chief works was to organize a normal diocesan clergy. Even now, by far the greater number of churches are served by monks. There are no organized parishes with a rector and his curates. Where several priests live together, they stand all on the same level, each having a district. There is the curious custom that a family will choose one priest to be its director. This family then supports him, and, in return, he administers all sacraments to its members. There will be more to say about the clergy when we come to Uniate Canon Law in general.[1] Here it will be enough to note that the diocesan clergy increases very much in modern times, and that the practice of celibacy becomes more and more common among secular priests. All the modern colleges and seminaries encourage celibacy.[2] The priests are poor. They live from stole fees and small collections. The usual stipend for a liturgy is two or three piastres (4d. or 6d.). But they need little to live. They eat a handful of rice, a cucumber, an olive or two, a little laban, and an onion. The title Chorepiskopos[3] is now given to many priests as an honour. The Melkite chorepiskopos is never ordained bishop. The real Archimandrite is head of a monastery. But there are many titular Archimandrites, again merely an honour given to any deserving priest. The Protopapas is a rural dean. The secular priest wears a dark cassock[4] with no buttons, a cloth belt, a cloak, and the kalimaukion black. Monks and dignitaries wear a veil (epanokalimaukion) over this, and a leather belt. Some priests now begin to wear the French douillette, thinking that more European. It is ugly, hot, and inconvenient in their climate. All priests let the hair grow long. When not officiating in church they gather it up, just as a woman does. All, of course, must wear the beard.
The chief religious orders are the three Congregations of Salvatorians, Shuwairites, and Alepins (Ḥalibi).[5] These monks claim certain districts as belonging to their orders.
- ↑ See p. 216, n. 1.
- ↑ Of 172 secular priests in 1911, 92 were celibate (Charon, iii, 340).
- ↑ Ar. Ū́skufu-lḲaryeh.
- ↑ Of any dark colour, often blue, brown, grey. Only monks must wear black.
- ↑ For these see pp. 205-208. Salvatorians write after their name the letters bā and mīm (=bāsilī mukhallasī), Shuwairites and Alepins bā and ḳāf (=bāsilī ḳānūnī, "regular Basilian"). All monks by law are subject to the Ordinary. The Melkite Church has no stauropegia. For Melkite monastic Canon Law see Charon, op. cit., iii, pp. 383-387.
