ASCETICS

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.), I exercise.) Persons who. in the early ages of Christianity, devoted themselves to a soli tary and contemplative life, following the system of the F.asenes and Therepeutaj among the jVws. and practising great austerities, with a view to mortify the flesh and ahs tract the mind from worldly objects. They had their or is'n in Egypt and Syria, and appear to have suggested the firs! idea of monachism. [s. 106]