Summary
Elder Patapios Kafsokalyvitis, The Revival of Athonite Sketic Monasticism in the 17th and 18th Centuries
The historical sources refer to the operation of sketes on Mount Athos from as early as the mid-14th century. However, in the evolution of Athonite monasticism the sketic way of realising the monastic ideal played a far less important role than the coenobitic way. The situation was reversed when Athonite sketic monasticism experienced a dynamic revival in the seventeenth and especially the eighteenth century.
A considerable number of factors contributed to this development, and these are outlined in the present paper. The paper stresses how sketic monasticism was opposed to the idiorrhythmic way of life that prevailed on Athos during the period under examination.
As is well known, the conversion of almost all of the monasteries from coenobitic to idiorrhythmic rule during the Ottoman period was brought about by an inevitable need to adapt to the demands of the times since, owing to excessive taxation, the finances of the monasteries were in a woeful state. The revival of sketic monasticism as an institution reflects, in a way, the reaction of those monks who regarded idiorrhythmic rule as a deviation and decline from the true monastic life. These monks, by founding the sketes, sought to restore the strictness of the lives of the first anchorites on Mount Athos. Thus, all those who arrived on Athos seeking to lead a monastic life preferred to do so either in the kellia that were scattered all over the Holy Mountain or in hermitages in the Athonite desert, in the southern part of the peninsula. In the late seventeenth century, and particularly during the eighteenth century, there was a tendency for the young monks in the kellia who had previously lived in the monasteries to gather together and form sketes, where they could combine both their eremitical and coenobitic ideals.
The paper also mentions the way in which the sketes flourished as a result of the neo -Hesychastic teaching of the venerable Kollyvades, as well as cases in which the holiness and great spirituality of various saintly figures attracted large numbers of monks who came to form the nuclei for the creation of the sketes.
Important mention is also made of the provisions made for the sketes by their governing monasteries at the time of their foundation, as is evident in the foundation documents or in the sketes' internal regulations - most of which are highly spiritual texts which, at the very least, reflect the authority of their authors, who were important Athonite ecclesiastical figures. In this connection emphasis is placed on the care taken by the spiritual centre of Orthodoxy to ensure the smooth operation of the sketes, as in fact a number of Ecumenical Patriarchs and high-ranking clerics retired to them.
