Dionysiou monastery

Oxford University Library

Dionysiou Monastery

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The Holy Monastery of Agios Dionysios (Μονή Διονυσίου) is located on the south-west coast of the Athonite peninsula, between the monasteries of Gregory and Agios Pavlos, built on a steep rock, at an altitude of 80 m above the sea, at the end of the Aeropotamos ravine. Because of its location, it is also called the Holy Forerunner of (New) Petra (Τιμίου Προδρόμου (Νέας) Πέτρας) . In old documents it is also mentioned as the Monastery of Megalo Komnenos.

According to the Third Standard (Typikon) of Mount Athos (1394), among the then twenty-five monasteries, the monastery occupied the nineteenth place. Since 1574, however, it has held the fifth position and is therefore included among the five monasteries that are entitled to the primacy of the Holy Community every five years.

History

From sources it appears that the monastery has existed since 1366. Its founder is Saint Dionysios from Korisos in Kastoria, a monk initially at the Filotheou monastery, where his brother Theodosios was abbot, and then an ascetic on the top of Antiathon, with a large number of students .

Around 1356-1366, Dionysios, with the meager means available to himself and his students, started the establishment of a monastery by erecting the first buildings on a rock, where the current location of the monastery is. The first phase of construction was completed around 1370 and the monastery immediately began to function as a convent.

The financial support from the emperor of Trebizond, Alexios III Komnenos, was a catalyst, after the mediation of his brother Dionysios Theodosios Philotheitis, who from being an abbot in Philotheu had in the meantime been ordained metropolitan of Trebizond (1368/1369). In September 1374, Alexios issued a chrysobul in which he promised to build the monastery at his own expense. This chrysovulo is one of the most important relics of the monastery. It is 2 m long and 98 cm long and is decorated with wonderful miniatures of Alexios and his wife Theodora. The emperor signs in his own hand in cinnabar: "Alexios in Christ God, faithful king and emperor of all the East of Iberia and Peratheia, the great Komnenus". In this chrysovoulo, the one-time return of 100 soms was additionally defined, half immediately and the remaining fifty over the next three years. In addition, he established an annual grant of 1,000 comnenats from both himself and his successors. The basic conditions of the grant were, on the one hand, the continuous commemoration of Alexios III and his successors, and on the other hand, that the monastery be called "of the Great Komnenus".

In the following years, Dionysios will visit Trebizond two more times, in order to collect the money that was defined as the second installment of the chrysobulo. The first time, around 1377, when he returned to the monastery, he found it plundered by pirates and deserted. He gathered his disciples again and resumed the rebuilding work. For this reason, he went to Trebizond for the third time in 1387. However, he did not return to the monastery, since he fell ill and died there in 1390.

In 1389, with the seal of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Antonio IV, the monastery became patriarchal with the name "Holy Forerunner", as it is dedicated to the Genesis of Saint John the Forerunner, and was released from the guardianship of the First (Proton).

The current form of the Dionysiou monastery is mainly due to the extensive construction work carried out during the 16th century. At that time, some rulers of the regions of Moldavia personally undertook to finance the maintenance and expansion of the monastery. For this reason they are counted among the builders of the monastery. The Metropolitan of Thessaloniki and later Patriarch of Constantinople Nifon II(1486–1488, 1497–1498, 1502) also contributed to their benefactions to the monastery thanks to his relations with the rulers of the Danube regions. Nifon resigned from the patriarchal throne and after a short stay in Wallachia he returned and went to the monastery in 1502, where he fell asleep six years later to be declared a saint in 1517.

Initially, the Voivode of Wallachia Neagos Vasaravas (1512–1521) financed the construction of the new aqueduct in place of the old and defensive tower, which was also built on the foundations of an older one, founded by the first builder around 1364 on the north side of the monastery. Because of the frequent pirate attacks, there was always a monk on this tower who kept vigil to prevent looting

In October 1535, most of the monastery was destroyed by fire. Then, the Moldavian ruler Petros de la Argeș undertook the costs of rebuilding the entire eastern wing, from the Trapza and the gate of the monastery to the wine cellar (βαϊναριό). He also erected a new catholicon, larger than the old one, and took care of its iconography. For this purpose, the Cretan iconographer Tzortzis was called. In the following years, the ruler's daughter Roxandra and her husband Alexandros Lepousneanu undertook the construction of the western six-story wing with the balconies facing the sea.

According to Code 627 of the monastery, the revolution of 1821 resulted in its temporary desolation and the involvement of its monks in an adventurous wandering. The monks together with the most important relics of the monastery initially sailed to Poros, where they temporarily settled in the monastery of Zoodochos Pigi. After the destruction of Psara island, they were afraid and sailed to Zakynthos, where they remained for four years in the Dionysian metochi of Hagia Sophia. After the arrival of Ioannis Kapodistrias, they settled for a year and a half in Skopelos, in the metochi of Faneromeni. After nine years of wandering, they returned to the Dionysiou monastery, where the 14 monks who remained all this time suffered a lot of suffering and hardship.

In more recent years until today, many have helped to complete, expand and maintain the monastery with donations of money and personal labor. Indicatively, we mention the brothers Lazarus and Boio, Manuel and Thomas, Joachim of Constantinople, Pope Makarios Cretikos, the former Belgrader Jeremiah, Hatzis Angelakis, etc.

Icons

The numerous icons of the Dionysios monastery are kept mainly in the iconophylakion, the katholikon and the various chapels. Most of them are made of Agioreite chestnut wood and painted with icons by Agioreite monks. They date from the 14th century onwards, while many are donations from various persons. Mentioned for example: The Virgin of Akathistos made of wax mastic, a donation of Alexios III Comnenus, the Old Prodromos (Παλαιός Πρόδρομος), a dedication of the ruler Alexander Lepousneanus for the treatment of Constantine's son, the Virgin of Amolyntos, the work of Emmanuel Skordilis, the two-faced icon with John the Prodromos and Alexios III being blessed by Christ on one side, while on the other four Trebizond saints (Eugenios, Candidos, Valerianos, Aquilas), Saint Christopher the dog-headed, etc.

Museum-Sacristy

The most important relics of the monastery are kept in the Vault in special display cases. The sacred vessels owned by the monastery until 1814 are cataloged in the "Chronical Code" (Dion. 627, ff. 123r–124r).

Library

As no catalogs of books were saved, as is the case e.g. with the library of Patmos, so that the creation of a library in the monastery of Dionysios can be traced in time, it should be considered simultaneous with the foundation of the monastery in the second half of the 14th century. Certainly, the funding of the Trebizond emperor Alexios III (the Great) Comnenus should have been accompanied by the necessary liturgical and other theological books for use by the monks.

The earliest (1602) mention of a library in Dionysiou is by the scribe and learned hieromonk Ignatiou in the paraphyllum of Code 246 of the monastery, where it is mentioned that the library was located above the apse of the catholicon, near the chapel of the Archangels. It remained there until 1915. The summary report of 27 manuscripts of the monastery recorded by the priest Alexandros Vassilopoulos in 1627 cannot convey its size at that time. We do know, however, that a library operated there from about 1570 until the end of the 17th century and that a large number of manuscript codices and printed books were acquired during the same period.

In 1701, Ioannis Komnenos characterized her as "wealthy" in the first Pilgrimage of Mount Athos. Later scholarly visitors refer almost exclusively to her manuscripts. Vasily Barsky, who visited it in 1744, mentions the impressive chrysobulas in its archive. The monastery library is also mentioned by the English travelers Carlyle and Hunt in 1801, as well as by Robert Curzon in 1834, who also mentions the existence of printed books.

In 1841 Falmereyer worked in the monastery library, researching the history of the Trebizond empire, who points out that the library was a key element in the life of the monks.

The Frenchman Victor Langlois is also mentioned in the manuscripts and in the archive in his edition of Mount Athos that he published in 1867. Shortly after I.M. Raptarchis was impressed by the order and diligence that prevailed in the space and believes that the number of manuscripts amounts to a thousand.

In 1903 a catalog of the library handed down to Codex 854 of Dionysius was drawn up.

In 1915, during the abbotship of Dositheos, the library was moved to the tower of the monastery, where the printed books were placed in display cases and numbered sequentially. In the Visitors' Book of the Holy Monastery of Dionysios for the period 1908–1935, the many visitors are often mentioned in the library as well. Among them Louis Petit, who prepares the bibliography of the Greek sequences, Robert Blake, Nikos Veis, Manolis Triantafyllidis, Franz Dölger, and many others.

In the 1960s the library was moved to a newer building, south of the catholicon, and then temporarily housed in the north wing of the monastery.

In 1995, after study and restoration, the library was housed in the four-story tower, where the material was organized and arranged as follows: 1st floor: the newest printed books, the filing system, the office and the microfilms available to the monastery. 2nd floor: the handwritten codices. 3rd floor: archetypes and archetypes. 4th floor: the Archives of the Monastery.

Finally, due to the humidity, the material was moved again to another, renovated space on the ground floor of the east side, where it is still today.

Archive

The monastery's archive had been sorted from time to time by the Dionysian monks.

The first known systematic attempt to classify and copy its archive was carried out in the years 1909–1915, led by the monk Dometios. Then, the documents of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods were collected, preserved, copied, verbatim or summarized, and classified.

In 1963 this work was systematically undertaken by a mission of researchers from the Byzantine Research Center of the (then) Royal Research Foundation. During the years 1963–1965, the emissaries of the Byzantine Research Center, P. Nikolopoulos and N. Oikonomidis, proceeded more systematically in the classification and cataloging of the archive. As the monk Theoklitos had already satisfactorily classified most of the newer (after 1700) documents, the two researchers were mainly concerned with the study and organization of the rest of the archive. Economides took over the documents from 1056 to 1504, while Nikolopoulos all the later ones (1512 onwards), compiling a detailed description and summary of the documents.

The archive of the monastery includes:

Chrysobula of Byzantine emperors, such as John VI Kantakouzenos (1347), John V Palaiologos (1366), John VII Palaiologos (1408).
Documents of despots, such as despot Andronikos Palaiologos (1417, 1418, 1420), despot Demetrius Palaiologos (1430).
Documents of the emperors of Trebizond, such as the chrysobulus of Alexios III (the Great) Comnenus (1374), the Edict of Alexios IV (the Great) Comnenus (1416).
Patriarchal documents, such as those of Antonius IV (1389), Maximus III (1477), Cyril I (1630).
Various Minutes of assignments, inventories, designations, etc., documents of Metropolitans, First of Mount Athos, Turkish authorities in Greek, and other monastic and private documents of donations, wills, sales, etc.

Manuscripts-Codices

The Dionysiou Monastery has one of the richest libraries of manuscript codices on Mount Athos. In its possession are about 1,080 codices in Greek and 6 in Slavonic, a collection that ranks it in the 5th place among the holy libraries after the collections of the Great Lavra, Vatopedi, Iberi and Agios Panteleimon (Russian).

Initially, a list of the codices of the monastery was compiled by Spyridon Lambros in 1880. He included the codices of Dionysios on pages 319–436 of the first volume published in 1895 (see Bibliography). However, due to the time pressure and the hasty, therefore, work, despite the meticulous and methodical description of 586 codes, his list is not complete.

To date, two supplementary catalogs have been published: by Evlogios Kourilas in 1936 in the journal Theology (pp. 114–128), and by the Dionysian monk Euthymios in 1957 in the Yearbook of the Society of Byzantine Studies (pp. 233–271 and 387–389), which was edited and completed by Konstantinos Manafis. In particular, Kourilas describes 176 additional codes compared to Lambros, under nos. 587–762. However, the information he cites is basically summary, without the required autopsy, since, as he states, it is based on the rough, unpublished list of the previous Mark. Euthymius' list is more complete. In addition to the codices mentioned by Kourilas, Euthymius records another 42, adopting the numbering of the codices that is still valid in the library of the monastery. In the meantime, Linos Politis and Manousos Manousakas issued observations, corrections and additions to the published catalogs of manuscripts of Mount Athos (1973), which include the Dionysiou Monastery. Furthermore, the librarian of the Chrysostomos monastery prepared a list of the remaining manuscript codices, edited and published by George Papazoglou in 1990 (pp. 443–505).

Many of the manuscripts have been described in special works, such as e.g. by Galavaris (1969) and Kada (1994, 1996), while some of the illustrated ones were the subject of special monographs or studies (see Bibliography).

Kadas, in the pilgrimage guide of the monastery he published, states that the number of manuscripts has risen to approximately 1,100. Most have already been catalogued, except for those brought to the library from the various chapels and shares of the monastery. In particular, Kadas counts 27 scrolls, parchments and parchments (of which 10 have already been described by Euthymios). The rest of the manuscripts are in the form of the codex. As for their material, 148 together with some fragments are parchment, and all the rest are paperboards, from eastern (cotton) or western paper.

During the 17th century, Athanasios Rhetor, who collected manuscripts from the East for members of the French court, seems to have retrieved five codices from the Dionysios monastery, which have been located in Paris (labeled Coislinus). Also, Arsenius Sukhanov in 1654 collected from almost all the monasteries about 500 manuscripts and printed books which he took to Russia for the revision of the liturgical books. From the Dionysiou Monastery he selected a total of 34 manuscripts dating from the 10th to the 17th century.

Several manuscripts with miniatures, protograms, titles, jewels and decorated paintings are considered to be of exceptional artistic value. In the project The Treasures of Mount Athos, a total of 49 illustrated manuscripts of the monastery are described, out of the 58 identified by the researchers of the project in the 1970s. Among them are 17 Tetraevangeles, 11 Evangelists, 5 Divine Liturgies, 3 Psalters, 2 codices with works by John Chrysostomou, one with the words of Gregory the Theologian. Many codices retain their original bindings and Byzantine stanchions.

A characteristic of the monastery's manuscripts is that a large percentage of them were written on site by its monks, as in the 16th and 17th centuries a library operated there, led by Abbot Theonas. Often, Galaktion, Daniel, Dometius, James, Ignatius, Joasaph, Kyriacus, Nathanael, Cyril, Seraphim, Christopher and Samuel appear as scribes.

It is worth noting the existence of three palimpsest codices, of which Lambros records two, Dion. 69 and Dion. 91, whose superscript is dated to the 13th century.

The first codex contains an Explanation to the Psalms. The oldest writing, from the 11th century, preserves tropes derived mainly from the Parakletic.

In the second palimpsest codex, under the discourses of ascetics and elders lurks during the last third of the manuscript in microscript writing of the 10th century an ecclesiastical work of an unknown author composed in the form of questions and answers.

Regarding the time of writing of the codices of the Monastery of Dionysios, the manuscripts cover a time span of 12 centuries, from the 7th to the 20th century, with the greatest production found in the post-Byzantine period.

Most manuscripts preserve theological, ecclesiastical and liturgical texts. At the same time, of course, there is no lack of codices with ancient and classical authors, with a preference for some. 4.4% of the collection contains the works of the archbishop: Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Euripides, Plutarch and Lucian. Also, the writers of the medieval period are not absent, such as Gennadios Scholarios, Georgios Amiroutzis, Theodoros Prodromos, Maximos Planoudis, Michael Psellos etc.

To date, two supplementary catalogs have been published: by Evlogios Kourilas in 1936 in the journal Theology (pp. 114–128), and by the Dionysian monk Euthymios in 1957 in the Yearbook of the Society of Byzantine Studies (pp. 233–271 and 387–389), which was edited and completed by Konstantinos Manafis. In particular, Kourilas describes 176 additional codes compared to Lambros, under nos. 587–762. However, the information he cites is basically summary, without the required autopsy, since, as he states, it is based on the rough, unpublished list of the previous Mark. Euthymius' list is more complete. In addition to the codices mentioned by Kourilas, Euthymius records another 42, adopting the numbering of the codices that is still valid in the library of the monastery. In the meantime, Linos Politis and Manousos Manousakas issued observations, corrections and additions to the published catalogs of manuscripts of Mount Athos (1973), which include the Dionysiou Monastery. Furthermore, the librarian of the Chrysostomos monastery prepared a list of the remaining manuscript codices, edited and published by George Papazoglou in 1990 (pp. 443–505).

Many of the manuscripts have been described in special works, such as e.g. by Galavaris (1969) and Kada (1994, 1996), while some of the illustrated ones were the subject of special monographs or studies (see Bibliography).

Kadas, in the pilgrimage guide of the monastery he published, states that the number of manuscripts has risen to approximately 1,100. Most have already been catalogued, except for those brought to the library from the various chapels and shares of the monastery. In particular, Kadas counts 27 scrolls, parchments and parchments (of which 10 have already been described by Euthymios). The rest of the manuscripts are in the form of the codex. As for their material, 148 together with some fragments are parchment, and all the rest are paperboards, from eastern (cotton) or western paper.

During the 17th century, Athanasios Rhetor, who collected manuscripts from the East for members of the French court, seems to have retrieved five codices from the Dionysios monastery, which have been located in Paris (labeled Coislinus). Also, Arsenius Sukhanov in 1654 collected from almost all the monasteries about 500 manuscripts and printed books which he took to Russia for the revision of the liturgical books. From the Dionysiou Monastery he selected a total of 34 manuscripts dating from the 10th to the 17th century.

Several manuscripts with miniatures, protograms, titles, jewels and decorated paintings are considered to be of exceptional artistic value. In the project The Treasures of Mount Athos, a total of 49 illustrated manuscripts of the monastery are described, out of the 58 identified by the researchers of the project in the 1970s. Among them are 17 Tetraevangeles, 11 Evangelists, 5 Divine Liturgies, 3 Psalters, 2 codices with works by John Chrysostomou, one with the words of Gregory the Theologian. Many codices retain their original bindings and Byzantine stanchions.

A characteristic of the monastery's manuscripts is that a large percentage of them were written on site by its monks, as in the 16th and 17th centuries a library operated there, led by Abbot Theonas. Often, Galaktion, Daniel, Dometius, James, Ignatius, Joasaph, Kyriacus, Nathanael, Cyril, Seraphim, Christopher and Samuel appear as scribes.

It is worth noting the existence of three palimpsest codices, of which Lambros records two, Dion. 69 and Dion. 91, whose superscript is dated to the 13th century.

The first codex contains an Explanation to the Psalms. The oldest writing, from the 11th century, preserves tropes derived mainly from the Parakletic.

In the second palimpsest codex, under the discourses of ascetics and elders lurks during the last third of the manuscript in microscript writing of the 10th century an ecclesiastical work of an unknown author composed in the form of questions and answers.

Regarding the time of writing of the codices of the Monastery of Dionysios, the manuscripts cover a time span of 12 centuries, from the 7th to the 20th century, with the greatest production found in the post-Byzantine period.

Most manuscripts preserve theological, ecclesiastical and liturgical texts. At the same time, of course, there is no lack of codices with ancient and classical authors, with a preference for some. 4.4% of the collection contains the works of the archbishop: Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Euripides, Plutarch and Lucian. Also, the writers of the medieval period are not absent, such as Gennadios Scholarios, Georgios Amiroutzis, Theodoros Prodromos, Maximos Planoudis, Michael Psellos, etc.

Printed Books

The collection of forms reaches approximately 10,000 volumes. Of these, the collection of archetypes, archetypes and editions up to the year 1899 includes approximately 3,800. The rarity and importance of the publications included in this relatively small collection rank the library among the four most important of Mount Athos. Many books were bought, but the main body of the library comes from the libraries of learned monks of the monastery, who bequeathed them after their death, or from other ecclesiastical figures and also lay people, who had established ties with the monastery.

According to the count of Gabriel Dionysiatis (1886–1983), the library includes 6 archetypes, 200 editions of the 16th century, 300 editions of the 17th century, and 1,250 editions of the years 1700–1850, numbers which, based on newer counts, are being revised.

Today the library has 9 titles from the 15th century, 194 from the 16th, 78 from the 17th and 484 from the 18th century. Total 765 titles.

The archetypes of the monastery are the following:

a) Lascarios Grammar of Byzantium, Aldus, Venice 1494–1495.

b) Theodore's Grammatical Introduction in four parts, Aldus, Venice 1495

c) Aristotelous Ὄrganon, Aldus, Venice 1495.

d) Demosthenes Logoi 62, Livaniou Sophistos hypothesis in these reasons, Aldus, Venice 1496 (two copies).

e) Treasury of the Horn of Amaltheia and Garden of Adonis, Aldus, Venice 1496.

f) Aristophanes Komidiai Ennea, Aldus, Venice 1498 (two copies).

g) Suida Dictionary, edited by Dimitrios Chalkokondilis, Bissoli, Milan 1499.

The 16th century antiquities include the only copy on Mount Athos of the editio princeps of Theocritus' Idylls, edited in Rome by Zacharias Kalliergis in 1516. Also unique in the Athonian libraries is the 1567 edition of the Pentecost printed in Venice by Christopher Zaneto (Zanetti).

Among the 18th century editions, the rarest in the library is the Selection of the Psalter of Neophytos Kaufsokalivitis, the only book printed on Mount Athos, at the printing house of the Great Lavra of Duke Sotiris of Thassos, in 1759. Also, the editions of the brother of the monastery of Nicodemus of Agioreitis are richly represented, with multiple copies of the first edition of the Philokalia of 1782.

In the Vault of the monastery there is still a Gospel from 1550, published by Roberto Stefanos in Paris. It is an excellent example of typographic art with original miniatures of Christ, the Evangelists and the apostle Peter, which were specially painted in the familiar positions of the copy of the Dionysios monastery.

In addition to the purely theological ones, we will also find works by Evgenios Voulgaris, Nikiforos Theotokis, Meletius of Athens, Charles Rollin, Grigorios Fatzeas, Panagiotakis Kodrikas, the translation of Voltaire by Voulgaris (1768), the translation of the work of Beccaria (Beccaria) by Adamantios Korais with the title About sins and punishments (Paris 1802).

The library

Several monks of the monastery copied its codices from time to time: Dositheos copies in 1438 Code 440, another Dositheos, active around 1540, also copies and at least five codices of the monastery are written by his hand (130, 148, 386, 486, 454).

However, an organized scriptorium functioned from the last third of the 16th century until the second half of the 17th. About two hundred codices of the monastery come from this workshop. A leading role in its establishment and production was played by Theonas, a monk at first and then abbot of the monastery (1590–1600). His contemporary is Daniel (1585 ff.) followed by Ignatius (1602–1629), Joasaph (d.1633–1665) and Galaktion (1627–1666).

Linos Politis (1958 and 1977) was the first to deal with the issue of the script of the Dionysiou Monastery.

Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_106

Notable monk of Dionysiou monastery
Nicodemus the Hagiorite

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