or ACOEMETI, from ἀκομότης, sleepless; a set of monks who chanted the divine service night and day in their places of worship. They divided themselves into three bodies, who alternately succeeded one another, so that the service in their churches was never interrupted. This practice they founded upon the precept, Pray without ceasing. They flourished in the East about the middle of the fifth century. There are a kind of acometi still subsisting in the Romish church, viz., the religious of the holy sacrament, who keep up a perpetual adoration, some one or other of them praying before the holy sacrament day and night.

ACETES, the son of a poor fisherman of Maronia, who followed the occupation of a pilot. Being once on a voyage to Delos, the ship touched at Naxos (frequently called Dia), where the sailors carried on board with them a beautiful boy, whom they had found on shore overcome with sleep and wine. Acotes recognising the youth to be more than mortal, endeavoured to dissuade them from their purpose, but without effect. On awaking, the boy, who was no other than the god Bacchus, desired to be carried back to Naxos. The crew agreed to do so, but kept the ship's head in the opposite direction, in spite of the entreaties of the god and the remonstrances of Acotes. Suddenly the offended deity put forth his power, and the ship stood motionless in the water. The crew in vain plied the oar: vine-wreaths twined around them, and shot in tangles through the rigging. Tigers, lynxes, and panthers, bestrode the deck, and Bacchus himself appeared in his true form, armed with his terrible thyrsus. The sailors incited to madness, leaped into the sea, and were immediately changed into fishes. Acotes alone was saved, and became a priest of Bacchus at Naxos.—Ovid. Met. iii. 582.