Italo-Greek monastic Typika *

Abstract

Book Title – Greek Monasticism in Southern Italy: The Life of Neilos in Context (edited by Barbara Crostini and Ines Angeli Murzaku) Chapter Number & Title – Chapter 2 : Italo-Greek Monastic Typika (by Cristina Torre) This chapter discusses the Typika from the monasteries of St John the Forerunner in Pantelleria, St Savior in Messina, the Theotokos Nea Hodigitria in Rossano and St Nicholas at Casole, near Otranto, together with the Testaments left by Gregory, abbot of the monastery of St Philip at Fragala. These documents transmit disciplinary provisions about monks’ behavior, worship, work, diet. Analogies and differences, analyzed in order to identify possible connections, show that the regulatory texts here presented in general appear firmly anchored in what we might call the classical models of Byzantine monasticism, rather than receptive to the influence of the more recent Byzantine monastic reform movement, emphasizing the conservative attitude of this provincial strand of monasticism. Despite this common stance, they do not show evident mutual affinities, which suggests that these texts, with the exception of the typikon of St Savior, did not circulate outside the monasteries for which they were written.