article §82 of this Typ-
ikon),
b. the sale of the whole monastic property or the voluntary dissolution of the monastic
community, with the consent of the Eparchial Bishop.
c. any other matter for which consent is required by Canon

Law.
Council
§101 The Council consists of the Hegumen, Protos, Economos, Ecclesiarch, Formation Mas-
ter (if there is one), and as many other monks as the Hegumen appoints with the consent of
the Council. The Council may be convened by the Hegumen whenever required under this
Typikon or Canon Law or otherwise as he sees fit. The quorum is two-thirds of all
Councilors one of whom must be the Hegumen, or in his absence and with his consent, the
Protos.
§102 The consent of the Council and the approval of the Eparchial Bishop is required for
the Hegumen on the Monastery’s behalf for the following:
a. to buy, sell or mortgage real

property,
b. borrow substantial
monies,
c. establish a dependent house (metochion)
d. enter a monastic federation,
e. any other matter for which consent is required by Canon
Law. The consent of the Council only is also required for:

f. consecration of novices to the Lesser Habit,
g. the undertaking of the eremitic life by a

monk,
TITLE VII: ADMISSION OF MEMBERS 23
Voting
§103 In both the Synaxis and the Council a simple majority is sufficient, unless this
Typikon or Canon Law stipulate otherwise. In the event of a deadlock, the vote of the
Hegumen (or in his absence the Protos) is decisive. Votes are by show of hands, unless a
monk requests a secret ballot. In those cases where consent is required, an absolute
majority is necessary for validity (cf. canon 934).
Title VII
Admission to the Monastery
Chapter 1
Discernment Process
§104 The Hegumen should ensure that all inquirers are given information about the nature
and purpose of Byzantine monastic life and the details of that life as lived in our
Monastery. Some at least of this information should be given orally by the Hegumen or
another monk appointed by him.
§105 The inquirer should especially be given the opportunity of speaking to a spiritual fa-
ther during his visit(s) to the Monastery.
§106 During the preliminary visits, a vocation inquirer lives in the quarters set aside for
guests. He may, however, be admitted to the areas kept private for monks if the
Hegumen permits.
§107 Prospective vocations should be given a share in some aspect of the daily work of the
Monastery. They should be encouraged to participate in the Divine Services in the Kliros 40
with the monks, and should dine with the monks in the Trapeza. The extent to which they
participate in other aspects of the common life should be determined in each case by the
Hegumen.
Chapter 2
Observership
§108 If after a prolonged period of prayerful discernment, combined with several visits to
the Monastery, a prospective vocation still feels called to the life, he may—indeed he should
— come to the Monastery as an Observer.
§109 The period of observership should not be fewer than three weeks, and not more than
six. If an Observer cannot, for good reason, physically be present in the Monastery for so
many weeks taken contiguously, the Hegumen may allow a part-time observership for a
period determined at the beginning of the Observership by the Hegumen.
§110 An Observer participates as much as possible in all aspects of community life, except
those reserved to professed monks. In particular, he should, if possible, be given a cell in
the
monks’ quarters and should participate in their common work and recreation. He does not,
however, wear any part of the habit.
Chapter 3
Admission as Postulant
§111 The Hegumen may admit a candidate to live in the Monastery as a Postulant.
Postulancy can be seen as a trial period of living the monastic life. The postulancy usually
lasts six months, though it may be longer or shorter at the Hegumen’s discretion.
§112 The Postulant does not ordinarily wear any part of the
habit.
§113 On the other hand, the postulant should be serious in his commitment to the life of the
Monastery. He must attend the services, meals, classes and other elements of the common
life just as the other members of the community. He must be obedient to the Hegumen and
any other monk placed in authority over him by the Hegumen.
Appointment of a personal spiritual father
§114 Each Postulant must be assigned to the care of a spiritual father just as the other mem-
bers of the community (cf. Canon 449).
Chapter 4
Application to Join the Monastery
§115 We accept applications to join the Monastery only from men who have been first ad-
mitted as Postulants and have been under the care of the Hegumen or another experienced
monk (Canon 449).
§116 It is the Hegumen alone who determines the suitability of a canonically eligible candi-
date for admission to the novitiate, after consulting with the Council. The Hegumen is to
consider the candidate’s application in as timely manner as possible. In each case the candi-
date must be accepted or refused within thirty days of his formal application.
Men who are canonically ineligible to be monks
§117 Canon Law (viz. Canons 450–452) makes certain men ineligible for admission to the
novitiate:
a. non-Catholics;
b. members of other Catholic Churches sui juris except with the permission of the
Apostolic See;41
c. those who have been punished with canonical punishments;

d. those who are under imminent threat of a serious penalty on account of a crime of
which they are legitimately accused;
e. anyone under 18 years of age;
f. those induced by force, grave fear or fraud to enter the Monastery;
g. spouses, during a marriage;
h. those bound by a serious moral obligation to support children, parents or other family
members;
i. persons in vows to another religious institute, or clerics enrolled in an eparchy or dio-

cese, without the proper permission of the relevant Church authority.
Documents Required
§118 For the purpose of Canon 453 §3, the formal application ordinarily comprises the fol-
lowing:
a. a letter requesting admission to the Monastery, together with the reasons and outlining
those things which make the candidate suitable for the life;
b. the candidate’s Curriculum Vitae;
c. copies of certificates proving the candidate has received all the holy Mysteries of Initia-
tion (ie. Baptism, Chrismation and Holy Communion);
d. any other documentation necessary to show that the candidate is a member of the
Byzan- tine Catholic Church (ie. grant of a “change of rite” application, or document
showing reception into the Church);
e. a letter of recommendation from the candidate’s Pastor or other priest or religious ac-
ceptable to the Hegumen, and at least one other letter of recommendation from another
person who knows the candidate well;
f. all other information that would be relevant in considering the candidate’s application.
Physical and Psychological health
§119 As part of the application process, the Hegumen shall require a candidate to
undergo such physical and psychological testing as the Hegumen determines to be
necessary.
Chapter 5
Admission as a Novice
§120 A novice monk is one who has been accepted into the Monastery by the Hegumen
and
who has received the monastic tonsure and the novices’ habit as a sign of his commitment
to advance in monastic life (cf. Canon 455).
§121 The novitiate carries with it a serious moral obligation to remain in the Monastery,
although as a matter of Church law the novice is free to leave without formality.
Length of Novitiate
§122 The novitiate lasts three years (Canon 457 §1), subject to Canon 461 §2, which allows
for an extension of up to one year where there is doubt as to the suitability of the novice for
profession.
§123 The three years of the novitiate must be contiguous. An absence up to three months is
permitted, provided the time is made up. If not, the novitiate cannot validly be completed
(Canon 457 §2). The Hegumen may, however, allow the candidate to begin the novitiate
again.
Chapter 6
Leaving the Monastery while in Formation
§124 Observers, postulants and novices are, as a matter of law, free to leave the Monastery
at any time. The Hegumen may also dismiss them without being obliged to give a reason.
Chapter 7
Formation of Novices and Postulants
§125 The Hegumen will see to it that the novices and postulants are formed well
in:
a. the Holy Liturgy and Divine Praises, especially the structure of the offices and the
manner in which they are celebrated;
b. the history and customs of Byzantine monasticism, and of this Monastery in particular;
c. prayer and monastic spirituality handed down from the fathers of the Eastern
Churches;
d. Scripture, Church history, Apologetics, Ecclesiology, Soteriology and

Christology.
§126 The Hegumen must also ensure that each novice and postulant develops well spiritu-
ally, morally, physically, psychologically and emotionally (Canon 459 §1).
Formation Master
§127 The Hegumen may appoint an experienced monk to take charge of the day to day
formation and education of the novices and postulants (Canon 458). This monk must be
“dis- tinguished by prudence, charity, piety, knowledge and experience in the observance
of the monastic life, professed for at least ten years” (458 §1).
MONASTIC TYPIKON OF HOLY RESURRECTION MONASTERY
27
§128LIFE
The Formation Master need not be the personal spiritual father of the novice or nov-
ices, though this may be necessary as long as the community is small. His main duties are
the coordination of the novices’ training in the monastic life. This includes powers of
discipline as the Hegumen’s deputy over the novices. The Formation Master should see
the novices daily. He should monitor their progress closely, curing problems and rejoicing
in growth. It is the Formation Master who is primarily responsible to allocate the
physical and academic work of the novices, so as best to balance their formation.
§129 The Formation Master should be a member of the Council. He should report
frequently to the Hegumen and to the Council as to the progress of the novices as often as
required, at least monthly.
Spiritual Father
§130 In addition to the authority of the Hegumen and/or Formation Master the novice is
subject as are the other monks to the spiritual authority of a pnevmaticos.
Financial Arrangements
§131 Observers and Postulants must supply the necessary means of returning home.
Postu- lants especially are to lodge the amount required for safekeeping with the
Hegumen upon entering the Monastery. This money will be kept over until such time as
the man leaves the Monastery, or makes his perpetual profession, whichever is the earlier.
§132 The Monastery will assume responsibility to feed, clothe and house a monk upon his
tonsure as a novice. It will also assume responsibility for the medical care of the novice.
This obligation ends immediately the novice communicates in writing his intention of
leaving the Monastery, or upon the Hegumen informing him in writing of his dismissal
from the Monas- tery.
§133 No one may be received as a novice who has outstanding financial debts. Before a
person can be tonsured these debts must be discharged.
No employee
relationship
§134 At no time does there arise an employer/employee relationship between a prospec-

tive vocation or a professed monk and the Monastery, or the corporation which serves the
monastic community. If the Monastery chooses to give a monk, potential monk or former
monk any money or other benefit (such as payments for medical care, study or
transportation costs) it does so as a simple gratuity and without any obligation whatsoever.
The Hegumen must ensure that, so far as possible, all this is effected from the point of view
of the civil law.
Chapter 8
Final Profession to the Monastic State
§135 Upon the valid completion of the novitiate, a novice who freely wishes to advance,
and who is accepted by the Hegumen with the consent of the Council and the advice of the
novice’s spiritual father, is to be tonsured as a monk of the Lesser Habit according to the
traditional rite (to be properly adapted by the Hegumen from the Great Euchologion) and by
that act the person definitively assumes the monastic state with perpetual profession (Can-
ons 462–464).
The three degrees
§136 The first degree of the monastic life is the novitiate. Following this, there are two de-
grees of monastic profession:
a. Stavrophore monk, or monk of the Lesser Habit

(Microschema);
b. monk of the Great or Angelic Habit,

(Megaloschema).
§137 These two degrees of perpetual profession carry with them the same moral and legal
effects (cf. Canon 463). The difference lies in the strictness with which certain details of the
monastic life, such as fasting and solitude, are imposed on the monk as a matter of tradition
and obedience. Together they represent an ever deepening comittment to the ascetic life by
the monk, growth which is reflected in a sacramental sense through the gradual unfolding
of the full monastic ritual.
§138 In all cases, it is the Hegumen who decides, in consultation with the monk’s spiritual
father and the Council, the degree in which to tonsure each monk. It is also the Hegumen
who determines the particular ascetic observances to be enjoined to a monk taking the
Great Schema in addition to those set out elswhere in this Typikon. Generally speaking,
however the schema monks ought to live more secluded lives and follow more strictly the
other monastic disciplines.
Title VIII
Details of the Life
Chapter 1
Limitations on Growth
§139 It is important to the monks that Holy Resurrection Monastery always be a true
family of monks. Accordingly, the community is not to exceed twenty-one professed
members.
Chapter 2
Liturgical and Prayer Life
§140 The first and most important work of the Monastery is the celebration of the Sacred
Mysteries and the Divine Praises of the Byzantine Church. As St. Theodosios of the Caves
writes in his Typikon, “the work of the monks consists primarily in the celebration of the
Divine Praises, the private prayers of the brothers in their quarters, the reading of Sacred
29
LIFE
Scripture and other monastic labor in conformity to the regulations.”
§141 The full daily schedule of services comprises:
a. Vespers (Presanctified Liturgy when prescribed in Great

Lent)
b. Compline
c. Office of Midnight (Mesonycticon)
d. Matins and First Hour
e. Third
Hour
f. Sixth Hour
g. Divine Liturgy (except on those days when it is

forbidden)
h. Ninth Hour
§142 The times at which these services are to be taken, and the various akolouthia to be ob-
served are to be determined by the Hegumen on the advice of the Council. The Hegumen
may vary the schedule as he sees fit when circumstances require it.
§143 The celebration of the Divine Liturgy should always be preceded by the celebration of
at least Vespers and Matins (in that order, except on days on which a Vesperal Liturgy
is prescribed in the Liturgical Typikon).
§144 The Monastery is to observe faithfully the prescriptions of the liturgical books of the
Byzantine Rite lawfully approved for use by the Church. In this regard we note the
comment of the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches in its Instruction for
Applying the Litur- gical Prescriptions issued in 1996:“It is desired that a renewal of
monasticism in the Eastern Catholic Church, felt as urgent in many places, allow
monasteries once again to become the place in which the Divine Praises resound in a
privileged and solemn way.”42
§145 The divine services are offered in the Temple by the Hegumen, or by another priest
appointed by him. If the community has more than one priest it is good for the Hegumen
to rotate the duty of officiating in the Temple on a weekly basis.
§146 If for some reason there is no priest present in the Monastery, the services are as
much as possible to be offered by the community under the lead of the senior monk
present, with the usual rubrical differences for “reader” services.
§147 For a grave reason monks may have permission to be absent from the principal divine
services. In each case the absent monk is to occupy his time in the performance of his
obedience and diligently pray the rule of prayer given him by his spiritual father.
31
LIFE a certain number of “Jesus Prayers” are given to be said for each service missed,
Normally
but we leave this to the father’s discretion (cf. Canon 473 §2 1˚).
Chapter 3
Silence & Private Prayer
§148 Each monk is faithfully to observe the private rule of prayer (“Cell Rule”) assigned
him from time to time by his spiritual father. This prayer rule will include the frequent use
of the Jesus Prayer, as well as such traditional practices as the recitation of the Psalter.
§149 Idle talk and joking is to be avoided at all times. Especially to be avoided is all that
smacks of gossip and backbiting. Apart from being sinful, such talk dissipates the desire for
prayer, and so cuts at the root of the monastic life. Consistently malicious talk, after due
warnings, is sufficient grounds in itself for dismissal from the Monastery.
§150 A deep silence is to be observed at night, from the celebration of Compline until after
the celebration of the Divine Liturgy or, when the Liturgy is not celebrated, Matins.
§151 Each monk should be afforded regular opportunities, even daily, to retreat into peri-
ods of solitude and silence in his cell. The Hegumen and the spiritual fathers are to
determine this according to the need of each individual and the resources of the
community.
§152 The monks are to take an annual retreat each year as a community. The retreat is to be
about a week long, and should preferably be scheduled to coincide with one of the fasting
periods. In addition, each monk individually should take an annual retreat at some other
time for several days, either within the Monastery, or at some other place. (cf. Canon 473 §2
3˚.)
Distractions
§153 Distractions to hesychia are to be kept to a minimum. Televisions, radios, stereo

equip- ment, computers and other forms of visual or noisy entertainment are permitted
only in common areas (not in the cells), except with the permission of the Hegumen. The
use (if any) of these things, together with telephones, newspapers and magazines, is to be
restricted according to the rules made by the Hegumen in consultation with the Council.
Chapter 4
Community Life
§154 All monks in the common life are to expend the best of their time, talents and charity
for the upbuilding of their brotherhood. All other interests and relationships—even legiti-
mate family ties—are to be regarded as secondary to the primary commitment to the
community realized in obedience to the Hegumen and spiritual father.
§152 Every monk is to be especially mindful of respecting both the need to provide his
brothers with both peace and companionship in due measure. Common recreation should
be restricted to those times set aside for it by the Hegumen.
§153 Common courtesy is essential for community life. It is unlikely that we will perform
33
LIFE
great acts of charity if we first ignore the humbler and constant demands of politeness and
respect.
§154 Friendships are to be regarded as good which tend to anchor the monk more firmly in
his vows, and which support his growth in the Christian life. This applies even to
friendships with people outside the community. Where friendships tend rather to the
detriment of the monk and the community, the Hegumen and spiritual father are to be
careful to remedy the situation.43
Chapter 5
External Signs of the Monk
Habit of a Novice
§158 Immediately after the tonsure of the new novice-monk, the Hegumen clothes him in
the most basic elements of the monastic habit. these are:
a. the inner riassa (or tunic)44 ; and

b. the leather belt.
In addition, the novice is generally given the soft hat (skufyas) and the prayer rope
(Komboschini, or in Slavonic, chotki).
§159 In special cases, the Hegumen may have allowed a particular postulant to wear the
inner riassa and skufyas. But it is only the tonsured novice-monk who may wear the distin-
guishing mark of the monastic state: the leather belt.
§160 As the novice advances in the life, the Hegumen may, as a sign of his progress, give
him the privilege of wearing the outer riassa (with wide sleeves) and the hard monastic
head- wear, the kalimavkion (though without the veil).
Lesser Schema
§162 Upon tonsure into the Lesser Schema (Microschema) the monk is
given:
a. the wooden cross45

;
b. the “Little Schema” or paramandyas;
c. the black cloak called the mandyas. and
d. the epi-kalimavkion (veil)
Great Schema
§163 Upon tonsure into the Great Habit (Megalaschema) the monk receives the full monastic
habit, being the foregoing plus:
a. the special hood (kukulion) and

b. the Great Schema
itself.
35
LIFE
This last item is a long piece of leather painted with the Cross and instruments of the
Crucifix- ion. The Schema may be of cloth rather than leather.
Wearing the Habit
§164 Agapius says, “the monastic order lives monastically twenty-four hours a day.” Byz-
antine monastics traditionally wear their habits both inside and outside the Monastery at
all times.
§165 As in all external symbols of our life, the Hegumen may occasionally permit tempo-
rary exceptions in individual cases. But generally the monks always wear the habit as a
sign first to themselves of their monastic consecration, and secondarily by way of a witness
of this to the world.
Beard
§166 Tonsured monks (novices and above) may not shave their beards. Monks of the Great
Schema may not cut either their hair or beard. However, we leave it to the choice of monks
in the lower degrees whether or not to trim their hair or beard.
Forms of Address and Signature
§167 A novice is addressed as “Brother”. He may sign his name this way, or the more
traditional “monk X” or “novice-monk X”.
§168 In the Eastern tradition all full monks, of whatever degree, are addressed as “Father.”
This is so regardless of whether the monk is ordained a priest or deacon. This title carries
with it, of course, a duty to exercise a true spiritual fatherhood within the Monastery and
in fact the whole Church. The title is not an honor, but rather a grave responsibility.
§169 The professed monk may sign his name to reflect the degree of monastic life into
which he is tonsured (e.g. “Schemamonk X”).
Monastic name
§170 The monastic name is given upon tonsure into the novitiate. The novice may suggest
up to three names to the Hegumen, but the choice is entirely that of the Hegumen who is
free to ignore these suggestions. There is a tradition that the new name has the same initial
as the baptismal name, but again, this need not be rigidly adhered to.
§171 In theory, a new name may be given at each subsequent monastic tonsure (Lesser
Schema and Great Schema), but normally the same name is kept. In all cases the decision is
ultimately made by the Hegumen.
Chapter 6
Fasting
§172 Fasting is one of the pillars of our monastic life. We are taught its value by our
Savior
Himself who prepared for His confrontation with the Devil in the wilderness by a fast of
forty days.46 St. John Climacus writes:
“Fasting ends lust, roots out bad thoughts, frees one from evil dreams. Fasting makes
for purity of prayer, an enlightened soul, a watchful mind, a deliverance from
blindness. Fasting is the door of compunction, humble sighing, joyful contrition, an
end to chatter, an occasion for silence, a custodian of obedience, a lightening of sleep,
health of the body, an agent of dispassion, a remission of sins, the gate, indeed, the
delight of Paradise.”47
§173 As in all ascetic endeavors, fasting is not an end in itself. If it is not undertaken in the
spirit of humility and for the sake of the Gospel it is useless, even harmful. Again, it is our
Lord Who teaches us:
“When you fast put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may not
be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in
secret will reward you.”48
§174 Our fasting must always be joined to prayer. This is why we are careful to maintain
the link between the time of our fasts and the Church’s liturgical cycles. It is also for this
reason that hospitality is more important than the strict observance of outward rules of
fasting, as the fathers often teach us.
§175 The Byzantine tradition is that monks are to abstain always from meat. We regard
this as a monastic ideal. However, in the interest of economy, the Hegumen may permit the
con- sumption of meat—especially with regard to food donated by our benefactors which
we accept in the spirit of monastic poverty. Monks in the Great Habit, however, must
observe a perpetual fast from meat.
§176 The monks observe the rules of fasting laid down in the Eparchy of Van Nuys and, in
addition, the traditional canonical fasts of the Byzantine year:
a. The meat fast from Vespers of the Sunday of the Last Judgment (“Meatfare” Sunday)
to Forgiveness (or “Cheesefare”) Sunday;
b. Great Lent (from Forgiveness Vespers to Lazarus Saturday) and Great and Holy
Week (from Vespers of Palm Sunday to Holy Pascha);
c. The Apostles’ Fast (Vespers on the evening of All Saints Sunday through to the Feast of
Ss Peter and Paul);
d. The Fast of the Mother of God (from the Procession of the Life-Giving Cross on August
1st to the Dormition of the Mother of God on August 15th);
e. The “Philip Fast” which we observe from the traditional date (November 16, the day
following the feast of St. Philip the Apostle) to the feast of the Nativity of the Lord on
December 25th);
37
f. AllLIFE
Wednesdays and Fridays in the year, except in fast-free
periods
g. The eves of the Holy Nativity and Holy Theophany;
h. The feasts of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (August 29th) and of the Exaltation
of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross (September 14th).
§177 The periods during which fasting is not permitted are:
a. The week following the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee;
b. Cheesefare Week (all foods except meat are

permitted);
c. Bright Week and the Leavetaking of

Pascha;
d. The week following the Sunday of Pentecost;
e. The Afterfeast of the Nativity of the Lord (December 25th to January

4th);
§178 In addition, oil and wine are permitted throughout the Pentecost Season.
§179 All these fasts carry with them rules concerning both the kinds of food to be taken,
and the amount of food permitted. In the Byzantine tradition, fish (excluding shell fish) is
forbidden when other animal products (meat, dairy, eggs) are proscribed, except on
certain days specified in the liturgical books.
§180 There is mitigation of the rules of fasting on days that coincide with feasts of Master,
of the Mother of God and of certain notable saints. When the matter appears doubtful, the
Hegu- men determines the proper course having due regard to the general practice of the
various Byzantine Churches in America.
§181 When traveling outside the Monastery, the monks are to do their best to comply with
the spirit of the fasts. Discretion should be used, however, so as not to embarrass hosts who
offer food in good faith. By tradition, oil and wine may usually be taken when engaged on
an arduous journey.
§182 In addition to this, the monks are to fast strictly before receiving the Divine Mysteries.
No meal is ever to be served in the Monastery on days on which the Divine Liturgy or
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is to be celebrated until after the Liturgy is completed.
The Eucharis- tic fast is never relaxed, even during the “fast-free” periods.
§183 Notwithstanding any of the above, the Hegumen always has power to relax or inten-
sify the rules of fasting for the Monastery or for individual monks.
§184 No monk may take it upon himself to fast more or less than the rest of the community
without the permission of his spiritual father and the consent of the Hegumen.
39
LIFE
Chapter 7
The Kitchen and Trapeza
§185 The Trapeza is the next most important place in the Monastery after the Church. It is
the place where the monks receive physical food to strengthen them for their spiritual
labors, where they hear the teachings of the fathers read at meals, and where together the
family life of the Monastery is forged around the common table.
§186 Generally speaking the food served in the Trapeza to the monks and their guests
should be simple, nutritious and sufficient given the work load and general health of the
community.
§187 The Hegumen is encouraged to entrust the management of the kitchen and Trapeza
to one monk. Experience teaches this is normally the most economic way of organizing this
area of the common life, helping ensure a healthy variety of food and avoiding unnecessary
waste.
§188 The Trapeza ought to be suitably adorned with holy icons and so forth so as to mani-
fest its importance in the Monastery. As in the Church building, all unnecessary talk in the
Trapeza should be avoided except at the times set by the Hegumen for meals to be taken
while talking.
Chapter 8
Meals
§189 At least one meal a day should be taken with readings from the fathers, lives of the
saints, or other texts approved by the Hegumen. The Hegumen will appoint one or more
monks to undertake the reading on a rotating basis.
§190 The Hegumen will determine which meals should be taken in silence, which with
readings, and which with permission to talk. He should seek the advice of the Council
when making major changes to the normal schedule.
§191 The food is blessed before each meal by a priest. The Hegumen, or senior Hierarch,
always performs the rite on major feast days. On other days the blessing is taken by which-
ever priest has been appointed by the Hegumen to offer the divine services that week. If no
priest is present, the prayer is read by the senior monk according to the usual prescriptions.
§192 Where possible the rite of the Raising of the Panagia should be observed in the
Trapeza at least on Sundays and Great Feasts.49
Chapter 9
Work
§193 Daily labor has been a feature of coenobitic life as far back as the great Pachomian
communities. There are two reasons: for material sustenance and, more importantly, for
the spiritual life. Work has always been seen as a positive way to ward off the demons of
idleness and despondency through the discipline of obedience.
§194 The Hegumen determines the obedience of each monk. He should consult the
monk’s
41
LIFE
spiritual father when contemplating a major change. When contemplating changes signifi-
cantly affecting the whole community, the Hegumen should also consult the Council.
§195 It is essential that the work of monks be profitable spiritually. This will require a con-
sideration of each individual’s spiritual maturity and needs, as well as those of the commu-
nity. At the same time, each individual must understand the need for the Monastery to
support its material needs. Attachment, even to good work, at the expense of the
community is a serious obstacle to the monastic life.
§196 The Monastery may, and should, engage in such business activities as are necessary
to support its religious purpose. In choosing appropriate businesses, the Hegumen and
Council must reject any that require monks to be absent from the Monastery for long
periods, or which affect the ability of monks to offer the Divine Praises worthily and with
attention.50
§197 An important work will always be the maintenance of the Monastery property,
including its garden. In all things affecting the buildings, grounds and gardens, the
brotherhood is to be conscious of its duty to act as a steward of God’s creation. We should
live as lightly as possible on the land in harmony with our desert environment.
§198 For reasons of economy and ecology as much as for any other, the Monastery is to
grow as much of its own food as possible.
Chapter 10
Debts
§199 The Monastery is responsible for debts and obligations incurred by professed monks,
provided the prior approval of the Hegumen has been obtained (cf. Canon 468 §2). Where
this approval has not been obtained, the individual monk is liable.
Chapter 11
Hospitality
§200 Guests are to be treated as Christ among us. They are welcome to participate in the
Community's common prayer and meals to the extent they wish. In return they are invited
to contribute to the well being of the Community through their prayers, labor and money
in proportion to their means and capabilities.
§201 The traditional Byzantine monastic custom is that visits should last three days. How-
ever the Hegumen may extend (or reduce) the time in his discretion.
Almsgiving
§202 We include almsgiving and Christian charity under the rubric of hospitality. When
we are asked to give of our money, food, shelter, time, or any other possession we must
give as best we can. Nor should we do this of a sense of virtue, but rather out of Christian
duty, as ones paying a debt. “Not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from
the poor” teaches our holy father, St. John Chrysostom.51
TITLE IX: DEATH OF A MONK 37
§203 The duty to be mindful of the poor extends to monks who are lawfully working or
traveling outside the Monastery. The Economos should give each traveler at least some
money
which can be used for alms when
requested.
Chapter 12
Study
§204 The Hegumen and the spiritual fathers are to encourage all the monks under their
care to keep their minds active to the best of each one’s ability. They should read Scripture
and the writings of the fathers in particular. But any good and holy literature, science or art
may be a valuable part of the monk’s vocation. The important thing is that the study be an
aid to prayer and the moral and ascetic life. It should not be the other way around.
Formal education
§205 There is no requirement that our monks be formally educated to a particular level, or
that they study toward degrees or diplomas. In some cases, the Hegumen will discern aca-
demic study will be good for a monk; in other cases he will decide against it. In all cases
such study should be seen as good in itself. It is bad to think of study as being of value
only if it results in some tangible objective, such as ordination to the priesthood.
Chapter 13
Going outside the Monastery
§206 Only the Hegumen or his delegate may grant permission for a monk to be absent
from the Monastery. In the case of proposed absences of longer than three days, or in the
case of frequent absences over longer periods, the Hegumen must seek the advice of the
monk’s spiritual father and of the Council.
§207 No monk may leave the Monastery without the Hegumen’s blessing. The first task of
the returning monk is to seek the Hegumen’s blessing and to render an account of his
journey.
Chapter 14
Penalties and sanctions
§208 Persistent disobedience after warnings must be dealt with by the Hegumen. Punish-
ments in the Monastery are medicinal in character. Nothing that smacks of revenge or
malice is to be allowed.
§209 Penances may be private or public. The latter are reserved for serious offenses affect-
ing the community, and are to be imposed by the Hegumen only after the advice of the
monk’s spiritual father has been sought together with that of the Council.
Chapter 15
Precedence in the Monastery
§210 Precedence in the Monastery is determined first by clerical order and then by
monastic
rank, and then by the length of time in that order. When two monks are tonsured on the
same day, only then is age taken into account (the elder is to be tonsured first). This follows
one of the oldest monastic customs, recorded, for example, by St. Jerome concerning the
monks of Tabennisi:
“The first to enter each monastery sits first, walks first, says the psalm first, stretches
his hand out first at table, and communicates first in church. Among them account is
taken not of age, but of [time of] profession.”52
Chapter 16
Interpreting the Typikon
§211 In the event of any dispute as to the meaning of a provision of this Typikon the
Eparchial Bishop is to determine the matter. Where the dispute involves the Eparchial
Bishop as a party, however, the matter is to be referred to the Metropolitan head of our
Church sui juris.
Title IX
Death of a Monk
§212 A monk’s death should not be regarded as a cause primarily for sorrow, no matter
how tragic the circumstances may seem. “Brothers, we would not have you to be
uninformed about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others who have no
hope.”53 The dead monk is now in the hands of the living God. We do not ignore the
fearful plight of the soul before the judgment seat: “it turns its eyes to the Angels and its
prayer is in vain. It extends its hands to men and finds no one to help.”54 Yet neither do
we cease to pray that God will be merciful, and take our brother to his rest, “with the
saints...where there is no pain, sorrow nor mourning, but life everlasting.”55
§213 What follows is the ideal procedure to be followed in the case of death. The Hegumen
will adapt this procedure as necessary in cases where the death is sudden or unforeseen.
The prescriptions of the Byzantine Rite must be observed in the case of monks who die in
Great and Holy Week, or in Bright Week. In all cases account must also be taken of the
requirements of the civil law and, where necessary, the monastic customs must be adapted
to comply with these.
§214 The dying monk is to receive the Mysteries of Holy Confession, Communion and
Anointing.
§215 If he asks for it, and if the Hegumen permits it, the dying monk, of whatever rank,
may be tonsured into the Great Schema on his death bed. This is irrevocable. If the monk
happens to recover, he is bound by this tonsure.
§216 Reasonable effort must be made to enable the sick monk to die in the Monastery, pro-
vided this can be done while ensuring the patient receives adequate medical attention.
TITLE X: EXCLAUSTRATION & LEAVING THE MONASTERY 39
§217 Every care must be taken to ensure that no monk dies alone. He is, as far as possible,
to
be attended by at least one monk throughout his last illness. Those attending the sick monk
should pray the Offices set out in the Euchologion for the departing soul, and also the
Psalter.
§218 As soon as possible after death, all the monks in the Monastery should gather at the
death bed for the Office at the Departing of a Soul. The community washes the corpse and
dresses it for burial according to monastic customs. The body is then placed on a bier in the
Church for a period of three days,56 provided it is not contrary to civil law.
§219 In addition to the usual liturgical schedule, the community sings the Great Parastas
on each of those three days. Between services the monks take it in turns to read the Psalter
(for deceased hieromonks, the Gospels) continuously day and night.
§220 On the third day the Funeral is to be celebrated and the monk is to be buried
according to the Byzantine rite. Every effort must be made to ensure the monks are buried
in a cemetery on the Monastery grounds. A monk may not be cremated.
§221 Panachydas are to be celebrated for the departed monk every day for forty days fol-
lowing the death, and thereafter on each anniversary. He is also to be commemorated in
the Divine Liturgy on each of those days.57
§222 The Hegumen should appoint a monk to write a brief account of the life of each monk
following his death, and deposit this account in the Monastery’s archives.
Title X
Exclaustration and Leaving the Monastery
Chapter 1
Transfer to Another
Monastery
§223 A monk who wishes to transfer to another Monastery must first seek the permission
of the Hegumen, who will in turn ask the advice of the spiritual father and the Council.
Within a month of asking the permission, the monk is to make a week’s retreat to consider
the matter. If he persists in the petition, it is to be either granted or refused by the
Hegumen.
§224 Under Canon Law, the Hegumen’s decision is not binding on the monk, who may
still approach the relevant authorities for permission to transfer: cf. Canons 487–488. The
Hegu- men may not prevent the monk from exercising his canonical rights.
Chapter 2
Voluntary
leaving
§225 A consecrated monk, that is, a monk in perpetual vows, may not leave the Monastery
without permission of the Hegumen with the consent of the Council. The formal, and
temporary (up to three years), dispensation from the obligation to live in the
Monastery called
“exclaustration” can be granted only by the Eparchial Bishop (Canon 490). Permission to
leave the monastic life permanently can be granted only by the Apostolic See (Canon 492).
§226 A monk can seek permission to leave the monastic life, whether for a period of time
or permanently, only for grave reasons. The Hegumen, the monk’s spiritual father and,
indeed, all the brotherhood, should act with tender charity toward a monk struggling
with this di- lemma. In particular, they should storm heaven with prayer on his behalf. At
the same time, the community must hold firm to its obligation to live the monastic life
according to our tradition and this Typikon. The love owed the monk in pain should never
be confused with false compromise of the monastic charism. Love and truth, when both
are authentic, never contradict one another.
§227 Within a month of asking the permission to leave, the monk is to make a week’s
retreat to consider the matter.
§228 A monk who has returned to secular life and who asks to be received again into the
Monastery is to be treated with love and respect. Nevertheless he is to be progressed
through the novitiate and profession again as though he had not before been in the life
(Canon 493 §2).
Chapter 3
Dismissal
§229 Where a professed monk persistently refuses to reform behavior which threatens the
stability of the Monastery, the Hegumen may initiate the legal process that leads to
dismissal. The prescriptions of the law are to be scrupulously observed (Canons 497–503).
§230 It should be noted that a monk who is dismissed, or who voluntarily leaves, is not
entitled to any of the Monastery’s property, or claim compensation for labor performed
while in the Monastery (Canon 503). If the Monastery chooses to give him anything, this is
a simple gratuity and does not create any legal obligation on its part whatsoever.
Title XI
Eremitic Life
§231 The hermit lives the monastic charism most radically. It is therefore the highest form
of that life and the eremitic vocation is to be held in high regard by all.
§232 A monk who has been tested by many years in the community (not less than six:
Canon 482), may seek permission from the Hegumen to attempt the eremitic life. The
Hegumen will seek the advice of the spiritual father and the consent of the Council (Canon
482). If permission is granted, the monk should first test his call by a trial period lasting
several months.
§233 A hermit should normally be tonsured into the Great Habit before being sent out per-
manently into the “desert.” If he returns to community life, he will still be bound by the
obligations imposed on him by virtue of that tonsure.
TITLE XIII: THE IDIORHYMIC MONK 41
§234 A hermit must still maintain his relationship with his spiritual father, and remains
under obedience to the Hegumen.58 He should return to the Monastery at least on the
Lord’s
Day to participate in the Divine Liturgy, and for the whole of the Great and Holy
Week.
Title XII
Other Monasteries
Chapter 1
Metochia
§235 The Hegumen and his Council may take such steps as are necessary or as they think
desirable, to set up a house or houses of monks dependent on Holy Resurrection
Monastery within the meaning of Canon 436.59 Such subsidiary houses are called Metochia.
§236 It is not the intention of the Monastery to establish a centralized religious congrega-
tion. The purpose, therefore, of establishing such dependent houses is that they will
become independent as soon as may be. It will be for these new foundations eventually to
formulate their own typika and other laws under obedience to the Eparchial Bishop or
other legitimate authority.
§237 That said, it would be good if fraternal links between these monasteries could be
main- tained by means of a federation as provided for in Canon Law (Canons 439–440).
Chapter 2
Federation
§238 The Hegumen is encouraged to promote good relationships with other monasteries,
whether of the Eastern or Western Churches, and both Catholic and Orthodox.
§239 In the case of other Byzantine Catholic monasteries, the Hegumen may, with the con-
sent of the Eparchial Bishop and his Council, enter into federations as provided for in
Canon Law.
Title XIII
The Idiorhythmic Monk
§240 In the Eastern tradition it sometimes happens that priest and deacon monks receive
permission, or rather the obedience, to live outside the Monastery and undertake pastoral
work in the local Church. We believe that this is a particular vocation inspired by the Holy
Spirit, and the Hegumen and all the brotherhood should be alive to the possibility that it is
to this vocation that a few of the monks may be called from time to time.
§241 Unlike the Orthodox Church, in which the idiorhythmic monk-cleric constitutes the
only celibate element among parish clergy, the vast majority of our particular Church’s
secular priests are by law celibate. We believe many of these clergy would benefit from
some kind
of formal association with the Monastery. Indeed, the association would be mutually
benefi- cial: These associated priests would help support the Monastery and promote the
ideal it represents among the lay faithful in the parishes, be alert to possible monastic
vocations, and may even provide some financial support by way of personal tithing.
§242 In return, the priests would be counted as brothers of the monks, entitled to the spiri-
tual and fraternal benefits of community life to the extent possible given their overriding
pastoral obligations. To these clergy the comparative peace and calmness of the Monastery
would be made available whenever needed.
§243 Finally, such an arrangement would promote the reintroduction of the Divine Praises
in the parishes. Increased contact with the Monastery would serve to train and encourage
priests in the rubrics, music and spirit of those Byzantine services.
§244 idiorhythmic monks may fall into one of two categories:
a. consecrated monks of the Monastery who receive the permission of the Hegumen to
live outside the Monastery to undertake pastoral work; and
b. secular priests incardinated in the Eparchy who, with the Bishop’s permission, receive
the monastic tonsure, and promise obedience, chastity and poverty according to their
state in life.
§245 The first category is one which will only very rarely—if ever—be permitted. The com-
munity is to frown on any pastoral activity by monks that could draw strength and
resources away from the Monastery. However, we allow the possibility that in very
exceptional cases the Hegumen, with the consent of the Council, may offer a monk in holy
orders to the Eparchial Bishop for pastoral work.
§246 The second category will be the normal way in which the Monastery will number
among its extended community idiorhythmic monks, both priests and permanent deacons.
The promise of obedience each such aggregated monk makes binds him, in a moral sense,
more closely to that ministerial duty of obedience to his Bishop made upon ordination. The
ritual of tonsure does not affect the canonical status of the cleric.
§247 In all cases, an idiorhythmic monk is to be tonsured into the Rason (with
epikalimavkion), but not beyond.
§248 A cleric may only receive tonsure as an aggregate, idiorhythmic hieromonk or

hierodeacon if the Eparchial Bishop approves in writing.
§249 The duties of the idiorhythmic monk are to be set out in a personal rule to be written
by the monk and approved both by the Hegumen and the Eparchial Bishop. This rule is to
deal with such matters as the idiorhythmic monk’s liturgical and private prayer life, mini-
mum contact with the Monastery and the kind of support he should afford the Monastery.
§250 A cleric outside of our own Eparchy may also be tonsured as an idiorhythmic monk
with the consent of his own hierarch. In that case all references in this Title to the Eparchial
TITLE XIV: LAY ASSOCIATION 43
Bishop apply to that cleric’s Bishop mutatis mutandis.
Title XIV
Lay Association
§251 The Monastery is to provide a means for the more formal association of lay members
of the Church to participate in its life and spiritual patrimony to the extent possible. To this
end the Hegumen and the Council are to draw up rules of association and submit them to
the Eparchial Bishop for approval.
Glory be to God for all things!

Endnotes
1 Canon 410
2 Matthew 5:48
3 Matthew 19:21
4 St. Athanasius the Great, Life of St. Antony, trans. E. Wallis Budge in the Paradise of teh
Fathers, reprinted in an edition published by Nectarios Press, Seattle, WA, 1984, p. 6.
5 Archimandrite Aemilianos, “The Experience of Transfiguration in the Life of the
Athonite
Monk,” in The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain: Contemporary Voices from Mount
Athos,
trans. Hieromonk Alexander (Golitzin), St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press, South Canaan,
PA,
1996, p.198.
6 Psalm 102:4
7 Orientale Lumen, n.13
8 Acts 2:43–47 and 4:32–35
9 Archimandrite Boniface (Luykx), Eastern Monasticism and the Future of the Church, Monks
of Mount Tabor, 1994, p.79.
10 Quoted ibid., p.79, note 49.
11 Cf. Vatican II, Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, n.8.
12 Encyclical Letter, Ut Unum Sint, n.9.
13 Cf. John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends & Doctrinal Themes, Fordham
University Press, NY, 1979, pp. 191–2.
14 To be specific, from the Great Euchologion.
15 Cf. Romans 8:12–17
16 St. John Climacus, Ladder, Step 4:3.
17 Matthew 5:3
18 Genesis 3:8
19 St. Barsanuphios the Great, in Tomas Spidlik, The Spirituality of the Christian East, trans.
Anthony P. Gythiel, Cistercian Publications, 1986, p.284.
20 Second Century on Knowledge, n.7 in Maximos Confessor, Selected Writings, trans.
Geroge
C. Berthold, Classics of Western Spirituality Series, Paulist Press, 1985, p.149
21 Luke 1:26–38
22 Cf Matthew 19:12
23 Matthew 22:30. Compare St. Paul’s teaching on the positive value of celibacy in 1
Corinthians 7:1–8.
24 Orientale Lumen, n.10
25 Apocalypse 7:9
26 Cf. Apocalypse 7
27 Cf. John 10:10
28 St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 15
29 St. John Cassian, The Conferences, Twelth Conference: On Chastity, trans. Boniface
Ramsey,
O.P., Ancient Christian Writers series, Paulist Press, 1997, p. 438.
30 Quoted in Spidlik, op. cit. p. 221.
31 1 John 4:20
32 2 Corinthians 1:9
33 The Long Rules, q. 8, in St. Basil, Ascetical Works, Trans. Sr. M. Monica Wagner, CSC, Fa-
thers of the Church Series, Vol. 9, 1950, p. 254.
34 Lenten Triodion, 2nd troparion of Ode 9 of the Canon in Tone 1 for Matins on Monday of
the Sixth Week.
ENDNOTES 45
35 St. Iosif Volotsky, Discourse III, from The Monastic Rule of Iosif Volotsky, trans. David M.
Goldfrank, Cistercian Publications, 1983, p. 93.
36 John Cassian: Conferences, trans. Colm Luibheid, Paulist Press, 1985, Second Conference,
p. 74.
37 1 Samuel 3:18
38 Acts 9:10–19
39 Ecclesiastes 4:9–10
40 Corresponding to the “Choir” in Western monasteries.
41 Canon 451. This is sometimes referred to as a “change of rite” petition.
42 Instruction for Applying the Liturgical Prescriptions of the Code of Canons for the Eastern
Churches, English translation, published in 1996 by Eastern Christian Publications, p. 88.
43 A useful discussion of the value of positive friendships for monks is contained in the
Sixteenth of St. John Cassian’s Conferences. Let the superiors also consider the examples
of positive relationships in sacred Scripture (e.g. David and Jonathon, Naomi and Ruth,
Joseph and Nicodemus et. al.) and in the lives of the desert Fathers.
44 Alone of all the monastic garments, this may be of a color lighter than black (in view of
our desert location). All other garments are to be black in color, symbolizing our death
to
the world and the joy-making mourning of the ascetic life.
45 This is why this degree is sometimes called the “Stavrophore” monk, from the Greek
stavros for “cross”.
46 Matthew 4:2
47 Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 14.
48 Matthew 16:17–18
49 Among other things, this rite reinforces the important spiritual and liturgical continuity
between the Temple and the Trapeza.The rubrics for this Rite are to be found in the
Horologion along with the fixed portions of the divine services and other liturgical de-
tails.
50 The longstanding tradition in Eastern monasticism opposed to the keeping of female
animals, especially livestock, is well founded. While we do not positively legislate
against
animal husbandry, our experience to date has supported the traditional prejudice. Ani-
mals must be cared for even on Pascha!
51 Sermons on the Gospel of Lazarus and the Rich Man, in St. John Chrysostom on Wealth and
Poverty, trans. Catherine P. Roth, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984, p. 55.
52 Pachomian Koinonia, Volume 2, trans. Armand Veilleux, Cistercian Publications, 1981, p.
142.
53 1 Thessalonians 4:13
54 Form the Funeral Office of the Byzantine Rite, Hymn of Farewell in Tone 2 by St. John
Damascene.
55 Kontakion of the Deceased in Tone 8.
56 Except in those days in Great and Holy Week when no service for the dead may be
sung.
In such cases the funeral and burial must either be hurried or delayed as circumstances
require.
57 Excepting, of course, when they coincide with the aliturgical days of Great Lent or the
other fasts.
58 Who determines where the hermit may live (Canon 483) and who may even compel him
to return to community life (Canon 485).
59 The traditional name for such dependant houses is metochion, although the term skete
has also been used, especially in recent years within the Catholic Eastern Churches.

Monastic Typikon 2014

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Monastic Typikon 2014

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

HOLY RESURRECTION

Title II: Legal Identity.................................................................9

Title III: The Role and Purpose of Monastic Life..................9

Title IV: The Vows ....................................................................11

Title V: Church Hierarchy .......................................................15

Title VI: Superiors and Offices in the Monastery ...............17

Title VII Admission to the Monastery ..................................23

Title VII: Details of the Life ....................................................28

Title IX: Death of a Monk ........................................................38

Title X: Exclaustration and Leaving the Monastery ...........39

Title XI: Eremitic Life ...............................................................40

Title XII: Other Monasteries ...................................................41

Title XIII The Idiorhythmic Monk ........................................41

Title XIV Lay Association ........................................................43

a. profess the vows of obedience, chastity and

d. practice hospitality as far as they can toward all

f. support this lifestyle as far as possible by the labor of their hands.

a. in Great Lent, the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt,

e. the Name Days of the ruling Metropolitan, Bishop and Hegumen.

§11Holy Resurrection Monastery is a monastery of eparchial

§21 Finally, Eastern monasticism is passionately concerned with the Church’s

§33 All tasks and responsibilities in the monastery are referred to as

§44 All goods belonging to the Monastery are held in common.

§47 If any property accrues to a perpetually professed monk it automatically becomes, by

The Monastery’s Goods

Specific Rights and Obligations of Eparchial Bishop

a. To preside at the Synaxis of election of the Hegumen in person or through a delegate

b. To grant dispensations beyond the capacity of the Hegumen (Canon 414

c. To approve changes in the Typikon (Canon 414

d. To make canonical visitations as provided for in Canons 414 §1 and

e. To regulate the public liturgical worship of the Monastery (Canon 415

Monks in Holy Orders

Monastery sui juris

Role of the Monastery in the Eparchy

Father of the Monastery

j. He must keep the archives of the Monastery in good order.

Admission of New Monks

a. his resignation to or deposition by a duly convened meeting of the Synaxis;

b. he reaches the age of seventy–five in accordance with Canon 444

c. Disburse, or cause to be disbursed, the funds of the Monastery as directed by the

e. Provide an annual financial report to the Synaxis and the Eparchial

§100 The consent of the Synaxis is required for the

a. election, resignation or deposition of the Hegumen (a two-thirds majority is required to

c. any other matter for which consent is required by Canon

a. to buy, sell or mortgage real

c. establish a dependent house (metochion)

d. enter a monastic federation,

e. any other matter for which consent is required by Canon

Law. The consent of the Council only is also required for:

g. the undertaking of the eremitic life by a

Appointment of a personal spiritual father

Men who are canonically ineligible to be monks

c. those who have been punished with canonical punishments;

e. anyone under 18 years of age;

f. those induced by force, grave fear or fraud to enter the Monastery;

g. spouses, during a marriage;

i. persons in vows to another religious institute, or clerics enrolled in an eparchy or dio-

b. the candidate’s Curriculum Vitae;

Physical and Psychological health

d. Scripture, Church history, Apologetics, Ecclesiology, Soteriology and

§134 At no time does there arise an employer/employee relationship between a prospec-

The three degrees

a. Stavrophore monk, or monk of the Lesser Habit

b. monk of the Great or Angelic Habit,