Academic literature on the topic 'Athos (Monasteries)'

The essay ascertains that the monastic center located on Mount Athos and the Ohrid Archbishopric played a very important role in the policies pursued by Basil II. It was during his rule that the first foreign monasteries, which later Greek sources refer to as monastic communities ??????? ??????? (Iveron and Amalfi), were established. The third monastery displaying this characteristic was the Serbian monastery Hilandar. Since Hilandar had been established after the Bulgarian and Russian monasteries, the question arose why sources dating from the late 12th century do not mention Zographou and St. Panteleimon?s monastery among the ??????? ??????? monasteries. The answeris to be found in the circumstances surrounding the establishment of Slavic monasteries on Mount Athos. The essay also assesses the importance of Mount Athos and the Ohrid Archbishopric for the process of deeper integration of Slavs into the Byzantine religious and political-ideological system.

The article presents a reconstruction of the Russian Life of Saint Metrophanes of Voronezh which became the basis for a Greek translation made at Athos. Saint Metrophanes, a famous fellow-champion of Emperor Peter the Great, died in 1703 and was canonized in 1832. The manuscript of the Life was has been recently discovered in the archives of the Russian Saint Panteleimon monastery on Athos and introduced into academic use. The author and copyist of the text was the Athos monk Iakobos Neasketiotes. “The Athonias” has survived in four manuscript copies, all of them autographs of Iakobos Neasketiotes, which are preserved in the archives of Athonite monasteries, namely the Skete of Saint Anna and the Saint Panteleemon and Vatopedi monasteries. They are dated to the years 1848, 1855, 1860 and 1865.

The article represents a review of the book “Brief Narration about What the Difference between Holy Mount Athos and the Solovetsky Monastery Is, and What the Difference between the Holy Mount’s Monasteries and the Solovetsky Cloister Is” - a monument of handwritten literature of the 17th century with Athos’ description. The edition, consecrated to the 1000th anniversary of the Old Russian Monasticism on Athos, was published with the assistance of the Russian Fund for Humanities and is provided with an erudite commentary of the doctor of philological sciences T. A. Isachenko.

The peninsula of Athos in Chalkidiki became a center of organized monachal life in monasteries in the year 963, when with the initiative of the Byzantine emperor Nichephorus Phocas the Monastery of Great Laura was founded. Since that time Mount Athos (=MA) became the "Holy Mountain" and has attracted the moral and material support of the Byzantine emperors, various Orthodox countries and the flock till today. During this long period of more then one thousand years, MA was armed with a privileged legal status, the existence of which continues till now. The legal status of MA is based on three foundations: I. The law of the Hellenic Republic, II. The Public International Law, and III. The European Law. I. Fundamental significance for the status of MA have the provisions of article 105 of the Greek Constitution. Then is the Charter of MA, which is drawn up and voted by the Athonite monachal authorities and afterwards ratified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Greek Parliament. The Charter is a law of superior formal force in comparison to the other laws. According to the Constitution and the Charter, MA has an ancient privileged status and is a self-governed part of the Greek State, whose sovereignty remains intact. Spiritually MA is under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, direct in the sense that the Ecumenical Patriarch is also the local bishop of MA The territory of the peninsula is exempt from expropriation and is divided among the twenty Athonite monasteries exclusively. The administrative power lies in self-administration of the first and the second degree. The first is exercised by the ruling twenty monasteries. This number may not be changed, nor may their position in the preeminence, nor towards their dependencies (skates, cells, hermitages). Nowadays all the monasteries are coenobitic, i.e. the monks share a common life and have no private property. The monasteries are administered by the abbot, the Elders' Assembly and the Brotherhood. Second degree administration is operated by: 1. the Holy Community. It is comprised by twenty monks members, each of whom represents one monastery, 2. the Holy Community's executive organ is the Hiera Epistassia, which comprises four monks drawn annually from four monasteries in rotation. The leader of the Hiera Epistassia is called the First (= Protos). The Hiera Epistassis also performs specific duties as police force, police court and municipality of Karyes, the capital town of MA The legislative power is in the hands of: 1. The Holy Community as far as concerns the Charter of MA, 2. the Extraordinary Biannual Twenty-Members Assembly, which draws up the regulative provisions, and 3. the Greek State, as far as concerns: a) the rights and the duties of the (civil) Governor of MA, b) the judicial power of the Athonite authorities, and c) the custom and taxation privileges granted by the State to MA The judicial power belongs to: 1. the monastic courts (the abbot with the Elders' Assembly), 2. the Holy Community, 3. the Hiera Epistassia, and 4. the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The observance of the regimes is in the spiritual field under the supreme supervision of the Patriarchate and in the administrative under the supervision of the State, which is also exclusively responsible for safeguarding public order and security. These responsibilities of the State are exercised through the (civil) Governor of MA, whose rights and duties are determined by common law. All persons leading a monastic life in MA acquire the Greek citizenship without further formalities, upon admission in a monastery as novices or monks. Also persons who are not Orthodox Christians or they are schismatic Orthodox are prohibited from dwelling in MA II. The first international treaty that recognized an international protection of the MA status was that of San Stefano (1878), but only for the Russian monks. The Treaty of Berlin (also 1878) recognized the same protection for all the monks who were not borne in the Ottoman empire. Its article n? 62,8 was as follows: "Les moines du Mont Athos, quel que soit leur pays d'origine, seront maintenus dans leurs possessions et avantages ant?rieurs et jouiront, sans aucune exception, d'une enti?re ?galit? de droits et prerogatives". This provision was repeated in the special treaties of S?vres (1920) and then in the protocol of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). These treaties safeguarded the rights and the liberties of the non-Greek monastic communi ties in MA as follows: "La Gr?ce s'engage ? reconna?tre et maintenir les droits traditionnels et les libert?s, dont jouissent les communaut?s monastiques non grecques du Mont Athos d'apr?s les dispositions de l'article 62 du trait? de Berlin du 13 juillet 1878". The same provision has been repeated in the Legislative Decree of 29.9/30.10.1923 "On the Protection of Minorities in Greece", article 13. III. Because a lot of provisions of the MA law are opposite to the principles of the European Union (for example the clausura to women, the special license in order to visit the peninsula, the taxation and customs privileges etc.), Joint Declaration n? 4 concerns MA was included in the Final Act (1979) of the Agreement concerning the accession of the Hellenic Republic in the European Economic Community, now-a days European Union. According to this Declaration, recognizing that the special status granted to MA, as guaranteed by the Greek Constitution, is justified exclusively on grounds of a spiritual and religious nature, the Community will ensure that this status is taken into account in the application and subsequent preparation of pro visions of Community law, in particular in relation to customs franchise privileges, tax exemptions, and the right of establishment. .

Internal (spiritual) life in Serbian medieval monasteries dedicated to the Theotokos - Chilandar and Studenica, is regulated according to typikon of the monastery, written by Saint Sava, who was a monk at the monasteries. In these Typikons, founders gained their rights in relation to their monasteries, and they are still in relation to the abbots (hygoumenos) of the monasteries. Practice scepter of the founder of the monastery that was introduced in Hilandar Monastery Typikon from 1200/1, is nothing but the tradition that had long existed in Mount Athos. So St Sava traditionally refers to the relations abbot-founder in the Serbian monasteries at the beginning of the 13th century. Besides Typicons of Hilandar and Studenica, in the medieval Serbian state and its legal order, Dusan?s Code also dealt with the jurisdiction of founder of the monastery, and with relations between abbot of the monastery and its founder. This paper explained that during the establishment of a new monastery, church tradition was very explicit and clear regarding its organization.

Over time, the monasteries of Mount Athos became owners of great estates in the Balkan Peninsula. These metochia contributed significantly to the monasteries’ resilience. Vatopedi acquired the Souflar çiftlik in 1907 in order to pursue its goals of self-sufficiency and sustainability. The article reveals important details about the operation of Souflar Metochi and its impact on the local and the monastic economy. The detailed procedures followed by the monks appointed to manage it are a valuable source of information concerning the agricultural methods employed, the weights and measures used and the forms of labour relations of the local population.

The article is devoted to bibliologic researches of the collection of Slavic manuscripts from the library of the Greek monastery of St. Paul in Mount Athos by Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin). It tells about the history of the library of the Greek monastery of St. Paul. Through the study of various unpublished and published sources we were able to reestablish one of the moments of the history of the Serbian-Slavic manuscripts in this library, first presented in this article. A published source is a scientific work by Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin) «Slavic-Serbian stocks in Mount Athos, in the monasteries Hilandar and St. Paul». Particular attention is paid to such a valuable source as Archimandrite correspondence with the inhabitants of Mount Athos monasteries, in particular, Hieromonk Macarius (Sushkin), librarian Azary (Poptsov), V. A. Dashkov - a director of Moscow Public Museum. The monastery library was visited by famous personalities in the history of book culture such as Archimandrite Porfiry (Uspensky), Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), archaeographer and Slavicist V. I. Grigorovich, English traveler and writer Robert Curzon. The article objective is to establish the role of Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin) in saving Slavic manuscripts of St. Paul's monastery library through their acquisition of Rumyantsev Public Museum in Moscow. Unfortunately, due to a number of circumstances, the manuscripts were not acquired, and were burned at the beginning of the XX century.

Цель статьи - раскрыть понятие «греческая религиозная гравюра», а именно выявить, что это за гравюры, для чего они предназначались, какая историческая ситуация спровоцировала их распространение, а также определить их роль и значение для обителей, расположенных на оккупированных Османской империей территориях. На гравюрах изображаются образы святых и виды монастырей, которые распространялись монахами взамен на милостыню среди паломников. В условиях оккупации распространение гравюр было существенным источником дохода для обедневших монастырей Афона. Первые афонские гравюры выпускались в Европе, но с XIX в. афонские монахи создают гравюры самостоятельно. Статья раскрывает историю создания греческих религиозных гравюр и определяет место среди них гравюр из собрания Музея Московской духовной академии «Церковно-археологического кабинета», также выявляя уникальные образцы гравюр из коллекции музея. The article is devoted to the phenomenon of Greek religious engravings. There are an easel engraving with images of saints and views of monasteries, which distributed among pilgrims to promote Christian monasteries of the Orthodox Church of the East. When and why were they become used? A lot of Orthodox monasteries became poor after occupation by Ottoman Empire. Moreover, The Mount Athos had not been known in Europe until sixteenth century. The monks of the Saint Catherine’s Monastery found that the views of the Monastery mast be interesting for pilgrims and contributed to fame of their monastery. First woodcuts printed in a large number in Leo police in the middle of the 17th century. It was a great success. The monks exchanged this engraving on charity. And the Athos’s monks followed the example of Sinai’s monks. The first engravings for The Mount Athos were printed in Europe, in such cities as Vienna, and Venice. From the end of the 18th century metal plates engraved on the Mount Athos and in the 19th century the printing of engravings was amazingly extended. The most part of engravings from the collection of Moscow Theological Academy Museum printed in the middle of the 19th century in The Mount Athos. Also, this collection has some unique prints, such as the Burning Bush. This article shows the importance of the Greek engravings for the orthodox world such the instrument for advertising the most holy places for pilgrims. This etching made a great influence on our imagination nowadays about this holly places.

As several monasteries and shrines of the monastic republic Mount Athos are connected with the Bulgarian history, in some cases they function not only as places of religious worship by Bulgarian men but also as sites of national memory. Therefore, placed in the context of the ritual year of pilgrimage, as an object of research are chosen Bulgarian men’s 21st century group travels to Mount Athos. More exactly, the focus lies on the places, holidays and celebrations instigating Bulgarian men to visit different destinations at the monastic peninsula, following different routes and motives. Further attention is paid to the performed religious and commemorative practices at the various locations of the Athonite peninsula.

“The story of Mount Athos schemamonk Selevkiy of himself, how he, having left the Balkan Mountains, wandered around Russia, Palestine, Athos”, written in the mid-19th century, is published for the first time on the Trinity list from the collections of the Russian State Library. The introductory article describes the distinctive features of this list in comparison with that of Mount Athos, describes the main stages in the life of the schemamonk Selevkiy (secular name — Stepan Trofimov). The memoirist sets out in detail the story of his journey to God, wandering in the holy places of Russia, Turkey, Palestine and Mount Athos. His observation was reflected in descriptions of temples, monasteries, numerous shrines, in sketches of meetings with different people; these include vivid and colourful images of representatives of different social strata of society: nobles, merchants, military men, simple monks and famous confessors, pilgrims and even robbers who would try to rob him and ruin his life. When describing the Mount Athos period of his life, Father Selevkiy opens the veil of the sacred life of the ascetics of the Holy Mountain, their spiritual exploits, mystical experience, traditions and customs of Mount Athos. The “Story” of the Schemamonk Selevkiy is of particular historical and cultural value, since much of what he had seen was not preserved to this day.

New materials from the Foreign Policy Archive of Imperial Russia and other Russian archives relating to the history of the Serbian spiritual presence on the Holy Mountain show the development of Russian-Serbian interchurch relations from 1850 to the 1870s. At this time, Athos became involved in the sphere of geopolitical interests of European powers that used the ethno-confessional factor as an instrument of political influence in the Middle East and the Balkans. One of the key tasks of Russian diplomacy, in order to strengthen Russian influence in the Orthodox East, was to provide material assistance to the Athonite monasteries, among which an important place belonged to the Serbian monastery of Khilandar. Study of the correspondence of Russian secular and ecclesiastical diplomats (Envoy to the Port N. Ignatiev and Consuls in Thessaloniki A. Lagovsky and A. Muravyov) and representatives of the highest spiritual authorities of Serbia and Russia (Metropolitan Mikhail of Serbia, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, and ober-Prosecutors of the Holy Synod) allows us to trace the decision-making process in Russian departments (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Holy Synod) regarding the financial support of the Khilandar monastery, which was negatively affected by the problems associated with the new political structure of the Transdanubian principalities and the anti-church policy of Alexander Kuza towards the monastic farmsteads of the Eastern Patriarchates. The key points of the correspondence relate to the issues of providing material assistance to Khilandar and diplomatic support from the MFA in resolving a ten-year dispute between Khilandar and Zograf monasteries over the land plots of two Slavic monasteries on Mount Athos, which was considered in a Turkish court and attracted the close attention of European diplomats. Special efforts by Russian diplomats were aimed at reconciling the Serbs and Bulgarians and overcoming the Greco-Russian crisis on Athos, which reached its apogee in the mid-1870s. The development of ethno-national (Russian-Serbian, Greek-Russian, and Bulgarian-Greek) relations is considered in the context of the Eastern Question in the third quarter of the 19th century.

While he was in Russia (1911/1912–1919), Gurdjieff taught many ideas and some practices that would come to play significant roles in the development of his methods of Transformed-contemplation. These include his reference to the Ego Exercise of Mount Athos, his exercises for relaxation and sensing, and the Stop Exercise. This chapter examines the early critique of contemplation and meditation made by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, and shows that his reticence about contemplative exercises was probably due chiefly to their monastic origin, and his desire to bring a method that would be used not in monasteries but in daily social life.

The paper examines letters patent and edict charters granted by the Russian Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible) to the Serbian Hilandar community of monks at Athos and Rila monastery in Bulgaria. The majority of the sources were lost over time and they are available only in copies from the so-called Ambassadorial book of 1517–71 or in copies from the 17th century. The letters patent of Ivan IV (original and the so-called “word-for-word copy”) to Hilandar monastery are unique. They confirm its right to have its own metochion in Kitai-gorod near the Kremlin. The edict charters to the community of monks are of special interest, as they allowed the right of tax-free and unchecked passage through Russian territory together with the privilege of collecting donations.