MR Typikon

The Typikon of the Monasteries of the Orthodox Faith of the Holy Mountain

Chapter 1. The Commitment.

• Anyone who wishes to join the monastic community of Mt. Athos must pledge himself to respect God and man, to live according to the communal rule, that is, to seek God; to do what is good and upright in His sight, in accordance with what He has commanded through Jesus Christ and the Holy Orthodox Faith; to love all that He has chosen and hate all that He has rejected; to keep far from evil and to cling to all good works; to act truthfully and righteously and justly on earth and to walk no more in the stubbornness of a guilty heart and of lustful eyes, doing all manner of evil; to bring into a bond of mutual love all who have declared their willingness to carry out the statutes of God; to walk blamelessly before Him in conformity with all that has been revealed; and to love all the children of God.
• All who declare their willingness to serve God's truth must bring all of their mind, all of their strength, and all of their wealth into the monastic community, so that their minds may be purified by the truth of His precepts, their strength controlled by His perfect ways, and their wealth disposed in accordance with His just design. They must not deviate by a single step from carrying out the orders of God at the times appointed for them. They must neither advance the statutory times nor postpone the prescribed seasons. They must not turn aside from the ordinances of God's truth either to the right or to the left.

Chapter II. Initiation.

• Anyone who would join the ranks of a monastic community must enter into a monastery in the presence of God to do according to all that He has commanded and not to turn away from Him through any fear or terror or through any trial to which they may be subjected.
• When he enters into that monastic community, the hegumen is to pronounce a blessing upon the God of salvation and upon all that He does to make known His truth; and all that enter the monastic community are to say after them, “Amen, amen.”
• Then the hegumen is to rehearse the bounteous acts of God as revealed in all His deeds of power, and he is to recite all His tender mercies towards His children. And all who enter the monastic community are to make confession after them, saying, “We have acted perversely, we have transgressed, we have sinned, we have done wickedly in that we have gone counter to the truth. God has been right to bring His judgment upon us. Howbeit, always from ancient times He has also bestowed His mercies upon us all, and so will He do for all time to come.”
• Then the hegumen is to invoke a blessing on all that have cast their lot with God, that walk blamelessly in all their ways; and they are to say, “May He bless thee with all good and keep thee from all evil. And illumine thy heart with insight into the things of life, and grace thee with knowledge of things eternal, and lift up His gracious countenance towards thee to grant thee peace everlasting.”
• And all that enter the monastic community shall say after them that bless, “Amen, amen.”

Chapter III. The annual review.

• The following procedure is to be followed year by year.
• The priests are first to be reviewed in due order, one after another, in respect of the state of their spirits. After them, the brothers shall be similarly reviewed. The object is that every monk in the monastic community may be made aware of his status in the community of God in the sense of the ideal, eternal society, and that none may be abased below his status nor exalted above his allotted place. All of them will thus be members of a community founded at once upon true values and upon a becoming sense of humility, upon charity and mutual fairness, members of a society truly hallowed, partners in an everlasting communion.

Chapter IV. Those who are to be excluded.

• Anyone who refuses to abide by the monastic rule and persists in walking in the stubbornness of his heart shall not be admitted to this community of God's truth. For inasmuch as his soul has revolted at the discipline entailed in a knowledge of God's righteous judgments, he has shown no real strength in amending his way of life, and therefore cannot be reckoned with the upright. The mental, physical and material resources of such a man are not to be introduced into the stock of the community. He is not honest in resolving the stubbornness of his heart. For it is only through the spiritual apprehension of God's truth that man's ways can be properly directed. Only through the Holy Spirit can he achieve union with God's truth and be purged of all his iniquities. Only by a spirit of uprightness and humility can his sin be atoned. And only thus can he really direct his steps to walk blamelessly through all the vicissitudes of his destiny in all the ways of God in the manner which He has commanded, without turning either to the right or to the left and without overstepping any of God's words. Then indeed will he be acceptable before God like an atonement-offering which meets with His pleasure, and then indeed will he be admitted to the monastic community for ever.

Chapter V. Social relations.

• This is the rule for all members of the monastic community, that is, for such as have declared their readiness to turn away from all evil and to adhere to all that God in His good pleasure has commanded.
• They are to keep apart from the company of the froward.
• They are to belong to the monastic community in both a doctrinal and an economic sense.
• They are to abide by the decisions of their hegumen and of the majority of the community that stand firm in them. It is by the vote of such that all matters economic and judicial are to be determined.
• They are concertedly and in all their pursuits to practice truth, humility, righteousness, justice, chastity and decency, with no one walking in the stubbornness of his own heart or going astray after his heart or his eyes or his fallible human mind.
• They are concertedly to remove the impurity of their human mold, and likewise all stiffneckedness.
• They are to establish in the monastic community a solid basis of truth.
• They are to unite in a bond indissoluble for ever.
• They are to extend forgiveness to all among their brothers that have freely enlisted in the cause of holiness, and to all among the laity that have done so in the cause of truth, and likewise to all that have associated themselves with them.
• They are to regard as miscreants all that transgress the law.

Chapter VI. The obligation of holiness.

• And this is the way in which all those ordinances are to be applied on a collective basis.
• Everyone who is admitted into the monastic community is to enter into a covenant of God in the presence of all the brothers in the cause and to commit himself by a binding oath to return with all his heart and soul to the commandments of God, as those commandments are revealed to the Holy Orthodox Faith.
• He that so commits himself is to keep apart from all froward men that walk in the path of wickedness; for such men are not to be reckoned in the monastic community inasmuch as they have never sought nor studied God's ordinances in order to find out on what more arcane points they may guiltily have gone astray, while in regard to the things which stand patently revealed they have acted high-handedly.
• All that are not reckoned in the monastic community must be put aside, and likewise all that they posses. A holy man must not rely on works of vanity, and vanity is what all of them are that have not recognized God's covenant.

Chapter VII. The examination of initiants.

• When a man enters the monastic community, minded to act in accordance with all the foregoing ordinances and formally to ally himself to the holy community, inquiry is to be made concerning his temper in human relations and his understanding and performance in matters of doctrine. *This inquiry is to be conducted by the hegumen and his council who have undertaken concertedly to uphold God's Law and to supervise the execution of all the ordinances which He has commanded. Every man is then to be registered by the standard of his attitudes and his performance is to be reviewed, however, year by year, some being then commended by virtue of their improved understanding and the integrity of their conduct, and others reprimanded for their waywardness.

Chapter VIII. Accusations and grudges.

• When anyone has a charge against his neighbour, he is to prosecute it truthfully, humbly and humanely. He is not to speak to him angrily or querulously or arrogantly or in any wicked mood.
• He is not to bear hatred towards him in the inner recesses of his heart. When he has a charge against him, he is to proffer it then and there on the selfsame day and not render himself liable to penalty by nursing a grudge.
• Furthermore, no man is to bring a charge publicly against his neighbour except he prove it by witness.

Chapter IX. Communal Duties.

• This is the procedure which all members of the community are to follow in all dealings with one another, wherever they dwell.
• A monk is to obey his superior in rank in all matters of work and money. But all are to dine together, worship together and take counsel together.
• When they set the table for a meal or prepare wine to drink, the priest is first to put forth his hand to invoke a blessing on the first portion of the bread and wine.
• The monks are to keep awake for a third of all the nights of the year reading books or studying the Scriptures and worshipping together.

Chapter X. The General Council.

• This is the rule covering public sessions.
• The priests are to occupy the first place; the brothers are to come second. This order is to obtain alike when they seek a judicial ruling, when they meet for common counsel, or when any matter arises of general concern.
• Everyone is to have an opportunity of rendering his opinion in the common council. No one, however, is to interrupt while his neighbour is speaking, or to speak until the latter has finished. Furthermore, no one is to speak in advance of his prescribed rank. Everyone is to speak in turn, as he is called upon.
• In public sessions, no one is to speak on any subject that is not of concern to or to the liking of the company as a whole. If the hegumen or anyone who is not of the same rank as the person who happens to be raising a question for the consideration of the community, has something to say to the company, he is to stand up and declare: “I have said something to the company”; and only if they so bid him, is he to speak.

Chapter XI. Postulants and novices.

• If any man wishes to join the monastic community, the hegumen is to examine him as to his intelligence and his actions and, if he then embark on a course of training, he is to have him enter into the monastery to return to the truth and turn away from all perversity. Then he is to appraise him of all the rules of the community.
• Subsequently, when that man comes to present himself to the community, everyone is to be asked his opinion about him. and his admission to or rejection from the community is to be determined by general vote.
• No candidate, however, is to be admitted to the monastic life enjoyed by the members of the community until, at the completion of a full year, his spiritual attitude and his performance have been duly reviewed.
• After he has spent a full year in the midst of the community, the members are jointly to review his case, as to his understanding and performance in matters of doctrine. If it then be voted by the opinion of the priests and of a majority of the brothers to admit him to the community, they are to have him bring with him all his property and the tools of his profession. These are to be committed to the custody of the hegumen. They are to be entered by the accountant into an account, but he is not to disburse them for the general benefit.
• Not until the completion of a second year among the members of the community is the candidate to be admitted to the common board.
• When however, that second year has been completed, he is to be subjected to a further review by the community, and if it then be voted to admit him to the community, he is to be registered in the order of rank which he is to occupy among his brethren in all matters pertaining to doctrine, judicial procedure, degree of purity and he may share in the common funds. *Thenceforth his counsel and his judgment are to be at the disposal of the community.

Chapter XII. False, impudent and blasphemous speech.

• And these are the rules to be followed in the interpretation of the law regarding forms of speech.
• If there be found in the community a monk who consciously lies in the matter of his wealth, he is to be regarded as outside the state of purity entailed by membership, and he is to be deprived of one fourth of his food ration.
• If a monk answers his neighbour defiantly or speaks brusquely so as to undermine the composure of his brother, and in so doing flout the orders of one who is registered as his superior, he is to be fined for one year.
• If a monk, in speaking about anything, mentions that Name which is honored above all names, or if, in a moment of sudden stress or for some other personal reason, he curses the Lector or Presider, he is to be expelled and never to return to membership in the community.
• If a monk speaks in anger against one of the brothers, he is to be fined for one year, placed in isolation, and regarded as outside the state of purity entailed in membership in the community. If, however, he spoke unintentionally, he is to be fined only for six months.
• If a monk defames his neighbour unjustly, and does so deliberately, he is to fined for one year.

Chapter XIII. Fraud.

• If a monk speaks to his neighbour in guile or consciously practices deceit upon him, he is to be fined for six months. If however, he practices the deceit unintentionally, he is to be fined only for three months.
• If a monk defraud the community, causing a deficit in its funds, he is to make good that deficit. If he lacks means to do so, he is to be fined for sixty days.

Chapter XIV. Vindictiveness.

• If a monk harbors a grudge against his neighbor without legitimate cause, he is to be fined for six months. The same is to apply also to a monk who takes personal revenge on his neighbor in any respect.

Chapter XV. Improper speech.

• A monk who indulges in indecent talk is to be fined for three months.

Chapter XVI. Misconduct at public sessions.

• A monk who interrupts his brother in a public session is to be fined for ten days.
• A monk who lies down and goes to sleep at a public session is to be fined for thirty days.
• A monk who leaves a public session gratuitously and without reason for as many as three times during one sitting is to be fined for ten days.

Chapter XVII. Indecorous acts.

• If, except he be under duress, a monk walks naked before his brother, he shall be fined for six months.
• If a monk spits into the midst of a public session, he shall be fined for thirty days.
• If a monk brings out his hand from under his cloak, to expose himself so that his private parts become visible, he shall be fined for thirty days.
• If a monk indulges in raucous, inane laughter, he shall be fined for thirty days.

Chapter XVIII. Slander and incrimination.

• If a monk slander his brother, he shall be regarded as outside the communal state of purity for one year, and he shall be fined. But if he slanders the entire community, he is to be expelled and never return.
• If a monk complains against the whole community, he is to be expelled irrevocably.
• If a monk complains against his brother without legitimate cause, he is to be fined for six months.

Chapter XIX. Defection.

• If a monk's spirit waver so far from the community that he betrays the truth and walks in stubbornness of his own heart, but if he subsequently repent, he shall be fined for two years. *At the completion of the two years, the community shall hold an inquiry about him. If it then be decided to readmit him, he shall again be registered with his newly assigned rank and thereafter he too shall be called upon to render his opinion in deliberations concerning the rules.
• If a monk has been a formal member of the community for a full ten years, but then, through spiritual relapse, betrays the laws of the community and quits the general body in order to walk in the stubbornness of his own heart, he is never to return to membership in the community.