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Project

Integrating Outsiders, Preserving Identity: Byzantine Policies on Foreign Monks (9th-12th Centuries)

The project focuses on two objectives. Firstly, it provides an extensive description of monks’ mobilities in the Byzantine world at both the local and regional scale in a specified period (9th-12th centuries). The research reconstructs the typology of Byzantine monastic movements, highlights the ethnic and social origin of monks, as well as the reasons for their move, maps the major routes of monastic migrations, integrates the phenomenon into the context of political and social events, and attentively examines several monks and monastic communities.
Secondly, the project identifies the major Byzantine social and ecclesiastical policies on foreign monks. The two main possible attitudes regarding foreigners, acceptance and rejection, are examined in several monastic documents (mainly canon law and monastic rules). The balance between preservation of proper identity and integration of foreigners is studied. The project also identifies the liturgical ritual of monks’ integration in their new communities in various Greek manuscripts.
The rationale behind is multi-facets. The proposed research facilitates the understanding of monastic mobility in Byzantium and supports better knowledge of the cultural transfers operated in this context. Several elements of research are relevant for contemporary society. The project has the potential to stimulate dialogue between Byzantine and non-Byzantine communities, churches and monks.
 

Date:1 Oct 2018 →  30 Sep 2021
Keywords:foreign monks, Byzantium, policies
Disciplines:Language studies, Literary studies, Curatorial and related studies, History, Other history and archaeology, Art studies and sciences, Artistic design, Audiovisual art and digital media, Heritage, Music, Theatre and performance, Visual arts, Other arts, Product development, Study of regions, Theology and religious studies, Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified