Zoe

Zoe, in Eastern Orthodoxy, a semimonastic Greek association patterned on Western religious orders. Founded in 1907 by Eusebius Matthopoulos, Zoe (Greek: “Life”) brought together groups of more than 100 unmarried and highly disciplined members, bound by the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; approximately half of the brothers were ordained priests, and the rest were laymen. With the exception of one month spent yearly in a common retreat, they were engaged in various religious activities throughout Greece, including teaching, preaching, administration of schools and youth organizations, and publishing. In the years following World War II, Zoe publications numbered hundreds of thousands of copies a year, but its influence has since diminished, especially after several of its members left the brotherhood and created a competing association (Soter).

The Zoe movement initiated a remarkable revival of the liturgy and sacramental practice throughout Greece. It was originally frowned upon by the episcopate, which resented its strong independent organization. Its authority and influence were compromised by its close connections with the dictatorship established in Greece in 1967.