BUCHITES. A religious sect which became prominent in Syria towards the end of the fourth century A.D. Derived from a Greek word, the name means " the praying people." The original designation, formed from a Syriac word meaning "to pray," was Messalians or Massalians. The Euchites seem to have been confined to the East, where they existed for some centuries. Mes salians are heard of as late as the twelfth century. The Euchites held that men are born with a demon which incites them to sin. This demon cannot be expelled by Baptism or the Eucharist. It can be expelled or sub only by Intense, concentrated prayer, continued until it produces a state from which all affections and volition are banished. , When this state is reached the soul is conscious of a union with God; the demon departs, and the Holy Spirit enters; the Holy Trinity can be seen with the bodily eyes. It was possible, the Euchites believed, to attain a passionless state of perfection in which a man became sinless. "The soul of him who
was ' spiritual,' as they boasted themselves to be, was changed into the divine nature; he could see things in visible to ordinary men; and so some of them used to dance by way of trampling on the demons which they saw, a practice from which they were called Choreutae" (Diet. of Christ. Biogr.). The Euchites were monks, but, unlike other monks, they refused to support them selves by their labour, preferring to roam about begging. They were condemned by councils held at Side, Constan tinople (426 A.D.), and Ephesus (431 A.D.). At Ephesus the Messalian book, Aseetieus, from which passages were read, was anathematized. The Euchites suffered per secution both in Syria and Asia Minor. Amongst their leaders were Adelphius, Lampetius, and Marcian. See Schaff-Herzog; J. H. Blunt; Wace and Piercy.