title: USS Constellation (CV-64)

text: "Constellation"s 20th deployment began on 16 March 2001. She entered the Persian Gulf on 30 April and immediately commenced operations in support of OSW. On 13 May, Captain John W. Miller assumed command as "Connie"s 30th skipper, and her last. She ceased OSW operations on 4 August, having conducted multiple air strikes in response to Iraqi violations of the no-fly zone. "Connie" departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 9 September with dependents on board for the traditional Tiger Cruise on the final leg to San Diego. On 11 September "Constellation" was nearly halfway between Pearl Harbor and San Diego when word was received of the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Despite discussions about turning the battle group around, the carrier was allowed to complete her regularly scheduled deployment. "Connie" arrived in San Diego on Friday 14 September and celebrated her 40th birthday the next month.


title: USS Constellation (CV-64)

text: Following an abbreviated turnaround cycle, "Constellation" prepared for her final deployment and the opportunity to fight in the Global War on Terrorism. She departed on 2 November 2002, leading Cruiser-Destroyer Group 1 under the command of Rear Admiral Barry M. Costello. She was soon supporting Operation Enduring Freedom; on 17 December she entered the Persian Gulf to begin OSW missions. On 19 March 2003, with two carriers in the eastern Mediterranean and three in the gulf, Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced. "Connie" was designated a night carrier and remained on station throughout the major ground combat phase. She launched more than 1,500 sorties and CVW-2 aircraft delivered over 1.7 million pounds (770,000 kg) of ordnance. While one aircraft was lost in an operational mishap, there were no fatalities.


title: USS Constellation (CV-64)

text: "Connie" departed the gulf on 17 April and steamed for San Diego for the last time. On 1 June a Sea Control Squadron 38 (VS-38) S-3B Viking crewed by Lieutenant Hartley Postlethwaite, Lieutenant (junior grade) Arthur Gutting and "Constellation" Commanding Officer, Captain John W. Miller, recorded "Constellation"s 395,710th and final arrested landing. Her 21st and final deployment ended the next day.


title: USS Constellation (CV-64)

text: After 41 years of commissioned service, USS "Constellation" was decommissioned at the Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on 7 August 2003. The ship was towed, beginning 12 September 2003, to the ghost fleet at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Bremerton, Washington. On 2 December 2003, the ship was stricken (formally removed from the Naval Vessel Register) when Admiral Vern Clark decided against expenditure of maintenance costs. "Constellation" was placed in Reserve Category X, meaning she received no maintenance or preservation, and only security against fire, flooding, and pilferage was provided. Reserve Category X applies to ships that have been stricken and are awaiting disposal by scrap, sale to foreign countries, as a designated target in a live fire exercise, memorial, or donation, as applicable.


title: USS Constellation (CV-64)

text: According to news reports in February 2008, "Constellation" was scheduled to be disposed of by dismantling in the next five years, along with .


title: USS Constellation (CV-64)

text: As of 26 January 2012, the Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command posted a notice of solicitation for the towing and complete dismantlement of multiple CV-59/CV-63 Class Aircraft Carriers in the United States, to include ex-, ex-, and ex-USS "Constellation".


title: USS Constellation (CV-64)

text: "Constellation" was scrapped at Brownsville, Texas starting in early 2015. She was towed around Cape Horn on her final voyage. NASA's Operation IceBridge captured a photo south of Punta Arenas, Chile, of the ship being towed to the scrap yard. The carrier arrived at her final resting place in Brownsville on 16 January 2015. Scrapping was complete on 10 May 2017 when the last propeller shaft strut was pulled from the water.


title: USS Constellation (CV-64)

text: In 1996, the aircraft carrier is featured in an episode of "Home Improvement", season 6, episode 1. The episode featured the cast of "Tool Time" boarding and touring the ship's facilities.


title: USS Constellation (CV-64)

text: In 2004, the film "Tiger Cruise" is set aboard "Constellation" during the tiger cruise at the ending of her deployment in September 2001. The story tells of the events aboard the ship before, during, and after the September 11 attacks. "Constellation" actually was underway to Naval Air Station North Island with a number of "tigers" (family of crew members) on that day. The carrier had already been decommissioned when the movie was filmed; , , and were used as stand-ins.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Christian monasticism is the devotional practice of Christians who live ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship. It began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modeled upon scriptural examples and ideals, including those in the Old Testament, but not mandated as an institution in the scriptures. It has come to be regulated by religious rules (e. g. the Rule of Saint Augustine, Anthony the Great, St Pachomius, the Rule of St Basil, the Rule of St Benedict,) and, in modern times, the Canon law of the respective Christian denominations that have forms of monastic living. Those living the monastic life are known by the generic terms monks (men) and nuns (women). The word "monk" originated from the Greek (, 'monk'), itself from () meaning 'alone'.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Christian monks did not live in monasteries at first, rather, they began by living alone as solitaries, as the word might suggest. As more people took on the lives of monks, living alone in the wilderness, they started to come together and model themselves after the original monks nearby. Quickly, the monks formed communities to further their ability to observe an ascetic life. According to Christianity historian Robert Louis Wilken, "By creating an alternate social structure within the Church they laid the foundations for one of the most enduring Christian institutions..." Monastics generally dwell in a monastery, whether they live there in a community (cenobites), or in seclusion (recluses).


title: Christian monasticism

text: The basic idea of monasticism in all its varieties is seclusion or withdrawal from the world or society. Monastic life is distinct from the "religious orders" such as the friars, canons regular, clerks regular, and the more recent religious congregations. The latter has essentially some special work or aim, such as preaching, teaching, liberating captives, etc., which occupies a large place in their activities. While monks have undertaken labors of the most varied character, in every case this work is extrinsic to the essence of the monastic state. Monks and friars are two distinct roles. In the thirteenth century "...new orders of friars were founded to teach the Christian faith," because monasteries had declined.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Both ways of living out the Christian life are regulated by the respective church law of those Christian denominations that recognize it (e.g., the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church, or the Lutheran Church). Christian monastic life does not always involve communal living with like-minded Christians. Christian monasticism has varied greatly in its external forms, but, broadly speaking, it has two main types (a) the eremitical or secluded, (b) the cenobitical or city life. St. Anthony the Abbot may be called the founder of the first and St. Pachomius of the second. The monastic life is based on Jesus's amen to "be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). This ideal, also called the state of perfection, can be seen, for example, in the "Philokalia", a book of monastic writings. Their manner of self-renunciation has three elements corresponding to the three evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience.


title: Christian monasticism

text: First-century groups such as the Essenes and the Therapeutae followed lifestyles that could be seen as precursors to Christian monasticism. Early Christian monasticism drew its inspiration from the examples of the Prophet Elijah and John the Baptist, who both lived alone in the desert, and above all from the story of Jesus' time in solitary struggle with Satan in the desert, before his public ministry.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Early Christian ascetics have left no confirmed archaeological traces and only hints in the written record. Communities of virgins who had consecrated themselves to Christ are found at least as far back as the 2nd century. There were also individual ascetics, known as the "devout", who usually lived not in the deserts but on the edge of inhabited places, still remaining in the world but practicing asceticism and striving for union with God. In ante-Nicene ascetics a man would lead a single life, practice long and frequent fasts, abstain from meat and wine, and support himself, if he were able, by some small handicraft, keeping of what he earned only so much as was absolutely necessary for his own sustenance, and giving the rest to the poor.


title: Christian monasticism

text: An early form of "proto-monasticism" appeared as well in the 3rd century among Syriac Christians through the "Sons of the covenant" movement. Eastern Orthodoxy looks to Basil of Caesarea as a founding monastic legislator, as well to as the example of the Desert Fathers.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Eremitic monasticism, or solitary monasticism, is characterized by a complete withdrawal from society. The word 'eremitic' comes from the Greek word eremos which means desert. This name was given because of St. Anthony of Egypt, who left civilization behind to live on a solitary Egyptian mountain in the third century. Though he was probably not the first Christian hermit, he is recognized as such as he was the first known one.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Paul the Hermit is the first Christian historically known to have been living as a monk. In the 3rd century, Anthony of Egypt (252–356) lived as a hermit in the desert and gradually gained followers who lived as hermits nearby but not in actual community with him. This type of monasticism is called "eremitical" or "hermit-like".


title: Christian monasticism

text: Another option for becoming a solitary monastic was to become an anchoress/anchorite. This began because there were persons who wanted to live the solitary lifestyle but were not able to live alone in the wild. Thus they would go to the Bishop for permission who would then perform the rite of enclosure. After this was completed the anchoress would live alone in a room that typically had a window that opened into a church so they could receive communion and participate in church services. There were two other windows that allowed food to be passed in and people to come to seek advice. The most well known anchoress was Julian of Norwich who was born in England in 1342.


title: Christian monasticism

text: While the earliest Desert Fathers lived as hermits, they were rarely completely isolated, but often lived in proximity to one another, and soon loose-knit communities began to form in such places as the Desert of Nitria and the Desert of Skete. Saint Macarius established individual groups of cells such as those at Kellia, founded in 328. These monks were anchorites, following the monastic ideal of St. Anthony. They lived by themselves, gathering together for common worship on Saturdays and Sundays only.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In 346 St Pachomius established in Egypt the first cenobitic Christian monastery. At Tabenna in Upper Egypt, sometime around 323 AD, Pachomius decided to mold his disciples into a more organized community in which the monks lived in individual huts or rooms ("cellula" in Latin,) but worked, ate, and worshipped in shared space. The intention was to bring together individual ascetics who, although pious, did not, like Saint Anthony, have the physical ability or skills to live a solitary existence in the desert. This method of monastic organization is called "cenobitic" or "communal". In Catholic theology, this community-based living is considered superior because of the obedience practiced and the accountability offered. The head of a monastery came to be known by the word for "Father"—in Syriac, "Abba"; in English, "Abbot".


title: Christian monasticism

text: Guidelines for daily life were created, and separate monasteries were created for men and women. St Pachomius introduced a monastic Rule of cenobitic life, giving everyone the same food and attire. The monks of the monastery fulfilled the obediences assigned them for the common good of the monastery. Among the various obediences was copying books. St Pachomius considered that an obedience fulfilled with zeal was greater than fasting or prayer.


title: Christian monasticism

text: A Pachomian monastery was a collection of buildings surrounded by a wall. The monks were distributed in houses, each house containing about forty monks. There would be thirty to forty houses in a monastery. There was an abbot over each monastery and provosts with subordinate officials over each house. The monks were divided into houses according to the work they were employed in: thus there would be a house for carpenters, a house for agriculturists, and so forth. But other principles of division seem to have been employed, e.g., there was a house for the Greeks. On Saturdays and Sundays, all the monks assembled in the church for Mass; on other days the Office and other spiritual exercises were celebrated in the houses.


title: Christian monasticism

text: From a secular point of view, a monastery was an industrial community in which almost every kind of trade was practised. This, of course, involved much buying and selling, so the monks had ships of their own on the Nile, which conveyed their agricultural produce and manufactured goods to the market and brought back what the monasteries required. From the spiritual point of view, the Pachomian monk was a religious living under a rule.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The community of Pachomius was so successful he was called upon to help organize others, and by one count by the time he died in 346 there were thought to be 3,000 such communities dotting Egypt, especially in the Thebaid. From there monasticism quickly spread out first to Palestine and the Judean Desert, Syria, North Africa and eventually the rest of the Roman Empire.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In 370 Basil the Great, monastic founder in Cappadocia, became bishop of Caesarea and wrote principles of ascetic life. Eastern monastic teachings were brought to the western church by Saint John Cassian (c. 360 – c. 435). As a young adult, he and his friend Germanus entered a monastery in Palestine but then journeyed to Egypt to visit the eremitic groups in Nitria. Many years later, Cassian founded a monastery of monks and probably also one of nuns near Marseilles. He wrote two long works, the "Institutes" and "Conferences". In these books, he not only transmitted his Egyptian experience but also gave Christian monasticism a profound evangelical and theological basis.


title: Christian monasticism

text: At the time of his conversion in Milan in the years 386–387, Augustine was aware of the life of Saint Anthony in the desert of Egypt. Upon his return to Africa as a Christian in the year 388, however, Augustine and a few Christian friends founded at Thagaste a lay community. They became cenobites in the countryside rather than in the desert.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Saint Benedict (c. 480 – 547 AD) lived for many years as a hermit in a cave near Subiaco, Italy. He was asked to be head over several monks who wished to change to the monastic style of Pachomius by living in the community. Between the years 530 and 560, he wrote the Rule of Saint Benedict as a guideline for monks living in community.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Scholars such as Lester K. Little attribute the rise of monasticism at this time to the immense changes in the church brought about by Constantine's legalization of Christianity. The subsequent transformation of Christianity into the main Roman religion ended the position of Christians as a minority sect. In response, a new form of dedication was developed. The long-term "martyrdom" of the ascetic replaced the violent physical martyrdom of the persecutions.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In the early church, there were also opponents of Monasticism, among the first opponents to Monasticism were Helvidius, Jovinian, Vigilantius and Aerius of Sebaste. Most of them were attacked by Jerome who defended monastic and ascetic ideas. Jovinian was the most influential opponent of monasticism, he wrote a work in the year 390, which is now lost, which attacked monasticism and its ethical principles. Monasticism was also opposed by some Arians.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Orthodox monasticism does not have religious orders as in the West, so there are no formal Monastic Rules ("Regulae"); rather, each monk and nun is encouraged to read all of the Holy Fathers and emulate their virtues. There is also no division between the "active" and "contemplative" life. Orthodox monastic life embraces both active and contemplative aspects.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Within the Eastern Orthodox Church, there exist three types of monasticism: eremitic, cenobitic, and the skete. The skete is a very small community, often of two or three (), under the direction of an Elder. They pray privately for most of the week, then come together on Sundays and Feast Days for communal prayer, thus combining aspects of both eremitic and coenobitic monasticism.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Even before Saint Anthony the Great (the "father of monasticism") went out into the desert, there were Christians who devoted their lives to ascetic discipline and striving to lead an evangelical life (i.e., in accordance with the teachings of the Gospel).


title: Christian monasticism

text: As monasticism spread in the East from the hermits living in the deserts of Egypt to Palestine, Syria, and on up into Asia Minor and beyond, the sayings ("apophthegmata") and acts ("praxeis") of the Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers came to be recorded and circulated, first among their fellow monastics and then among the laity as well.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Among these earliest recorded accounts was the "Paradise," by Palladius of Galatia, Bishop of Helenopolis (also known as the "Lausiac History", after the prefect Lausus, to whom it was addressed). Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (whose "Life of Saint Anthony the Great" set the pattern for monastic hagiography), Saint Jerome, and other anonymous compilers were also responsible for setting down very influential accounts. Also of great importance are the writings surrounding the communities founded by Saint Pachomius, the father of cenobiticism, and his disciple Saint Theodore, the founder of the skete form of monasticism.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Among the first to set forth precepts for the monastic life was Saint Basil the Great, a man from a professional family who was educated in Caesarea, Constantinople, and Athens. Saint Basil visited colonies of hermits in Palestine and Egypt but was most strongly impressed by the organized communities developed under the guidance of Saint Pachomius. Saint Basil's ascetical writings set forth standards for well-disciplined community life and offered lessons in what became the ideal monastic virtue: humility.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Saint Basil wrote a series of guides for monastic life (the "Lesser Asketikon" the "Greater Asketikon" the "Morals", etc.) which, while not "Rules" in the legalistic sense of later Western rules, provided firm indications of the importance of a single community of monks, living under the same roof, and under the guidance—and even discipline—of a strong abbot. His teachings set the model for Greek and Russian monasticism but had less influence in the Latin West.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Of great importance to the development of monasticism is the Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt. Here the Ladder of Divine Ascent was written by Saint John Climacus (c.600), a work of such importance that many Orthodox monasteries to this day read it publicly either during the Divine Services or in Trapeza during Great Lent.


title: Christian monasticism

text: At the height of the East Roman Empire, numerous great monasteries were established by the emperors, including the twenty "sovereign monasteries" on the Holy Mountain, an actual "monastic republic" wherein the entire country is devoted to bringing souls closer to God. In this milieu, the Philokalia was compiled.


title: Christian monasticism

text: As the Great Schism between East and West grew, conflict arose over misunderstandings about Hesychasm. Saint Gregory Palamas, bishop of Thessalonica, an experienced Athonite monk, defended Eastern Orthodox spirituality against the critiques of Barlaam of Calabria, and left numerous important works on the spiritual life.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Christian monasticism was and continued to be a lay condition—monks depended on a local parish church for the sacraments. However, if the monastery was isolated in the desert, as were many of the Egyptian examples, that inconvenience compelled monasteries either to take in priest members, to have their abbot or other members ordained. A priest-monk is sometimes called a hieromonk. In many cases in Eastern Orthodoxy, when a bishopric needed to be filled, they would look to nearby monasteries to find suitable candidates, being good sources of men who were spiritually mature and generally possessing the other qualities desired in a bishop. Eventually, among the Eastern Orthodox Churches, it became established by canon law that all bishops must be monks.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Monastic centers thrive to this day in Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Russia, Romania, Serbia, the Holy Land, and elsewhere in the Orthodox world, the Autonomous Monastic State of Mount Athos remaining the spiritual center of monasticism for the Eastern Orthodox Church. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, a great renaissance of monasticism has occurred, and many previously empty or destroyed monastic communities have been reopened.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Monasticism continues to be very influential in the Eastern Orthodox Church. According to the Sacred Canons, all Bishops must be monks (not merely celibate), and feast days to Glorified monastic saints are an important part of the liturgical tradition of the church. Fasting, Hesychasm, and the pursuit of the spiritual life are strongly encouraged not only among monastics but also among the laity.


title: Christian monasticism

text: There are also three levels of monks: The Rassophore, the Stavrophore, and the Schema-Monk (or Schema-Nun). Each of the three degrees represents an increased level of asceticism. In the early days of monasticism, there was only one level—the Great Schema—and even Saint Theodore the Studite argued against the establishment of intermediate grades, but nonetheless the consensus of the church has favored the development of three distinct levels.


title: Christian monasticism

text: When a candidate wishes to embrace the monastic life, he will enter the monastery of his choice as a guest and ask to be received by the Hegumen (Abbot). After a period of at least three days the Hegumen may at his discretion clothe the candidate as a novice. There is no formal ceremony for the clothing of a novice; he (or she) would simply be given the "Podraznik", belt and "skoufos".


title: Christian monasticism

text: After a period of about three years, the Hegumen may at his discretion tonsure the novice as a "Rassophore" monk, giving him the outer garment called the Rassa (Greek: "Rason"). A monk (or nun) may remain in this grade all the rest of his life, if he so chooses. But the Rite of Tonsure for the Rassophore refers to the grade as that of the "Beginner", so it is intended that the monk will advance on to the next level. The Rassophore is also given a klobuk which he wears in church and on formal occasions. In addition, Rassophores will be given a prayer rope at their tonsure.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The next rank, "Stavrophore", is the grade that most Russian monks remain all their lives. The title Stavrophore means "cross-bearer" because when Tonsured into this grade the monastic is given a cross to wear at all times. This cross is called a Paramand—a wooden cross attached by ribbons to a square cloth embroidered with the Instruments of the Passion and the words, "I bear upon my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (). The Paramand is so-called because it is worn under the Mantle (Greek: "Mandyas"; Church Slavonic: "Mantya"), which is a long cape which completely covers the monk from neck to foot. Among the Russians, Stavrophores are also informally referred to as "mantle monks". At his Tonsure, a Stavrophore is given a wooden hand cross and a lit candle, as well as a prayer rope.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The highest rank of monasticism is the "Great Schema" (Greek: "Megaloschemos"; Church Slavonic: "Schimnik"). Attaining the level of "Schema monk" is much more common among the Greeks than it is among the Russians, for whom it is normally reserved to hermits, or to very advanced monastics. The "Schema monk" or "Schema nun" wears the same habit as the Rassophore, but to it is added the "Analavos" (Church Slavonic: "Analav"), a garment shaped like a cross, covering the shoulders and coming down to the knees (or lower) in front and in back. This garment is roughly reminiscent of the scapular worn by some Roman Catholic orders, but it is finely embroidered with the Cross and instruments of the Passion (see illustration, above). The Klobuk worn by a Schema monk is also embroidered with a red cross and other symbols. the Klobuk may be shaped differently, more rounded at the top, in which case it is referred to as a "koukoulion". The skufia worn by a Schema monk is also more intricately embroidered.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The religious habit worn by Eastern Orthodox monastics is the same for both monks and nuns, except that the nuns wear an additional veil, called an "apostolnik".


title: Christian monasticism

text: The central and unifying feature of Eastern Orthodox monasticism is Hesychasm, the practice of silence, and the concentrated saying of the Jesus Prayer. All ascetic practices and monastic humility is guided towards preparing the heart for "theoria" or the "divine vision" that comes from the union of the soul with God. Such a union is not accomplished by any human activity. All an ascetic can do is prepare the ground; it is for God to cause the seed to grow and bear fruit.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The introduction of monasticism into the West may be dated from about A.D. 340 when St. Athanasius visited Rome accompanied by the two Egyptian monks Ammon and Isidore, disciples of St. Anthony. The publication of the "Vita Antonii" some years later and its translation into Latin spread the knowledge of Egyptian monachism widely and many were found in Italy to imitate the example thus set forth. The first Italian monks aimed at reproducing exactly what was done in Egypt and not a few—such as Saint Jerome, Rufinus, Paula, Eustochium and the two Melanias—actually went to live in Egypt or Palestine as being better suited to monastic life than Italy.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The earliest phases of monasticism in Western Europe involved figures like Martin of Tours, who after serving in the Roman legions converted to Christianity and established a hermitage near Milan, then moved on to Poitiers where a community gathered around his hermitage. He was called to become Bishop of Tours in 372, where he established a monastery at Marmoutier on the opposite bank of the Loire, a few miles upstream from the city. His cell was a hut of wood, and round it his disciples, who soon numbered eighty, dwelt in caves and huts. His monastery was laid out as a colony of hermits rather than as a single integrated community. The type of life was simply the Antonian monachism of Egypt.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Honoratus of Marseilles was a wealthy Gallo-Roman aristocrat, who after a pilgrimage to Egypt, founded the Monastery of Lérins in 410, on an island lying off the modern city of Cannes. The monastery combined a community with isolated hermitages where older, spiritually-proven monks could live in isolation. Lérins became, in time, a center of monastic culture and learning, and many later monks and bishops would pass through Lérins in the early stages of their career. Honoratus was called to be Bishop of Arles.


title: Christian monasticism

text: John Cassian began his monastic career at a monastery in Palestine and Egypt around 385 to study monastic practice there. In Egypt, he had been attracted to the isolated life of hermits, which he considered the highest form of monasticism, yet the monasteries he founded were all organized monastic communities. About 415 he established two monasteries near Marseilles, one for men, one for women. In time these attracted a total of 5,000 monks and nuns. Most significant for the future development of monasticism were Cassian's "Institutes", which provided a guide for monastic life and his "Conferences", a collection of spiritual reflections.


title: Christian monasticism

text: It seems that the first Celtic monasteries were merely settlements where the Christians lived together—priests and laity, men, women, and children alike—as a kind of religious clan. According to James F. Kenney, every important church was a monastic establishment, with a small walled village of monks and nuns living under ecclesiastical discipline, and ministering to the people of the surrounding area. Monastic spirituality came to Britain and then Ireland from Gaul, by way of Lérins, Tours, and Auxerre. Its spirituality was heavily influenced by the Desert Fathers, with a monastic enclosure surrounding a collection of individual monastic cells. The British church employed an episcopal structure corresponding closely to the model used elsewhere in the Christian world. Illtud, David, Gildas, and Deiniol were leading figures in 6th-century Britain.


title: Christian monasticism

text: According to Thomas O'Loughlin, "Each monastery should be seen, as with most monasteries of the period, as an individual response to the monastic impulse by someone who had experienced monasticism and then went off to establish either a hermitage to which others later came or a cenobitic community." The monasteries were organized on a family basis. Next in importance to the abbot was the scribe, in charge of the scriptorium, the teaching function of the monastery, and the keeping of the annals. The role of scribe was often a path to the position of abbot. Hereditary right and relationship to the abbot were factors influencing appointment to monastic offices.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Buildings would generally have been of wood, wattle, and thatch. Monasteries tended to be cenobitical in that monks lived in separate cells but came together for common prayer, meals, and other functions. Celtic monasticism was characterized by a rigorous asceticism and a love for learning.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Some more austere ascetics became hermits living in remote locations in what came to be called the "green martyrdom".


title: Christian monasticism

text: Women's communities were normally much smaller and poorer. The nuns had to do everything themselves unless they had a couple of tenant-farmers to supply food, or pious who made donations. They spun and wove, kept their huts clean, milked their cows, and made their own meals, which could be meager.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The monastery of Brigit of Kildare at Kildare, Ireland, was a double monastery, with both men and women, supervised by an Abbess, a pattern found in other monastic foundations.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Around 397, Ninian, a Briton probably from the area south of the Firth of Clyde, dedicated his church at Whithorn to St. Martin of Tours. According to Bede, Ninian evangelized the southern Picts.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Kentigern was an apostle of the British Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late 6th century and the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow. Due to anti-Christian sentiment, he re-located for a time to Wales, where he established a monastery at St. Asaph's. Here he divided the monks into three groups. The unlettered was assigned to the duty of agriculture, the care of cattle, and the other necessary duties outside the monastery. He assigned 300 to duties within the cloister of the monastery, such as , preparing food, and building workshops. The remaining monks, who were lettered, he appointed to the celebration of divine service in church by day and by night.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Cadoc founded Llancarfan in the latter part of the fifth century. He received the religious habit from an Irish monk, St. Tathai, superior of a small community near Chepstow, in Monmouthshire. Returning to his native county, Cadoc built a church, and monastery, which was called Llancarfan, or the "Church of the Stags". There he also established a college and a hospital. His legend recounts that he daily fed a hundred clergy and a hundred soldiers, a hundred workmen, a hundred poor men, and the same number of widows. When thousands left the world and became monks, they very often did so as clansmen, dutifully following the example of their chief. Bishoprics, canonries, and parochial benefices passed from one to another member of the same family, and frequently from father to son. Their tribal character is a feature which Irish and Welsh monasteries had in common.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Illtyd spent the first part of his religious life as a disciple of Cadoc at Llancarfan. He founded the monastery at Llanilltyd Fawr. One of his students was Paul Aurelian, a key figure in Cornish monasticism. Gildas the Wise was also a student at Llanilltyd Fawr, as was Samson of Dol. Samson founded a monastery in an abandoned Roman fort near the river Severn and lived for a time the life of a hermit in a nearby cave before going to Brittany.


title: Christian monasticism

text: St David established his monastery on a promontory on the western sea, well placed to be a centre of Insular Christianity. His establishment became known for its austerity and holiness, more than as a centre of learning, although when King Alfred sought a scholar for his court, he summoned Asser of St David's. Contemporary with David were Teilo, Cadoc, Padarn, Beuno and Tysilio among them.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Many early medieval settlements in the region were occupied by hermitage chapels which are often dedicated to St Michael as the conventional slayer of pagan demons, as at St Michael's Mount.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The earliest monastic settlements in Ireland emerged at the end of the fifth century. It was from Illtud and his colleagues that the Irish sought guidance on matters of ritual and discipline. Enda of Aran is called the "patriarch of Irish monasticism". A warrior prince of Oriel, upon the death of his betrothed he decided to study for the priesthood. He first joined St Ailbe at Emly, before traveling to Ninian's Candida Casa in Scotland, where he was ordained. About 484 he established the first Irish monastery at Killeaney on Aran Mor. Finnian of Clonard is said to have studied under Cadoc at Llancarfan in Glamorganshire. Finnian of Moville studied under Colman of Dromore and Mochae of Noendrum, before he too went to Candida Casa.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Ireland was a rural society of chieftains living in the countryside. As in Wales, if a clan chieftain accepted Christianity so did those he ruled. Commonly Irish monasteries were established by grants of land to an abbot or abbess who came from a local noble family. The monastery became the spiritual focus of the tribe or kin group. Successive abbots and abbesses were members of the founder's family, a policy which kept the monastic lands under the jurisdiction of the family (and corresponded to Irish legal tradition, which only allowed the transfer of land within a family).


title: Christian monasticism

text: In Ireland, the abbot was often called "coarb", a term designating the heir or successor of the founder.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The abbots of the principal monasteries— such as Clonard, Armagh, Clonmacnoise, Swords, etc.—were of the highest rank and held in the greatest esteem. They wielded great power and had vast influence. The abbot usually was only a presbyter, but in the large monasteries, there were one or more resident bishops who conferred orders and discharged the other functions of a bishop. The abbot was superior of the house, and all were subject to him.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The Irish rule was rigorous. It was more or less a copy of the French rule, as the French was a copy of the Thebaid. The daily routine of monastic life was prayer, study, and manual labor. With regard to food, the rule was very strict. Only one meal a day, at 3 o'clock p.m., was allowed, except on Sundays and Feast days. Wednesdays and Fridays were fast days, except the interval between Easter and Whit Sunday. The food allowed was barley bread, milk, fish, and eggs. Flesh meat was not allowed except on great feasts.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In Ireland, a distinctive form of penance developed, where confession was made privately to a priest, under the seal of secrecy, and where penance was given privately and ordinarily performed privately as well. Penance was considered therapeutic rather than punitive. Certain handbooks were made, called "penitentials", designed as a guide for confessors and as a means of regularising the penance given for each particular sin. According to Thomas Pollock Oakley, the penitential guides first developed in Wales, probably at St. David's, and spread by missions to Ireland.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Irish monasticism maintained the model of a monastic community while, like John Cassian, marking the contemplative life of the hermit as the highest form of monasticism. Saints' lives frequently tell of monks (and abbots) departing some distance from the monastery to live in isolation from the community. Irish monastic rules specify a stern life of prayer and discipline in which prayer, poverty, and obedience are the central themes.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Irish monks needed to learn Latin, the language of the Church. Thus they read Latin texts, both spiritual and secular, with an enthusiasm that their contemporaries on the continent lacked. Subjects taught included Latin, Greek, Hebrew, grammar, rhetoric, poetry, arithmetic, chronology, the Holy Places, hymns, sermons, natural science, history and especially the interpretation of Sacred Scripture. In 544 St Ciarán founded a monastery at Clonmacnoise, which became one of the most important centers of learning and religious life in Ireland. Contrary to common practice, the title of abbot which included the title "Comarba of Saint Ciarán" at the community was not hereditary, which reflected the humble origins of its founder. In 557 St Brendan founded a monastery at Clonfert.


title: Christian monasticism

text: By the end of the seventh century, Irish monastic schools were attracting students from England and from Europe.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The achievements of insular art, in illuminated manuscripts like the Book of Kells, high crosses, and metalwork like the Ardagh Chalice, and in the case of manuscript decoration had a profound influence on Western medieval art. The manuscripts were produced by and for monasteries, and evidence suggests that metalwork was produced in both monastic and royal workshops.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The Culdees (,  "Spouses of God") were members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in the Middle Ages. Appearing first in Ireland and subsequently in Scotland, attached to cathedral or collegiate churches, they lived in monastic fashion though not taking monastic vows.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Irish monasticism spread widely, first to Scotland and Northern England, then to Gaul and Italy. Columba and his followers established monasteries at Bangor, on the northeastern coast of Ireland, at Iona, an island north-west of Scotland, and at Lindisfarne, which was founded by Aidan, an Irish monk from Iona, at the request of King Oswald of Northumbria. Abbots of Iona were normally appointed from the founders kin, with an abbot often naming his successor.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Columbanus, an abbot from a Leinster noble family, traveled to Gaul in the late 6th century with twelve companions. Columbanus and his followers spread the Irish model of monastic institutions to the continent. A whole series of new monastic foundations under Irish influence sprang up, starting with Columbanus's foundations of Luxeuil and Fontaine-lès-Luxeuil and, sponsored by the Frankish King Childebert II. After Childebert's death Columbanus traveled east to Metz, where Theudebert II allowed him to establish a new monastery among the semi-pagan Alemanni in what is now Switzerland. One of Columbanus's followers founded the monastery of St. Gall on the shores of Lake Constance, while Columbanus continued onward across the Alps to the kingdom of the Lombards in Italy. There King Agilulf and his wife Theodolinda granted Columbanus land in the mountains between Genoa and Milan, where he established the monastery of Bobbio. From about 698 until the reign of Charlemagne in the 770s, the Hiberno-Scottish efforts in the Frankish Empire were continued by the Anglo-Saxon mission. The rule of St. Columbanus, which was originally followed in most of these monasteries, was eventually superseded by that of St. Benedict.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Benedict of Nursia is the most influential of Western monks and is called "the Father of Western Monasticism". He was educated in Rome but soon sought the life of a hermit in a cave at Subiaco, outside the city. He then attracted followers with whom he founded the monastery of Monte Cassino around 520, between Rome and Naples. He established the Rule of St Benedict, adapting in part the earlier anonymous Rule of the Master ("Regula magistri"), which was written somewhere south of Rome around 500, and defined the activities of the monastery, its officers, and their responsibilities. By the ninth century, largely under the inspiration of the Emperor Charlemagne, Benedict's Rule became the basic guide for Western monasticism.


title: Christian monasticism

text: While the Celtic monasteries had a stronger connection to the semi-eremitical tradition of Egypt via Lérins and Tours, Benedict and his followers were more influenced by the cenobitism of St Pachomius and Basil the Great. Early Benedictine monasteries were relatively small and consisted of an oratory, refectory, dormitory, scriptorium, guest accommodation, and out-buildings, a group of often quite separate rooms more reminiscent of a decent-sized Roman villa than a large medieval abbey. A monastery of about a dozen monks would have been normal during this period.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Medieval monastic life consisted of prayer, reading, and manual labor. Prayer was a monk's first priority. Apart from prayer, monks performed a variety of tasks, such as preparing medicine, lettering, reading, and others. Also, these monks would work in the gardens and on the land. They might also spend time in the cloister, a covered colonnade around a courtyard, where they would pray or read. Some monasteries held a scriptorium where monks would write or copy books. When the monks wrote, they used very neat handwriting and would draw illustrations in the books and decorate the first letter of each paragraph.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The efficiency of Benedict's cenobitic Rule in addition to the stability of the monasteries made them very productive. The monasteries were the central storehouses and producers of knowledge. Vikings started attacking Irish monasteries famous for learning in 793. One monk wrote about how he did not mind the bad weather one evening because it kept the Vikings from coming: "Bitter is the wind tonight, it tosses the ocean’s white hair, I need not fear—as on a night of calm sea—the fierce raiders from Lochlann."


title: Christian monasticism

text: In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the growing pressure of monarchies and the nation-states undermined the wealth and power of the orders. Monasticism continued to play a role in Catholicism, but after the Protestant reformation many monasteries in Northern Europe were shut down and their assets seized.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In the twelfth century, traditional monastic orders in Outremer evolved into military orders, initially for the purpose of defending pilgrims, although they later became larger military forces that played a key role in combating Muslim efforts at reconquest and propping up continued Christian rule in the region. These orders included the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers. In large part, the notion of military monasticism became so popular because of the advocacy of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who believed that existing Christian methods of serving the Church's ends in the war were inadequate and that a group of dedicated warrior monks, who achieved spiritual merit and served God through waging war, was necessary. In his view, advancing the cause of Christendom was an end that justified means that might fall outside the bounds of just war. These orders largely declined with the loss of Outremer in the 1200s - except for the Teutonic Order, which transferred itself to the Baltic where it took up a major role in the Baltic Crusades.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Many distinct monastic orders developed within Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Monastic communities in the West, broadly speaking, are organized into orders and congregations guided by a particular religious rule, such as the Rule of St Augustine or especially Rule of St Benedict. Eastern Orthodoxy does not have a system of orders per se, though some of the Eastern Catholic Churches do.


title: Christian monasticism

text: After the foundation of the Lutheran Churches, some monasteries in Lutheran lands (such as Amelungsborn Abbey near Negenborn and Loccum Abbey in Rehburg-Loccum) and convents (such as Ebstorf Abbey near the town of Uelzen and Bursfelde Abbey in Bursfelde) adopted the Lutheran Christian faith.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Since the 19th century, there has been a renewal in the monastic life among Protestants. There are many present-day Lutherans who practice the monastic teaching of the Catholic Church.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In 1947 Mother Basilea Schlink and Mother Martyria founded the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, in Darmstadt, Germany. This movement is largely considered Evangelical or Lutheran in its roots.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In 1948 Bavarian Lutheran pastor Walter Hümmer and his wife Hanna founded the Communität Christusbruderschaft Selbitz.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In other Lutheran traditions "The Congregation of the Servants of Christ" was established at St. Augustine's House in Oxford, Michigan, in 1958 when some other men joined Father Arthur Kreinheder in observing the monastic life and offices of prayer. These men and others came and went over the years. The community has always remained small; at times the only member was Father Arthur. During the 35 years of its existence over 25 men tested their vocations to monastic life by living at the house for some time, from a few months to many years, but at Father Arthur's death in 1989 only one permanent resident remained. At the beginning of 2006, there are two permanent professed members and two long-term guests. Strong ties remain with this community and their brothers in Sweden (Östanbäck Monastery) and in Germany the (Priory of St. Wigbert). In Germany, Communität Casteller Ring is a Lutheran Benedictine community for women. In 2011, an Augustinian religious order, the Priestly Society of St. Augustine (Societas Sacerdotalis Sancti Augustini) was established by the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church. It follows the Rule of St. Augustine, its headquarters is at Christ Lutheran Church ALCC. Kent Island, Maryland, and Fr. Jens Bargmann, PhD, is the Grand Prior.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In Lutheran Sweden, religious life for women had been established already in 1954, when Sister Marianne Nordström made her profession through contacts with The Order of the Holy Paraclete and Mother Margaret Cope (1886–1961) at St Hilda's Priory, Whitby, Yorkshire.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In England, John Wycliffe organized the Lollard Preacher Order (the "Poor Priests") to promote his views, many of which resounded with those held by the later Protestant Reformers.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Monastic life in England came to an abrupt end with Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII. The property and lands of the monasteries were confiscated and either retained by the King, sold to landowners, or given to loyal nobility. Monks and nuns were pensioned off and retired or some were forced to either flee for the continent or to abandon their vocations. For around 300 years, there were no monastic communities within any of the Anglican churches.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Shortly after the Oxford Movement began to advocate restoring catholic faith and practice to the Church of England (see Anglo-Catholicism), there was felt to be a need for a restoration of the monastic life. Anglican priest John Henry Newman established a community of men at Littlemore near Oxford in the 1840s while he was vicar of Church of St Mary and St Nicholas, Littlemore. From then forward, there have been many communities of monks, friars, sisters, and nuns established within the Anglican Communion. In 1848, Mother Priscilla Lydia Sellon founded the Anglican Sisters of Charity and became the first woman to take religious vows within the Anglican Communion since the Reformation. In October 1850 the first building specifically built for the purpose of housing an Anglican Sisterhood was consecrated at Abbeymere in Plymouth. It housed several schools for the destitute, a laundry, a printing press, and a soup kitchen. From the 1840s and throughout the following one hundred years, religious orders for both men and women proliferated in the UK and the United States, as well as in various countries of Africa, Asia, Canada, India and the Pacific.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Some Anglican religious communities are contemplative, some active, but a distinguishing feature of the monastic life among Anglicans is that most practice the so-called "mixed life", a combination of a life of contemplative prayer with active service. Anglican religious life closely mirrors that of Roman Catholicism. Like Roman Catholic religious, Anglican religious also take the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Religious communities live together under a common rule, reciting the Divine Office and celebrating the Eucharist daily.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In the early 20th century when the Anglo-Catholic movement was at its height, the Anglican Communion had hundreds of orders and communities, and thousands of religious. However, since the 1960s there has been a sharp falling off in the numbers of religious in many parts of the Anglican Communion, most notably in the United Kingdom and the United States. Many once large and international communities have been reduced to a single convent or monastery composed of elderly men or women. In the last few decades of the 20th century, novices have for most communities been few and far between. Some orders and communities have already become extinct. There are, however, still thousands of Anglican religious working today in religious communities around the world. While vocations remain few in some areas, Anglican religious communities are experiencing exponential growth in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Around 1964, Reuben Archer Torrey III, an Episcopal missionary, grandson of R. A. Torrey, founded Jesus Abbey as a missionary community in Korea. It has some links with the Episcopal Church and holds an Evangelical doctrine.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In February 2001, the United Methodist Church organized the Saint Brigid of Kildare Monastery. It is a Methodist-Benedictine residential double monastery in Collegeville, Minnesota. Besides monastic orders, the Order of Saint Luke is a dispersed religious order within Methodism.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The Community of the Sisterhood Emmanuel was founded in 1973 in Makak - in the Centre Province by Mother Marie, one of the first female Pastors of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon. In 1975 she moved the community to the present site- at Agyati in Bafut. It has 10 finally consecrated Sisters, four in simple vows and a handful of others in formation. The Sisters are trained in strong collaboration with the sister Institutes of the Catholic Church. They say that one of their charisms is ecumenism. The Sisterhood Emmanuel is the only Presbyterian Monastery in Cameroon.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Anabaptist Christians "retained many elements of the monastic understanding of a 'holy life' that followed true faith". The Hutterites and Bruderhof, for example, live in intentional communities with their big houses having "ground floors for common work, meals and worship, the two-storey attics with small rooms, like monastic cells, for married couples".


title: Christian monasticism

text: The Shakers, who are also known as the "Shaking Quakers", have been characterized as a "Protestant monastic order providing refuge and otherworldly compensation". They practice a celibate and communal lifestyle, pacifism, and their model of equality of the sexes, which they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s. They are also known for their simple living, architecture, and furniture. Sincere newcomers are invited to become Shakers:


title: Christian monasticism

text: Currently, there are two remaining Shakers, Brother Arnold Hadd and Sister June Carpenter, though they hope that others will join them at the only remaining Shaker community, the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Christian monasticism is experiencing renewal in the form of several new foundations with an 'inter-Christian' vision for their respective communities.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In 1944 Roger Schütz, a pastor of the Swiss Reformed Church, founded a small religious brotherhood in France which became known as the Taizé Community. Although he was partly inspired by the hope of reviving monasticism in the Protestant tradition, the brotherhood was interdenominational, accepting Roman Catholic brothers, and is thus an ecumenical rather than a specifically Protestant community.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The Order of Ecumenical Franciscans is a religious order of men and women devoted to following the examples of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare of Assisi in their life and understanding of the Christian gospel: sharing a love for creation and those who have been marginalized. It includes members of many different denominations, including Catholics, Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, and a range of Protestant traditions. The Order understands its charism to include not only ecumenical efforts and the traditional emphases of the Franciscans in general, but also to help to develop relationships between the various Franciscan orders.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Additional expressions of ecumenical monasticism can be seen in the Bose Monastic Community and communities of the New Monasticism movement arising from Protestant Evangelicalism.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In 1999 an independent Protestant order was founded named The Knights of Prayer Monastic Order. The community maintains several monks in its Portland, Oregon, cloister, and has an international network of associated laypeople. It is not affiliated with any particular congregation.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In traditional Catholic societies, monastic communities often took charge of social services such as education and healthcare. The legacy of monasteries outside remains an important current in modern society. Max Weber compared the closeted and Puritan societies of the English Dissenters, who sparked much of the industrial revolution, to monastic orders. Many Utopian thinkers (starting with Thomas More) felt inspired by the common life of monks to apply it to the whole society (an example is the phalanstère). Modern universities have also attempted to emulate Christian monasticism. Even in the Americas, universities are built in the gothic style of twelfth-century monasteries. Communal meals, dormitory residences, elaborate rituals and dress all borrow heavily from the monastic tradition. Today monasticism remains an important part of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican faiths.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The capitulary of 789 reads: "Let every monastery and every abbey have its school, in which boys may be taught the Psalms, the system of musical notation, singing, arithmetic, and grammar". There can be no doubt that by boys are meant not only the candidates for the monastery and the wards (generally the children of nobles) committed to the care of the monks but also the children of the village or country district around the monastery, for whom there was usually an external school attached to groups of monastic buildings.


title: Christian monasticism

text: In the Middle Ages, monasteries conserved and copied ancient manuscripts in their scriptoria. A prospective monk first learned grammar, logic, and oratory. Later, he would take up mathematics, astronomy, and music. The students would use a stylus on wax. Later, when their handwriting improved, they would be given ink and parchment. Eventually, many of those schools became universities. Monks in scriptoria copied texts of Greece and Rome, as well as religious texts, and kept these manuscripts from being lost during the Middle Ages.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Monastic pharmacies stored and studied medicaments. Some of the works that the monks copied were by medical writers, and reading and copying these works helped create a store of medical knowledge. Monasteries had infirmaries to treat the monks, travelers, the poor, old, weak and sick. In 2005, archeologists uncovered waste at Soutra Aisle which helped scientists figure out how people in the Middle Ages treated certain diseases, such as scurvy; because of the vitamin C in watercress, patients would eat it to stop their teeth from falling out. The same archeological group discovered hemlock, a known pain killer, in the drains of the hospital.


title: Christian monasticism

text: Monasteries also aided in the development of agricultural techniques. The requirement of wine for the Mass led to the development of wine culture, as shown in the discovery of the "méthode champenoise" by Dom Perignon. Several liquors like "Bénédictine" and the Trappist beers were also developed in monasteries. Even today many monasteries and convents are locally renowned for their cooking specialties.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The consequence of this centralisation of knowledge was that they initially controlled both public administration and education, where the trivium led through the quadrivium to theology. Christian monks cultivated the arts as a way of praising God. Gregorian chant and miniatures are examples of the practical application of quadrivium subjects.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The status of monks as apart from secular life (at least theoretically) also served a social function. Dethroned Visigothic kings were tonsured and sent to a monastery so that they could not claim the crown back. Monasteries became a place for second sons to live in celibacy so that the family inheritance went to the first son; in exchange the families donated to the monasteries. Few cities lacked both a St Giles house for lepers outside the walls and a Magdalene house for prostitutes and other women of notoriety within the walls, and some orders were favored by monarchs and rich families to keep and educate their maiden daughters before arranged marriage.


title: Christian monasticism

text: The monasteries also provided refuge to those like Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor who retired to Yuste in his late years, and his son Philip II of Spain, who was functionally as close to a monastic as his regal responsibilities permitted.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: Han Ye-seul (Hangul: 한예슬; born Leslie Kim on September 18, 1981) is an American-born South Korean actress. She made her acting debut in the sitcom "Nonstop 4" (2003), and has since played leading roles in television dramas such as "Couple or Trouble" (2006), "Tazza" (2008), and "Birth of a Beauty" (2014), as well as the films "Miss Gold Digger" (2007) and "Penny Pinchers" (2011).


title: Han Ye-seul

text: Leslie Kim was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended Cerritos High School and graduated from Cerritos College with an associate degree in Computer Graphics. She is fluent in both English and Korean.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: She began her modeling career in South Korea after winning the SBS Supermodel Contest in 2001. Under the stage name Han Ye-seul, she made her acting debut in the popular sitcom "Nonstop 4" in 2003. Han quickly rose to fame, and she renounced her U.S. citizenship in 2004 and became a naturalized South Korean citizen to continue establishing herself in Korean entertainment. Her performances in "Forbidden Love" (2004) and "That Summer's Typhoon" (2005) received poor reviews, with critics dismissing her as primarily a commercial model and not a real actress.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: Han proved her detractors wrong with "Couple or Trouble" (also known as "Fantasy Couple", 2006), a remake of "Overboard" written by the Hong sisters. Playing a spoiled heiress who becomes an amnesiac after a yacht accident, Han was praised for her comic timing and the series was a hit.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: She further embraced the screwball comedy genre with her first film "Miss Gold Digger" (2007). Despite the film's lackluster box office, Han's portrayal of an advertising executive who juggles four different men in order to catch the ideal husband won her several Best New Actress accolades from local award-giving bodies, including the prestigious Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: Han next starred in "Tazza" (2008), a TV adaptation of Huh Young-man's manhwa of the same name about gamblers and card sharks. This was followed up with the Lee Kyung-hee-penned "Will It Snow for Christmas?", a melodrama about childhood sweethearts who reunite as adults in 2009.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: In 2011, Han was cast as the titular character in "Spy Myung-wol", as a North Korean agent on a mission to kidnap a top South Korean Hallyu star, who ends up falling for him. The series gained notoriety when Han failed to show up for her scheduled filming on August 14–15 and instead flew to Los Angeles on August 16; it was the first instance of a leading actor abruptly leaving in the middle of a Korean drama shoot. Her then-agency SidusHQ cited conflicts with television director Hwang In-hyuk over her hectic working conditions, and that exhaustion had compromised her judgment. Han's absence effectively halted production, and the KBS network lambasted her actions as "unilateral, irresponsible and will not be tolerated," while the drama's production company Victory Contents (then known as Victory Productions) threatened legal action. After extensive press coverage, Han returned to Korea and continued filming "Spy Myung-wol" on August 18. Upon arrival at Incheon International Airport, she apologized but maintained that her demands had been legitimate, stating "I want to believe that I did the right thing." Han drew harsh criticism from TV industry professionals and viewers, but some fans defended her, saying the stressful Korean drama live-shoot system was at fault.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: Romantic comedy film "Penny Pinchers" was released two months after "Spy Myung-wol" finished airing. In it, Han shed her glamorous image to play an extremely frugal woman who considers love a frivolous expense and teaches an unemployed playboy the art of penny pinching.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: After the "Spy Myung-wol" fiasco, public backlash forced Han to go on a three-year hiatus from acting.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: In late 2014, she made a successful comeback in "Birth of a Beauty", where Han played a warm-hearted ajumma who overcomes her husband's infidelity by undergoing a head-to-toe makeover involving plastic surgery and weight loss. This was followed with leading roles in romantic comedies "" (2016) where she plays a fake fortune teller, and "20th Century Boy and Girl" (2017).


title: Han Ye-seul

text: In 2019, Han starred in SBS drama "Big Issue", playing a paparazzi journalist who chases after celebrity scandals.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: On May 2, 2011, Han hit a man surnamed Do on the hip with the wing mirror of her Porsche while driving into the parking lot of her home in an apartment building in Samseong-dong. Do sustained minor injuries and Han's lawyers offered him in compensation, but Do claimed that she had fled the scene. Her then-agency SidusHQ denied this, saying she had apologized and checked if he was okay, but did not step out of her vehicle. After an investigation, police cleared Han of the hit-and-run allegations.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: Han began dating YG Entertainment record producer Teddy Park in May 2013. The two were reported to have broken up on October 24, 2016.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: In January 2015, the FSS included Han in a list of people who were found to have violated the foreign currency-related law by failing to report their asset acquisition, such as real estate overseas, to relevant authorities. This referred to a commercial building in Koreatown, Los Angeles that Han had bought in 2011, but her then-agency KeyEast issued a statement that the omission had been a technical mistake, because Han had transferred the building's ownership to a company in which she was the major shareholder and was unaware that she should report it.


title: Han Ye-seul

text: On May 13, 2021 Han revealed through an update from her Instagram that she is currently dating theatrical actor Ryu Sung-jae, who is 10 years younger than her.


title: Marthe Keller

text: Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film "Marathon Man" (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.


title: Marthe Keller

text: Keller studied ballet as a child, but stopped after a skiing accident at age 16. She changed to acting, and worked in Berlin at the Schiller Theater and the Berliner Ensemble.


title: Marthe Keller

text: Keller's earliest film appearances were in "Funeral in Berlin" (1966, in which she was not credited) and the German film "Wilder Reiter GmbH" (1967). She appeared in a series of French films in the 1970s, including "Un Cave" (1971), "La Raison du Plus Fou" (1973) and "Toute Une Vie/And Now My Love" (1974). Her most famous American film appearances are her Golden Globe-nominated performance as Dustin Hoffman's girlfriend in "Marathon Man" (1976) and her performance as a "femme fatale" Palestinian terrorist who leads an attack on the Super Bowl in "Black Sunday" (1977). Keller acted alongside Al Pacino in the 1977 romantic drama film "Bobby Deerfield", based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel "Heaven Has No Favorites", and subsequently the two were involved in a relationship. She also acted alongside William Holden in Billy Wilder's 1978 romantic drama "Fedora."


title: Marthe Keller

text: After 1978, Keller did more work in European cinema than in Hollywood. Her later films include "Dark Eyes" (1987), with Marcello Mastroianni.


title: Marthe Keller

text: In April 2016, she was announced as the President of the Jury for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Marthe Keller

text: In 2001, Keller appeared in an all-star Broadway adaptation of Abby Mann's play "Judgment at Nuremberg", directed by John Tillinger, as Mrs. Bertholt, in the role played by Marlene Dietrich in the 1961 Stanley Kramer film version. She was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress for this performance.


title: Marthe Keller

text: In addition to her work in film and theatre, Keller has developed a career in classical music as a speaker and opera director. She has performed the speaking role of Joan of Arc in Arthur Honegger's oratorio "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher" on several occasions, with conductors such as Seiji Ozawa and Kurt Masur. She has recorded the role for Deutsche Grammophon with Ozawa (DG 429 412-2). Keller has also recited the spoken part in Igor Stravinsky's "Perséphone". She has performed classical music melodramas for speaker and piano in recital. The Swiss composer Michael Jarrell wrote the melodrama "Cassandre", after Christa Wolf's novel, for Keller, who performed in the world premiere in 1994.


title: Marthe Keller

text: Keller's first production as an opera director was "Dialogues des Carmélites" for Opéra national du Rhin in 1999. This production subsequently received a semi-staged performance in London that year. She has also directed "Lucia di Lammermoor" for Washington National Opera and for Los Angeles Opera. Her directorial debut at the Metropolitan Opera was in a 2004 production of "Don Giovanni".


title: Richard Kind filmography

text: Richard Kind is an American actor, known for his roles as Dr. Mark Devanow in "Mad About You" (1992–1999, 2019), Paul Lassiter in "Spin City" (1996–2002), Andy in "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2002–2021), and Arthur in "A Serious Man" (2009). Kind is also known for his voice performances in various Pixar films such as "A Bug's Life" (1998), the first two films of the "Cars" franchise (2006–2011), "Toy Story 3" (2010), and "Inside Out" (2015). He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Marcus Hoff in the 2013 Broadway production of "The Big Knife".


title: Nabonidus

text: Nabonidus (Babylonian cuneiform: "Nabû-naʾid", meaning "May Nabu be exalted" or "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BC to the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Nabonidus was the last native ruler of ancient Mesopotamia, the end of his reign marking the end of thousands of years of Sumero-Akkadian states, kingdoms and empires. One of the most vibrant and individualistic rulers of his time, Nabonidus is remembered as the last independent king of Babylon, and he is characterised by some scholars as an unorthodox religious reformer and as the first archaeologist.


title: Nabonidus

text: The origins of Nabonidus, his connection to previous royalty, and subsequently what claim he had to the throne remain unclear, given that Nabonidus made no genealogical claims of kinship to previous kings. This suggests that he was neither related nor connected to the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonian rulers. However, he is known to have had a prominent career of some kind before he became king. It is possible that he was connected to the Chaldean kings via marriage, possibly having married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 BC). Nabonidus's mother, Adad-guppi, was of Assyrian or Aramean ancestry. His father, Nabu-balatsu-iqbi, of whom little is known, may also have been either Assyrian or Aramean. Some historians have speculated that either Adad-guppi or Nabu-balatsu-iqbi were members of the Sargonid dynasty, rulers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire until its fall in 609 BC.


title: Nabonidus

text: Nabonidus was, to his own apparent surprise, proclaimed king after the deposition and murder of Labashi-Marduk (556 BC) in a plot likely led by Nabonidus's son Belshazzar. Throughout his reign, inscriptions and later sources suggest that Nabonidus worked to increase the status of the moon god Sîn and decrease the status of Babylon's traditional national deity Marduk. While some have suggested that Nabonidus wished to go as far as to completely replace Marduk with Sîn as the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon, the extent to which Nabonidus's devotion to Sîn led to religious reforms is debated. From 552 BC to 543/542 BC, for reasons yet to be discovered, Nabonidus was in self-imposed exile in Tayma, Arabia. This exile is assumed to have been due to disagreements with the Babylonian clergy and oligarchy. During this period, Belshazzar acted as regent in Babylonia, while Nabonidus continued to be recognised as the king.


title: Nabonidus

text: When Nabonidus returned to Babylonia in 543/542 BC, he escalated his religious efforts and rebuilt the Ekhulkhul, the temple dedicated to Sîn in the major northern city of Harran. Nabonidus's reign came to an abrupt end with the quick victory over his empire by Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. After the decisive battle of Opis, the Persians entered Babylon without a fight. Several sources state that Nabonidus was captured but spared, and possibly allowed leave to the region of Carmania; however, Belshazzar is believed to have been killed. Nabonidus may have been alive in exile as late as the reign of Darius the Great (522–486 BC).


title: Nabonidus

text: The origins of Nabonidus are obscure, with the scarce available details about him leaving much room for interpretation and speculation. In one of his inscriptions, Nabonidus states the following:


title: Nabonidus

text: Nabonidus's father was a man by the name Nabu-balatsu-iqbi, whom Nabonidus refers to in his inscriptions as a "learned counsellor", "wise prince", "perfect prince" and "heroic governor". That Nabu-balatsu-iqbi is not given a connection to any Babylonian king in Nabonidus's inscriptions, it is typically assumed to indicate that Nabonidus was not closely connected to Babylonia's ruling dynasty (the Chaldean dynasty). In his inscriptions, Nabonidus refers to those who preceded him as kings of Babylon, but he does not claim descent from any of them. In no inscription does Nabonidus elaborate on his father's origin and ethnicity, merely mentioning his name and writing that he was courageous, wise and devout. Curiously, no person named Nabu-balatsu-iqbi who can reasonably be identified as Nabonidus's father appears in documents prior to Nabonidus's reign, thus making his father's status and position unclear. The repeated references of Nabu-balatsu-iqbi as "prince" in Nabonidus's inscriptions suggests some sort of noble status and political importance.


title: Nabonidus

text: Nabonidus's mother was Adad-guppi, born in 648/649 BC. Although once assumed to have been part of the Babylonian royal harem, no evidence exists to date that Adad-guppi was indeed the concubine of Nabonidus's predecessors. She was, however, influential at the royal Babylonian court, according to her own inscriptions claiming that she wielded influence with the kings Nabopolassar (626–605 BC), Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 BC) and Neriglissar (560–556 BC). While no conclusive evidence currently exists, Adad-guppi is often assumed to have come from the major city Harran in northern Mesopotamia (where she later lived), and as having been of Assyrian ancestry.


title: Nabonidus

text: According to Canadian Assyriologist Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Nabonidus's later intense interest in Harran, a peripheral city of his empire, can only be explained if he and his mother had originated in Harran. The Dynastic Prophecy, a later document written after the conquest of Babylonia by Alexander the Great centuries later, corroborates that Nabonidus would have originated in Harran, as it regards Nabonidus as the founder, and sole representative, of the "dynasty of Harran". According to Beaulieu, Adagoppe may have been Aramean, rather than Assyrian, as her name "seems to be Aramean". In Harran, Adad-guppi served as a priestess devoted to the moon god, Sîn. There is no evidence that Adad-guppi was a high-ranking priestess, as the only titles she claims in her inscriptions are "mother of Nabonidus" and "worshipper of Sîn, Ningal, Nusku and Sadarnunna".


title: Nabonidus

text: Adad-guppi's association with Harran, and that she had likely married Nabu-balatsu-iqbi early in her life (as was the custom in ancient Mesopotamia), would mean that Nabu-balatsu-iqbi was most probably also a prominent resident of that city, and possibly of Assyrian or Aramean origin. Frauke Weiershäuser and Jamie Novotny speculated that Nabu-balatsu-iqbi could have been an Aramean chief. Stephen Herbert Langdon theorised that Nabu-balatsu-iqbi was a son of Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) and thus one of Ashurbanipal's brothers, but there is no concrete evidence for this relation.


title: Nabonidus

text: Per Nabonidus's own inscriptions and the inscriptions by Adad-guppi, wherein Nabonidus is called her "only son" several times, it can be confidently ascertained that Nabonidus was an only child. It is probable that Adad-guppi first came to Babylon as a prisoner after the Babylonians and Medes sacked Harran in 610 BC during the Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire. By 610 BC, she was already 39 years old. Presumably, Nabonidus was already born at this point, though his exact year of birth is yet unknown. In one of her inscriptions, Adad-guppi claims to have seen her descendants down to her great-great-grandchildren (i.e. Nabonidus's great-grandchildren) in her lifetime, totalling four generations of descendants. If the time between generations is estimated at approximately 20–25 years, and assuming that her great-great-grandchildren were approximately five years old by the time of Adad-guppi's death, Nabonidus could not have been born later than 615 BC, however he could very well have been born earlier.


title: Nabonidus

text: It is possible as well that Nabonidus married one of Nebuchadnezzar II's daughters, a marriage which could potentially have been secured through his mother's influence. Not only would such a connection explain Nabonidus's rise to the throne (being connected to the royal family) but it would also explain later historical traditions in which Nabonidus's son, Belshazzar, is described as Nebuchadnezzar II's descendant; as in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible, where Belshazzar is referred to as Nebuchadnezzar II's (grand)son. The claim of Belshazzar being Nebuchadnezzar II's descendant however, could also alternatively derive from royal propaganda, rather than true genealogical information. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus names the "last great queen" of the Babylonian Empire as Nitocris, but neither that name, nor any other name, is attested in contemporary Babylonian sources. Herodotus's description of Nitocris contains a wealth of legendary material making it difficult to determine whether he uses the name to refer to Nabonidus's wife or mother. William H. Shea proposed in 1982, that Nitocris may tentatively be identified as the name of Nabonidus's wife and Belshazzar's mother.


title: Nabonidus

text: In her inscriptions, Adad-guppi also claimed that Nabonidus was from the dynastic line of Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC), king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. According to her inscriptions, Adad-guppi was born in Ashurbanipal's twentieth year as king. At the time of her birth, Harran had been a major Assyrian stronghold and when the Neo-Assyrian Empire fell in 609 BC, Harran was the capital of its government in exile. On account of her claims in regards to Nabonidus being of Sargonid (Ashurbanipal's dynasty) ancestry, Stephanie Dalley in 2003 considered it "almost certain" that Adad-guppi was a daughter of Ashurbanipal. Michael B. Dick opposed Dalley's conviction in 2004, pointing out that even though Nabonidus did go to some length to revive some old Assyrian symbols (such as wearing a wrapped cloak in his depictions, absent in those of other Neo-Babylonian kings but present in Assyrian art) and attempted to link himself to the Sargonid dynasty, there is "no evidence whatsoever that Nabonidus was related to the Sargonid dynasty". According to Beaulieu, that Adad-goppi did not explicitly claim any royal ancestors herself points to a humble origin. As inscriptions by female relatives of kings are relatively rare, it is however probable, according to Wilfred G. Lambert, that Adad-guppi was of some high status.


title: Nabonidus

text: According to Herodotus, an official by the name Labynetus (the same name used for Nabonidus in ancient Greek sources) was present as a mediator and witness on behalf of Babylon at the negotiations conducted between the Median and Lydian empires after the Battle of the Eclipse in 585 BC. It is possible that this ambassador was the same person as the Nabonidus who later became Babylon's king.


title: Nabonidus

text: The name of Nabonidus is otherwise poorly attested in sources prior to his reign. A Nabonidus is listed as the head witnesses in a 597 BC legal document; however, it is unclear whether this is the same person as the later king, especially given that the text could be interpreted as referring to Nabonidus as a son of Nebuchadnezzar II. However, it is unlikely that king Nabonidus would have failed to mention being a son of Nebuchadnezzar II. If they are the same person, and the document does not call him the son of the king, his office listed in the document, "ša muḫḫi āli" (an official in charge of a city) would mean that the date of Nabonidus's birth has to be pushed back further, to before 620 BC, to account for the age necessary to hold that office. If the Nabonidus mentioned is not Nebuchadnezzar II's son, then the document does not name the father of this Nabonidus, which suggests that he was of high rank (fathers and grandfathers were otherwise usually mentioned for distinguishing purposes), and he could then conceivably be the same person as the later king. The wording could be interpreted as "the son of a man of the king" (i.e. a prince), rather than "the son of the king", which in that case, would explain Nabonidus' references to his father as a prince, in his royal inscriptions.


title: Nabonidus

text: There is also another letter from some point between the early 590s BC and the 570s BC, wherein a Nabonidus is described as having requested the levies of a particular region to be raised. Whether this Nabonidus is the same person as the future king is also unclear. The lack of confident mentions of Nabonidus in sources before his rise to the throne could suggest the possibility that Nabonidus was not his birth name, but an assumed regnal name, however the meaning of the name, i.e., "may Nabû be exalted", weakens that possibility.


title: Nabonidus

text: The Babylonian historian Berossus, active centuries later during the Hellenistic period, wrote that Nabonidus had been a 'priest of Bêl'. A religious function could possibly explain Nabonidus's absence of mention in earlier documents. In her inscriptions, Adad-guppi claims to have introduced her son Nabonidus to king Nebuchadnezzar II and king Neriglissar, and that Nabonidus thereafter performed duties for them "day and night" and "regularly did whatever pleased them". As Nabonidus is considered to have been a learned man, one who knew how to write, and who quarreled with numerous priests and scholars, it is possible that he was a courtier at the royal court before he became king; however, no records of a prominent courtier by his name are known.


title: Nabonidus

text: Nabonidus rose to the throne in the aftermath of the collapse of the direct dynastic line of the Chaldean dynasty. After the brief reign of Neriglissar, a son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar II, the throne had been inherited in April 556 BC by Neriglissar's son Labashi-Marduk. Berossus erroneously wrote that Labashi-Marduk ruled for nine months (though this might be attributable to a scribal error) and stated that Labashi-Marduk's "evil ways" led to his friends plotting against him, eventually resulting in the "child king" being beaten to death. The plotters then agreed that Nabonnedos (Nabonidus), one of the plotters, should rule. The reason for the coup against Labashi-Marduk is unknown. It is possible that despite Labashi-Marduk and his father being well-connected and wealthy, they were ultimately seen as commoners, lacking noble blood. Though Labashi-Marduk may have been the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar II through his mother, making him part of the royal bloodline, it is also possible he was the son of Neriglissar and a different wife. Thus, Labashi-Marduk's rise to the throne might have signified a true break in the dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar II and might as such have aroused opposition from the Babylonian populace. Although Berossus refers to Labashi-Marduk as a child, it possible that he became king as an adult since commercial texts from two years earlier indicate that Labashi-Marduk was in charge of his own affairs at that time.


title: Nabonidus

text: Though Nabonidus in his inscriptions claims that he had few supporters and that he did not covet the throne himself, he must have been a leading figure in the conspiracy that led to the deposition and death of Labashi-Marduk. Nabonidus enjoyed consistent support from the Babylonian military throughout his reign and it is possible that the army played a role in his rise to the throne. Though Berossus claimed Labashi-Marduk ruled for nine months, the Uruk King List only gives Labashi-Marduk a reign of three months and contract tablets from Babylonia suggest that he might have ruled as briefly as just two months. It appears that there was a period of either confusion, after a discrete palace coup, or a brief civil war. Per contract tablets, Labashi-Marduk was still recognised as king at Uruk up until at least 19 June, and in the city of Sippar until at least 20 June. The earliest tablet dated to the reign of Nabonidus at Sippar is from 26 June. However, a tablet written as early as 25 May from Nippur is dated to Nabonidus's reign and the last tablet dated to Labashi-Marduk's reign at Babylon itself is from 24 May. The earliest tablet dated to Nabonidus at Babylon itself is from 14 July. This evidence can be reconciled by positing that Nabonidus may have been recognised in the Babylonian heartland, including Nippur and Babylon, already on 25 May, whereas some outlying cities continued to recognise Labashi-Marduk (even though he quite possibly was dead at the time on account of a possible palace coup) as king until June. By the end of June 556 BC, tablets dated to Nabonidus are known from across Babylonia.


title: Nabonidus

text: On account of his mother's age, and Nabonidus having had a long career in royal service before 556 BC, he must have been relatively old by the time he became king. It appears that Nabonidus had not intended to become king, and that he accepted the kingship reluctantly. Though a reluctance to accept royal power is often used as a form of royal propaganda, there are several inscriptions by Nabonidus, some dated more than a decade into his reign (at a point when he no longer needed to justify his rule with legitimacy) wherein he points out that he did not covet the throne. In one inscription, Nabonidus describes himself as visiting the sanctuaries of Marduk and Nabû in search for guidance, with a troubled conscience and questioning if his accession was legitimate:


title: Nabonidus

text: It is thus possible that whereas Nabonidus was a prominent figure in the group of conspirators that deposed and killed Labashi-Marduk, he had no intention of assuming the throne himself but was convinced to by the other conspirators. It is probable that the chief orchestrator behind the conspiracy against Labashi-Marduk was Nabonidus's son, Belshazzar. Belshazzar was the chief beneficiary of the entire affair, as he became the designated heir to the throne, and also inherited the large private estates of Labashi-Marduk, becoming one of the richest and most prominent men in Babylonia overnight. Belshazzar could not have claimed the throne for himself while his father was still alive, but by placing his father on the throne, an old man (meaning that his reign could be expected to be transitional, only lasting a few years), Belshazzar thought the throne secured for himself in the future.


title: Nabonidus

text: The earliest recorded activity of Nabonidus as king was visiting the city of Sippar on 4 July 556 BC, where he donated three minas of gold in the city's temple, the Ebabbar temple. The purpose of the visit may have been political, given that Sippar recognised Labashi-Marduk as king just two weeks prior, nearly a month after Nabonidus had been proclaimed king.


title: Nabonidus

text: In the fall of 556 BC, Nabonidus led the Babylonian army on a campaign to Hume, eastern Cilicia, where Neriglissar had campaigned in 557 BC. That Nabonidus campaigned there so shortly after Neriglissar's campaign could suggest that Syria, which was under Bablyonian suzerainty, was threatened by raiders from Cilicia, or could point towards Nabonidus, in general, being concerned about the security of the empire. This initial campaign was successful and prisoners, gifts and booty were brought back to Babylon to use in the annual New Year's festival. Babylonian records give the number of prisoners later distributed as temple slaves as 2,850. After celebrating the New Year's festival, Nabonidus embarked on a short trip to southern Babylonia, visiting the cities of Kish, Larsa, Uruk and Ur. At Uruk, he conducted detailed reorganisations of the Eanna temple, making adjustments to the scheme of sacrificial offerings, and restored some offerings that had been interrupted under Neriglissar's reign. One inscription suggests that Nabonidus went on a second successful campaign to Cilicia in 555 BC, on the way perhaps attacking the city Hama in Syria, but the record is fragmentary.


title: Nabonidus

text: Though Nabonidus made the traditional royal donations to the temples in Babylon, the major building effort of his reign, proclaimed as his intention shortly after he became king, was restoring the temple Ekhulkhul, the temple dedicated to Sîn in Harran, which had been destroyed by the Medes in 610 BC. Nabonidus noted at the beginning of his reign that the date of the temple's destruction was a strange coincidence: it had been destroyed exactly 54 years before he became king. 54 years is three 18-year cycles, or a complete cycle of the moon. Though the Elhulkhul was not restored until after Nabonidus returned from a long period of staying in Tayma in Arabia, it is possible that construction work started considerably earlier and it appears to have been his goal since he assumed the throne. Nabonidus's inscriptions also mention the that the Medes threatened Harran, "surrounding" it, and it is possible that building work was postponed until later in his reign due to the threat of Median raiders disturbing the building efforts. According to his inscriptions Nabonidus had been ordered to restore the temple by both Marduk and Sîn in a dream, and the gods had assured him that the Medes would eventually be restored so that construction could begin without being threatened by raids. In addition to Nabonidus's own religious beliefs, the restoration of the Ekhulkhul, and the city of Harran surrounding it, may also have been politically motivated. Since the downfall of Assyria, political hegemony in the Near East had been divided between Babylonia and the Medes, an issue that remained unresolved by the time of Nabonidus. As Nabonidus often refers to, and likens himself to, his predecessors Nebuchadnezzar II and Neriglissar, both conquerors and warriors, and several inscriptions allude to Nabonidus being preoccupied with military matters in his accession year, it seems that Nabonidus was preparing to resolve the matter.


title: Nabonidus

text: In May 553 BC, Nabonidus departed to campaign in Arabia, initially to suppress a rebellion in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. The Babylonians achieved victory relatively quickly, and Nabonidus still remained near the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in August, overseeing the transport of supplies back to Babylon. After a period of illness, Nabonidus then moved on Amurru and Edom and captured an otherwise unknown city. By December 553 BC or January 552 BC, Nabonidus was campaigning in Arabia, fighting against the king of Dadanu. By March or April, Nabonidus had defeated the king of Dadanu, and had captured other cities in Arabia, including the city of Tayma, which he had established as a provisionary seat for himself by the summer of 552 BC. Babylonian sources state that Nabonidus conquered Arabian lands as far south as Medina (called Yatribu at this time). After conquering Tayma, Nabonidus would stay there for about a decade, not returning to Babylon until September or October of 543 or 542 BC. October 543 BC is the return date most supported by surviving Babylonian documentation. The purpose for this prolonged stay, effectively self-exile, in Tayma are unclear and debated, with no proposed explanation having universal support.


title: Nabonidus

text: The history of this period is poorly known and cannot be reconstructed in great detail, on account of a lack of sources. Entries in several royal chronicles for this period are completely, or nearly completely, missing. According to the Verse Account of Nabonidus, a biased document probably written in the reign of Cyrus the Great (who ultimately deposed Nabonidus), Nabonidus conducted extensive building work at Tayma, fortifying it with new walls, embellishing it with new buildings and constructing a royal palace similar to, but likely considerably smaller than, his royal palace at Babylon, essentially rebuilding the city in a Babylonian fashion. Modern archaeological excavations at Tayma has revealed that the city underwent considerable expansion during the 6th century, including the construction of an extensive irrigation system. Some motifs on some of the ruins point towards a clear Babylonian influence, such as an offering table with a crescent, a star and a winged disk (reminiscent of religious motifs in Babylonia).


title: Nabonidus

text: The reason for the Arabian campaign in the first place is not difficult to ascertain, as it probably represents the next step in the growing expansionism of Babylonia in the west. Babylonian forces had first come into contact with the Arabian kingdoms proper with the conquest of the Levant from Assyria, and the campaign was most likely intended to expand the Babylonian Empire westwards. Due to the many trade routes passing through Arabia, the region was incredibly wealthy and represented an appealing target. It is possible that the intention of conquering Tayma was to control these important trade routes that ran through the city (including the major trade route from Egypt to Babylon). To efficiently reap the benefits of the trade route, authority would have had to be enforced by a strong, local Babylonian force. However, stationing a Babylonian force at Tayma and leaving a governor in charge would have sufficed, the king would not have needed to stay in Arabia for ten years in order to pacify the region. Furthermore, beyond economical gains, the Tayma region was not of much strategic use. The Arabs were not a threat to Babylon, or any other power at this time, and though Egypt was a potentially powerful adversary, dealing with the Egyptians through fortifying a city isolated deep in Arabia, rather than fortifying and garrisoning the Babylonian lands in Palestine, would have been an unlikely strategy. Due to the remote and inaccessible location of Tayma, an argument that Nabonidus intended to move the centre of gravity of his empire westwards, through constructing a new capital there, has no basis.


title: Nabonidus

text: Though Nabonidus could have been motivated to stay in Tayma for religious reasons, given that there were several prominent lunar deities in the region and Nabonidus was a devotee of the moon god Sîn, it seems unlikely that such a large endeavour would have been motivated solely by faith. Per Wiseman, any religious explanations for the prolonged stay at Tayma can be discarded as no sources mention the presence or construction of Babylonian temples, or a temple dedicated to Sîn, in the city. Beaulieu also points out that the Verse Account of Nabonidus, otherwise very focused on the king's religious beliefs, makes no mention of any religious activities at Tayma, which it surely would have done had the campaign and prolonged stay been religiously motivated.


title: Nabonidus

text: During Nabonidus's stay at Tayma, his son and heir Belshazzar was put in charge of ruling in Babylon as regent. It is possible that the prolonged stay in Tayma was the result of a political struggle with a faction, possibly led by his own son Belshazzar, opposing Nabonidus's reformist religious stance, and an agreement was reached to go into self-imposed exile while Belshazzar ruled as regent in Babylon. In his own inscriptions, Nabonidus attributes his stay at Tayma to the "impiety of the Babylonians".