Xenophontos Monastery
Xenophontos monastery votes in favor of police violence against Athonite Orthodox monks
The monasteries of Xenophontos, Megisti Lavra, Iveron, and the Katsoulierides did not support the resolution of the Holy Community of Mount Athos that said NO to the repression forces of the Mitsotakis government.
While the rest of the Monasteries of Mount Athos brazenly stated that they refused the request of EL.AS for the presence of strong police forces in order to evict the monks of the Monastery of Esfigmenou, the specific monasteries betrayed the Monastery of Esfigmenou. (24 July 2024)
Xenophontos monastery (Greek: Μονή Ξενοφώντος)
The Holy Monastery of Xenophontos is located on the coastal part of the south-western side of Athos, in close proximity to the monastery of Dochiariou, and is the second monastery that one comes across when sailing towards the south of the Athonian peninsula. The expansion of the monastery to the north that took place at the beginning of the 19th century, when its area almost tripled, is clearly visible.
It occupies the sixteenth place in the hierarchy of the twenty monasteries of Mount Athos.
History
Xenophontos Monastery was founded shortly before 998 and is dedicated to the Saint Megalomartyr George the Trophy Bearer. In 998 its founder and first abbot Xenophon signs a Vatopedian document as "Xenophon monk and Abbot of the monastery of Agios Georgios". Its foundation must not have taken place long before this year, since in the Standard of John Tsimiskis, in 973, no representative of the monastery signs. The name "Xenophon" first appears at the beginning of the 11th century, while it is also mentioned in the Life of Saint Athanasios the Athonite, with whom the founder Xenophon seems to have maintained ties. For the last time Xenophon is mentioned in a document of 1018, without the status of abbot. Theodores, probably the brother of the builder, to whom the elderly Xenophon handed over the abbotship, signs the same document as abbot. Theodore is witnessed as an abbot until 1035.
In the present site of the monastery, there used to be the monastery of Agios Dimitrios, whose temple is preserved.
During the reign of Emperor Nikiforos Botaneiatis (1078–1081), Stefanos, who came from an Athenian aristocratic family and was a "great drungarian of Vigli", i.e. an admiral, first became a monk, and a little later an abbot, having taken the name Simeon. He brought his three minor relatives with him to the monastery. Following the invitation of Alexios Komnenos, who was then the general of Nikephoros Botaneiatis, for Simeon to mediate in the case of the usurper of the throne Vasilakis, who had taken refuge in Thessaloniki, and the successful outcome of his intervention, a close bond was created between the two men, who proved beneficial to the monastery and to him personally. The new builder took over the monastery in a semi-ruined state. At his own expense but also with the favor of the emperor, the monastery, which was "always neglected and in need of much help", was reconstructed. Simeon built the walls and defensive tower, beautified the catholicon, erected various other buildings, and endowed the monastery with heirlooms, estates, and shares, bringing also many images and books, his own property, as well as that of the emperor. Simeon's renovation work was temporarily interrupted, when the enmity of the First and the Synax manifested itself due to the stay in the monastery of his impolite relatives (after all, Simeon himself was a eunuch, therefore beardless) and due to the breeding of animals, for which there was an express ban. He therefore left Athos, before 1081, but returned together with his three minor relatives, provided with an imperial decree from his old acquaintance Alexios I Komnenos and was restored to the abbotship. Simeon left to his successors a prosperous monastery, with 55 monks in 1089 and a large property.
After Simeon and until the beginning of the 14th century, the history of the monastery remains obscure, however, it suffered great damage in the 13th century from raids by Latin pirates and at the beginning of the 14th from the Catalans.
In the 14th century the favor of the Byzantine emperors competed with the support of the other orthodox rulers, and the Xenophon monastery managed to regroup. As early as 1300 it was called a basilica, while at the end of the same century (1394) it held the eighth position in the hierarchy of the then 25 monasteries of Mount Oros.
In 1424 Mount Athos passed into Ottoman territory, which resulted in the imposition of unaffordable taxation, the loss of real estate and the arbitrariness of government officials. During this period, Xenophontos moves between desolation and prosperity, while until the 1480s there is almost no information about the monastery and its monks. From the last decades of the 15th century, it seems that Slavic-speaking monks lived there. A relative recovery is observed in the last years of the 15th century, due to the help of rulers and officials of Wallachia.
The recovery was temporary, since in 1569 Sultan Selim II confiscated the real estate of all the monasteries in his territory, forcing the monks to buy it back. The consequences of the confiscation apparently also affect the monastery of Xenophontos, which in 1581 fell into heavy debt. Then its governance was taken over by the monastery of Simonopetra, which shouldered the debt of 200,000 aspra, for which the Xenofontes were paying unaffordable interest. In May of the same year, Patriarch Jeremiah II ratified the guardianship. The abbot of Simonopetra, Eugene, and at least twenty monks settled in Xenophontos. But already in 1586 the Simonopetrites had returned to their monastery.
In 1607, the ruler Radu Šerban established an annual subscription of 9,000 asp and an additional amount of 700 asp for the monk who would move to Wallachia in order to collect them. For his contribution this monastery had to call him a new builder and commemorate him together with his family in perpetuity. In 1624, the monastery of Agios Dimitrios in Oltenia (region of today's Romania, in western Wallachia), known as the "hermitage of Roaba", was donated to her by the monk Pachomios. In 1636, the ruler Mattheos Vassaravas set an annual grant of 10,000 piastres and 1,000 more for the recipient monk. He himself validated the monastery's possessions and financed the reconstruction of the Catholicon prenarthex. In 1663, Archimandrite Theofanis mentions 50 monks inside the monastery and 60 anachorites in the cells.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the monastery once again fell into trouble. John Komnenos in the Proskynitarion, which he compiled in 1698, mentions that there were Serbian and Bulgarian monks there. The Jesuit Francis Braconnier (François Braconnier), who visited the monastery in 1706, met Bulgarian monks. Vasily Barski, during his first visit (1726), found the monastery in debt, mainly to the Jews of Thessaloniki, with 15,000 leva and with only 3 or 4 Slavic-speaking monks - many church utensils had even been given as a pledge to the lenders. On his second trip, in 1744, it seems that there was a change, since now the monastery is in the hands of the Greeks. Despite the change, the monastery did not recover substantially, since in 1762 there was an administrative vacuum, which was filled by community commissioners. In 1776, Xenophontos was forcibly stripped of many valuable items and, by order of Hasan Kalpourtzis oglu, of 5,775 grosci, on the grounds of an unpaid loan. In 1787, the ruler Alexandros Ypsilantis, to help her, grants her the income from the saltwoks, which amounted to 300 grossia.
When in 1784, with the seal of the Patriarch of Constantinople Gabriel IV, Xenophontos returned, the first of the monasteries of Mount Oros, from the idiorhythmic regime to the communal order, with the hieromonk Paisios Kausokalyvitis from Mytilene as the first abbot, the debt to secular lenders rose in 25,000 gros. In the same year, however, a period of recovery and prosperity begins. Paisios was an extremely active monk, known not only on Mount Athos. Kaisarios Dapontes even includes him in the Historical List, describing his activities. Paisius' first concern was dealing with his debt and interest. The intervention of the wealthy merchant Dimitrios Scanavis from Chios was decisive. He was an old acquaintance of Paisius and settled the debt of the monastery with a settlement, which was ratified by a patriarchal letter of Gabriel IV. Paisios died in 1801 and was succeeded by Ignatius, also from Mytilene. Planning for the expansion of the monastery began during the abbotship of Paisios, but continued under his successor. In the census of 1808 its monks were 80, of which 53 lived within the walls.
In 1817, a great fire caused damage to the newly built wing opposite the catholicon, which was rebuilt by the former bishop of Samakou (Thrakis) Filotheos, who had retired to become a monk in Xenophontos. During this period, Xenophon had shares in Kalamaria, Kassandra, Loggos, Skopelos and Roamba hegemonies.
The building program stopped abruptly with the Revolution of 1821. The monk Gideon Xenofontinos was one of the direct collaborators of Emmanuel Papas. He was fortified in the monastery, but the revolution ended ingloriously. Bishop Philotheos together with other monks fled to Skopelos, where he died. In 1822, a Turkish garrison was installed in the monastery and a financial burden of 60,000 grosii was imposed on it. Also, from this time, several names of Xenofontein neomartyrs appear. From 1821 to 1830 the number of monks in the monastery decreased dramatically.
With the withdrawal of the Turkish troops from Mount Athos, in 1830, the period of hardship ended. The number of monks began to gradually increase again. In 1834, 53 monks left the monastery, in 1842 60, in 1846 67 and in 1884 134. Initially, the central issue was the construction of the new catholicon. Its completion was carried out gradually with money from the issue to be completed after 1837.
The monastery does not seem to have recovered spectacularly even after the liberation of Mount Athos and its incorporation into the Greek state. The financial problems of the monastery worsened after 1922, with the expropriation of the estates in favor of the refugees. The Second World War followed and a dramatic economic contraction, which was stopped with the installation of a new brotherhood in 1976 and led by the elder Alexios.
In the 19th century, the monastery highlighted learned monks, such as Leontios Caesareas, Nikiforos Kolintzis and Nikiforos Kalogeras, as well as the neomartyr Chrysanthos, who was martyred on the same day as Patriarch Gregory V.
In addition to the large new catholicon, the oldest one is also preserved, whose original form dates back to the first period of operation of the monastery (end of the 10th century). It was dedicated to Saint George. Ornate marble inlays are preserved on the floor and behind the remarkable wood-carved iconostasis (17th century) the earlier, archaic marble one with two relief chests from the 11th century is also preserved. The capitals are early Byzantine, taken from an older temple, and date from the time of Justinian. The Cretan-style frescoes date back to 1544 and are the work of Antonios of Crete (painted in 1902), while those of the austere style were painted in 1563–1564, "by the hand of Theophanous the monk".
The new catholicon began to be erected in 1817 (or 1819) and was completed with considerable delay (1837). It is the largest in size of the Athonian Catholicons. The iconostasis of the new catholicon is made of marble (1873), the work of Antonio Lytras from Tinos, while its walls were later painted by Xenophon monks according to Paleologian standards. It is also dedicated to Saint George.
Museum-Sacristy
The Vault of the Xenophon Monastery was incinerated in a fire in 1817. In 1998, its exhibition spaces were created in the part of the southwest wing where it is housed until today. It contains many valuable relics, including crosses, gold-embroidered vestments, liturgical vessels and objects.
Icons
Its chapels, as well as the area of its Custodian in the south-west wing, specially designed for this purpose, function as the Iconopost of the Xenophon monastery. Another independent space has also been created on the first floor of the belfry tower. The monastery has several Byzantine icons, including the Transfiguration of Christ (end of the 12th century), as well as the Ephesian icon of Panagia Odegetria, with painting layers, which tradition says came in the year 1730 from the monastery of Vatopedi. Also noteworthy are the two large mosaic icons of Saints George and Saint Demetrius, dated to the second half of the 12th century, as well as a relief icon in steatite stone depicting the Transfiguration, also from the 12th century. There are also many notable post-Byzantine and newer icons, such as the Holy Forerunner (17th century). Finally, the door of the Annunciation of the Virgin (16th century) should be mentioned.
Library
The Library of the Xenophon monastery is housed in specially designed spaces of modern specifications in the south-west wing, adjacent to the sacristy, and occupies two floors. During the modern era, in 1986, the first architectural intervention took place with various minor repairs. On the upper floor the manuscripts and old prints are kept, while on the lower floor the newer forms are kept. It contains about 15,000 printed books, ancient documents, as well as more than 700 manuscript codices.
The first mention of the library dates back to 1089, when Simeon enriched the monastery with 136 manuscripts, among which the brilliant parchment gospel, a gift from Alexios I Komnenos.
In 1554, the ruler of Moldavia, Alexander Lapousneanu, donated the Slavonian parchment Tetraevangelo, specially crafted for the monastery, with a precious inlay, which has representations of the Resurrection on the front and Saint George on the back.
In 1596, the monastery was forced to sell an unknown number of manuscripts to the Xiropotamou monastery.
In 1744, Vasily Barski, who visited the library, says that it has many manuscripts, most of them Serbian and Bulgarian, while the Greek ones are few and only liturgical books.
When in 1784 Paisios Kausokalyvitis took over the leadership of Xenophontos monastery, he also moved his library from Kausokalyvia. Among the manuscripts that belong to the monastery and have been described, 16, with theological, liturgical and also philosophical content, belonged to him. The same applies to a large, but as yet unspecified, number of books.
The Library was destroyed in the fire of 1817, as is presumed from the strong marks of the fire on manuscripts proven to have belonged to the monastery before the event.
In 1820, Meletios, the metropolitan of Heraklion, in addition to the priestly uniform he dedicated to the monastery, also enriched the library with many books.
In 1837, Robert Curzon, after much deliberation, bought for £22 a Gospel of 1083, the gift of the Emperor Alexios I Comnenus, while the most valuable, an annotated Tetraevangel of the 9th or 12th century, was given to him as a gift. According to Curzon, Xenophon's library housed 1,500 printed books, 19 manuscript codices on paper, 11 on parchment, and 3 scrolls on parchment. Of the parchment codices, three stand out: one with part of the works of John Chrysostom, an annotated Tetraevangelium, 11th or 12th century, a royal gift, which was covered in faded red velvet and had silver clasps, and the Evangelistarium of Alexios I Comnenus, a huge 16-inch square, as Curzon says, bound in green or blue velvet, and with the text on each page written in the shape of a cross.
Gerasimos Smyrnakis reports that in his time (1903) the library had 163 manuscripts, including parchment codices and scrolls from the 12th–14th centuries.
The fire of 1817 also caused destruction to the Archives of the monastery, incinerating most of the Greek documents, as well as the Ottoman archive, which covered the period up to the 18th century. The Romanian archive of the monastery includes 98 documents, some of which are in Slavic and the rest in Romanian. It starts from 1614 and reaches until 1862. Travelers of the 18th and 19th centuries had little interest in the Xenophon Monastery and even less in its archive. The first of them, the Russian Vasily Barsky, gives minimal and brief information from his visit to the monastery, without referring to any of its archival documents at all. A century later, Porphyry Uspensky worked in the archives and libraries of the Athonian monasteries in the years 1845 and 1846. The fruit of this work was the compilation of a catalog containing more than 500 Byzantine and post-Byzantine documents. From the archive of the Xenophon monastery there are only six documents from the Byzantine period. After Ouspensky's catalog, Josef Müller published in 1851 in chronological order about twenty Slavic documents. Louis Petit, in 1901, transcribed 15 documents of the archive, 11 of which are from the Byzantine period. With their publication in 1903, he started the "Actes de l'Athos" series, which was the first appendix to the 10th volume of the Russian journal Бизантийский Временник (Byzantine Chronicles). In the 1940s, Vitalien Laurent, preparing an edition of the Xenofontein documents based on photographs taken by Gabriel Millet in 1918, transcribed, arranged and numbered them in chronological order. Finally, in 1986, in the "Archives de l'Athos" series, the 33 Byzantine documents (1089–1452) of the monastery archive, published by Dionysia Papachrysanthou, occupied its 15th volume. A total of 163 codices have been recorded by Spyridon Lambros. Today, the monastery's collection consists of 700 manuscripts, of which the 11 parchments (seven codices, three scrolls and one scrap), all in Greek, date from the 12th to the beginning of the 20th century. Several of the newer ones have yet to be cataloged. The number of musical manuscripts is significant. An unknown parchment Slavonic Tetraevangel of the early 13th or early 14th century has recently been located. It is a gift from the ruler of Moldavia, Alexandros Lapousneanos (1554), specially crafted for the monastery with miniatures and precious stonework. Of the Library's codices, nine contain works of classical literature, most of which are accompanied by interspersed explanations. These codes date back to the 18th and 19th centuries. In Codex 74 there is a Mathematarium with works by Demosthenes, Libanius and Isocrates and their translations into modern Greek. Also, in six codices there are texts in the form of commentaries and explanations on works such as Euripides' tragedies, Isocrates' Panegyricus, Demosthenes' Olynthiacus I, Lucian's Dialogues, etc. Finally, the collection of the monastery includes a work with the theorems of Archimedes, unique in the whole of Mount Athos. The Xenophon monastery library has a collection of publications from the period 1535–1799 amounting to approximately 1,000 titles. Also, the collection of forms includes about 15,000 newer editions. Thomas Papadopoulos in the Libraries of Mount Athos (p. 10) mentions that the first Greek edition he has found in Xenophontos Monastery dates back to 1535. It is the writings of the Archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia, Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Βασιλείου τοῦ τῆς καισαρείας τῆς καππαδοκίας ἀρχιεπισκόπου συγγράμματά τινα, , which was printed in Venice per Stephanum de Sabio. Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_115 ---------------------------------------------------- The Monastery of Xenophontos has drifted into heresy and is no longer an Orthodox monastery. Along with Koutloumousiou, and Pantokratoros monasteries it has been actively working in enforcing ecumenism on the Holy Mountain. Against the position held by the monasteries of Athos, it has recognized the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). Website: imxenophontos.euManuscripts
Printed Books
Notable monks
Heresy
Criticism: A professionally staged visual show and shop that lacks spirituality. No mention of literary pursuits.
Decent site promoting their online shop. Considering that this is the American monastery, the English prose is atrocious.Videos on Xenophontos monastey
A film on Xenophontos monastery in English. The chanting is simply attrocious.

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kevnj
the American monastery on Athos.
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