Megisti Lavra Monastery

Megisti Lavra-The Great Lavra Monastery.

History

The Holy Monastery of Megistis Lavra (Great Lavra, Μονή Μεγίστης Λαύρας) is built at a height of approximately 160 meters above sea level on a spacious plateau at the northeastern foothills of Mount Athos, in the location of Melana, where in ancient times there was a Pelasgian settlement. It overlooks the Strymonikos Gulf, the Aegean Sea and the surrounding islands. In the wider area is the ancient settlement of Akrothooi.

It occupies the first place in the hierarchy of the twenty monasteries of Mount Athos. It was founded in 963 by Saint Athanasios the Athonite, born Abramios, who was born in Trebizond and distinguished himself in the encyclical letters in Constantinople, where he met the founder of the Kyminas Lavra on Mount Olympus in Bithynia, the holy Michael Meleinus, uncle of Nikephoros Phokas.

The Great Lavra is the first large convent founded on Mount Athos and was a model for other monasteries, not only in terms of organization and operation, but also in terms of the structure of the building facilities. It began to be built with the sponsorship of Nikiforos Phokas (963–969) and then Ioannis Tsimiskis (969–976), who issued (971) the first general regulation of Mount Athos, called "Typikon Tsimiskis" or "Tragos (Goat)" (because was written on parchment), while he also set twice the amount of sponsorship than that of Phokas. The emperors continued the financial support, secured by relevant documents, including the chrysobula of Basil II the Macedonian, Michael VI Briga (Military), Constantine I the Duke and Alexios I Comnenus.

The prosperity of the Great Lavra, not only in the number of monks but also in wealth, began already from its foundation. Thus, from the 80 monks that Nikiforos Phokas had appointed in his golden council in 964, their number rose to 120 in 976, while a few years later, in 978, it exceeded 150 and in the 11th century 700. From 1057 the monastery he received from the imperial treasury 812 coins annually.

During the period of the Latin rule, the sufferings of the monastery were not so heavy, obviously because of the inaccessibility of the area, but perhaps also because of its relations with Constantinople, a fact that contributed to its great prosperity during the 14th century, when it became a center of the so-called hesychastic strife: great personalities of the hesychasm became monks within the monastery or on its borders, such as Grigorios Palamas.

Initially, the abbot of Lavra had the privilege of being sealed in Constantinople directly by the emperor, while after the chrysobulo of Andronikos II, in 1313, he was sealed by the patriarch, as was now the emperor himself. (All the other abbots of the monasteries of Mount Oros were sealed by the First in Karyes.) During this period, the Serbian king Stefanos Dusan (1308–1355) also shows special interest, who treats the Lavra with particular generosity. In his golden decree (1347) he validates the rights of the monastery and at the same time makes new donations, while his wife Eleni (nun Elizabeth) donates the monastery of All Saints to her. Dusan's son Stefanos V Uros (1355–1371) maintains the same policy.

From the end of the 14th century, when signs of decline and relaxation of the synovial system appeared, the monastery fell into a peculiar regime for about 200 years, but with a special formality, the so-called "lauriotic", which was similar to the formality of the laurels of Palestine. In this century prominent ecclesiastical figures lived in its area, such as Gregory Sinaitis, Gregory Byzantios, Kallistos (later patriarch Kallistos the Refugee), Ilias Seliotis, Gregory Palamas, Prochoros Kydonis.

During the 15th century it received multiple pirate raids and suffered destruction. The king of Serbia Stefanos Lazarević (1389–1427) made generous donations to the monastery in 1407 and the also despot of Serbia Georgios Bragović (1427–1456). The monks, taking advantage of certain privileges, managed at the end of the 15th century to restore damaged buildings and repaint the catholicon and the chapels.

In 1574 the monastery returned for about a century (until 1670) to the synovial system with the seal and standard of the patriarch Jeremiah II and first abbot Joseph. Its new prosperity was accompanied by the payment of taxes on behalf of other monasteries. However, already in 1583 "under the abbot ... Mitrofanis, the Lavra came to extreme poverty, so that most of the cells collapsed and no one opened his eyes to see the calamity". The, there was a great earthquake in 1585, which destroyed many of its buildings.

At that time, many rulers of the Paristrian and Transdanubian countries were interested in the monastery, such as Neagos Vassaravas (1513), Vladislav III (1523), Roulos of Wallachia (1533), Jeremiah and Gabriel Movilas, rulers of Moldavia (1598, 1617, 1619), and Ivan Vasilievich. Also the ruler Alexander III the Mean or Bad (1593) and Domna Maria (1592) attached estates to the monastery. Thus, with the help of the rulers and popular issues, the Lavra managed, in the first half of the 16th century, to repair its buildings and implement the grandiose mural painting program with representatives of the Cretan School of iconography. However, when the former patriarch Anthimos II came to live there in 1622, he found it almost deserted, with 5 or 6 old monks.

Anthimos II stayed in the monastery from 1623 to 1628 and among other things he reconstructed the original wing that had been built by its founder Athanasios the Athonite in 963. The wing acquired its current form and layout after the reconstruction of the monastery by Patriarch Dionysios III Vardalis(1662–1665), who settled in the monastery in 1670 and stayed there until his death in 1704 (in 1992–1995 the wing was statically and functionally restored in its entirety, largely preserving its original structure and functions). Vardalis was a member of a wealthy banker family and, among other things, managed to free the relics of the monastery that had been given as pledges to the Jews of Thessaloniki. Despite this, in 1670 the Lavra once again left the communal mode and became idiorhytmic. The former metropolitan of Arta and Nafpaktos Neophytos II Mavrommatis († 1746), who settled there, contributed to the rebuilding of the monastery. The income from shares in the Danubian hegemonies (Verzudi, Golia, Raketossa) also contributed to the reconstruction, but also in the Greek countries, where they were more.

Great personalities lived at this time in its vicinity, such as Paisios Velitkovsky or Neophytos Kausokalyvitis.

At the beginning of the 18th century the situation on Mount Athos was sad, mainly because of the heavy extraordinary levies for the war needs of the Turks. Lavra was able to cope with its obligations mainly through the lending system. The help of Nikolaos Mavrokordatos (1729) was not enough. In 1736, the sacristy of the monastery was invaded by Turks, who began to "excavate the interior of the monastery" in order to discover the 16,000 bars of gold, which, according to information, had been found by the monks "on the site of Toroni". After torturing the monks in vain, in the end, in addition to the valuables, they also took captive the treasurer and the superiors of the monastery. Then the old Theodosios Lavriotis, after taking out a loan on behalf of the monastery from the usurer of Thessaloniki Isaac Levi, bribed the leaders of the Turks and thus the captives were freed and the valuable objects returned.

During the Ottoman occupation and during the years of the revolution of 1821, the burden of taxation on the Mount was borne almost entirely by the Lavra. In 1744, by order of Patriarch Paisius II, the Lavra had to pay 45,531 grosii against the total debt of Mount Athos which amounted to 102,448 grosii. Helpers in this period were Grigorios G'Gikas (1748) and Konstantinos Rakovitsa (1756). In 1789 the annual taxes were also heavy. The monastery was unable to repay them and in June of the same year its superiors were imprisoned in the tower of Protatus, while the rest of the monks scattered, leaving the Lavra almost deserted. In 1799, in order to pay the taxes, "his gilded and beautiful world" was also removed from the last Gospel.

In the census of 1808, all its monks were 520, of whom 158 left the monastery. At the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, the Lavra had 117 monastic monks and 448 dependents, many of whom actively participated in the events. In this period, however, it had the least damage compared to the other monasteries.

In 1870 a building was erected in the courtyard to the north wing to house the library and sacristy.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Lavra had a total of 1,187 monks, of which 980 were Greek, 78 Russian, 125 Romanian and 4 Bulgarian. A little later, in 1914, the monastery returned for a while to the synovial regime after about 250 years, while the final transformation of the Lavra into a synovium took place in 1980 with the seal of Patriarch Dimitrios and during the abbotship of Athanasios.

In 1963, the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the monastery was celebrated in various places, such as Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Athens, etc. The actual celebration took place on site in Lavra and Karyes. The celebration was attended by the ecumenical patriarch Athenagoras, the patriarch of Jerusalem Benedictus, the patriarchs of Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, other leaders of autocephalous Churches, as well as King Paul, accompanied by Crown Prince Constantine and Prince Michael, and a multitude of observers.

Today, the abbot of the monastery is Archimandrite Prodromos, while the number of its monks amounts to 50 monastics and 350 dependents.

As evidenced by the book kept for millennia, the so-called "Kouvaras", along the historical route of Lavra, 27 patriarchs, 150 high priests, 168 abbots, 3,400 hieromonks and 14,000 monks monasticized there, while more than 60 saints of the Orthodox Church were buried in the monastery.

The catholicon

The catholicon of the Holy Monastery of Megistis Lavra was built in 963 with the sponsorship of Emperor Nikiforos Phokas and John Tsimiskis. It is the first catholicon that was erected on Mount Athos and according to his type the other catholicons of the monasteries of Saints were also built. It is a complex Byzantine church, quadrangular, triconch, with domes and two choirs, with two chapels to the left and right of the narthex and a double narthex or narthex, which came from the reconstruction and unification of two narthexes in 1814. Its roof is covered with sheets of lead from in the year 1526. It is located approximately in the center of the courtyard and celebrates on July 5, the day of the sleeping of Saint Athanasios the Athonite, who built it and dedicated it to the Annunciation of the Virgin. The main church was historicized in the year 1535 by the Cretan painter Theophanis, while the two narthexes were frescoed in the 20th century (1914) at the expense of Veroia Neophytos. Of particular value is its gate, covered with wrought brass plates of exquisite art. According to tradition, it is a gift from Nikiforos Phokas, brought from Crete, however it belongs to the 10th or 11th century. The marble floors of the nave, narthex and chapels date from the early 11th century, as does the marble cladding on the lower zone of the nave walls. The iconostasis is from 1889, the work of Konstantinos, father of Giannoulis Halepas.

In the chapel of the Holy Forty Martyrs there is the tomb of Saint Athanasios. There are also two remarkable portable icons, one of Christ and the other of the Virgin Mary.

In the chapel of Agios Nikolaos there are frescoes similar to the frescoes of Theophanes in the catholicon. They were made in 1560 by the Theban Franko Catalano.

Approximately in the middle of the courtyard, in front of the main entrance of the catholicon, is the Phiale, the oldest of Mount Athos. There are evidences of its existence as early as the 10th century. In its current form, it is made up of Byzantine parts, such as the monolithic basin, the brass surround and the marble chests. Its dome was decorated in 1635.

Dependencies

The Great Lavra occupies the largest area on the peninsula of Mount Athos and its various components are scattered in four places, on the top of Mount Athos, on the NE slopes, on Akrathos and in the desert. At the top of Mount Athos is the church of Panagia, with a cell used as a shelter, and the small church of the Transfiguration of the Savior. The components of the NE side are Mylopotamos, Morfinou and Provata. In Akrathon are the Romanian-speaking Skete of the Holy Forerunner and the Skete of Kausokalyvia. Also in the area are the cave of Peter the Athonite, the cave of Athanasios the Athonite and the Hermitage of the Nilos of Myrovlytis. In the desert, which starts from Mount Carmel, on the top of which is the chapel of the prophet Elias, and reaches Agia Anna to the west, the first kathisma that is found is that of Agios Vasilios, while Katounakia and Karoulia follow, and further south-west are Mikra Agia Anna and the skete of Agia Anna.

Museum-Sacristy

The Vault of the Holy Monastery of Megistis Lavra is today located in the north wing of the monastery and is housed together with the Library in a separate building to the east of the catholicon. It includes relics such as the Gospel, the crown and sack of Nikephoros Phokas, two quivers of arrows (spoils of his great victory against the Arabs after the capture of Crete in March 961), all from the 10th century. Also, gospels with precious coverings, matrices, pastoral staffs and vestments of patriarchs, metropolitans and abbots, ecclesiastical vessels, crosses, niches, chalices and valuable icons. The relics also include works of micro-artwork, sculpture and gold embroidery, including a special 10th-century gilded case in the shape of a snake's head, containing a petrified shield tongue, a gift from Nikephoros Phokas to Athanasios, and two icons in steatite, from the 11th century, which they represent the Virgin Mary and Saint George.

Worthy of mention is a crucifix in the form of a triptych, with the box, made of pure gold, closed with a double-leafed window and bearing on the outside a double row of diamonds, rubies, pearls and other precious elements, as well as reliefs. The honest wood kept inside is a gift from Nikephoros Phokas to Athanasios the Athonite.

Also worth remembering is the golden disc of Thomas Komnenos (1285–1318), the Despot of Epirus, which is decorated with precious stones and in the center bears the image of Pantocrator, as well as the Great Slavic Gospel, gilded, with large enamels and weighing more than of 40 kilos, which on major holidays is carried by two deacons. This gospel was printed in 1758 in Russia and came to the Lavra in 1778 as a dedication of the empress of Russia Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great.

For their archaeological and religious value, rather than for their art, mention should be made of the iron cross, weighing four kilos, that Athanasios carried during the long services, and his iron rod, with which he struck a stone from which abundant water flowed.

The complex of the old abbot-guardianship is an important sector of the monastery, as the constructions date from the mid-10th to the 16th-17th centuries with minimal later additions. In addition, the core of the oldest phase of the complex seems to be identifiable with the "cellion", where Athanasios the Athonite lived shortly before he began work on the foundation of the Lavra.

Icons

The first iconostasis was housed in the chapel of Agios Michael Synades. But due to the large number of portable images they were moved to the old container (= warehouse). The most important icons of the Great Lavra were kept, and are still kept, as cult vessels, in the catholicon and in the many chapels. Today there are around 2,000 portable icons in the monastery. Some are from the Byzantine period, such as the Crucifixion, the Dormition of the Virgin and the Assembly of the Holy Archangels. The 14th century fresco piece with an unidentified saint is also noteworthy. The icon collection of the 16th century is extremely rich, because the iconographer Theophanes the Cretan, as well as his sons, were Lavriotian monks. The triptych "Cloister", the "Adoration of the Chains of Saint Peter" and the three "Aneuryses" of the head of the Holy Forerunner are selectively mentioned. Of course, the large collection of images does not lack images from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

The most memorable icon is Panagia Koukouzelis, probably from the 13th century, with an investment of 1839. It took its name from a miracle related to the famous first chanter of the palaces of Constantinople, Ioannis Koukouzelis, who secretly came to the Lavra and became a shepherd. Also, the mosaic icon of Saint John the Theologian. In its frame, nine faces of saints are depicted, while high in the center is depicted the Preparation of the Throne (which has been prepared for Christ at the Second Coming). The choice of depicting saints in the frame, who bear the same name as John in the central form, led to an association of the image with a sponsor of the same name, such as the emperor John Tsimiscis.

Scholars

At the beginning of the 14th century, the monk of Lavra, Ioannikios, wrote a series of books at the behest of abbot Ignatius, as can be deduced from a note in Codex 644 of the monastery, and several of his codes are kept in the Lavra.

Manuel Moschiotis or Musketis, who was born in the Venetian-occupied Khandaka around 1565–1570, studied in Padua, at the School of Artisti, from where he received his diploma in 1600. During the years of his studies he became involved with his compatriot Maximo Margunio, who lived in Venice. Their relationship continues even after his studies, as Moschiotis goes to the sick Margounios, first in Mussolende (1600) and then in Venice (1601–1602), and cares for him. Moschiotis is the first that Maximos remembers in his last will (June 26, 1602). To him he leaves the best that his library possessed, namely his autograph manuscripts.

After the death of Margounios, Moschiotis fled to his hometown, in Handakas, where he worked as a teacher for years. There he will teach Aristotle's Organon and comment on the Analytical Priors and On Interpretation. In Crete, he cultivated his relations with his old acquaintance Lavrentios Marinos, with the monastery of Agios Antonios in Vrondisi, in the southern foothills of Psiloritis, as well as with Arsenios, "monk from Trikki" (his books, even in Latin, are found in the Lavra) .

At some point in his life, unknown when, he fled to Mount Athos and became a monk in the monastery of Megistis Lavras, where he died, probably in 1630.

At the end of the 16th century, Mattheos Myreon from Pogoniani worked for a long time in the Great Lavra. He was the author of historical works, as well as the famous Lamentation in Constantinople, where he calls the Greeks to rise up and throw off the yoke themselves, without expecting anything from foreigners. His codes are distinguished by the clarity of their writing and their elegance.

Gerasimos Ioannoulis († 1805) from Zakynthos, who was an ascetic in Agia Anna, compiled services for saints and holidays.

In the 19th century, many calligraphers persisted in practicing their work, such as Iakovos Neosketiotis, nephew of Theodoritos from Ioannina, Kelliotis in the area of Lavra Pavlos and others.

Neophytos Lavriotis, from Smyrna, went to Fanari, where he engaged in the fight against the attempt of the biblical societies to publish a translation of the Holy Bible in modern Greek, an idea which was then promoted by Hilarion Tornovou.

Evlogios Kourilas (1880–1961), from the outskirts of Koritsa, came at a young age to the Philotheou monastery and later studied in Athoniada, the Great School of his Genus and the Philosophical School of Athens. After staying for some time outside Mount Athos, he returned and settled in Lavra. He became headmaster and succeeded in the reconstitution of Athoniada. He was elected metropolitan of Kortsa, from where he left when the Italian troops entered Albania. Finally, he served as a professor of History at the University of Athens.

Another scholar is Alexandros (Lazaridis) Lavriotis. He never left Athos and studied only in Athonias. He was particularly methodical in his studies, as certainly as his knowledge permitted. He used archival material and compiled (in 1963) a treatise on Mount Athos after the Ottoman conquest, but he also published canonical documents referring to the revolution of 1821 and the Macedonian revolution of 1854. From 1936 to 1961, together with Sotirios Schoinas in Volos, he published the Holy Library.

In 1759, the printing workshop was founded in the monastery by the previous archimandrite Cosmas of Epidaurus and Sotirios Doukas and was housed in the tower of the wall, which was called Cosmas and is no longer preserved, as it collapsed in the earthquake of 1905. The first (and only) work which he published was the Election of the Psalter of Neophytos Kaufsokalyvitis. The existence of a printing press became known to the Turks, who immediately destroyed it.

Library

The Library of the Great Lavra is the first to be created on Mount Oros, as it was established almost with the foundation of the monastery. The founder, Saint Athanasios the Athonite, had his own library, which formed the first nucleus. According to Makarios Trigonis, custodian of the monastery (1772), the library, which was located in the area of ​​the catechumens, above the narthex of the catholicon, belonged to Athanasios himself and was located in front of his cell: "Similarly, his cell is there it is, and his library is full of various handwritten books". Also, the interest in the books of Athanasios, who was an excellent calligrapher, prompted him to create a code copying workshop already in the early years. The collection was subsequently enriched by manuscripts that were either copied in the laboratory or arrived through donations, exchanges and purchases.

From the 10th century onwards, the collection was kept in various places: inside the catholicon, the old abbot's house and the tower of Tsimiskis, in a cell to the left of the chapel of the First Martyr Agios Stefanos which is located at the top of it - information however indisputable.

During the 13th century, the Lavra library numbered around 1,000 manuscripts. During this period, it also inherited the collection of Latin manuscripts belonging to the Amalfitans, after the destruction of their monastery.

As early as the 13th century the manuscripts were placed in at least sixteen special places in the library space, as shown by the classification numbers of the surviving manuscripts. In 1701, Ioannis Komnenos notes in his Proskynitarion: "above the narthex there is an admirable library, in which there are various old hand-written books, of great value worthy of men of wisdom and philology". The books must have remained in this position until 1814, when the chancel and narthex of the catholicon were demolished and rebuilt in their present form.

It is not known where the books of the narthex were taken. However, the bulk of the Lavra's books were kept in two rooms, which were located to the left of the courtyard, as seen from the entrance gate. About this library there is the information of the traveler Carlyle in 1801. Also, Robert Curzon, who visited the monastery of Lavra in 1837 and stayed there for three days, tells us that the library of the monastery was contained in two small rooms, facing a narrow courtyard, to the left of the large courtyard, and that these rooms communicated with each other. Regarding the books, he mentions that they were almost sorted, on shelves, but abandoned, with the long-term dust covering them, and that very few volumes had the title written on their spines. He characterizes the collection as very large, about 5,000 volumes, of which about 4,000 were printed books—among them several fine classics and editiones principes. The 900 manuscripts consisted of 600 papyrus and 300 parchment codices. Curzon entered the library several times and looked very carefully at all the manuscripts. He believes that he missed nothing particularly interesting about classical antiquity or the Enlightenment. However, none of the Gospels, which were decorated with arabesques, seemed to him particularly valuable.

The next testimony is from 1869 by Ioannis M. Raptarchis: "The library of the monastery, located to the left of the entrance to the large courtyard, consists of two adjacent rooms, where the books are kept neatly in wooden cases".

From 1876, according to Gerasimos Smyrnakis, or in 1870, according to Nikodimos Lavriotis, the Library together with the Archive and the Vault were housed in a separate building east of the catholicon. This building is divided into three rooms.

Regarding the enrichment of the Library of the monastery of Lavra, we highlight the case of Manuel Moschiotis. We read in a document of the Great Lavra: "The Frankish books, where they are in the Library, have written on the inside the name of the person who brought them, it was Manuel Moschiotou; and it seems that someone was pre-eminent and he had the books, and he was brought in according to the year". These books, as we learn from Evlogios Kourilas, even in 1935, "in Latin and Italian, mostly theological and historical, are unfortunately lying without any order or inscription in the so-called museum of the monastery, now they have become a barn from the parish to the monks of indifference about foreign language books". It seems, however, that Moschiotis did not only take with him to the Lavra the "Frankish" books, but also other rare publications of Greek interest. For example, in the library of the monastery there are books with the note "by Manuel Moschiot", such as Claudius Ptolemaios, Great Synagogue Books XIII; Theon Alexandreos, Eis tử ἀἰἰἰ ἐπομονίματα Books 1Α΄ (Basel 1538); Strabo, On Geography books XIII (Basel 1549); Stephen of Byzantium, About Cities (Aldos Manutios, Venice 1402).

Sources of wealth of the Library can also be considered the personal libraries of the "ὑπεροριος", i.e. displaced hierarchs who ended up in the monastery following a decision of the ecclesiastical or secular authorities. Of the 23 patriarchs and 137 metropolitans or bishops who came and died in the Lavra, we note a few names: the patriarchs Anthimos II of Adrianoupolis († 1628), Dionysios III Vardalis († 1704), Jeremias III († 1735 ), Cyril V († 1778), the metropolitan of Artis and Nafpaktos Neophytos Mavrommatis († 1746) and the metropolitan of Tornovou Iosif († 1755). In fact, the Library preserves books of these, but also of many other high priests.

The best testimony about the library of the monastery in the second half of the 18th century are the notes of the predecessor Kyrillos Lavriotis of Peloponnese. Kyrillos, who lived in the monastery intermittently from 1759 to about 1810, read hundreds of printed books and manuscripts, and his notes can be found either in the pages or in the margins of the pages. From these notes we are informed, among other things, about book purchases by him. Kyrillos bought many books wherever he was—in Iasi where he was a teacher (1768), in Venice (1779), in Gallipoli, in Karyes—even taking care of their binding.

Ianos Laskaris, commissioned by Lavrentiou Medici, chose (1491–1492) with great care, from the most important monasteries of Athos, a large number of valuable codices with works of classical authors and great Fathers to enrich the Florentine library. He removed 50 codes from the Great Lavra alone.

By order of Tsar Alexios and Patriarch Nikon, Arsenios Sukhanov was sent to Mount Athos in order to receive from there liturgical codes in view of the revision of the old translations. Exceeding the order, or following another secret order, Sukhanov collected a number of great codices between the years 1653 and 1655. He eventually brought 498 codices to Moscow, which were deposited in the then patriarchal library. Of these, 53 were from the Lavra Library.

Again in the middle of the 17th century, the Unite Cypriot scholar Athanasios Rhetor, by order of the Chancellor of France P. Séquier and Cardinal Mazarin, obtained from Mount Athos 109 manuscripts, most of them from the Great Lavra, which today belong to the National Library of France labeled Coislinus.

At the time of Vasily Barsky's second visit to Mt. (1744) over 500 parchment books and other papers were kept in the Lavra Library. The monks told him that there had formerly been many more parchments, which had been sold "by the lot, like wood, for a small price to the Latins," and some of them were in the library of St. Mark in Venice and in other cities of Europe.

Until today, the Library of the Holy Monastery of Megistis Lavra is housed in the independent building of 1870 that was expanded by two antennas in 1958. From 1983 to 2018, the Center for the Preservation of Holy Heritage carried out a series of renovations and interventions to remodel and improve the functionality of the premises where the Vault and the Library of manuscripts, but also of printed editions, ancient and newer, are housed. In the eastern part of the northern wing, the library of modern publications was installed in 1984 on the first floor.

Archive

The Archive of the Great Lavra contains 200 imperial chrysovulas, approximately 20,000 Greek, Byzantine and post-Byzantine documents as well as 10,000 Turkish, Romanian, Slavic, Latin and Arabic.

Alexandros Eumorfopoulos Lavriotis († 1905), who dedicated his life to historical research on Mount Oros, classified and placed the monastery's documents in its new archive, with the cooperation of the schoolmaster of Athoniada Chrysostomou, published some documents, described manuscripts and he compiled many historical studies. Evlogios Kourilas requested in 1931 to be assigned the arrangement of the archive, but he faced various difficulties since the monastery's assembly and his plan was wrecked.

The Byzantine-era documents were published by P. Lemerle, A. Guillou, N. Svoronos and D. Papachrysanthou in four volumes in the Archives de l’Athos series, replacing earlier editions.

In the first volume there are 69 documents and another 6 in the appendix, which date from 14 March 897 to October 1196.

In the second volume there are 48 documents and another 4 in the appendix, which date from July 1240 to November 1326.

In the third volume there are 57 documents and another 10 in the appendix, which date from January 1329 to November 1496.

In the fourth volume there are 12 documents in Slavic, which date from April 15, 1357 to February 16, 1452.

Manuscripts

. The collection of manuscripts of the Holy Monastery of Megistis Lavra currently consists of approximately 2,800 codices, of which 500 are parchments and the rest are paperbacks. Of the parchments, twelve are in capital letters. Many carry miniatures of wonderful art. The 51 liturgical scrolls (10th–15th centuries) are also of great value.

Spyridon Lambros, despite his original idea, was unable to compile a catalog of the codices of the Great Lavra, as he was not allowed to work in the library, because the monks wanted to move under their own power. Thus, in 1925, the doctor Spyridon Kampanaos (= monk Athanasios Lavriotis) printed, under the supervision of Sofronios Efstratiadis, a catalog in Paris, where 2,046 manuscripts of the monastery are described. (Kampanaos also published the magazine Athos from 1919 to 1931.) According to this catalog the monastery possesses a total of 2,046 manuscripts, dating from 970 to 1911, of which 1,967 are in the Library, in the building east of universal. and 79 in the ledger. The dated codices amount to 490, while the dated manuscripts total 67.

In 1935, Evlogios Kourilas criticized the previous catalog, as he found "a sketchy transcription of the codices, a bad jumble, ... unknown elements of Palaeography", while he also described three new codices that had not been included there. Later, in 1957, Chrysostomos Lavriotis proceeded to compile a catalog of the scrolls of the monastery, where he described 50 scrolls dating from the 10th to the 15th century, which include mostly liturgical texts.

In 1958 Panteleimon Lavriotis compiled a supplementary list, reaching the number 2,172. It also includes ledger codes. A total of 165 codes are described in this supplementary list, of which 128 are from the Library and 37 from the Catholic. In addition, numbers 26–82 summarize the Slavonic codices. All codices date from 1392 to 1956.

In addition to the above catalogs, Vladimir Benesevic in 1904 published in Appendix 2 of the journal Vizantijskij Vremennik an article about the Greek canonical manuscripts of Lavra and Vatopedi, and in 1930 Sophronios Efstratiadis published a catalog of the hagiological manuscripts of the monasteries of Vatopedi and Lavra, which were not in their original catalog (of 1925).

From the manuscripts of the Megisti Lavra monastery, we highlight the following:

The eight leaves with parts of two Epistles of the Apostle Paul (2nd to the Corinthians, To the Galatians) in capital letters, dating back to the 6th century. These leaves belonged to the parchment codex called Euthalianos and known by the international name H3 and HPaul. Only 41 leaves of this codex survive worldwide, scattered in libraries.

Also noteworthy are the 8th-century headless and stumpy Codex 88, which contains the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, and the 9th-century 172, which contains the Gospels of Mark, Luke and John, the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles.

Among the earliest codices, dating from the 10th century, is a parchment Tetraevangelo (992) in microscript, adorned with eleven arched jewels and containing the rules of correspondence of the Evangelists.

Also a parchment Evangelistarium (c. 950), which features a full-page representation of Christ, with busts of the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist and the four Evangelists on either side. The codex stands out among the early Mount Athos evangelicals because of its illustration, which also indicates how the Divine Liturgy influences the narrative of the Gospels.

Another Evangelist, of special artistic interest, the so-called "emperor Phokas", dates to the decade 1120–1130. This is a highly luxurious codex with heavy pitting and silver-gilt plating, decorated with precious stones, pearls and enamels. It is decorated with three full-page miniatures (Resurrection, Birth, Dormition), with elaborate titles and calligraphic initials. Tradition has wrongly associated this manuscript with the emperor Nikephoros Phokas, but undoubtedly it is a code that came from the imperial workshop of Constantinople by order of the monks of the Great Lavra.

One of the most remarkable codices of all the sacred libraries is also Ω75, which contains the Περὶ Ιλις ἰατρικίνης of Dioscorides, from the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century and is an important scientific and pictorial document.

Also, Codex 146, containing the New Testament written on parchment, of the 13th century, with eight mosaic jewels, and in addition the evangelists, apostles, prophets, episodes from the Old Testament, and also titles and protograms. From the same period is also Code 220, which contains interpretations of Job and is adorned with 40 related images.

From the 14th century we have Codex 76, a parchment Tetraevangelium, adorned with an image of Matthew and three other representations, of the wedding at Cana, of John the Baptist and the double calling of Philip and the conversation with Nicodemus.

Finally, a 15th century codex with the life and testament of Athanasios the Athonite is also of interest, containing a full-page image of the founder of the Lavra and three decorative titles. In contrast to the earliest portrait of the saint, preserved in an 11th century Lavra manuscript, the founder of the Monastery holds a cross in front of his chest and an open scroll.

Remarkable images with episodes from the lives of Christ and Saints are contained in Codex 1655, which is a stichary of the 17th century.

Special mention should be made of the ancient authors preserved in the manuscripts of the library such as the Parallel Lives of Plutarch (parchment, 12th century), Thucydides (paper), Pindar (paper), Aeschines (paper), etc. a. Scroll 48, which is Slavonic and contains Easter paintings, also deserves special mention.

Printed Books

The Library of the Megisti Lavra monastery is primarily housed in an independent building that was built, as noted, in 1870 and originally consisted of three contiguous rooms. The two aisles were extended to the east in 1958 and the building took the shape of an inverted P. The forms are kept in the left-hand room A of 1870 and in the adjoining room B, where until 1983 were the acquisitions after 1958. These newer acquisitions include the library of Evlogios Kourilas (1961), the forms and manuscripts from the monastery's parts and the newer forms from purchases and donations. In 1984 the library of modern publications was installed in the eastern part of the north wing.

Ioannis Komnenos in the first publication Proskynitarion (1701) does not give us information about the library where the bulk of the books of the Great Lavra were kept. But such a library existed in the monastery in his time, and indeed it must have maintained the old classification system, when printed books were placed next to manuscripts. The traveler Carlyle informs us of it in 1801: “Having breakfasted, we went out, saw the church, etc., as usual, and then proceeded to the library. The library consists of two rooms, one outside and one inside, and the books are kept in a tolerable order, but as in all other libraries (with the exception of the attempt at Koutloumousiou monastery) there is no catalogue. In the inner room we met a venerable figure, whom they called the teacher, who was busy studying a large book which was placed before him.'

We have a record of the forms for the first time in 1931–1932 by the librarian of the monastery Panteleimonas Lavriotis, who describes an earlier classification of the late 19th or early 20th century, perhaps by Chrysostomos Lavriotis of Madytinos († 1908). In the two-volume manuscript catalog of Panteleimon, the books are listed alphabetically in 28 specific sections, with references to the position of the books that were arranged in 24 columns of shelves (A–Z), but classified only by size.

The printed library of the Great Lavra at the end of the 18th century must have contained most of the surviving books that had been published up to that time. Today the collection includes about 140,000 volumes. Of these, 22 are pre-1500 editions, over 20,000 are printed before 1800, 18,000 are from the 19th century, and over 100,000 are from the 20th century. Among the printed matter are the first edition of Homer's Replies, printed in two volumes in Florence by Dimitrios Damilas in 1488/1489, the Anthology of Epigrams by Maximos Planoudis, printed under the editorship of Yanos Laskaris in Florence in 1494 and the Comedies of Aristophanes, published by Marcos Mousouros at the printing house of Aldos Manutios in Venice in 1498. Finally, in the Lavra is also treasured one of the earliest liturgical forms of the publishing Greek production of Venice, the Parakletikia, published by Andreas Kounadis in 1522.

Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_92

Manuscripts in the Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/collections/manuscripts-from-the-monasteries-of-moun...

Notable monks

Athanasius the Athonite
Gregory Palamas
Theophanes the Cretam (painter)
Ioannis Koukouzelis
Theophanes the Cretan (Θεοφάνης ὁ Κρής)

New book

Recently published. A touching story of a monk who joined the monastery in the eighties and his friendship with the abbot (ηγούμενο) Father Prodromos, who was a young monk at the time. A deeply spiritual story.
"The caique from Lavra"
by Michael M Nikoletseas

This book has been censored in Lavra monastery. Even Abbot Prodromos, a key character in the story, has not been allowed to read the book.

New book now at the Library of Harvard University, Library of Cambridge University.
Requiem to Athonite Monasticism. Athos has now turned commercial!

Videos on Megisti Lavra

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Megisti Lavra contact information

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