The Monastic Tonsure and the Degrees

One becomes a monk not by a private decision but by a liturgical rite — the tonsure, in which the hair is cut in the sign of the Cross, the habit is bestowed, and a new name is often given, so that the profession is understood as a “second baptism.” This file treats the novitiate and the rite of tonsure, the ascending degrees of the Byzantine and Slavic tradition (rassophore, stavrophore or little schema, and the great schema), the vesture proper to each, and the meaning of the new name.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

The Novice

The monastic life begins with a probationary period, the novitiate. The novice (Greek dokimos; Russian poslushnik, from poslushanie, “obedience”) has entered the monastery on trial: he has received no tonsure, wears a simple cassock rather than the full habit, is assigned obediences (tasks) in the community, and lives under its rule and the guidance of a senior monastic (Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church, Penguin, 2015, on the stages of the monastic life; and the description in Orthodoxy: Monasticism). The novitiate has no fixed length — it may last several years, at the discretion of the abbot and according to the novice’s readiness — and the novice remains free to leave without penalty. The purpose is discernment on both sides and, above all, the beginning of the long formation in obedience that is the substance of the monastic vocation (see The Vows and the Monastic Day).

The Rite of Tonsure as a Second Baptism

Profession is made through the rite of tonsure (Greek koura; the office is often called the akolouthia tou schematos, the “service of the habit”). Its central gesture is the cutting of the candidate’s hair in the form of the Cross, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit — a token of the offering of the whole self to God and of submission, as the hair falls, of the will to obedience (the Byzantine rites of tonsure are given in the Euchologion; described in Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2015, and Nikolaus Egender and the liturgical studies of the monastic profession; see also the treatment in the Great Book of Needs, trans. St. Tikhon’s Monastery, South Canaan, PA). The tradition reads the whole rite in baptismal terms: the candidate renounces the world as the catechumen renounces Satan, makes vows as at baptism, is clothed in a new garment, and receives a new name — so that the fathers and the office itself speak of monastic profession as a “second baptism,” a renewal of baptismal grace through repentance (St. John Climacus, Ladder, Step 5, on repentance and tears as a second baptism; Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2015; and see The Angelic Life). The questions put to the candidate — whether he comes of his own free will, whether he will remain in the monastery and in ascetic obedience until his last breath, whether he will preserve virginity, obedience, and poverty — draw from him the monastic vows before God and the assembled community (the interrogations of the tonsure office, Euchologion / Great Book of Needs).

The Three Degrees

The Byzantine and Slavic tradition recognizes a graduated ascent through degrees of monastic commitment, each conferred by its own tonsure or blessing and marked by additional elements of the habit. There is some variation in usage between Greek and Russian practice and across periods, but the classic scheme has three principal grades above the novitiate (Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2015; and the historical detail in the liturgical and canonical literature).

Rassophore

The first grade is the rassophore (Greek rasophoros; Russian ryasofor), the “robe-bearer.” At this first tonsure the hair is cut and the candidate is clothed in the rason (the outer cassock) and the klobuk (the monastic head-covering), and is thereby set apart as a monastic, though in the strict sense the rassophore stands between the novitiate and full profession. Formal lifelong vows are generally not made at this stage, and the rassophore is sometimes regarded as a more committed form of the novitiate rather than as full monasticism (Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2015; and see Orthodoxy: Monasticism, which notes the practice on the new name). Whether a new monastic name is given at the rassophore tonsure has varied: the custom of changing the name at this first tonsure is attested among the Greeks earlier and among the Russians later, but it was never universal, and in much Russian practice the name is changed only at the little schema (“The Origins of the Practice of Giving Monks New Names,” St. Elisabeth Convent, Minsk, 2022, on the varying custom).

Stavrophore (the Little Schema)

The second grade is the stavrophore (Greek stavrophoros, “cross-bearer”), the monk or nun of the little schema (mikron schema; Russian malaya skhima), also called the mantia-monk. This is full monastic profession in the proper sense. Here the three great vows — obedience, chastity, and poverty — are solemnly made (framed by the promise of stability and perseverance to death); the hair is again cut; a new name is given; and the monk is clothed in the full habit, receiving above all the mantia (the long monastic cloak) together with the paramandyas (a small square cloth embroidered with the Cross and the instruments of the Passion, worn on the back and connected by ties across the breast) and the prayer-rope (Greek komboskoini; Russian chotki) (the little-schema vesture is described in Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2015, and the Great Book of Needs; the vows are the classic obedience, chastity, poverty). The little schema is understood as complete and permanent monastic consecration; the vows are binding for life.

The Great Schema

The highest grade is the great schema (Greek to mega [kai angelikon] schema, “the great [and angelic] habit”; Russian velikaya skhima), whose bearer is called a megaloschemos. It is reserved for monastics of exceptional maturity and is often conferred late in life, or on those given wholly to prayer and withdrawal; a further and more solemn set of vows is made, intensifying the commitment to prayer, silence, and death to the world, and a new name is given yet again (Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2015; and the office of the great schema in the Euchologion). The great-schema monk is clothed in additional and distinctive garments: the analavos (Slavonic analav) — a long garment worn over the shoulders, embroidered with the Cross and the instruments of the Passion and the Trisagion or other prayers — sometimes called the polystavrion (“many-crossed”) from the crosses upon it, together with the koukoulion, the pointed hood (also embroidered with crosses) that is the special mark of the great schema. The great-schema monastic is expected to withdraw as far as possible from administration and external duties and to give himself almost wholly to unceasing prayer (Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2015). It is precisely the great habit that the tradition calls the “angelic schema,” expressing in its highest form the understanding of the whole monastic vocation as the angelic life (see The Angelic Life).

The New Name

At tonsure the monk characteristically receives a new name, usually that of a saint, chosen by the abbot (often a saint whose feast falls near the day of tonsure, or one the abbot judges fitting). The giving of a new name is the sharpest sign of the whole rite’s meaning: as Abram became Abraham and Simon became Peter at the turning-points of salvation history, and as the newly baptized receives a name, so the monk, dying to his former life and rising to a new one, is called by a new name and takes a new patron (Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2015; “The Origins of the Practice of Giving Monks New Names,” St. Elisabeth Convent, 2022). Where a monk ascends through the grades, a new name may be given again at the little schema and again at the great schema, each renaming marking a deeper death to the world and a new beginning — the outward token of the tradition’s insistence that the monastic life is not a career but a series of ever-deeper baptismal deaths and resurrections (Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2015; and see Ascesis, Hesychia, and Theosis).

References

Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodox Church. New ed. London: Penguin, 2015. (The stages of the monastic life; the degrees, the vesture, and the new name.)
John Climacus, St. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Trans. Colm Luibhéid and Norman Russell. New York: Paulist Press, 1982. (Step 5, repentance as a second baptism.)
The Great Book of Needs (Trebnik). Trans. St. Tikhon’s Monastery. South Canaan, PA: St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press, 1999–2000. (The rites of monastic tonsure, little and great schema.)
“The Origins of the Practice of Giving Monks New Names.” St. Elisabeth Convent, Minsk, 2022. (The varying custom of the new name across Greek and Russian practice.)