Eine kleine Reise in die Geschichte des 24/7 Gebets - Teil 2

Es geht weiter mit unserem Ausflug in die Geschichte des 24h Gebets. Viel Spaß beim lesen und inspirieren lassen :-)

The Early Monastic Tradition of 24/7 Prayer

For over one thousand years monasticism (the practice of taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to one’s spiritual superior) held a key role in the development of theology and practice in the Church. From the fourth and fifth centuries, monks and nuns were an accepted part of society. Monasticism is the cradle from which laus perennis, perpetual prayer, was birthed in the church age. We will now discuss some  of the key figures of this tradition.

Alexander Akimetes and the Sleepless Ones

Born in Asia Minor and educated in Constantinople, Alexander became an officer in the Roman army. Challenged by Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler from Matthew 19:21, Akimetes sold his possessions and retreated from court life to the desert. Tradition states that he set fire to a pagan temple after seven years of solitude. Upon arrest and imprisonment Alexander converted the prison governor and his household, and promptly returned to his abode in the desert. Shortly thereafter he had the misfortune to fall in with a group of robbers. His evangelistic zeal, however, could not be contained and he converted these outcasts into devoted followers of Jesus. This group became the core of his band of monks.
Around 400 AD, he returned to Constantinople with 300–400 monks, where he established laus perennis to fulfill Paul’s exhortation to pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17). Driven from Constantinople, the monks established the monastery at Gormon, at the mouth of the Black Sea. This became the founding monastery of the order of the Acoemetae (literally, the sleepless ones). Alexander died here in 430 AD, but the influence of the Acoemetae continued. The houses were divided into six choirs rotating throughout the day, each new choir relieving the one before, to create uninterrupted prayer and worship twenty-four hours a day.
John, the second abbot of the Acoemetae, founded another monastery on the eastern shore of the Bosphorus, referred to in many ancient documents as the “great monastery” and motherhouse of the Acoemetae. The library here was recognized for its greatness throughout the Byzantine Empire and indeed was consulted by several popes. The third abbot established a monastery in the capital under the royal consul, Studius, who dedicated the new monastery to John the Baptist. Studion became a renowned center of learning and piety, the most important monastery in Constantinople. Studion continued until 1453 when the Turks captured Constantinople.
The lasting impact of the Acoematae has been their worship and their contribution to church liturgy. The monasteries, numbering into the hundreds and sometimes thousands, were organized into national groups of Latins, Greeks, Syrians, and Egyptians, and then into choirs. In addition to laus perennis, which passed into the Western Church with St. Maurice of Agaune, they developed the Divine Office—the literal carrying out of Psalm 119:164, “Seven times a day I praise You, because of Your righteous judgments.” This became an integral part of the Benedictine rule of the seven hours of prayer—Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.

Agaunum

Around 522 AD, Abbot Ambrosius brought attention to a small monastery founded in Switzerland. Legend has it that around 286 AD, a Theban Legion under the command of Maurice de Valois was sent to suppress a rebellion by Gauls in the north of the empire. On their way to Gaul, the Coptic Christians were encamped at Agaunum (present-day Switzerland) where they were ordered to sacrifice to Roman gods and to the Emperor in petition for victory. Maurice and his Theban Legion refused. The Roman emperor, Maximian, ordered a “decimation” of the legion of seven thousand: one in every ten men was killed. When Maurice and his men continued their refusal, a second decimation was ordered, followed by another and another. The entire seven thousand Egyptian Christians were eventually martyred.
Although the veracity of the story has been called into question, the legend of the martyrs at Agaunum spread far and wide. Between 515–521 AD, Sigismund, King of Burgundy, lavishly endowed the monastery established at the site of the martyrdom to ensure its success. In 522 AD, the abbot at St. Maurice’s instituted laus perennis after the tradition of the Acoemetae. Choirs of monks would sing in rotation, with one choir relieving the previous choir, continuing day and night. This practice went on until around 900 AD, impacting monasteries all over France and Switzerland.