Eastern Orthodox monasticism gives tonsure its fullest ceremonial development, structuring the monastic life itself as a series of tonsures rather than a single admission. The rassophore, or robe bearer, is the first and lightest degree, at which a small cross shaped cutting of hair is taken and the candidate receives the outer monastic robe without yet taking permanent vows, a stage some monastics remain in for years or for life.
The stavrophore, or cross bearer, marks a fuller commitment, taken with formal vows and additional habit, and the great schema, the megaloschema, is the highest and most demanding degree, reserved in most monasteries for the most senior and spiritually tested monastics and accompanied by an extensive liturgy, a new monastic name distinct from the one given at baptism or at lower tonsure, and vows understood as final and irrevocable. Each tonsure is performed as a distinct liturgical rite within the church, with prayers, the cutting of hair in the form of a cross, and the formal clothing in the habit proper to that degree, and monastics who die are traditionally buried in the habit of the highest degree they attained. The practice has no precise Western Catholic equivalent, where religious profession is generally structured as temporary followed by final vows rather than as graded degrees each marked by its own tonsure.