Hilandar Monastery-Манастир Хиландар,

Hilandar Monastery-Манастир Хиландар

The Holy Monastery of Hilandar which is today a Serbian monastery, is located further west than all the monasteries of the north-eastern side of the Athonian peninsula, in a wooded valley and at a distance of half an hour from its arsana, which is next to the Esfimenou monastery. On the way to the monastery, there are many alternations of perennial flora and old buildings, with the first being the half-ruined castle monastery of Agios Vasilios, a part of the monastery, which, built on a rocky outcrop, advances towards the sea. The complex of Agios Vasilios was built by the king of Serbia Milutin in 1300–1302.

The Holy Monastery of Chilandari ranks fourth in the hierarchy of the twenty monasteries of Mount Athos.

History

The name of the Chilandariou monastery most likely came from George Helandarios, its founder and builder, who lived at the end of the 10th century. Its original name "Tou Helandaris", which the Serbs later changed to Hilandar, is related to the Byzantine helandion (a type of rowing barge). Apparently its founder was connected with such ships as a builder or master. Other origins of the name have been proposed, rather paretymologies, e.g. "A thousand rebels" or "A thousand men".

The monastery of Chilandari is one of the oldest on Mt. In historical documents it is found for the first time in 1015, with a Greek abbot who, seventeenth in the line, signs as "Eustathius monk and abbot Heland...". The name could be completed in Heland-arius, in which case Eustathius is its founder, or in Heland-arius, in which case he is the abbot of a pre-existing monastery. The second point of view is the correct one, because in a deed of the First Thomas of the year 985, the Athonians wrote to Basil II that the monastery of Kolovou was assigned to them "by the hand of Georgios Helandaris". George Helandaris had sold his farm to the Iberians in 982 to settle near the sea. So he must be the founder of the monastery.

The monastery of Chilandari continued its life uninterruptedly for two centuries, although without much prominence. In 1076 it is mentioned as a Greek monastery and in 1141 the monk Simeon appears as its head, signing a document of the Lavra. The last available testimony, signed by the abbot of the monastery Hilandarios Gerasimos, is found in 1169 in a document of the Protato. After this act, the monastery was abandoned and fell into ruins.

With the mediation of the "Great Middle of the Carians" it was proposed that the monastery be independent from Vatopediou and Protos and that the monastery be free both from the Carians and from the imperial power. Savvas asked the emperor to grant the monastery independent status, and the independence was ratified by a golden bull of Alexios III Angelos, in 1198, who placed the deserted monastery under the authority of his brother-in-law Stefan Nemanja, King of Serbia, and his second son Rastko, "as it is an eternal gift to the Serbs... in return they finance the lonely behavior of those chosen from the Serbian race". Rastko had already become a monk on Mount Athos, in the monastery of Thessaloniki, in 1191, under the name of Savvas, while later he settled for a while in Vatopediou and then in Kelli ton Karion, granted to him by the Synaxis. There, in 1197, he received his father, who had abdicated the throne and become a monk in the monastery of Studenitsa in 1196, taking the name Simeon (and his wife Anna followed the same stage and was renamed Anastasia). Vatopaidi, following the request of the new ruler of the Serbs, Stefanos II, granted them the ruined monastery of Hilandario. The two men immediately took care of the rebuilding and expansion of the monastery and are rightly considered its founders. Stephen II the Protosteptos, brother of Ratsko/Sava, strengthened the monastery with money, which, as a foundation of the famous ruler and his sons, undoubtedly received many rich gifts, among them icons of great value, and became a spiritual and religious center of the Serbs as early as the 13th century. While the work on the monastery was not yet finished, Simeon died in February 1199. Savvas completed the work and, visiting Constantinople again, secured the old and abandoned monastery of Zygos for the Holy Monastery of Hilandarius.

At its beginning the monastery had ten to fifteen monks, but after six years it reached ninety. The Standard was drawn up by Savvas and in it the independence and complete autonomy of the monastery in choosing its abbot which does not require imperial ratification is particularly emphasized: it presents a remarkable originality by appointing two superiors, the first with the title of abbot responsible for the spiritual, the second with the title of steward for the administrative. In 1219 Savvas was ordained the first archbishop of Pec and fought for the unification of the Serbian nation into one state under the Orthodox faith. Both were declared saints of the Serbian Church. The creation of an independent Serbian Church in no way meant a break in its spiritual relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The canonical ties between the two Churches were reverently maintained, and the personal ties of the prelates were always in accordance with the line drawn by Sabvas.

In the 13th century, the Holy Monastery of Hilandari became the spiritual light giver of the Serbian people, its spiritual center, the first Serbian teaching school of letters and arts, and in general the guardian of the spiritual and national culture of the Serbs. Most of the educated clergy and wise men came from this monastery, church books were translated and written there for the purpose of organizing the Serbian Church.

Michael VIII Paleologos issued two chrysobulas in favor of the monastery (in 1271 and 1277) that guaranteed its possessions as well as the "self-master", while his successor, Andronikos II Paleologos, made concessions and arrangements in favor of the monastery with about 33 ratifications.

The presence of the Serbs on Mount Oros was strengthened after the marriage of Stefanos Milutin (1282–1321) with the daughter of Andronikos II Paleologus Simonidas, who strengthened the monastery, followed by Stefanos Dušan, Prince Lazarus, Despot Bragović and others , until the first half of the 15th century. In the 15th century, the monastery also had the protection of the Serbian woman Mara Bragovic, who was the stepmother of Muhammad the Conqueror. Since then, the monastery has been the main spiritual center of the Serbs for centuries.

At the beginning of the 14th century it was closely besieged by the Catalans, according to the narrative of its abbot Daniel, but it was not captured thanks to its strong fortification.

During the period of the Turkish rule, the rulers of the Danubian countries supported the monastery, such as Neagos Vasaravas (1512–1521) of Wallachia, who secured an annual grant of 7,000 whites. At the same time, other Vlachs also showed great interest in the monastery. In 1534 the ruler of Wallachia Vidilas Vlados donated 10,000 aspra. In 1589 Michnas II the Turkomenos, ruler of Wallachia, offered 15,000 aspra.

Until 1568 the monks of the monastery had the approval of the tsar to collect subscriptions every four years by sending a group to Russia. This mission, from 1592 onwards, took place every seven years, with the first being Grigorios Chilandarinos, who arrived in Moscow and collected large sums and objects for the monastery. During this period there was no ethnic opposition and in the monasteries representatives of all ethnicities could coexist comfortably, with a change of abbots and with bilingualism. We see e.g. how the Serbian monastery of Chilandariu in 1503 is presented as Slavic-speaking, in 1506 as Greek-speaking, in 1513 as Slavic-speaking, in 1541 as Greek-speaking, in 1544 as Slavic-speaking.

During the 17th century the monastery is able to proceed with the execution of several projects, such as the renovation of the southeast wing (1610), the wall painting of the bank (1622), the beautification of the catholicon (1632, 1633, 1635), the renovation or reconstruction of the cells of the eastern wing (1640, 1649), etc. Around the middle of the same century, the library of the monastery was considered one of the most valuable Slavic libraries. During this period, a Serbian merchant from Venice emerged as a helper, who, after donating his property to the monastery, lived there until his death (1665) as a Nicanor monk. The daskal (teacher) Samuilos Bakacic, who came to Oros in 1669 and lived in Hilandari, also showed intense activity. He translated into Serbian the Salvation of Immortals by Agapius Landos, the Spiritual Magnet of Gabriel Athonite, the Treasury of Damascene Studite and the Handbook of Maximus of Peloponnese. From 1675, however, the decline began—Serbs begin to decline and be replaced by Greeks and Bulgarians.

At the beginning of the 18th century, mainly Bulgarian-speaking monks lived in the monastery, while from 1740 the majority became Greek. In 1722, after the fire, half of the building volume was destroyed, and the monastery fell into a state of poverty. Despite this, its financial situation was better than other monasteries, since it could not only cope with its obligations but also take on the burdens of the poorer monasteries with the loan system (there were four of these monasteries in total, Chilandariou, Megistis Lavras , Vatopediou and Iberon).

During this period, Paisios (1720-c. 1770) from the region of Samokov (in today's southwestern Bulgaria) lived in Hilandari, while at the same time his older brother Lavrentios was head of the monastery. He composed the work Historia Slavo-Bulgaria about the peoples, kings and saints of the Bulgarians, with little historical value, but on this work was based the explosive manifestation of the national opinion of the Bulgarians after about a century. Also, in the fraternity of the monastery we have the Bulgarian monk Kyril Paisimovich (1770–1845), who wrote the Mirror of Sinners, the life of Prince Lazarus, etc. However, the help that arrived in the 18th century to the monastery and the general interest in its well-being made it progressively a stronghold in the Balkans of a unified Orthodox culture without national rivalries. During this period, in addition to pilgrims, the monastery is also visited by travelers or scholars of manuscripts, such as Vasily Barski, who visited it in 1725 and again in 1744, leaving a description of the monastery and its treasures.

At the beginning of the 19th century, with the involvement of Mount Athos in the liberation struggle of the Greeks, the brotherhood of the Hilandariou monastery paid the revolutionaries several monetary contributions, resulting in the violent actions of the Turkish guard who remained in the monastery for several years. Testimony to the sufferings of the period is provided by a letter from the monastery to Archimandrite Isaiah, dated October 5, 1828. The monastery was almost abandoned.

In 1896, when the Serbian king Aleksandar I Obrenović visited Hilandari, he found that there were no Serbs among the monks. Then, after he undertook the payment of all the debts of the monastery and fixed an annual grant, he proceeded to the mass entry of monks from Serbia. So the monastery very soon came under their control. Then the reconstruction and renovation works of the buildings began.

In the liberation of Macedonia (1912–1913), the Serbian monks took the lead in favor of the union of Mount Athos with Greece, resisting the Russian aspirations to occupy it. It should be noted that the leader of the Synod for the adoption of the resolution in favor of the union (3.10.1913) was the Serbian-born representative of the Hilandariu monastery, who not only signed the resolution, but also presented it to Athens as the head of the delegation appointed for this purpose, even addressing the king of the Greeks. The resolution was taken seriously at the London conference (November 1913).

During the Second World War its monks did not cooperate with the occupying forces. During the period of the communist regime in Yugoslavia, when the Autonomous Church of the Diaspora seceded (1963) from the Serbian Patriarchate of Belgrade, the Hilandari monastery was also divided and split into two portions.

The Chilandariu monastery was tested by fires in 1722 and 1891, but also recently, in 2004. In the last fire, 50% of its area was destroyed—the west wing, part of the north wing up to the Tower of Saint Savvas and the "White Konaki" (eastern wing) in an area of 2,000 sq.m. and in built-up areas of 10,000 sq.m.

Today it numbers about 30 monks, while it also has several dependents who live in its cells. Archimandrite Methodios is the abbot.

The catholicon of the monastery is dedicated to the Entry of the Virgin. It was built with the patronage of King Stefanos Uros II Milutin (of the Nemanian dynasty), around 1293, in the Athonic style, with a typically modest layout but without chapels. The second narthex, also of a simple configuration, was added later by Prince Lazarus.

From the interior decoration, it is worth mentioning the excellent marble floor, the important paleologian frescoes and the also paleologian marble iconostasis behind the later woodcarving (1774).

Sacristy

The Vault of the Hilandariou Monastery is located on the first and second floors of the eastern wing. This section was specially renovated to house both the Iconostasis and the Library.

The monastery is considered rich in terms of relics. The most valuable relics are two crosses made of pure wood, gifts from the emperor John Vatatzis, as well as the curtains of Euphemia, from 1399, and Anastasia, from 1566. The monastery also keeps various precious stones with representations of Christ, the Virgin and Saint Demetrius , the famous diptych with 24 miniatures, a triptych of the year 1548, a door with the representation of the Annunciation, the work of the painter Mitrofanović, from 1616, an ivory glass of the ruler Stefanos Dušan (14th century), the pastoral rod of Synesius Zigović, of 1757, as well as many vestments and liturgical vessels, coins and reliquaries. Also crafted in jasper is the panagiario (tray for the blessed bread) of the monastery (13th century) and a cross with an amethyst base.

Iconostasis

The iconostasis of the Hilandariu monastery is located in its eastern wing, on the second floor, in a specially designed area. It includes a collection of portable icons, many of which come from the Byzantine era and are preserved in excellent condition. Among the most important are two icons of the Virgin Guide, one of which is mosaic (12th century), and the icons of Christ (13th century), the Evangelists, the Entrances of the Virgin, the Apostles Peter and Paul, the Holy Forerunner , of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, the holy five Martyrs and the holy Panteleimon, from the 13th century. On the first floor of the wing, a special image conservation area has been set up.

The icon that occupies a central position in the monastery is Tricherousa. It was brought to the monastery from Jerusalem in the 14th century. According to tradition, John the Damascene prayed here and the hand that had been cut off by the caliph Isham ibn Abd al-Malik (724–743) was healed after being poisoned by the iconoclast Leo III Isaurus. A third silver hand was added to the image.

Library

The beginning of the library of Chilandarios should be connected with the activities and interests of Saint Savvas, but especially with the arrival of his father Simeon Nemanija and their joint efforts to found a Serbian monastery. The original collection included liturgical books. To begin with, Savvas procured the first manuscripts from Mount Athos. At the end of the 12th century, Russian education prevailed among the Agioreite Slavs, that is why the first books were in Russian, followed by Bulgarian ones, since the oldest Slavonic monastery on Athos was the Bulgarian one of Zografos, and finally the Greek ones, due to the linguistic dominance and spiritual tradition of Greek Orthodoxy. At the same time, of course, since the founding of the monastery, manuscripts were also brought from Serbian lands, such as the Gospel of Miroslav (Мирослављево Јеванђеље) and the Gospel of Vukan (Вуканово Jеvanђеље).

Along the way, the manuscript collection was expanded by donations, purchases, or other means. At the same time, however, several codes were lost with repeated removals. In addition to losses due to natural wear and tear, fires consumed a significant number of codices, particularly in 1772 and 1776. The library also suffered from occasional looting going back to the 19th century and the Greek Revolution (1821–1831). Finally, many important manuscripts were removed by the monks of the monastery themselves, although this was strictly forbidden. As early as the 16th century, monks gave manuscripts as gifts, especially in Russia. Russia is associated with one of the first and perhaps most systematic stripping of libraries on Mount Athos, with the most typical case of Arsenios Sukhanov, who in the years 1653–1654 selected and took with him 498 codices from the monasteries of Mount Athos.

The worst "friendly thefts" happened in the 19th century, when Slavologists were very interested. There are not a few single leaves, fragments and codices found in collections in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Odessa and they come from the visits of Viktor Grigorovich (1844) and Porfiry Uspensky (1845/1846 and 1858/1859). Chronologically, he was preceded by the linguist Gerney Kopitar, who in 1826/1827 bought 12 manuscripts from Mount Athos, 8 from Hilandari and 4 from Zografou, for the Library of the Imperial Court of Vienna. His mission was however interrupted due to a lack of interest from the Imperial Court in purchasing Slavic treasures.

In the monastery of Chilandari an intense copying activity had developed, since it has been established that already from the 12th century its monks began to produce a large number of manuscripts. This activity continued into the 20th century and a fair number of these manuscripts are in collections around the world, such as in Oxford and Novosibirsk. Today European manuscript collections include a significant number of manuscripts from either the Chilandari or a Chilandari scribe.

Finally, the Library of the monastery has about 700 manuscripts, 100 Greek, on parchment 25 Slavic and 27 Greek, 9 parchment scrolls, of which 2 Greek, 6,600 printed materials, of which 1,000 Greek, according to the work of Monk Sophronios Agiopaulitos Thesauris of Mount Athos. Of the manuscripts about 200 from the 13th to the 17th centuries are quite remarkable for their fine miniatures, influenced by Western and Byzantine standards. Imaginary animals and body parts are mainly depicted in the miniatures. The style of decoration of Cyrillic manuscripts is that of the first translations into Slavic and did not change substantially from the 9th to 10th centuries until the beginning of the 14th. They respond mainly to fantastical creatures and complex geometric designs that adorn the archigrams. Similar decoration has been found in Greek books from provincial workshops as well as from scriptories of Western Europe. The Holy Monastery of Hilandari has the most decorated Serbian manuscripts of the 13th century. A whole world created by the imagination of medieval man appears in the Slavic manuscripts of the scriptorium of Chilandarius, as noted by Demosthenes Hatzilelekas (see Bibliography).

Archive

The Archive of the Chilandari Monastery includes more than 400 documents. Of these, 165 are Byzantine Greek, 160 Serbian, 18 Russian, 2 Bulgarian, 31 Moldavian and 70 Turkish firmans and verats. Included in these documents are the founding chrysobulas of the monastery. The post-Byzantine documents, from 1453 to 1800, amount to 1,800, with about 1,200 of them having a financial content.

The first attempt to classify the archive was made in 1894 by the monk Savvas Chilandarinos, who, however, mainly dealt with Byzantine documents, an attempt that was not particularly satisfactory in terms of its result.

Many expeditions, mainly by Serbian researchers in the 19th and 20th centuries (mentioned in detail by Mirjana Živojinović in Actes de Chilandar I), dealt with the monastery's archive, but mainly focused on the research of Byzantine or Slavic documents. Only the first editor of the Greek archive L. Petit and the editors of the additions to it V. Mošin and A. Sovre included in their editions the 22 documents from the 15th to the 17th century and 3 documents from the 18th century . This was followed by the edition of epitomes by V. Anastasiadis (2002), which includes the documents up to 1800.

Manuscripts

From the fire of 2004, the icons and manuscripts that were in the south wing of the monastery were saved. This wing was rebuilt in 1784 in place of an older one, which had been destroyed by fire in 1722. With the interventions of 1988, 1992 and 1995, new functions were installed in it, such as exhibition spaces on the ground floor, a library-library on the first floor and cells and restrooms on the second and third floors. Today, the Library of the manuscripts of the Hilandariou monastery is housed in the eastern wing, where the Monastery's Sacristy and Iconography are also located.

At the end of the 19th century, at the time of the first cataloging, Spyridon Lambros recorded a total of 105 Greek manuscript codices, of which only 26 are described that have theological or other content, while the 79 that contain church music are simply mentioned. In 1973 Dimitrios Kyrou visited the library, who recorded 136 manuscripts, excluding those of Lambros. In 2007, the supplementary list of Efthymios Litsa and Dimitrios Kyros followed.

Also, in 1978 A. Jakovljević compiled and published an inventory of all musical manuscripts found at that time (Slavonic and Greek), and V. Kontovas published in 1982 and 1983 two articles on the scribes appearing in Greek manuscripts of the monastery.

The most complete and accurate description of the collection of Slavonic manuscripts (Catalogue of Cyrillic Manuscripts of the Monastery of Hilandar) was published in Belgrade in 1978 by Dimitrije Bogdanović.

Today the collection of the monastery contains 990 codices, of which 181 are Greek and 809 are Slavic. 47 of them are parchment and all others are paper, while it also includes 7 Greek and 5 Slavic scrolls.

The original collection was composed of books of liturgical content from the 12th century in order to satisfy the needs of the monastery. The subject matter of the original core of the manuscripts seems not to have changed much over the centuries, since in its collection only Codex 11 (18th century) was found in the work On how to see history written by Lucian. In fact, this work is unique in the collections of the monasteries of Mount Athos.

Among the Greek manuscripts, the parchment illustrated Gospel of the 14th century (Codex 5), the parchment Tetraevangelo of the end of the 14th century (Codex 6), the parchment Gospel of the end of the 13th or the beginning of the 14th century (Codex 105) stand out.

Among the Slavic parchment manuscripts stand out the Tetraevangelo of king Milutin of the year 1316 (Code 1), and other manuscripts connected with the Hilandar Cell in Karyes (Codes 9, 13, 14, 47, etc.), which date to 14th century and most of them are works of calligraphers of the monks of the monastery. The monk of Savva (†1910), who compiled a history of Mount Athos in Serbian and a history of the monastery separately, after arranging the manuscripts of the monastery in general, he also compiled a list of the Slavic ones.

The Hilandari Monastery has the largest number of Serbian decorated manuscript codices from the 13th century.

Noteworthy are the 14th-century parchment Tetraevangelo (Codex 5), written in Cyrillic capitals, with Greek headings, as well as Codex 13, which is adorned with exquisite images within the titles of the Evangelists, behind whom a female figure with secular attributes is depicted , apparently the inspiring Sophia, except in the case of John, who himself dictates to Prochorus his speeches.

Printed Books

The printed library of the monastery is located in the south wing, under the synagogue and contains over 20,000 Greek and 4,000 Slavic books.

Thomas Papadopoulos in the Libraries of Mount Athos (p. 13) mentions that the first Greek edition he has found in the Chilandariou monastery is a Gospel of 1550, printed in Venice "in the house of Andrew of Spinel, in the care of the kingdom of Valerida". The immediately following chronological forms are also of functional content. It is Minaῖia of 1558 by Andreas Spinelos, edited by Grigorios Malaxos. All subsequent publications up to the New Testament translated by Maximos Kallipolites in 1638 are functional, while the first non-functional is the Thesaurus of the Damascene Studite of 1642.

Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_455

Videos on Hilandari monastery

https://youtu.be/AiQ3qCoAruk?si=zgKH_V_cI64apHbJ
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https://youtu.be/zEPyRRGL43I?si=V-X5EpLbIXC5TAcv
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https://youtu.be/sDR-9pRt9qU?si=4QYEvHrkIXEdcnn9 Abbot Methodios

https://youtu.be/sDR-9pRt9qU?si=h2hd5BBn61tybl9D Hilandar Abbot: Methodios: Our Monastery does not recognize OCU, the newly formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine.