In Byzantium monks did not form a separate caste, apart from society. They held loyalties not only to their own houses or monastic leaders, but also formed part of a nexus of social, economic and spiritual relationships which bound together the 'powerful' in the middle Byzantine state. Monasticism displayed a highly individualistic streak, unlike the Western religious 'orders'.

Using hagiography, chronicles and, in particular, the newly available archives of the Athonite monasteries, this book reassesses the role of monks in Byzantine society and examines the reasons for the flowering of the monastic life in the period from the end of iconoclasm to the beginning of the twelfth century. It is the first study of its kind in English, and is aimed at anyone interested in either the Western or the Byzantine early medieval religious life.