Our Righteous Father Marcellus, Abbot of the Monastery of the Unsleeping.
Saint Marcellus, who was from the city of Apamea in Syria, was born of renowned parents. Adorned with virtue and learning, he succeeded Saint Alexander to the abbacy of the Monastery of the Unsleeping about the year 460. This monastery was so named because the monks there were divided into three ranks, and took turns in succession for the execution of the sacred services both day and night, and thus ceaselessly sent up praise to God, without any lapse. The author of this practice was the aforementioned Alexander. As the biographer of both these Saints writes: “Later, a venerable monastery was established near the mouth of Pontus – that is, the place where the Black Sea enters into the Bosphorus – and he introduced a rule that, though new, was superior to any found elsewhere: that is, that henceforth there should never be any cessation in the hymnody offered to God, but that through an unbroken succession of those that served in turn, there should be achieved this continuous and unceasing glorification of our Master.”
The above account is taken from the Great Horologion,
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