FOR A GEOGRAPHICAL APPROACH OF MONASTERIES

European Journal of Science and Theology, December 2009, Vol.5, No.4, 1-11

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FOR A GEOGRAPHICAL APPROACH OF MONASTERIES

Violeta Puşcaşu*

University ‘Dunărea de Jos’, Domnească Street 111, Galaţi, Romania

(Received 3 May 2009, revised August 2009)

Abstract

The article deals with the search of the geographicconditions role in drawing a possible typology ofmonasteries. From its beginnings, the trajectory ofmonastic phenomenon reveals multiple transitions. Belongingto the desert, the mountain and the forest, the monasticsites confirm some common characteristics for any naturalgeographic location, as well adapting forms that madepossible a pattern typology. At the same time, themonasticism represents a population form (oikoumene)significant for human and urban geography, shaped byhistory and culture. The present issue is an introductoryapproach in the geographic aspects of monastic places. Thegeographic locations of the Romanian monasticism are alsoanalysed.

Keywords: Geography, monasteries, phenomenological typology

1.Introduction

We don’t have already a close work dedicatedexclusively to the geographical approach of Orthodoxmonasticism, so much the less to the Romanian one. Themap of the monasteries within the Romanian spacepoints out a clear-cut uneven distribution withmultiple core concentrations on zones of* E-mail: [email protected], Phone, Fax: +40 236 493 370

Puşcaşu/European Journal of Science and Theology 5 (2009), 4, 1-11

geomorphologic contact or with inexplicabledispersions within the same level of relief. Thegeographical perspective (the physical and humangeography) didn’t have the same opportunity as thehistorical, institutional, philosophical andespecially theological analysis to be materialized inextended works. For this purpose, the present paperhas double features. First of all it mainly operateswith geographical tools used for a dynamic materialitythat can be partially measures. Secondly, itrepresents an approach centred upon the exterior,material and visible dimension of the monastic realitythat covers the spiritual theological kernel like anut-shell. The greatest challenge comes from thedifficulty to clearly separate the absolutegeographical reasons of positioning based on adeterminist structure, from the political, social,historical and ecclesiastical causalities. But theGeography defines itself as a science of theinteraction between the human, nature and society,therefore the human geography is the first one to beinterested in the phenomenon. In order to avoid anexhaustive approach we have chosen to focus on theline of classical geography, outlining the physic-geographical aspects of the natural environment, butwith insertions of elements from cultural geography,of population and settlements. By this type ofanalysis we point out not only places and physicalevidences but also invisible mechanisms that determinethe configuration of a sacred geography. The purposeis to identify patterns of natural determination andreflexes of the human choice in the locationdisposition of monasteries along time.

2.Methodology and previous researches

For an adequate methodology we should take intoaccount previous researches that helped us to put

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For a geographical approach of monasteries

together the relevant sources. On this occasion, wenoticed that geographical studies are missing,although the references and information ofgeographical importance are frequent. Among the fewworks that are close to our purpose is the one ofRaymond Janin [1]. Establishing territorial boundariesof the phenomenon is a problem that involvesgeographical scale and Janin focused upon thetopographic aspects from a quite well marked area thatallows focusing on as far as to the level of cloister.Whatever, Janin does not operate with a typologyderived from the location.

The second methodological condition refers to thetemporal scale of analysis that must allow pertinentgeneralizations and abstractions. From thisperspective, one of the useful works in the field isthe one of F. Braudel. He publishes in 1949 a study‘La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’epoque de Philip II’,in which he introduced a tripartite temporal systemfor the purpose of presenting a balanced study oftime, space and social reality in the past. Braudelperceived the past as an entity comprising ofdifferent types of structures that operate atdifferent temporal levels. He divided these structuresinto three categories: the long-term, the medium term,and the short-term levels, which correspond on atemporal scale to geographical, social, and individualtime. Hence, depending on the structure that isstudied, it is possible to understand it within theframework of different temporal levels. Using thetemporal hierarchy, Braudel succeeded to combine theimpact of environment and ecology to social activity,so that environment is not just background noise tohuman action [2]. Braudel’s long-term level describes‘man in his relationship to the environment’. In hislater works he also included on this level not onlyphysical geography, but mental frameworks as well.

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After the investigation and selection of animportant amount of geographical referencesdisseminated in works with various subjects, wenoticed that the closest preoccupations to thegeography of monastic cloisters come from the field ofthe monastic economy. This could be the main group ofworks, if we don’t take into consideration theextremely large group of historical and cartographicworks.

The works centred upon the monastic economy bringarguments for the sectorial, criterial method andalso, relevant references for the environmentsignificance in the building of monastic identity andtypology. The first monasteries and their monasticeconomy have been studied by Ewa Wipszycka in ‘Lesresources et les activités économiques des églises enÉgypte du IVe au VIII siècle’ (Resources and economicactivities of churches in Egypt between the 4th andthe 8th century) [3] and ‘Études sur le christianismedans l’Égypte de l’antiquité tardive’ (Studies onChristianity in Egypt in Late Antiquity) [4], RogerBagnall’s ‘Egypt in Late Antiquity’ [5], and JamesGoehring’s ‘Ascetics, Society, and the Desert’ [6].The Syrian monasteries and their economy have beendiscussed for example in G. Tchalenko’s ‘Villagesantiques de la Syrie du Nord’ [7], A. Vööbus’s‘History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient’ [8], J.Villeneuve’s ‘L’économie rurale et la vie descampagnes dans les Hauran antique (Ier siècle avantJ.-C. – Vie siècle après J. C.) [9] and in the studyof I. Peña et al.: ‘Les cénobites syriens’ [10], as NinaHeiska reveals in ‘The economy and livelihoods of theearly Christian monasteries in Palestine’ [11].

In the Romanian exegesis there is no studiesworked out on the principle and criteria ofgeographical analysis where an intermediate purpose of

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such an approach could be the geographicalregionalization of monasteries and geographicaltypology of the religious space.

3.Monasticism and geographical determinism

Before analyzing the various hypothesesconcerning the possible relationship betweenmonasticism and the geographical conditions, it mightbe useful to make a quick survey of the origin andfirst development of monasticism according to itsfirst geographical locations.

3.1. From the desert to the temperate forest

The origin of the first forms of monasticism iscontroversial and hints at its ideological basis. Forinstance, some scientists believe that in Palestine,the origin of Christian monasticism could be theJewish Nazarene sect. Some others consider thatChristian monks came from the order of hermitsdescendants of Saint Elijah that lived a lonely lifein Carmel. Some others think that the Christianmonasticism could find its origin in the quasi-monastic Jewish communities from Qumran (Palestine)and in those of the Jewish Therapeutae from Alexandria(Egypt) who lived a life of prayer, meditation andscarcity [12]. By this, the first question withgeographical significance comes implicitly – are thebeginnings of the monastic phenomenon related to thesub-oikumenic wilderness or it appears in an inhabitedspace, within or at least in the vicinity ofcommunities? The debate involves generally humanarguments, preferring the monasticism from thecommunity. Obviously, the Christian monasticism hasexterior resemblances with monastic structures out ofthe Christian space, not because these were itsorigins, but because parts of the ascetic efforts are

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valid in any system, without any connection with areligious or philosophic one. But the source ofChristian monasticism is to be found within the Churchand in the patterns of life devoted to the Christianideal that emerges in the Near East.

The theologian scientists claim that the firstpersons with a calling for solitude (monachos) tookupon themselves special anchoritic lifestyles justwithin the rural or urban communities. While thetheologian and the anthropologists are interested inthe cultural and the spiritual ways of monasticism,the geographers are interested in the manner in whichthe geographical place and space together influencethe phenomenon as well as in the other side of it,respectively the transformation of a land influencedby the presence and the dynamics of monasticism. Thatis why it is very important to say that the firstforms of monasticism germinated in oikos - permanentlyinhabited space - respectively in the middle of thecommunity and its features transferred selectively toits faithful people. The stories of Saint Athanasiusthe Great depict how monasticism detaches fromeveryday life. Thus, the proofs of monastic beginningswithin the community are early and related to the lifeof the great initiator of monastic life, as SaintAnthony whom it is said: “he began to live ananchoritic life in front of his house and lookingthoroughly into himself, he lived quietly the harshlife. Since there weren’t so many monasteries in Egyptand no hermit would know the vast desert and the onewho wanted to take care of his soul, would do it byhimself, not so far from his village” [13]. Gradually,at the same time as he made progress in faith, thuspreparing him, “Anthony moved to a tomb, where heresided and closed the door on himself, depending onsome local villagers who brought him food” [13, p.37]. According to Athanasius, this is the first smallisolation which was followed by the great separation from

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the world that would turn Saint Anthony into theFather of monasticism. “The next day, (…), meetingthat old man, he asked him to come and live with himin the desert. But this one refused, by reason of oldage and custom and Anthony climbed immediately themountain. As his decision increased more and more, hewent back to the desert, further out, to a mountain bythe river (Nile). There he lived strictly enclosed inan old abandoned fort, finding water inside and heonly communicated with the outside world by a crevicethrough which food would be passed twice a year.” [13,p. 41] We have in this text all the elements for ananalysis of classical physical and human geography: The wild space – un-inhabited, situated far away

from the community and however accessible forthose decided to reach it, probably situated onone of the roads that went through the desert;

The mountain – symbol of natural difficulties andselective accessibility; it needed not onlyphysical condition but also determination tohumanize it;

The water – the guarantee of the minimal conditionfor survival.Thus, the existence of the first monasteries is

related to a morpho-climatic system, rather than to anunique geographical element, where the interactionbetween the rock – the climate (temperature and wind)– the water generates the desert landscape.

In ancient Egypt and Syria, in a semi-dry and dryclimate, the distinction between the tilled andirrigated fields of the villages and the surroundingwilderness was very clear. Beyond the fields was ‘thedesert’, rocky and dry land, with a sparse vegetationof brambles, nettles, and thorn bushes, and incapableof supporting human habitation. It was the site ofcaves and small springs of brackish or salty water,abounding in poisonous snakes, lizards of all sorts,and watched over by vultures. But believe or not,

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these conditions favoured the life of a monk. Themoderate temperatures and sparse rain meant that hecould live alone with little shelter, and the solitudeand stark landscape aided in meditation and prayer.Moreover, the mountain and the water are the twonatural elements that will decisively mark theterritorial distribution of monasticism, beinghesychast or monastic shelters and the territorialagglutinations that emerged from the relation withthese natural elements are a proof for this idea.

But not any mountain becomes favourable to amonastic settlement as well as not any source of waterinstantly generates a monastic location. Althoughrelatively few and frequently non-specific, theinformation with explicit geographical reference isavailable since the first writings. Saint Paul fromTeba, the first hermit known by his name, retiring tothe mountains, “came to a place difficult to access,full of rocks, at the foot of which he saw theentrance to a cave (…) he stayed there eating the fewsavage fruits and drinking water from the brook thatsprang from the cave” [14]. There are quite numerousreferences to the communities from Nitra, Kellia andSketis, where ‘the mountain’ referred to is a namewithout geographical support as its altitude doesn’texceed sometimes 400–500 m. The elements that definethe space are used only to outline the harshness andthe hostility of the place, unsuitable for a normalliving.

The monks that had begun to live their lifeoutside towns, although in permanent ecclesiasticalconnection with the other fellows, gradually wentforward to more and more reclusive places that theywould inhabit, in a formula of sui generis re-oikumenization of the desert in the form of monasticcommunity (Pachomian) transformed into monastic‘village’. The structural-functional matrix of thelaic society is transferred to the Pachomian monastic

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system, but in harsher conditions of daily existence.Koinonia means the dwelling of the monk that had becomecommunity. (Saint Pachomie’s Koinonia was a group of11 monasteries, organized, from the formal point ofview, on the pattern of Egyptian villages, meaning anumber of dwellings - with their outhouses -surrounded by a defensive wall. The cells were groupedaccording to the owners' jobs in some kind of guilds[12, p. 193].) Thus, those Christians cultivated therelation in God not only by themselves but also insolitude that is why it is said: “at the beginning itwas the desert” [15]. During the 4th century, thedeserts of the Near East become inhabited by monks, byan explosive growth: the Egypt, the Sinai, Palestine,the Upper and Lower Syria and Cappadocia.

Populating the desert with monks and monasteriestook place in a space with different physico-geographical conditions as in now days. The firstrecorded human habitation is located on the placewhere Saint Anthony lived his life fighting off thetemptations of the flesh and attacks of demons,between Pispir and Qolzum mountains on the Lower Nile,between this river and the Red Sea [15,p.25]. Lateron, a second monk habitation, quite numerous and soonwell-known is founded around The Father Superior Amun,at about 60 km south-east from Alexandria, in thedesert of Nitria. It continues at 20 km with thedesert of Kella where approximately 600 reclusivemonks live their solitary life scattered in alldirections. This is the laura, a monastic way ofliving, a transitory status between pure anchoriticand coenobitic life. Around the year 330, a thirderemitic settlement is founded - the one of Macarius,in the desert of Sketis, at 70 km south from Nitria.The tendency to advance more and more into the desertwill gradually increase as the first hermitsettlements become well-known and opened to the world,reaching the Upper Egypt, the Ethiopian borderlines

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thanks to Onufrie, Marcus the Ascetic and Paul Temueh[15, p. 30].

There were mentioned monk habitations withdwellings of one or two rooms, the cells are directlydug into the rock, using natural hollows that areenlarged, the thermoregulation being provided by thedepth and type of rock. The diurnal thermal amplitudesthat rise above 40° favour the weathering process andthe wind-erosion shapes complex forms.

The Egyptian deserts that we refer to are partsof the Great Sahara Desert. The researchers of theSahara Desert concluded that the actual aspect isdifferent from the one of the Biblical times, and theclimatic conditions have also different parameters[16].

From a geomorphologic point of view, the reliefis dominated by dry riverbeds (oueds), relicformations from the pluvial periods of the QuaternaryEra. ‘Ouadi’ (Arabian) are the favourite places forthe location of the monasteries. These are connectedto insular mountains and plateaus advancing to closedintermountain depressions. In depressions and largedry riverbeds we find great piles of sand, dunes,which reach up to 400–500 m. The relief from theDesert of Nubia is mainly composed by a structuralplateau 350-1000 m high, decreasing in altitude fromEast to West, considerably ridged by a great number ofdry waterbeds. To the west, the plateau is coveredwith a layer of Aeolian sands that looks like sanddrifts (crescent dunes). From a climatic point ofview, the Sahara deserts are high level arid climateas the average multi-annual temperatures are over 20°,the winters are warm (over 10-14°C), high level ofevapotranspiration, the precipitations are weak(70mm/year) and the north-eastern trade-winds magnifythe aridity in the eastern areas. The hydrographicalnetwork of surface waters are scarce discontinuous,except for the Nile [17]. Contrary to this fact, the

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subterranean waters are more frequently than theterrestrial ones and can be found especially in thedry oueds and into depressions where phreatic watersand springs are often spread and close to the surface.The accumulations of waters from infiltrations are soabundant that, at the foot of some dunes water springsand small lakes appear. The deep water ground layer isresponsible for the formation of oasis and palmgroves, otherwise rare to be found in a sandy androcky desert. The Saharan soils are generallyabiogenic, poor in humus, covered with salt cruststhat were preserved (chlorides, gypsum, calcium).

In these conditions, during the 4th century, theentire Biblical territory will be populated by monks,the Egypt keeping its precedence. The other monasticterritories cover a symbolic line and a physical andgeographical one, to places less and less harsh andmore populated, going from the subtropical aridclimate to the temperate one.

4.The bridge between desert and urbanity

From Egypt, the monasteries spreads out to theother neighbouring regions, Mount Sinai being one ofthe reference points of the monastic pathway toEurope, which seems to connect the monasteries withthe proper mountainous heights.

From a geographical point of view, the area isimportant as the ‘bridge’ between Africa and Eurasia,belonging to the so called Fertile Crescent that includesthe Levant and Mesopotamia. Coupled with the Saharapump theory, Middle Eastern land-bridge is ofextremely importance to the distribution of oldChristianity, after the spread of humanity.

It is already known that the appearance of themonastic phenomenon follows, at historical level, onmedium term, the extinction of subpluvial Neolithicthat supported the Egyptian civilization [18]. And if

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the first monasteries are in relationship with thedesert, in the Sinai Bridge we have the first greatbifurcation: 1. to the mountainous monastery, that will become

representative for the Greek world through itsAthonite peak and

2. to the urban monastery, with regional variationsgoing to the western ones where the monasterybecomes an urbigenous factor.In Sinai, the first monks are mentioned before

the end of the 3rd century. Mount Sinai represents aspecial place by association with the burning bush andSaint Catherine Monastery that was built in the 6th

century will benefit a rare position in the rank ofmountainous settlements.

Mount Sinai (2285 m) and Mount Saint Catherine(2629 m) are the tallest peaks on the Sinai peninsulaas the highest mountains of the huge horn betweenMediterranean and Red See, Arabia and Africa, wherethe Monastery of Saint Catherine is sited at thebottom of slopes rising at 1260 m altitude. The rockswere formed in the late stage of the Arabian-NubianShield's evolution. Mount Sinai spread as a complexring that consists of alkaline granites intruded intodiverse rock types, including volcanic ones. Thegranites range in composition from syenogranite toalkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks arealkaline to per alkaline and they are represented bysub aerial flows and eruptions and sub volcanicporphyry.

Sinai is one of the few volcanic regions wheremonasteries were erected.

Until the Persian and Arabic menace another twoareas from the geographical bridge come actively to life –the Gaza Strip and Palestine - where monasticismconcentrated around Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and TheValley of Jordan. We witness here the first great return of

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Catherine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syenogranite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian-Nubian_Shield

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian-Nubian_Shield

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Catherine's_Monastery,_Mount_Sinai

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peninsula


monasticism to town. We don’t say that the fortified townswouldn't have sheltered before monastic centres on theoutskirts or even up town, as the Near East developsthe pattern of the desert as well as the one of urbanmonasticism, but numerous examples from the ‘EgyptianLives of the Fathers’ mention the existence of themonasteries in extramuros in the majority, compared tothe Palestinian monasteries that flourish in thedesert as well as in towns.

The first explanation with geographical dimensionand signification would be the degree of urbanizationof the Near East during the Biblical times, first ofall brought about by the already mentioned naturalfavourability. The Palestinian and Syrian deserts areless harsh than the Saharan-Egyptian one, whichoriginated the creation and the preservation of acoherent urban network.

Although the purpose of this research aims at themonasteries, a digression to the ascetic phenomenoncan support our argumentation. Both Egyptian andSyrian asceticism in the fourth century developed outof earlier ascetic traditions in their respectivelocations. While the anchoritic life was equally ascommon in both provinces, the expression of theascetic discipline, the askesis differed between thetwo: Egyptian asceticism was considerably milder thanthe discipline practiced by the anchorites in Syria.This was due to Egypt's severe deserts and harshclimatic conditions, forcing the ascetic to remain inhis cell, where he practiced the central tenets of theaskesis: fasting, prayer and meditation. Syrianasceticism, in contrast, was less hindered by thatprovince's geography and climate, which was milder andmore varied. The Syrians also developed a much morerigorous body renouncing tendency than in Egypt [19].The natural geographic terrain and climaticconditions, as in the Roman province of Egypt, greatlyaffected the manifestation of Syria's characteristic

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breed of asceticism. But unlike Egypt, the geographicand climatic conditions in Syria were considerablymilder. The difference between settled land and desertwilderness was not as greatly differentiated in Syriaas it was in Egypt, where life was directed towardsthe hard reality of survival; the extreme heat andlack of annual rainfall severely limited the Egyptianascetic to his cell, where manual labour and prayerwere carried out in one place, whether in solitude orin common. The deserts in Syria on the other hand werenot true deserts; the geographical terrain variedgreatly from steppe-lands to mountainous regions,where semi-annual rain-showers ensured that water wasalways near the surface. Theodoret of Cyrrhuscommented on the terrain in his own territory as“including many high mountains, some wholly bare andsome covered with unproductive vegetation” [20]. Thenatural geographic conditions of the Syrianwilderness, as opposed to desert, marked thedifference between the two provinces.

Consequently, almost simultaneously, newmonasteries are built in the river-side regions ofEuphrates, Antiochia, Edessa and Nisiba up to thefrontiers of Persia.

In Hauran, a basalt region in the southern partof modern Syria and northern Jordan, the settlementpattern is characterized by unfortified villages ofdifferent sizes, military settlements and monasteries.The absence of villa-type settlements is noticeable[21]. The climate of the plateau created favourableconditions for growing wine, fruit trees, olives andgrains.

Northwestern Jordan comprised fertile farmingland, which most probably was incorporated to theareas of the six major urban centres’: Gerasa, Gadara,Pella, Abila, Hippos, and Dium. Some of the placeshave biblical associations, which might have been oneof the reasons for attracting monastic presence and

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pilgrimage to the region [22]. All in all, manyregions of Byzantine Palestine show clear signs ofgrowth: expansion of urban centres and increasedbuilding activities, cultivation of new lands andpopulation growth [23]. The cultivation of plants andanimal husbandry appear to have been the main basisfor the growth and increasing wealth. This economicprosperity created excellent financial circumstancesfor the construction of new monasteries and for theextension of the old ones as well.

But the real urbanity of monasteries will be inclose connection with Constantinople.

4.1. The urbanity of the monasteries

Constantinople, large city (metropolis) of theEmpire and also prestigious monastic centre,introduces monasticism in Europe in its mixed form:intramuros (the town) and extramuros (the nature). Eversince the end of the 4th century, the number ofmonasteries increases, on both riversides of Bosporus.Here will lodge ‘the Saints’, transferred in the 5th

century to the monastery Studion and a succession ofmonasteries spreading between Chalcedon andChrysopolis. Some other monasteries are created inBithynia, Cappadocia, Peloponnesus or Thessaly, thetrend following its way to Athos at the end of thefirst millennium.

Constantinople was called the city defended byGod for the richness of the religious edifices and theamazing number of relics [24]. In this place, themonasteries see a new dimension of their legal statutewhich indirectly explains the great urbanconcentration. Thus, we find in the Byzantine Empiremonasteries with the statute of public property andprivate property, the last ones descending frompersonal habitations transformed by their owners intomonastic cloisters. Before the fall of Constantinople,

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a number of 325 monasteries are confirmed [25] in thecity, followed by Nicomedia of Bithynia.

The second great concentration of monasteries isfound on Mount Olympus, the heart of the Bithynianmonasticism and on Auxentie’s Mountain, testifying theemergence of an important category of mountainousmonasteries.

5.Altitude, geomorphology and morphostructure

Monasticism advances towards Europe and takes acertain shape according to the local conditions foundin each space. But Cappadocia represents a specialramification.

A distinctive case, where geomorphology becomes aconstitutive part of monasticism, Cappadocia ischaracterized by a morphological peculiarity as atableland, with a 1000 meters in average absolutealtitude, and its heterogenic structure comprise fromlimestone, calck and also several pyroclasticignimbrite deposits. Its climate has continental andsemi-arid elements, wet season with rainy and evensnowy precipitation, which is intense in winter andspring and almost driest in summer. Severemorphogenetic process activity in the soft ignimbritecontext gave rise to a unique landscape, which isdefined by branched and deeply-incised valley systemsand by the well-known pinnacles or ‘Fairy Chimneys’.The human settlements in this area are principally dueto the Christians and, at a later stage, to theByzantines: their activity marked the entire area andproduced an outstanding system of undergroundsettlements.

But when monasticism was grafted in Cappadocia,the building of monasteries had already progressed tothe Balkan Peninsula so far, going also across theDanube. The Slavs from the south become acquainted

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with the anchoritic life in the 7th - 9th centuries, atthe moment when Rila and Ohrida Lake areas areChristianized, becoming the main monastic centres forthe Bulgarian and the Serbians. In this place themonasteries are particularly situated in protected butstill accessible mountain regions. The sources ofwater are not anymore a priority because they are morenumerous. During the Muslim occupation the Byzantinemonasteries show a preference for a new location,besides the mountain - the forest. The forest becomesa favourite geographic site for the choice of monasticlocations in the south as well as in the north of theDanube.

The monasticism spreads out to the newChristianized regions, finding in Russia a new way ofexpression. The Tatars’ invasion during the 13th

century puts an end to the powerful and flourishingmonasticism in towns and the epoch of the forests andthe frozen northern desert as monastic locationsstarts all over again. As a matter of fact, after theTurkish occupation, the monasteries become insularinto the old ‘warm’ territories and go back to north,towards Russia and the Romanian Provinces, inhighlands or at least in wooded regions.

The map of Orthodox monasticism at the north sideof the Danube is marked by natural geographical andurban realities that are different from the originalplaces of the movement. Without embarking upon anunrealistic and obsolete geographical determinism, wetry to complete the image of the Romanian monasticismby adding a new dimension, connected to theparticularities of physical location and its urbaninsertion.

6.Geographic locations of Romanian monasticismbetween 4th–14th centuries or about “the place seeking”

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The places of birth, development and maintenanceof monastic cloisters are not uniform, expressing thecontinuous seeking for a pattern and an ideal place.

The Romanian territory witnesses Christianityfrom its very beginning through the relations with theRoman world. During the first centuries of the firstmillennium, among the first Christian communities ofthe Lower Danube there were also monasteries - activecentres of anchoritic life and refuge centres in timeof distress. Romanian monasticism appeared at the endof the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th centuryin Dobrogea. It emerged from four differentgeographical areas of the large Eastern Roman Empire,almost at the same time. The Byzantine Empire was thefirst source where bishops and missionary monks of theEparchy of Tomis mainly came from. They will introducean urban, cultivated monasticism experienced inmonastic arguments concerning Aryanism. It is thebranch of monasticism associated with the town, thecommunity that will last along the time although thepure forms will witness a fall together with the fallof the post-Aurelian urban network. A second importantsource was Cappadocia, the country of Saint Basil theGreat and Saint Sava the Goth. This is the point oforigin for the monks’ penitence in caves withrupestrian churches cut into the rock, i.e. those atNucu-Aluniş and later on those chalk churches ofBasarabi-Murfatlar. The other two sources, Syria andPalestine mainly introduced the way of life inpenitence. There aren’t similarities of exteriororganization between the two geographical areas,although the same pattern of caves with miniaturechurches seems to be of Syrian inspiration, not onlyCappadocian. There would be a late 5th source, Illyriaand the Dalmatia Coast that establishes easily theAthonite pattern by Serbian influence, mainly inforest area.

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Among the first personalities of our primarymonasticism we can mention Saint John Cassian (360–435), born in the region of Scythia Minor (nowDobrogea) that comes in touch with monastic experiencejust in his places of origin. The property of theCassians, fathers and forefathers of Saint JohnCassian, were spreading out to the Casimcea Valley upto the caves mentioned in two landmark writingsdiscovered by V. Pârvan. It seems that some othermonastic centres existed in Dobrogea at that time,i.e. the fortresses Callatis (Mangalia), Sucidava,Axiopolis (Cernavoda) and especially Niculitel, inHistria (Istria). Some other monastic settlements atthe mouths of the Danube as those located inDinogetia-Garvan, Noviodunum (Isaccea), Troesmis(Iglita) and in other Daco-Roman fortresses. It isconsidered that several hesychastic settlements wouldhave existed in the north of Dobrogea, protected byforest and mountains [26].

Thus, Dobrogea represents a double bridge –physical and symbolical – between the beginningmonasticism of the stony desert and developedcosmopolite cities and the temperate monasticism ofcaves and forests.

The monastic centres from Scythia Minor, theeparchies, the monasteries and their anchorites hadintense relations over the Byzant, Cappadocia, Romeand Palestine or Egypt as well as with the Daco-Romantowns at the north of the Danube, especially in thearea Brăila- Galaţi, Siret River Valley, CodriiVlasiei (Vlasiei woods) or Buzau Valley up to thecurvature of the Carpathians and Subcarpathians. Thewell-known hesychastic complex from the villages Nucu-Aluniş and the communes Colţi-Bozioru in Buzau countyis the oldest monastic centre found in theCarpathians, existing from the Paleo-Christian epoch,in the 4th–7th centuries. The numerous caves andrupestrian churches built inside stone, as well as the

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobrogea


deep hesychastic local tradition transform this areainto the most powerful hesychastic place in the middleof the country after Scythia Minor or Dacia Pontica(Dobrogea). Obviously, the insertion of monastic lifeinto Buzau region is due to the fruitful clericalrelations between the monasteries near the mouths ofthe Danube and the North-Danubian Dacia. The invasionof the Slavs (the 7th century) and the destruction ofthe greatest fortresses and monasteries from DaciaPontica forced many Christians and monks to findrefuge in the Buzău mountains and Vlăsiei Woods, thuscontributing to the extension of monastic life to thenorth of the Danube.

But the favourability of the natural environmentis indisputably an element that needs attention. Forinstance, the curvature of the Carpathians andSubcarpathian area have a flysch dominant geologicalstructure alternant sequences given by sedimentaryrocks consisting of grit stones, clay and limestoneand conglomerates which determine a differentialsculptured morphogenetic shaping forms, ready to bebaptized (‘old men’, ‘old women’, ‘sphinx’,‘apostles’, ‘priests’, etc) and hollows, sort of cavesand caverns, that can be easy enlarged by humanaction. We can notice the obvious direct relationbetween this geographical aspect and the multitude ofhermitages, found in this type of sites, anchoriticplaces that later on will turn into monasteries.

The 14th century, the period of political andecclesiastical crystallization in Wallachia, will giveplace to the Byzantine tradition of Athonite origin inthe reorganization of the monastic life in Wallachia,Moldavia, and partially in Transylvania. Vodiţa,Tismana, Motru, Prislop, Bistriţa and Neamţ are thefirst reorganized monasteries following the Athonitepattern. At the same time, they clearly define thespecific location of Romanian monasticism in theSubcarpathian area.

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7.The present geography of the religious landscape

The places where the religious edifices arelocated is due to the non-homogeneity of the Romanianspace which gains qualitative attributes on the basisof the number and intensity of the hosted objects.Their mutual reference induces the qualitative aspectof the qualified space. When choosing the location,certain places, certain hierophanies which consecratethat peculiar location should be taken intoconsideration. After all these elements, theconsecration ritual of the construction should beadded. Consequently, the space is not homogenous fromthe viewpoint of its sacredness either since there areplaces where the spiritual energy is more present orbecomes more present through hierophany, consecrationrituals, etc.

Among the other European Orthodox countries orcountries with representative Orthodox communities,Romania has the strongest spiritual and constructivemonastic phenomenon with its more than 600 old or newmonasteries. Inside the country, at the level ofbishoprics and historic provinces, the distribution ofmonasteries displays a strong territorial unbalance.The mapping of the monastic phenomenon at the level ofthe entire Romanian space has revealed territorialconcentrations with various degrees of agglutinationof monasteries and hermitages. According to thedensity of the monastic worshiping places weidentified three categories of geographic areas: areaswith high density of monasteries, areas with majorconcentration and areas that are weak, unclear orirrelevant from this point of view (Table 1) [27].

Table 1. The correspondence between main historicalprovince areas and geographical units/landscapes.

Areas with high density Type of

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of monasteries landscape/geographicalunit

Oltenia Province / VâlceaCounty

Getic Subcarpathians

Muntenia Province / BuzăuCounty

Curburii Subcarpathians

Moldova Province / NeamţCounty

Moldavia SubcarpathiansStânişoarei Mountains

The first observation that easily stands outregards the common or at least comparable ‘nature’ ofthe three locations: hypsometric levels of relief withmoderate accessibility, generally located between 500and 1 000 m, with a high degree of fragmentation andlandscape energies of 300 m, permanent hydrographicnetwork, forestry area of deciduous species. But theSubcarpathian sites and landscapes displays thesefeatures quasi-continuously along its entire lengthwithout canonic settlements of the same density, factwhich can be explained by the other factors ofinfluence and concentration, namely the degree ofisolation and distance to populated settlements, thenotoriety of certain pioneering monks around thoseplaces, the policy of the administrations, etc.

The second group of areas brings togetherterritories more diverse in terms of physical andgeographical conditions and population (Table 2).

It can be seen that the second large locationarea belongs to the plain; it is an obviouslyimportant issue that there the forest have apolarizing rule. Only few monastic settlements lookingfor the harshness of the open plain, which could havereminded of the Egypt desert conditions where thefirst Christian hermits secluded themselves. This isalso the area where we find the most ‘urban’monasteries, some of them located in the very heart ofthe capital city.

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Table 2. The correspondence between major concentrationsareas and geographical units/landscapes.

Areas of major concentrationin Romania

Type oflandscape/geographica

l unitCraiova – Slatina –

DrăgăşaniThe Romanian Plain

Târgovişte – Piteşti –Câmpulung

The Romanian Plain –Subcarpathians

Ploieşti – Câmpina – Văleniide Munte

The CurburiiSubcarpathians –Romanian Plain

Ploieşti – Bucureşti –Urziceni

The Romanian Plain

Râmnicu Sărat – Focşani The Romanian PlainTrotuş Valey The Curburii

SubcarpathiansThe Central Moldavian

PlateauThe Central Moldavian

tablelandSuceava The Suceava Tableland

– Obcine, BucovinaHills

Olt Valey The FăgăraşDepression

Maramureş – Lăpuş The Carpathians andTransilvania Hills

7.1. Isolation versus centrality – from the ‘desert’ to urbanity

One of the first dimensions accompanying theworshiping location is its relationship with the groupof believers which it belongs to by common use. Thisfact introduces the first major difference in choosingand locating the construction. Historically speaking,the parish churches have been associated with acommunity which conferred recognition of itsimportance by locating the church in the most visible,

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accessible and protected place at the same time,becoming thus the ‘centre’ of the settlement. Byopposition and as a result of a much strongerspiritual motivation, of the need for quietness and ofminimum contact with the temptations of the laicworld, the monasteries choose for their locationsplaces outside settlements, isolated, out of sight andeven difficult to reach.

The urban-territorial evolutions in the moderntime have gradually reduced, sometimes even to‘absorption’, the interstices of the uninhabited spacewhich determined the initial positions of certainedifices to change in relation with the rest of theensemble and the once central cathedrals to becomeperipheral and isolated monasteries to be included inthe everyday circuit as a result of the urbanexplosion and of a higher level of accessibilityconferred by the communication ways.

The first hypothesis we planned on testing refersprecisely to the isolation of the monasteries from theinhabited areas, rule which accompanies the choice oflocations. By immediate inference, a small density ofsettlements would attract a predisposition for a highnumber of monasteries. But the historical realityreveals, at least for the 14th-15th centuries, a strongdependency between the demographic density and thenumber of monasteries [28]. The fact is reasonable ifwe consider the times and specially the geographicplaces – the Romanian Plain and the tablelands ofsouth.

Nowadays this interrelation could appearincorrect. To support this fact, analyzing the resultsof the study made on the relationship between thenumber of the settlements, urban and rural (at thecounty level), and the number of the monasticworshiping places recorded in 2007, we reach theconclusion below.

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The second degree logarithmic function thatshapes well the distribution of the intersectionpoints of the variables taken into account (Figure 1)shows the tendency of gradual moderation of thedependence relationship/connection between settlementsand monastic worshiping places along with theprogressive growth of the prime numbers in therelation. More exactly, the curve displayed by thecombination of the two variables is of a logarithmictype, emphasizing the association of the small numberof monasteries both to a small number, and to a largenumber of settlements. The differences between theconcentration areas are the second signal of aterritorial unbalance of sacredness. This unbalancehas both a natural and human resort that could beanalyzed for each micro region.

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y = 114,44Ln(x) + 75,91R2 = 0,3374

0100200

300400500600

700800

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70m onasteries

settlem ents

Logarithm ic function


Figure 1. The Settlements - Monasteries Connection (countylevel) in 2007 [29].

8.Conclusions

The monasteries are a concentrate and essentialform of re-oikumene. Their spatial unbalanceddistribution reflects both the natural diversity,which could be explained by geographical reasons andarguments, and an invisible interrelation with socialelements. However, there are some areas that preservedthrough time a strong attraction for monastic life.These areas became special territory by their sacralcharge and shape a sui generis spatial organization thatis not superposed entirely on the quotidian spatialplanning.

Acknowledgements

To the priest Nicodim for his special compliance.

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[27] V. Puşcaşu and V. Chiriţă, Critical aspects on worshipsheritage status – with a special view on their tourist significance inRomania, in Responsibilities and opportunities in architecturalconservation. Theory, education and practice, S. Elwazani, S.

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Malhis and J. Al Qawasmi (eds.), CSAAR Press, Aman,2008, 89.

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[29] V. Puşcaşu and V. Chiriţă, Critical aspects on worships heritagestatus – with a special view on their tourist significance in Romania, inResponsibilities and opportunities in architectural conservation. Theory,education and practice, S. Elwazani, S. Malhis and J. AlQawasmi (eds.), CSAAR Press, Aman, 2008, 83.

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