Within monasticism there are various degrees or levels of commitment. When one decides to pursue a monastic career, they enter the monastery simply as a Seeker or Posloushnik, meaning “listener” in Russian.
After a set or designated period, the seeker is given permission to wear a cassock, so as to fit in more with the brotherhood. When the candidate has undertaken various obediences and directives, they can then be tonsured as a Riasophor monk, meaning that they now wear a riasa over their cassock.
The next rank, being tonsured into the lesser schema, is truly the entry into monasticism proper, where the monk of nun truly renounces the world for the sake of Christ. Most monk and nuns stay at this level. However, to those monks and nuns who show a greater zeal and a willingness to mortify their flesh through prayer and fasting and desire to live life on earth as if they were already dead, they may be elevated to the rank of Great Schema.
Those who are tonsured into this highest grade of monasticism wear a distinctive garment known as an Analavos (meaning “to take up” in Greek), which is adorned with the instruments of Christ’s Passion and serves as a constant reminder that they must “take up the cross daily” (Luke 9:23) and that he or she is “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).
