Esphigmenou Monastery Athos

Esphigmenou Monastery Athos

The Holy Monastery of Esfigmenou ( Μονή Εσφιγμένου) is located in the middle of a small and closed cove on the north-eastern side of the Athonian peninsula, after the monastery of Chilandariou. Setting sail from the port of Ierissos, it is the first coastal, literally, monastery we come across, since even its foundations are wet from the waves. The ancient city of Dion must have been located in its area.

The monastery of Esfigmenou occupies the eighteenth place in the hierarchy of the twenty Holy Monasteries of Mount Athos.

History

According to tradition, the founders of the monastery are considered to be Empress Pulcheria and Emperor Theodosios II (the younger) (5th century), while another tradition also adds Eudokia, wife of Theodosios. The first historical proof of its existence goes back to 998, where, in a deed of the Vatopedi monastery, it is recorded as the "Esfagmenou" monastery, with the most likely version that it owes its name to some hideous massacre of a monk by pirates. Another version, perhaps not unfounded, is that the expression is synonymous with the expression "Crucified", due to the dedication of its temple to the Saviour, who as crucified was also called slaughtered.

For the first time the monastery is mentioned with its current name in the criminal so-called letter of Pavlos Xiropotaminos (1016), where Theoktistos signs as the abbot of the Esphimenos monastery. Subsequently, this name appears in the will of the monk Dimitrios Chalkeos (1030), where the "Theoktistos monk and professor of the Esphimenos monastery" signs as its executor. Also, in 1035 a document records the sale to the abbot of Theoktisto of a plot of land from the nearby monastery of Plakia.

There are also various assumptions about the name Esfigmenou. According to one version, it is due to its position, as it is located between the three hills of Zoodochos Pigi, Samaria and Grimbovitsa, by which it somehow seems to be surrounded. Regarding this, Ioannis Komnenos writes in the Proskynitarion: "It is called the Tight One, because it is between three small mountains and is limited to the Agialon". Others argue that the name is related to its founder or restorer, who was a certain monk "of monoliths σχινίῳ σφικτῷ ἐZOσμενος". These two interpretations were put forward by the patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos (14th century) in his Praise for Gregory Palamas, but he himself doubts both.

In 1015, the monastery occupies the sixth place, the fifth place it occupies in the 2nd Standard of Monomachus (1045) and the ninth in the 3rd Standard (1394), in which the abbot of Esfigmenou Kyrillos signed. In the same year, it suffered great damage from sinking, which caused the destruction of its buildings. He quickly recovered, having acquired some considerable estates. However, from the end of the 11th century until the middle of the 13th it passes almost into obscurity, and only one copy of a deed from this period is included in its record.

In the next two centuries and until the Ottoman conquest, it passed through a period of prosperity, in which emperors of Byzantium and rulers of other Orthodox countries participated, such as the emperor John V Palaiologos, the king of Serbia Stefanos Dusan, the despot George Vragovic.

During this period, among its monks are also some personalities, such as the monk Akakios, later Patriarch of Constantinople Athanasios (1289–1293, 1303–1311), and Saint Gregory Palamas, who was briefly its abbot (1333–1334), at a time when it had 200 monks. A chapel is dedicated to St. Gregory on the eastern side of the monastery, where there is also a sanctification of the saint.

The seaside location of the monastery and its weather-protected bay made it an easy target for pirate raids, looting and arson. These adventures are recorded in memories in three manuscripts of the monastery (no. 4, 14 and 296). In one it is mentioned that three times "the royal monastery of Esfigmenos was destroyed; the first in the ÿstpa' (=873) times, the second in the Ïsfne" (=1047) and the third, the complete desolation, took place in the Ïzmv' ( =1533) under the godless Agarines". On June 26, 1533, as noted in a parchment code of the 11th century (no. 14), "the anointing of Esphimenos" took place. Ten days later, for the second time, other Agarines took everything, burned the monastery and captured nine monks along with their ships. Of course, the announcements of the monastery are not limited to three. In 1469, e.g., in order to get out of the dire situation in which she had fallen after a pirate raid, she sold her property in Problakas to the widow of Sultan Murat II, while in 1491 a fire caused new disasters. It had the same fate in 1634, while it suffered a serious blow with the second confiscation of its estates by Selim.

However, the monastery managed to be reconstructed, as it can be seen from a document of the year 1569, in which it is mentioned that 51 monks were actively working for its reconstruction.

In 1610 he had to pay the sum of 4,000 whites to Paki Tzelepi for the purchase of an estate in Portaria, which had been seized. Fundraisers in the Greek and Transdanubian countries, but also in Russia, with the permission of Tsar Alexios Mikhailovich in 1655, helped in its reconstruction. But in the 1660s due to debts it was closed for a while and its only 6 or 7 monks were forced to hide its relics in the mountain of Samaria to save them.

During the late period of the Turkish rule, at least four metropolitans settled in the monastery and benefited it with significant donations. Thus Esfigmenou passes into a new phase of life and prosperity. Of these metropolitans, Melenikos Grigorios, abdicating his throne, took the lead as a monk Gerasimos in the 18th century in its material restoration. He was interested in its maintenance and reconstruction, while at the same time he offered 5,000 grosci from his personal fund to the Jewish usurer Isaac, to whom the monastery owed 100,000 silver. Also, Metropolitan Daniel of Thessaloniki contributed to its spiritual reformation, mainly by converting the monastery into a convent in 1797, with the seal of Patriarch Gregory V, which was replaced by another of Kallinikos V in 1801. During its conversion into a convent, the abbess a certain Acakius took over. Due to the short duration of his abbotship, the first abbot is Euthymios and the second, from 1804, the famous scholar Theodoritos.

The monastery was also honored and benefited by the Patriarchs of Constantinople Gregory V (1746–1821) and Anthimos VI Koutalianos (1782–1877), who is ranked among its monks. In 1802 Gregory V renovated a large part of the south side that had collapsed. Also at the beginning of the century, with the solid administration of the abbots Efthimios Moshonisiotis (who is initiated into the Friendly Society) and Theodoritos Ioannitis, it gained great strength. With the care of Anthimus VI, he acquired the monastery of Floresti (Romania) as a gift to the hegemony. Its monks in 1808 were 42, of whom 36 lived within the walls.

In February 1821, Emmanuel Papas arrived at the monastery with orders to organize the revolution in Macedonia at a rapid pace. During his second visit to the monastery, Emmanuel Papas, accompanied by its abbot Euthymios, set sail for Hydra in order to secure help from the south. Their mission had an inglorious end.

During the years 1854–1858 the monastery was renovated. New buildings were erected in the years 1854, 1857 and 1858 and thus its surface was doubled. Under abbot Agathangelos Kallipolitis (1833–1871) a total renovation and further expansion of the monastery took place with donations from Russia.

Around the same time, he worked intermittently (1871–1872, 1885–1889, 1891–1899) at the monastery school of iconography under Abbot Loukas II, successor of Agathangelos.

Since the 1960s, the Esfigmenou monastery does not recognize the spiritual paternity of the patriarchate, due to the movements of the patriarch Athenagoras towards other denominations. In June 1972, the Holy Community of Mount Athos decided to depose the representative of the monastery, which had already broken off communication with the other monasteries of Agioreitis and the Orthodox Churches by successive actions, having declared itself zealous and accepting as the head of the church the then archbishop of Merida of the so-called "Genuine Orthodox Christians" (old calendarists) Auxentius. Today its central buildings are considered to be illegally occupied by these monks.

In 2002, a new brotherhood was formed, but it resides in Karyes. It consists of 23 monks, with the abbot Archimandrite Bartholomeus.

The new catholicon of the Holy Monastery of Esfigmenos, located in the western part of the courtyard, is dedicated to the Ascension of the Lord. It was founded by the abbot Theodoritos in 1808 and inaugurated by the patriarch Gregory V in 1811. It was built with plans by the architect Pavlos of Tinia and financed by the metropolitan of Kassandreia Ignatius. It replaced the old catholicon which had two splints and an exonarthium with a peristyle. Its marble elements were brought from Tinos. The church was divided into parts: the main church in 1811, the Holy Altar in 1818 by the Galatian hagiographers Benjamin, Zacharias and Makarios, and the apse in 1841 by the brothers of the monastery Joasaf, Nikiforos, Gerasimos and Anthimos. The wood-carved concave iconostasis is of characteristic art and beauty. It was built in 1813 and later gilded. It bears rich floral decoration and scenes from the Old and New Testaments.

Scholars

Theodoritos Ioannitis was first a monk in the Skete of Agia Anna for many years and then in the Great Lavra. In 1802 he was appointed abbot of the Esfigmenou monastery, for the reconstruction of which he worked with zeal and efficiency. Later he retired to Kelli of Lavra, where he engaged in studies and writings. We do not know what his formal education was, except that he was a student of Kyrillos Agrafiotis in Athoniada. However, he was distinguished for his erudition and philanthropy. In 1800 he had gone to Leipzig for the publication of his work Interpretation of the Apocalypse, which was considered bold in terms of its allegories and was banned, something he had probably foreseen, which is why it was published anonymously. Later he sent the manuscript of the Commentary to Daniel to the patriarchal printing house. The publication did not take place this time. The work was rejected "due to the merits of the allegorical explanation", as Patriarch Cyril VI informs him in a letter. The basis of Theodorito's interpretation was the symbolic connection of the scenes of these two apocalyptic texts with the expectation of the resurrection of Genus.

Theodoritos, although a staunch opponent of the Kollyvadas, had good relations with one of the leaders of this traditionalist and anti-European movement, Nikodimos the Agiorite. In fact, when he was in Leipzig, he accepted the request on behalf of Nicodemus to ensure the extradition of the Helm. But in addition to overseeing the edition, Theodoret tried to clarify the content and intervened with his own comments, contrary to those of Nicodemus. The event caused a rift between the two men.

The main work of Theodoritos is not preserved. It was the history of Mount Athos, which he compiled after many years of research in the libraries and archives of the monasteries. According to tradition, robbers entered his cell, found no money, and in a rage destroyed his manuscripts among other things. Out of his desperation, Theodoritos threw what was left into the fire. It is reasonable to assume that his Cell was looted in 1822, during the invasion of the Turkish army on Mount Athos, and that he escaped without taking the manuscripts with him. Finally he fled as a refugee to Bursa in Asia Minor, where he died in 1823.

It seems that a part of Theodoret's collection was taken over by his nephew Jacobus Neoscetiotis, an indefatigable codographer, and used in his Athoniad, while another part, perhaps larger, was appropriated by Porphyry Ouspensky.

Pachomios Esphigmenitis wrote the works History of the Holy Monastery of Esphimenos (in 3 volumes) and History of the Holy Land during the revolution of 1821, both unpublished, which are preserved in manuscripts of the monastery.

Germanos Esphigmenitis published in Nafplion the magazine Evaggeliki Salpix (1834–1838) and wrote the life of the holy martyr Agathangelos Esphigmenitis (1819). He died in Trikala, Corinth as a teacher.

The Metropolitan of Grevena, Klimis, who had studied at the expense of the monastery, also left Esfigmenou. He died in 1898.

Zosimas Esfigmenitis was the editor of the newspaper Prometheus and many ecclesiastical and theological works. He died in Volos in 1902.

Icons

The iconostasis is temporarily housed in the synod hall, in the old abbot's hall. Portable icons from various eras are kept here, such as Christ and the Virgin Mary. A triptych with the central subject of Saint Nicholas stands out. However, the main set of icons of the monastery are placed for devotional use in the catholicon.

An ancient icon of Christ Pantocrator with tiny mosaics is also kept in the Iconophylakio. It represents Christ in full body blessing with his right hand and holding a gospel in his left. It is placed in the 14th century, but may be older. It is surrounded by a silver frame (from 1792) in which the apostles are depicted, while in its lower part small pieces of relics of saints are placed.

Museum-Sacristy

The Vault of the Esfigmenou monastery is temporarily housed together with the Library above the narthex of the catholicon. Gold-embroidered vestments of various periods, crosses, gospels, liturgical vessels (bread, chalices) and other objects are kept here. Many vessels were made in Wallachia and in Vienna, under the care of Nilos, later metropolitan of Pentapolis, who became a monk at Esfimenou monastery in 1868.

A piece of embroidered fabric from the tent in which Napoleon the Great stayed during his campaign in Egypt is also hung in the space. It is a gift from the patriarch Gregory V to the monastery and is used once a year on Ascension Day which the monastery celebrates as a curtain on the kingdom gate of the catholicon. A historical banner from the period of the uprising is also kept in the Vault. Also, two epitrachili are on display, one of Petros Rares, voivode of Moldavia, from 1537, and another that was made shortly before the Fall.

Archive

The Archive of the Esfigmenou monastery is housed in a special place, but a part of it is kept in the old Library, in the space above the catholicon.

The first visitor to the Archive to provide us with accurate information is the Russian Vasily Barsky in 1744. He refers to ten chrysobulas he saw, five of them Byzantine (three of them do not exist today). The learned Esphigmenite abbot Theodoritos copied an important part of the archive at the beginning of the 19th century. It displays the content of the documents vividly in its saved copies. In 1846 Porfirios Ouspensky visited the monastery. In the list of documents of Mount Athos that he published in 1847, 20 documents from Esfimenou are also mentioned. Also, probably in 1859, Petros Sevastianov photographed at least 17 Byzantine documents of the Archive, which were used in the 1906 edition by L. Petit and W. Regel.

In 1903, the Esphigmenite Gerasimos Smyrnakis studied the archive and gathered a lot of information that he used in the history of the monastery.

Manuel Gideon was the first to publish in 1888 eleven documents from the Archives of the Esfigmenou monastery. The editors of its Greek archive in 1906, L. Petit and W. Regel, in their edition of the Byzantine documents also included 21 post-Byzantine ones, dating from the second half of the 15th century up to 1848—among them Slavic documents, translations of Turkish and Romanian documents, as well as copies of documents from other archival collections. The 1973 edition (see Bibliography) focused mainly on Byzantine documents. In 2008, in the series "Athonika Symmeikta", the research of Zisis Melissakis on Greek post-Byzantine documents was published. The edition includes the epitomes of 105 documents, dating from 1527 to 1801.

A handwritten catalog compiled at the beginning of the 20th century is preserved in the Archive, but many documents are missing from it. It has the title: Catalog of the documents of the sacred and venerable royal and patriarchal monastery of Esphimenos in Athos.

Among the chrysobulas, let's mention those of John V Paleologus (1357), Stefanos Dusan IV Uros (1347), Georgios Vragovich (1429) and Tsar Alexios Mihailovits (1655). Also worth mentioning is the gold bullion of Maros, from 1428, which depicts the Serbian family of ruler Bragovic.

Library

The Library is also located above the narthex of the catholicon. It has about 400 manuscripts, of which 75 are parchments, as well as some scrolls. There are also 2,000 printed books in the same space, while over 7,000 printed books are kept elsewhere, on the second floor of the north side of the monastery.

According to the available historical data, the monastery of Esfigmenou had a rich and long spiritual life and therefore a rich collection of manuscripts.

In 1533, when it was looted, the Agarine pirates took many relics, captured nine monks, set fire to it and left, taking with them several books and documents. A note in a parchment codex of the 11th century (no. 14) tells us the following: "It happened then that Saint Akakios from the Monastery of Kochliaras bought books of the monastery from the Agarines, small and large, and some gold bullion." Then the b are listed

books, which were mainly liturgical and theological, and it is noted: "these books were bought by the aforementioned Sir Akakios and he gave them to Sfigmenos the monastery".

In Code 23 of the monastery, which is also a parchment of the 11th century, there is a note dated 1570: "This gospel was bought by Pope Argyros from the Prosanikis, the son of Pope Kyrkos, because the Turkish armada joined the Epakton and gave a white hundred ».

The traveler Robert Curzon visited the monastery in 1837. The Library space was also then above the catholicon. She estimates her books at 1,500, half of which are manuscripts, written mostly on paper, and all of them theological in content. Among the manuscripts he points out four Gospels and two Acts, while the rest were the usual manuscripts with church services and works of the Fathers of the Church. He was impressed with an illustrated Tetraevangel, Russian or Bulgarian, with representations at the beginning of each gospel and written in capital letters. He feels disappointed by the contents of the library, because he expected that such an ancient monastery would also have many ancient manuscripts. He attributes their absence to the various predatory attacks he received.

Gerasimos Smyrnakis, not taking into account the distinction between Curzon's manuscripts and printed books, incorrectly notes that in 1837 there were approximately 1,500 manuscript codices, half of them papyrus, of basically theological content in the library of the monastery. According to Smyrnakis, in 1880 the codices are reduced to 320, with 71 of them on parchment. In 1882 two parchment codices were taken from a certain hierodeacon Hesychios, Codex 3 of the 12th century, which contained the Handbook of Epictetus and texts of the Nile, and Codex 30, a Tetraevangel of the 14th century. In 1896–1898, librarian Gregory discovered the removal of two more parchment codices: Code 65, Acting Apostle of the 14th century, and Code 71, Clock of the 13th century. Further investigation discovered the removal of another dozen codes. However, Spyridon Lambros in the same period found and recorded 320 codes.

Manuscripts

. The manuscript codices hosted by the Library amount to 400.

16 of the 320 Greek codices of the monastery recorded by Spyridon Lambros contain texts from the classical script. In fact, they cover quite a wide variety of works, which are unique to each codex, except for the Dialogues of Lucian. Among them are Pythagoras' Golden Epics, Homer's Frog Fight, Xenophon's Kyros Pideia, Hermogenes' Rhetorical Art, Herodian's Histories of the Kingdom of Herodian, Euclid's Elements, Apthonius' Progymnasmata. In the monastery's collection, the parchment Codex 3, from the 12th century, stands out, which is the oldest of the 65 around the world that preserve the Manual of Epictetus.

A notable illustrated manuscript is the Menologio (no. 14), which dates back to the 11th century. It contains 78 miniatures, some composite, which are divided horizontally into superimposed double or triple representations, and 8 large representations from the Nativity of Christ. Some of his thumbnails have been cut off. The usual hagiological performances are accompanied by idyllic and bucolic scenes. The codex also contains abundant titles and protograms with anthropomorphic figures and floral decoration.

Also of interest is an Evangelist, also from the 11th century, with images of the four Evangelists, Codex 13, written in 937 "by the hand of John the monk and sinner" (this is the calligrapher John of Lavra, who was a contemporary of Athanasius the Athonite), and the palimpsest parchment Codex 27 containing a 14th century Gospel.

Printed Books. About 2,000 printed books are still housed in the same space as the manuscripts, while over 7,000 are kept on the second floor of the north side of the monastery.

Thomas Papadopoulos in the Libraries of Mount Athos (p. 7) mentions that the first Greek edition he found in the Esphimenou monastery is an old type from 1523. This 16th century book is extremely rare in secular and private collections, but is treasured in seven libraries of Agioreitis. This is the Dictionary of Varinos Favorinos, published and printed under the editorship of Zacharias Kalliergis in Rome.

Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_110