All Orthodox countries are represented there, the monks living in their own monasteries or grouped in one or another of the great Lavras, or as hermits. There is a great richness of forms of the spiritual life to be found within the bounds of Orthodoxy, but monasticism remains the most classical . . . One could say broadly that Eastern monasticism was exclusively contemplative, if the distinction between the two ways, active and contemplative, had in the East the same meaning as in the West. In fact for an Eastern monk the two ways are inseparable. The one cannot be exercised without the other . . .
Interior prayer receives the name of spiritual activity . . .
If the monks occupy themselves . . . with physical labors, it is above all with an ascetic end in view. To this age belongs the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, founded by Emperor Justinian in 560, and which is still in use, harboring a great treasure in manuscripts and holy icons which have escaped the ravages of the iconoclastic wars. With time there developed in all Orthodox countries a rich and distinctive monastic life, and each could boast of important spiritual centers that spread their light over all the Orthodox world. To mention only the foremost, are the Lavra of Kiev and Optina in Russia, Mount Athos and Patmos in Greece, Tismana and Neamtu in Romania, Ohrida in Serbia. There were countless monasteries, convents and hermitages in these, countries in pre-communist days.