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Document Details :

Title: Les origines de la tonsure monastique
Subtitle: Les sources grecques
Author(s): OLTEAN, Daniel
Journal: Byzantion
Volume: 87    Date: 2017   
Pages: 259-297
DOI: 10.2143/BYZ.87.0.3256908

Abstract :
The article focuses on the Greek sources concerning the monastic tonsure, a custom adopted in the Christian East by ascetic women as early as the 4th c. and then by monks in the 6th c. The study highlights that the most important source of the monastic tonsure is the pagan practice of tonsuring boys and girls who had reached puberty. The haircutting of young girls before their marriage served as a model for the tonsure practiced on the day of their monastic profession. However, the haircutting of young boys, sign of their entry into maturity, sometimes was taken up in the ecclesiastical milieu to mark only the first stage of their monastic or clerical life.

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