Konstamonitou Monastery

Konstamonitou Monastery

The Holy Monastery of Konstamonitou (Greek: Μονή Κωνσταμονίτου), invisible and far from the sea, is located in a wooded and impressive environment on the southwest side of the Cretovouni massif, on the side of the Sigitiko gulf, between the monastery of Zografou and Dochiarii. Remains of buildings and parts of an aqueduct of an ancient city are preserved in the area. From the arsana, which is located next to a sea cave and is like a man-made imitation of it, the road leads to the monastery.

It occupies the twentieth position in the hierarchy of the twenty monasteries of Mount Athos.

History

The foundation of the monastery and its name are lost in the various traditions, based on the two types of writing of its name: Kastamonitou and Konstamonitou. Based on its first name, presented earlier, its founder is considered to be a monk who came from Kastamonis in Paphlagonia in Asia Minor or bore the name Kastamonitis known to the Byzantines. This version seems more convincing than the other, according to which the monastery traces its foundation to Constantine the Great and its completion to his son, Constant. There is also the opinion that it got its name from the chestnuts that grow around it in abundance. The official name of the monastery, attested from the 15th century, is today Konstamonitou.

Historically, it first appears in various texts of the 11th century. A silent period follows, interrupted after the end of the Frankish rule.

Towards the end of the 11th century, its abbot was Hilarion, who later assumed the office of Protos, a relative of the emperor Alexios I Comnenus (1081–1118). Although it is likely that it was then recognized as a royal monastery, it does not come to the fore until 1262.

It is probable that it was set on fire by Catalan pirates at the beginning of the 14th century. and mention is made of help for its erection from the house of Paleologues. In relation to the vesting of the property, a Chrysoboulos of emperor John V Palaiologos is mentioned in 1351, which, however, is considered copper-plated. It seems to be a reproduction of a genuine chrysoboulos of the year 1363.

In the 3rd Standard of Mount Athos (end of the 14th century) it is listed under the name of Konstamonitou and ranks 16th among 25 monasteries of the time.

During the 15th century the Serbian general Radic, who after the death of his wife resigned from his post and settled here under the name Romanos, undertakes a great neo-construction project. He writes in his will (1433): "...but I renovated and built eggs, and I walled up and solidified the digestive tracts...".

Ruler George Bragovic (1433) and Princess Anna of Serbia, as well as Negoe Basarab (1517), are considered benefactors and renovators of the Monastery. Around the end of the 15th c. about 90 monks leave the monastery.

During the period of the Turkish occupation, the Monastery barely survived under the unbearable taxes and misfortunes and reached a financial and functional wither, to the point that in 1666 it had only 6 monks. At the same time, due to bankruptcy, he was exempted from co-payment, i.e. the mandatory payment of the sum of money that the monasteries paid to the Community of Mount Athos for its maintenance. It is also mentioned that in 1705, when the French consul Antoine Armand visited the monastery, he "saved them from the clutches of the heirs", i.e. from the usurers. For this reason, the monastery continuously commemorates the names of him and his companion.

In 1717 the east wing was destroyed by fire.

Despite the misery that plagued the monastery at that time, with the seal of Patriarch Neophytos VII, in October 1799, it was converted into a Koinovio, with Gabriel as its first abbot. In 1808 it had 27 monks. Its substantial reconstruction began in 1818 during the abbotship of Chrysanthos from Epirus and at the expense of Ali Pasha, thanks to the mediation of Mrs. Vasiliki. Then its eastern wing was also rebuilt.

In 1851 the debt of the monastery was 172,000 grosci, which was paid off in ten years. In the meantime, the Holy Community, which had been guardian of the monastery since 1850, due to poor management under Abbot Stefanos, in 1854 entered into negotiations with the Moldavian monks of the Skete of Prodromos, with the aim of assigning it. Patriarch Anthimos VI prevented the action and "reprimanded the Community severely". The monastery will be brought out of poverty by the Russians, when in 1862 the hieromonk Meletios was allowed to go to Russia and stay there for seven years, with the aim of collecting donations. Thus, the reconstruction continued under Simeon Stageiritis, who, with mainly Russian sponsorships, rebuilt the Catholicon (1867) and then part of the north and part of the south wing.

In 1979 it was manned with an escort of monks from the Filotheou monastery and abbot Agathon (1979–2018). Today the abbot is elder Charalambos.

The Catholicon of the Konstamonitou monastery is dedicated to the memory of Saint Stephen. It is characterized by the particularly careful construction of its stone walls, while internally it is not historic, except for a small part of the central dome. It was erected in 1867 during the reign of abbot Symeon Stageiritis with the help of the hieromonk Meletios Verroiotos. It is the fourth Catholicon in a row and has been built on the foundations and plan of the third. Its iconostasis is made of marble (1867). Its walls bear many portable icons, several of which are of great historical and cult value, such as that of the Theotokos Antiphonitria, who performed a miracle in the Monastery, according to tradition, in 1020.

According to written testimonies, the original catholicon was painted in 1443, while the second one in 1540, which was destroyed at the end of the 16th century. John Komnenos at the end of the 17th century. writes that the (third) temple of the monastery is "great and wonderful with five domes, leaded and painted, and has two chapels on its sides".

Scholars

It is Daniel Kastamonitis the bibliographer who flourished in the middle of the 16th century. and Dositheos Kastamonitis from Lesvos, who lived during the years of the Revolution of 1821, and wrote in the decade after it, A Tale of Mount Athos in the Time of the Revolution of 1821 (1956) and a Memoir on New Martyrs (1963).

Museum-Sacristy

The Vault of the Monastery of Konstamonitou is located next to the Library and above the Liti (narthex, vestibule) of the Catholicon. It is relatively limited in size and includes various relics, such as sacred vestments, crosses, chalices, and other objects of worship. Among them is the chalice donated by the Lady-Vasiliki. Also, a Byzantine cross of excellent art is kept and a Gospel with silver and gold plating made in 1820 in Epirus, also a gift of Mrs. Vasiliki.

Icons

The monastery has remarkable portable icons from various periods. The iconostasis constitutes the Catholicon itself and its Chapels. Three remarkable icons of the monastery are kept here. The first, probably from the 8th century, depicts the Proto Martyr Stephen, and bears traces of the era of iconoclasm. According to tradition, he reached the Mount from Jerusalem by a miracle during the reign of Alexios I Comnenus. The second is the 12th century icon of the Odigitria, donated to the monastery by Anna the Philanthropε of Serbia in 1360. The third represents the Virgin the Antiphonitria, who, according to tradition, in 1020, on the eve of collection of the relics of Saint Stephen, filled the monastery's jars with oil. Remarkable images are also kept on the walls of the Trapeza.

Library

The library of the Konstamonitou monastery is located in the Catholikon, above the Liti. The newest library of printed materials is housed on the north side of the monastery, under the Abbot's quarters.

During the period of Ottoman rule, when the monastery fell into poverty, its books were also scattered. Thus, when in 1744 Vasily Barsky passed through Konstamonitou, he noticed that there were no textbooks left, there was only a simple space, where only a few remnants of books were lying.

Robert Curzon notes that Konstamonitou has no library, nor anything particularly worth mentioning, apart from the document of the emperor Manuel Palaiologos, by which various possessions are granted to the monastery.

Petros Ivanovich Sevastianov(1811–1867), who worked in the libraries of Mount Athos between the years 1858–1861, also visited the Konstamonitou monastery, from which he extracted various manuscripts or their leaves. E.g. the missing section of codex 7 with John the Scholastic's "Sermon on the Shepherd" (Ιωάννη του Σχολαστικού Λόγος εἰς τὸν ποιμένα) is today in the Sevastianov collection of the Russian State Library.

Gerasimos Smyrnakis (1903) describes to us that in the library "we climb a spiral staircase" and that in it "there are a few printed codices, 14 are on parchment, and 97 are on paper".

Based on the notes, manuscripts of the monastery are located:

a) London, British Library. This is the parchment code Add. 5116 (11th–12th cent.), containing letters of the Apostle Paul. According to a note on f. 164v, it belongs to the Konstamonitou monastery.

b) Oxford, Christ Church College. This is the parchment code gr. 33, where on p. 221v its origin is also stated.

c) Oxford, Christ Church College. This is the parchment code gr. 15 (late 13th–early 14th century), which comes from the Palaeologina scriptorium.

d) Moscow, State Library of Russia. It is a fragment of a parchment codex of the 13th-14th century. (Font 170/Ia) and contains the Word to the Shepherd, a work by John Scholastikos. It comes from the code 7 of the monastery.

e) Paris, National Library of France. This is the parchment code of the 14th century. Coislin 341, f. 390v.

Archive

The Archive of the Konstamonitou Monastery had been repeatedly classified, many of its documents had been copied and the foreign languages (Ottoman and Slavic) had been translated.

The Byzantine archive of the monastery is relatively small. This is probably due to its desolation in the 14th century, so perhaps its oldest record was lost. The documents that are preserved today from the period before the beginning of the 15th century refer to the monastery's accessories, which, however, were attached to it after its renovation. Despite the difficulties the monastery faced in later years, many documents were saved, especially its particularly important Ottoman archive. The archive also contains copies and photographs of documents relating to the monastery and preserved in the archives of other monasteries.

Systematic classification and copying of documents took place during the first decades of the 20th century. by the abbot Simeon and the archivist Spyridon. The documents were divided by case and placed in the Monastery Office. The numerous Ottoman documents were placed each separately in a special folder, where its date and summary were recorded. Many of these were translated, while translations or summaries of almost all documents were copied into two codices preserved in the archive.

Catalog of the Greek documents of the Archive, published by Nikolaos Oikonomidis in 1970 (See Bibliography).

There are only four Slavic documents from the Byzantine period, and they date between the years 1429–1433. Two of them are the chrysobulla of the Serbian despot George I Bragovic (1429 & 1430), and the other two are of Selnik Radic (1430 & 1433).

Manuscripts-Codices

Spyridon Lambros at the end of the 19th century. has recorded a total of 111 manuscript codices, of which 14 are parchments. Today the number of codes remains the same.

The collection of manuscripts of the Konstamonitou monastery mainly covers theological topics. Only codex 73, from the 18th century, contains, along with the theological texts, texts with a classical theme. It includes Speeches by Isocrates and a Nouthetic poem by Phocylides, both with verse-by-line explanation in colloquial language. In the same codex there is also Lucian's Exegesis in Patridos Egomion.

Codes to remember are:

a) The palimpsest parchment codex 99, of the 12th c. The original contains lives and martyrdoms of saints in Latin. The new scripture is a 14th century Gospel.

b) The parchment codex 98, of the 14th c. It is a Gospel with semaphores, which at the end also contains the Monthly Gospels.

c) The parchment headless codex 104, of the 13th c. It contains the Theotokary in the eight tones of church music.

d) The parchment headless and truncated codex 105, of the 11th c. It is a Tetraevangelium, which contains the images of Basil the Great and John Chrysostom, as well as a representation with Christ in the center and the Virgin Mary and John on either side.

Print Books

The library of the Konstamonitou monastery has several ancient publications.

Thomas Papadopoulos in the Libraries of Mount Athos (p. 14), the first Greek edition he has located in the Konstamonitou monastery dates back to 1552. It is a Pentecostarion, printed by Andreas and Iakovos Spinellos, edited by Vassiliou Valeridos. The next edition is a Typikon of 1577, printed "in the house of Jacobus Leoginos", with corrections by Theophanos Logaras. Two other editions of liturgical books follow (1582 Minaio January, 1586 Triodion), until 1590, when the first non-liturgical publication appears, the Klimax of John Sinaitιs (Κλίμαξ του Ιωάννου Σιναΐτου), compiled by Maximus Margunius and printed by Francesco de Giuliani.

Icons: a miraculous icon of St Stephen, a work of the 8th century, and two wonder-working icons of Our Lady Hodeghetria and Our Lady Antiphonetria. There are also reliquaries, ecclesiastical vessels, chrysoboula and other items. Of interest are the wall-paintings (1670) in the chapel of Panagouda

Abbot Archimandrite Haralambos
The monastery has about 20 working monks.


Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_4005

Video on Konstamonitou Monastery

An excellent film on Konstamonitou Monastery

Historical video. How Father Agathon came to the monastery of Konstamonitou



Precious video with archival material. This is how Athos has been for a thousand years and is no longer. Washington and ither shady groups, enemies of Christian Orthodoxy, have destroyed it.

.

https://youtu.be/Ww9Z8ViPV4M?si=gVV7UczJDngFwy5f The late Abbot Agathon of Konstamonitou on Orthodoxy.

https://youtu.be/Cm4u1Pt6HTQ?si=5wiDN0ir7u5Ip66O The late Abbot Agathon of Konstamonitou on Orthodoxy. against the Patriarch.

https://youtu.be/2AsFdBdk4FA?si=t5fYzTaN_yTA5YxJ Χερουβικός ύμνος, Άγιον Όρος, Cherubic hymn Athos - Ι.Μ. Κωνσταμονίτου, πανήγυρις 27-12-2015

Audio on Konstamonitou Monastery

https://youtu.be/V-1tCqqz5_U?si=5UkIq5fdOJTl1ZEb Abbot Haralambos of Konstamonitou Monastery
https://youtu.be/SteH4ME39D4?si=g25o8WGw8eVf7m7z The late Abbot Agathon of Konstamonitou on Orthodoxy. against the Patriarch.