22. Evergetis - Dumbarton Oaks

ELEVENTH CENTURY
nor in any haphazard fashion, but first the burial chants are to be sung by you and they should
receive the other care, to put it simply, to show our stranger brothers complete joyfulness so that
we may receive from God joyful and abundant mercy on their behalf.
For we do not wish anyone to return from our gate empty-handed, except a woman. For they
should not receive a share, “not that we hate our fellow human beings, certainly not,” 35 but we
fear harm from that quarter, in case if a habit was generally accepted they would visit the gate
more frequently and would be found to be the cause of evil rather than good to those ministering.
If however there is a general distribution, as at the feast of the Dormition of our most-holy Lady
the Mother of God and at different commemorations of the dead, giving also to women should not
be prevented. For this occurs rarely and does not cause us any harm.
39. Concerning the fact that the monastery is not to be entered by women except eminent and
noble ones.
We wished and desired the monastery not to be entered and to be completely impassable to
women, but the nobility of many and the fact that it was not possible to send them away easily
prevented us giving this order. Therefore, as many as are well-known for their way of life and
virtue, their nobility and eminence, may come in but very rarely and carefully and, if possible,
unexpectedly, so that in that way we may be able to preserve our respect for them and maintain
freedom from harm for ourselves.
Regarding other offices, which the other monasteries usually have, I wish people to be appointed
to them in the monastery as the occasion demands and if there is urgent need; for then they
[the offices] will be beneficial and be connected to the maintenance of the monastery. 36
40. An exhortation from the founder to everyone, namely the superior, the steward and the brothers,
to keep unbroken all the regulations in this his typikon.
I beseech you all, my brothers and beloved children in the Lord, [p. 85] to keep unbroken and
unchanged my wishes couched in all the regulations set down for you above by me your sinful
father, and my desire, advice, and instruction which is for your benefit, the salvation of your souls,
the safety and comfort of all, and, to mention it, an adornment and cause for boasting (cf. Phil.
2:16) for my soul in the presence of the Lord. For it is for this reason that we set out clearly and
openly and were careful in this typikon to remove also every source of scandal as far as is possible
for us, lest after our death Satan, the enemy of our souls, might find a chance, which I pray does
not happen, O my Mistress and Lady Evergetis worthy of all praise, to dislodge you from the
correct attitude and set up his own siege engine and overthrow what has been well established
with much sweat and toil and with God’s help and built up into this beauty which is now visible.
For, after so much steadfastness and as close a conformity as is possible on our part, I know
that one day a source of evil will arise to bring evil and pretexts and suggestions for crooked and
perverse dealings on the part of the wicked and perverse wild beast, but you, almost all of you,
being illuminated by the grace of Christ and from your constant reading of the divine scriptures
and instruction being well aware of his craftiness and how you ought to repel it, as a result of
experience itself and the things by which you yourselves have been tested and proved, resist evil
firmly, having the great and unbreakable assistance of God through the fervent intercessions of
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