Secular life's behaviours and debauchery among nuns: An unedited homily by the patriarch of Constantinople Kallistos I.

Abstract

In the present study, the homily 'Oμιλία πρòς μοναζούσας• εỉς τò pητòν τον θείου Παύλου, τό, ενσχημόνως περιπατεĩτε by the patriarch of Constantinople Kallistos I, given by two mss. codices of Mt. Athos, the codex 8 of Hilandar monastery (ff. 324r-329r) and the codex 1074 of Panteleemon monastery (ff. 206v-210v), is edited for the first time. In the edited homily patriarch Kallistos addresses to the nuns of a particular monastery (probably in Constantinople). The content of the homily makes it clear that the patriarch had received specific accusations, according to which these nuns had given up the basic principles of monastic life and had been seized with passions totally opposite to the monastic oaths they had taken.

Keywords

• Kallistos I
• patriarch
• monasticism
• monastic institution
• nuns
• debauchery
• homiletics