The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity.

An abbot ( from Old English abbod, abbad, from Latin abbas (“ father ”), from Ancient Greek ἀββᾶς ( abbas ), from Aramaic ܐܒܐ / אבא (’ abbā, “ father ”); confer German Abt ; French abbé ) is the head and chief governor of a community of monks, called also in the East hegumen or archimandrite.

The first case recorded of the partial exemption of an abbot from episcopal control is that of Faustus, abbot of Lerins, at the council of Arles, AD 456 ; but the exorbitant claims and exactions of bishops, to which this repugnance to episcopal control is to be traced, far more than to the arrogance of abbots, rendered it increasingly frequent, and, in the 6th century, the practice of exempting religious houses partly or altogether from episcopal control, and making them responsible to the pope alone, received an impulse from Pope Gregory the Great.

The first undoubted instance is the bull by which Alexander II in 1063 granted the use of the mitre to Egelsinus, abbot of the monastery of St Augustine at Canterbury.

The ceremony of the formal admission of a Benedictine abbot in medieval times is thus prescribed by the consuetudinary of Abingdon.

Thus we hear of abbots going out to hunt, with their men carrying bows and arrows ; keeping horses, dogs and huntsmen ; and special mention is made of an abbot of Leicester, c. 1360, who was the most skilled of all the nobility in hare hunting.

Once chosen, he must request blessing: the blessing of an abbot is celebrated by the bishop in whose diocese the monastery is or, with his permission, another abbot or bishop.

The ceremony of such a blessing is similar in some aspects to the consecration of a bishop, with the new abbot being presented with the mitre, the ring, and the crosier as symbols of office and receiving the laying on of hands and blessing from the celebrant.

Though the ceremony installs the new abbot into a position of legal authority, it does not confer further sacramental authority-it is not a further degree of Holy Orders ( although some abbots have been ordained to the episcopacy ).

The abbey is a species of " exempt religious " in that it is, for the most part, answerable to the Pope, or to the abbot primate, rather than to the local bishop.

* The abbot of Sant ' Anselmo di Aventino, in Rome, is styled the " abbot primate ," and is acknowledged the senior abbot for the Order of St. Benedict ( O. S. B.

* An abbot president is the head of a congregation ( federation ) of abbeys within the Order of St. Benedict ( for instance, the English Congregation, The American Cassinese Congregation, etc.

Desiderius, abbot of Monte Cassino was first chosen pope as Victor III when Gregory VII died in 1085, but after Victor's short reign, Otho was elected Pope Urban II by acclamation ( March 1088 ) at a small meeting of cardinals and other prelates held in Terracina in March 1088.

Five days after the death of Pope Victor II ( who had made him cardinal-priest and abbot of Monte Cassino ) he was chosen to succeed him as Pope Stephen IX.

* Chapter 64 orders that the abbot be elected by his monks, and that he be chosen for his charity, zeal, and discretion.

Following Wighard's death, Theodore was chosen upon the recommendation of Hadrian ( later abbot of St. Peter's, Canterbury ).

In 1104, he was chosen abbot of the poor and tiny abbey of Nogent-sous-Coucy ( founded 1059 ) and henceforth took a more prominent part in ecclesiastical affairs, where he came into contact with bishops and court society.

About 1660 he was in Constantinople on business connected with his monastery, and on his return to Sinai was chosen abbot.

In the south, Babai the Great was chosen to lead, who at the time was abbot of a monastery on Mt.

More often than not, these were cases of members of one faction being chosen as the abbot of the other faction's temple, and the monks would protest.

At the same time, the choir monks, not without protest, left Calatrava to live under an abbot whom they had chosen, in the monastery of Cirvelos.

Alternatively, the sangharaja may be chosen semi-democratically by monks or the laity ( similar to the election of an abbot in some Theravada communities ).

Around 385 AD, he was chosen by his fellow monks to succeed his uncle as the abbot of the White Monastery.

He was chosen abbot of this Benedictine monastery in 1420.

Stigand also managed to attract the kings displeasure, this was after the king had chosen a monk from Marmoutier Abbey in the Loire Valley, France to be the first abbot of Battle Abbey.

The change spread more slowly in the West, where the office of abbot was commonly filled by laymen till the end of the 7th century.

The power of the abbot was paternal but absolute, limited, however, by the canon law.

When a vacancy occurred, the bishop of the diocese chose the abbot out of the monks of the convent, but the right of election was transferred by jurisdiction to the monks themselves, reserving to the bishop the confirmation of the election and the benediction of the new abbot.

It was necessary that an abbot should be at least 25 years of age, of legitimate birth, a monk of the house, unless it furnished no suitable candidate, when a liberty was allowed of electing from another convent, well instructed himself, and able to instruct others, one also who had learned how to command by having practised obedience.

The election was for life, unless the abbot was canonically deprived by the chiefs of his order, or when he was directly subject to them, by the pope or the bishop.

Before the late modern era, the abbot was treated with the utmost reverence by the brethren of his house.

Arms of a Roman Catholic abbot are distinguished by a gold crozier with a veil attached and a black galero with twelve tassels ( the galero of a territorial abbot would be green )

For instance, we read of Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, judicially murdered by Henry VIII, that his house was a kind of well-ordered court, where as many as 300 sons of noblemen and gentlemen, who had been sent to him for virtuous education, had been brought up, besides others of a lesser rank, whom he fitted for the universities.

In process of time the title abbot was extended to clerics who had no connection with the monastic system, as to the principal of a body of parochial clergy ; and under the Carolingians to the chief chaplain of the king,, or military chaplain of the emperor, It even came to be adopted by purely secular officials.

When the great reform of the 11th century had put an end to the direct jurisdiction of the lay abbots, the honorary title of abbot continued to be held by certain of the great feudal families, as late as the 13th century and later, the actual head of the community retaining that of dean.

In conventual cathedrals, where the bishop occupied the place of the abbot, the functions usually devolving on the superior of the monastery were performed by a prior.

Prior to this, the monastery would be a mere priory, headed by a prior who acts as superior but without the same degree of legal authority that an abbot has.

The abbot wears the same habit as his fellow monks, though by tradition he adds to it a pectoral cross.

Like an abbot, after being confirmed in her office by the Holy See, an abbess is solemnly admitted to her office by a formal blessing, conferred by the bishop in whose territory the monastery is located, or by an abbot or another bishop with appropriate permission.

Saint John Cassian speaks of an abbot of the Thebaid who had 500 monks under him.

For the reception of the sacraments, and for other religious offices, the abbot and his monks were commanded to attend the nearest church.

The monks, then kneeling, gave him the kiss of peace on the hand, and rising, on the mouth, the abbot holding his staff of office.

This permission opening the door to luxurious living, the council of Aachen, AD 817, decreed that the abbot should dine in the refectory, and be content with the ordinary fare of the monks, unless he had to entertain a guest.

The ordinary attire of the abbot was according to rule to be the same as that of the monks.

Sometimes the monks were directly subject to the lay abbot ; sometimes he appointed a substitute to perform the spiritual functions, known usually as dean ( decanus ), but also as abbot ( abbas legitimas, monasticus, regularis ).

Once he has received this blessing, the abbot not only becomes father of his monks in a spiritual sense, but their major superior under canon law, and has the additional authority to confer the ministries of acolyte and lector ( formerly, he could confer the minor orders, which are not sacraments, that these ministries have replaced ).

" This title hails back to England's separation from the See of Rome, when King Henry, as supreme head of the newly independent church, took over all of the monasteries, mainly for their possessions, except for St. Benet, which he spared because the abbot and his monks possessed no wealth, and lived like simple beggars, disposing the incumbent Bishop of Norwich and seating the abbot in his place, thus the dual title still held to this day.

Here the abbot and his monks led the simplest of lives, their food often consisting of nothing but forest herbs, berries, and the bark of young trees.

The monks were to choose the abbot.

The chief theological opponents of iconoclasm were the monks Mansur ( John of Damascus ), who, living in Muslim territory as advisor to the Caliph of Damascus, was far enough away from the Byzantine emperor to evade retribution, and Theodore the Studite, abbot of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople.

Oderisio fortified the monastery, as the people of the town of Cassino forcibly entered the monastery, and after an armed struggle forced the monks to declare Oderisio deposed and to elect another abbot in his place.

Determined to bring the Benedictines to heel, Honorius insisted that the election of Niccolo was uncanonical, and demanded that Seniorectus, the provost of the monastery at Capua, be elected as abbot, to the fury of the Monte Cassino monks.

He reassured the monks of his intentions, and in September 1127, he personally installed Seniorectus as abbot.

Aside from the Benedictines at Monte Cassino, Honorius was also determined to deal with the monks at Cluny Abbey under their ambitious and worldly abbot, Pons of Melgueil.