22. Evergetis - Dumbarton Oaks

ELEVENTH CENTURY
as a door that will be barred against him to prevent him going from here to the city and sleeping
anywhere else. If he should ever transgress this instruction, treating it as of no account, he will be
excommunicated. These provisions are so that the superior should never go out of the monastery,
and now I must set down in writing how he should be appointed.
After I have completed this mortal life, the one who is left by me as superior should consult
with a few of you, those, that is, who always surpass the others in their conduct, manners, intellect,
character, discipline, and their spiritual state and way of life, and he should choose the one
who surpasses everyone in all these points and install him as steward; and he should install him in
the following way.
After the dismissal from matins and the customary prayer said by the priest, a trisagion should
be said by all and the one chosen should make three full genuflections in front of and near the holy
sanctuary; then he should reverently kiss the holy, divine, and revered icons of our Lord Jesus
Christ and of the most holy Mother of God and universal Benefactress. After that he should perform
the proper obeisance to the superior and then offer him his head bowed and uncovered and
he, making over it the sign of the venerable cross, should reverently say as follows: “The intercession
of my most holy Mother of God through the prayers of the Holy Fathers is installing you
steward of the monastery.” Then when he has given him the kiss in the name of the Lord, he is to
set him in his appropriate place. Next all without exception are to kiss him, and after the kiss glory
should be given to God and the dismissal should follow the usual prayer of the priest. [p. 51]
If this steward carries out his office faultlessly, proving to be reliable in the sight of God and
you, and being judged by you as fitting for the office of superior, should the superior know in
advance of his own departure from here to the Lord, he should appoint him to leadership over you,
since his faultless actions as steward have already been enough to act as a test and selection and,
as has been mentioned before, his mode of life has been spiritual in every way. But if the superior
should die without knowing in advance, then you, that is those who are preeminent and the most
devout, should place this typikon on the holy table and rest also the staff against it and when the
one selected has entered the holy sanctuary, after the prescribed trisagion and these troparia:
“Have mercy on us, have mercy, O Lord,” “Lord, Lord, turn to us from heaven and behold and
visit” (Ps. 79 [80]:14), “Glory both,” “Thou, the only begotten Son, of the same substance with
Thy Father and the Spirit,” and thirty repetitions of “Kyrie eleison” and, after he has made three
full genuflections before the holy table, you should invite him to take from it the typikon and the
staff while all repeat “He is worthy.” You should invite him to go out and stand in his appropriate
place and be kissed by everyone and become your next superior appointed by God. Then again he
and you should select the one who surpasses you all in virtue, and install him as steward in accordance
with the regulation stated above. So much for those matters.
What follows I did not wish to commit to writing. For it should not be necessary to remove
from his position and rank someone who has previously been selected for it. This would be a
pleasing and agreeable state of affairs if in fact we remained unchanged and completely unmoved
in our adherence to what is good, but that is impossible, for we often change and alter, such is
human nature, and when we are thought worthy of honor we grow weaker with regard to the
performance of good deeds, whether it is through giving way to laziness, as in most cases, since
authority has a habit of weakening those who have been elevated to it whereas they ought to
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