abbot

Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The female equivalent is abbess. Origins The title had its origin in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria, spread through the eastern Mediterranean, and soon became accepted generally in all languages as the designation of the head of a monastery. The word is derived from the Aramaic meaning "father" or , meaning "my father" (it still has this meaning in contemporary Hebrew: אבא and Aramaic: ܐܒܐ) In the Septuagint, it was written as "abbas". At first it was employed as a respectful title for any monk, but it was soon restricted by canon law to certain priestly superiors. At times it was applied to various priests, e.g. at the court of the Frankish monarchy the ("of the palace"') and ("of the camp") were chaplains to the Merovingian and Carolingian sovereigns' court and army respectively. The title of abbot came into fairly general use in western monastic orders whose members include priests. Monastic history An abbot (from , , from ("father"), from (), from / (, "father"); compare ; ) is the head and chief governor of a community of monks, called also in the East hegumen or archimandrite. The English version for a female monastic head is abbess.