Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-01-11

very small part of the whole |
there being an independent patriarch |
of Jerusalem. another of Antioch, and
another of Alexandria and there being
now, as we shall see, no such dignitary
over the Russian dominions. The pa
triarch is elected by the highest clergy of
his patriarchate, and he. as well as his
electors, must be unmarried. In the
Turkish dominions the election of a pa
triarch, before valid, must be confirmed
by grand seignor.
The clergy of the Greek Church are
divided into two great classes-the one
composed of the priests or pastors proper,
and the other of the monks and higher
clergy-bishops, archbishops, and patri-
archs. A provision with respect to the
first of these classes is, that they must be
married before being ordained; and it is
said, (,heuah difficult of verification) that
another rprovision-founded doubtless up
on the precept of Paul to Timothy, re-
quiring the one desiring the Office of a
bishop TO have ''his children in subsection"
requires them to be fathers! The 9TH
er class may marry, but with the loss of
their ecclesiastical dignity. The clergy
live on the revenue of the churches,
which they manage to make very con-
siderable sum.
Monasticism prevails to very great
extent in the Greek Church. Upon
Mount Athos, in Greece, is most cele-
brated and interesting collection of mo-
nasteries, numbering some twenty, with
many connected and dependent habita-
tions, and containing a population ofsev-
eral thousands. The buildings are large,
oftenest in the form of the Greek cross.
always occupy striking positions, and
have very much of the military air.
They are adorned with almost number
less pictures, and have the heads and
members Of nearly all the saints in the
calendar-including the left hand of St.
Michael. in good condition, difusing an
I abundant and delightful odor :" and the
left foot of St. Anne, "a right marvellous
and sarory reIc!''
The monks are divided into three pro-
gressive classes. On entering the mo-
mastery they undergo a noritiate of three
years, from which they advance to the
lesser habit; and in rare instances, excep
in the hour of death, (for it is said tha
one dying with this habit on him is sur
of heaven !! to the greater habit.
The discipline of these monasteries i
very severe. The monks never sleel
more than five or six hours aday; neve
taste flesh meat; on one hundred an,
fifty-nine days of the three hundred an,
sixty-fve have only one meal, and on n,
day more than two and ordinarily, thei
diet consists of vegetables and bread
boiled in water. By far the greater par
| of the monks arc engaged in manual la
Dor. "Some of us pray, and the rest G
US work, was the answer they gave to
recent Traveller, in reply to a question a
to their employment. A great numbe
? are engaged in tillage, others in Yariou
handicrafts-manufactqring articles fo
home consumption.
ConUents are not so numerous in th
Greek Church as monasteries. Th
= nuns arein no degree inferior to the monk
f in their abstemious courses of life, the
penances, fasts, prayers, and other ac
: Of devotion. Their heads are shave
o close; their habit is of black woole
+ cloth. Each one has separate apartment
e Usually two rooms-and those in GOO
l. circumstances are allowed to keep ser
le ant. They spend their time often in e
re ucating young ladies, and occupying the
le leisure moments with needle-work.
a. The ceremonies of the Greek Chur,
m are most like those of the Roman Cat
r olic Church, though in some respet
y widely diverse. They have feasts al
tie fasts, high-days and holy-days, set-da
ny and Sundays, in abundance. Their fa'
Is are much more rigorous than those of t
sy Roman Catholics They address pra
he ers to the Virgin Mary, and invoke t
at saints /; but they deny that they do 50
m the same way as the Roman Catholics
no The manner of the introduction of 1
of Greek Church into Russia is differen
all stated. One account is that two Gre
er priests, having visited Morayia, metth'
= the Duchess Of Olga, and having secul
en- her as the first convert, she was grea
IN, instrumental in enlarging the Church
eir For this reason, it is said, she (undert
ore name of Helena) has been enrolled a
saint in the Russian calendar.
EEK Another story is that Vladimir, VIII
re- reign terminated In l0I5. feeling the