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Hello,

I know that some Eastern Catholic clergy and monks frequent this board so I thought I would ask for some help with a paper I'm writing for my Monastic history class (I'm a junior Benedictine monk). The topic is to write about a contemporoary monastic founder. I chose Boniface Luykx of Mt. Tabor monastery in Calif. So far I have found two good sources on his life: a book called "Following the star from the East" and the 25th aniv. newsletter of Holy Transfiguration monastery. However there are a few facts I still need to know. Does anyone know when he was born? Also, what do the terms archimandrite and hegumen mean? What is their relation to the title Abbot? (Fr. Boniface has been referred to by these titles) Any other info. would be of great help. I tried to find something on the net but all search engines come up empty for Boniface Luykx. (Even though some other Luykx's do pop up!)

Thanks to all who can help!

PAX Br. Elias OSB

Dear Servant of God, Brother Elias

Glory to Jesus Christ !

I'll attempt to answer the hegumen question and let someone else do the archmandrite question.

Hegumen and Abbot really mean the same thing. The only difference is how many brothers are in the community. If there are 12 brothers or more in the community the monastic superior is referred to as the abbot. Less than 12, the title hegumen is used. I think that's how it goes.

Joe Prokopchak
archsinner

Dear Br. Elias,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

The other essential text for your research is the book published by Archimandrite Boniface in 1993: "Eastern Monasticism and the Future of the Church." You can obtain a copy through the book store at Mt. Tabor Monastery.

You might also ask whether the monastery will let you have a copy of the monastic "Typicon" ("rule") which is primarily the work of Father B.

Apart from the biographical information in the "Star from the East" festschrift you have, I am not sure of any other published information on this most fascinating of lives. I wish I could remember his exact age, but I'm afraid I've forgotten. Certainly he is in his 80s, and was born in Belgium of a Flemmish speaking family.

As for the titles "hegumen" and "archimandrite", these today can both correspond to the title "abbot." Originally they both meant the same thing: head of a monastery. "Hegumen" just means "head man" I think. "Archimandrite" (according to my Dictionary of Byzantium!) comes from a Greek term meaning "chief of the sheepfold." For some reason the latter term was more popular in Constantinople and as the monasteries there came to be more powerful the title Archimandrite began to be reserved for the heads of monastic federations, and still later simply for heads of the larger monasteries.

Today the two titles are ranked hierarchically in the Byzantine liturgical books, with the title Archimandrite outranking the title Hegumen. Certain ceremonial regalia are reserved to an Archimandrite (a special cloak called a "mandyas", for example, and usually (in Slav usage) a mitre).

To put it simply, Father Boniface is the hegumen of his monastery, using the term in a general way to indicate headship. But he is a hegumen who has been honored by his Bishop who has blessed him to bear the title and ceremonial accoutrements of an Archimandrite.

To make matters even more complicated, in very large monasteries you sometimes find the ultimate head of the monastery titled "archimandrite" and his deputy blessed as "hegumen." In such cases the titles can correspond roughly to the "abbot" and "prior" in a Benedictine house.

Now, just to round this off, I need to take a complicated explanation and make it even more obtuse. This is our Byzantine way In the Orthodox Church (and also in some of the Byzantine Catholic churches)you will often encounter Archimandrites who are not in fact heads of monasteries at all. They are simply blessed to this dignity in a purely honorific way. Almost all Greek celibate clergy are made honorary archimandrites very soon after their priestly ordination. You get this less among the Slavic Orthodox, but even there it does happen. So, for example, before he was made a bishop Kallistos Ware was Archimandrite Kallistos: a monk enrolled in the monastery of Patmos, but living in the world. So technically you had an honorary Archimandrite in a monastery which was headed by a "non-honorary?) Archimandrite. This is very common among the Greeks, and the episcopate is almost entirely drawn from the ranks of these honorary archimandrites. These days it is very rare for a Greek monk who actually lives in a monastery to be made a bishop.

Finally, although Archimandrite Boniface bears this title (and should be addressed as such in formal correspondence), he prefers to use the title "abbot" informally. This is because of his emphasis on his role as father of his monks. Abbot/abba best reflects his sense of his own ministry.

Hope this helps!

In Christ
unworthy monk Maximos

[This message has been edited by Br Maximos (edited 10-24-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Br Maximos (edited 10-24-1999).]

Dear Br. Maximos,

Thanks for the detailed info. It really helped a lot. I looked in our seminary library and found that book by Abbot Boniface on Eastern monasticism.

Also, your description of archimandrite was very good. It kind of reminded me of the old practice of commendatory abbots that were used in the West from the Middle Ages until the Catholic Reformation. This usage however was for more ignoble ends unfortunately, since many of these "abbots" were not even clergy, let alone monks! Instead the purpose was to have the resources of the monastery as a means of financial reward. But God can even use a corrupt system to bring about good since many monastic reformers in the Latin church got their start as commendan abbots.

I also believe I owe an apology for an oversimplification I made in the thread "orgins of Eastern monasticism in the US". I implied that many Eastern houses were self-started and later canonically recognized. Whether that is the norm or not, in our class we learned about how some of the greatest abbeys of the 19th Benedictine reform were begun by parish priest who entered monasticism out of their great love for it. For example, Dom Gueranger of Solesmes served only a 10 day novitiate before he was made an abbot of not just a single monastery but an entire congregation! Many opposed this interloper at the time, but his legacy still lives on today. Just another example of God's hand at work.

Now to my next question. I have always been intrigued by the line from the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom which mentions the "priestly, diaconal and monastic orders." And I am aware that it is more characteristic of the Western mindset to categorize things hence the limitation of the sacraments to seven, BUT could not monastic vows be seen as part of Holy Orders? I'm not trying to be overly clerical, but I can't help wonder that if priesthood and the married life are sacraments, why not religious profession? Seems like such a vital calling should be consider one of the big seven (at least tangentially). Your thoughts?

PAX Br. Elias OSB

Concerning monastic profession as a sacrament:

I think it is safe to say that the "taking of the schema" HAS been considered a "sacrament" for most of the history of the Christian East. In the developed form, this was in the imagery of a "Second Baptism" in which the monk "died to the secular world."

Roman Catholic theology loved to number things in "sevens" in the middle ages, and at the Council of Trent, the Protestant attacks on medieval sacramental practice were met with the definition that there are seven sacraments of the Church. This system was generally imitated by later Eastern authors, although the exact numbering of the seven (i.e. which are considered among the seven) varies from author to author.
One Orthodox author counted "Christening" as one (i.e. baptism, chrismation, and eucharist) and counted monastic profession and the funeral service as part of his seven.
Even the most literal reading of the Council of Trent as an expression of the Catholic tradition recognizes that the seven "sacraments of the Church" do not exhaust the "sacramentality of the Church."
All of which is meant to encourage your intuition on the importance of monastic profession to the mission of the Church. I think there is abundant evidence in the tradition of the Church Catholic to support your instincts. I'm not sure what would be the best way to express that importance today, but it is certainly worthy of more thought (and prayer!)
Thanks for raising the issue!

Phil Yevics

If my old monastic memory serves me correctly, the consecration of an altar (also an antimension, which is a portable altar) is numbered among the sacraments in the East as is the monastic tonsure, which I believe is pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur.
unworthy monk, Silouan

Dear in Christ Father Silouan,

Christ is amidst us!

What exactly are you referring to when you mention the tonsure and then follow it by saying that you "believe is pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur"? Are you saying that no one is getting tonsured anymore? Or that it's "sacramental" nature is ignored? This would come as a surprize to many of my monastic brothers and sisters who have all undergone tonsure.

unworthy servant,

+Kyrill

This is a good thread. I beleive that to have a son or daughter enter the monastic life is a true blessing. As so many say; its the angelic life. Well I dont doubt it. Every time I go to the Monastery, it is like heaven on earth ( at least the closest thing I can think of). It is one of my prayers that one or both of our children will enter the angelic life.

In the Orthodox Church we have many sacraments. Of course every one knows that a sacrament is a mystery. So now you can see that we have many sacraments, not just seven of them.

Timothy, reader

Father Kyrill, Please forgive me for not being specific enough. I meant that the monastic tonsure seems to have disappeared in the Latin Church, not in the Eastern Churches. I have many friends who belong to various religious Orders in the West (eg. Cistercians, Dominicans, OSB, Augustinians, etc.) that have never experienced monastic tonsure as part of their monastic consecration. An elderly Cistercian (Trappist) monk told me that he does remember the day maybe 40 years ago when the tonsure was a part of their monastic profession ceremony but it is no longer used. I know that my own tonsure was among the most moving and grace-filled moments of my life. It is as a second Baptism. I hope this clears the muddy waters I have created. Silouan

[This message has been edited by Silouan (edited 11-22-1999).]