Xeropotamou Monastery

Xeropotamou Monastery.

The Monastery of Xeropotamou (Xiropotamou, Μονή Ξηροποτάμου) is located almost in the middle of the western side of the Athonian peninsula, between the Simonos Petras and Panteleimonos monasteries. It is built on a plateau with a prominent position overlooking the Sigitiko gulf, 200 m above the sea, among olive trees and vineyards, near the road from the port of Dafni to Karyes. According to the geographer Skylakas, around 509 BC. Charadria was located on the site, while it is assumed that the ancient Kleones was located on the site.

It is dedicated to the holy Forty Martyrs and is celebrated on March 9. It occupies the eighth place in the hierarchy of the twenty monasteries of Mount Athos.

History

According to tradition, its foundation goes back to the 5th century and it is said to have been built by Pulcheria, the daughter of the Emperor Arcadius and wife of Markianus. Others place its foundation at the end of the 10th century either by Romanos I Lekapinos or by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. The most likely founder seems to be the monk Pavlos Xiropotaminos who was a monk in the area during the time of Athanasios the Athonite. The name of Paul, who was the first abbot of the monastery, was mentioned in the First Standard of Mount Athos. Paul cannot be related to the supposed son of the emperor Michael Ragave (811–813), namesake of the founder, who lived a century and a half earlier. However, before 956 there was a foundation there in the name of Saint Nikiforos, with the nickname Xiropotamos, and this name is attested for the last time in a document of 1200.

In the catholicon, on the lintel of the narthex, there is an inscription from 1763, in a fifteen-syllable verse, where Sultan Selim I (16th century) is added to the founders, who favored it with the publication of the famous (but fake) Hatti-Serif ( Sacred Designation) and the granting of facilities and privileges, and Caesarios Dapontes (the important scholar with the adventurous life, which he himself described in the work Κήπος Χαρίτων (Garden of Graces), and apparently the author of the inscription), who took the lead in raising money for the rebuilding the monastery (after an eight-year tour to find resources he returned with 50,000 grosci) and especially for the rebuilding of the catholicon in place of the older one.

In the Archives of the monastery there are official documents, chrysovula (e.g. chrysobulus of Theodosius II, 427, Romanou Lekapinou, 924, etc.) that confirm the claims of the founding history of the monastery as reflected in this inscription. But the authenticity of all these documents was questioned as early as the 16th century. In 1611, almost all of these documents are mentioned in the bronze seal of the patriarch Timotheus II. Their forgery was proven by systematic research by Stéphane Binon in 1942.

The circumstances of the founding of the monastery have not yet been fully clarified. The confusion is mainly caused by the presence in the 10th century of two monasteries bearing the name Xiropotamos, but the first of Agios Nikiforos and the second of Agios Pavlos. Confusion is also caused by the presence of at least two Pauls who are said to be founders of monasteries, as well as the names of persons associated with these monasteries in their first steps. A definitive distinction is made in a deed of the Lavra of the year 1108, where, among others, two abbots sign with the titles of the monasteries, which have prevailed since then: Pavlos abbot of the "Kyros Paulus" monastery and Kallinikos abbot "of Xiropotamos".

During the 11th century, the monastery was one of the richest of its time, with its boundaries extending as far as the Skete of Agia Anna. A prominent figure of the period is the abbot Theodoritos. We do not know the emperors who benefited the monastery before 1200, the year when donations to the monastery of "Agios Nikiforos" are confirmed by the highest civil servant Nikiforos Petraleifas, who also exempts the monastery from the annual tax of five superpyros. Its prosperity continued until the 13th century. In 1270 the monk Theodoulos (Theodosios Skaranos) bequeathed his property to the monastery. New ratifications of possessions were carried out by Michael VIII Palaiologos (1275), Andronikos II Palaiologos, despot Dimitrios I Palaiologos (1324) and Stefanos Dusan (1346). Nevertheless, throughout this period the monastery faced various financial difficulties due to the fire of 1280, but also from frequent pirate raids.

In its long history, the monastery was deserted three times: in the 14th, 16th and 18th centuries, and was rebuilt as many times.

During the 14th century Xiropotamou declined, either from an invasion by the Catalans or from another cause, and lost ownership of its area to Agia Anna.

During the years of the Turkish rule, it also went through great trials and was ruined both by the raids of the Turks, but also by two big fires, at the beginning of the 16th and 17th centuries. Ioannis Komnenos in his Pilgrimage talks about "wonderful and praiseworthy buildings, all almost crumbling from time to time, and given to renovation by the hands of a generous donor, and of theophile opinion, so that this renown Monastery does not disappear". The reconstruction is attributed to Sultan Selim I (1512–1520), but mostly it was probably thanks to donations from the ruler of Wallachia Alexander Mirkeas (1568–1577), the ruler of Moldavia Jeremiah Monila (1596) and the wealthy Naxiot Miser Theophilos(1648).

During the 18th century the monastery had many debts, while at the same time a fire came to complete the destruction. For its reconstruction, the help from the hegemonies and from its various shares (Thassos, Skopelos, Gomati, etc.) was effective. We have a noteworthy donation in 1715 from the ruler of Wallachia, Nikolaos Mavrokordatos, who donated the Dagou monastery in Iasion. Two monks of the monastery undertook the work of reconstruction. It is about the pre-hegumen Christoforos and Kaisarios Daponte, brother of the monastery since 1757, who personally supervised and guided the work, having gathered the required resources after an eight-year tour. The original building of the catholicon dates back to the 10th century, it was rebuilt from foundations in the late 13th, mid-15th and mid-16th centuries. The present-day catholicon, which is commemorated in the name of the Forty Martyrs, was also built from the ground up in the years 1761–1763, while its frescoes date from 1783. The contribution to this reconstruction program by the ruler of Wallachia, Skarlatos Ghika, was large with 5,000 gross (1760). The fiale (Φιάλη) is made of red marble from Chios island brought by Kaisarios Dapontes. In fact, on a breastplate of her peristyle, it was transferred from a copper engraving to the marble representation of the monastery as it was in 1762, in which the old catholicon appears, as attested by Barski's scribble (1744).

In 1801, the English philologist Joseph Dacre Carlyle, who visited the monastery, reports that its strength then amounted to 70 monks.

During the period 1821–1830, the Xiropotamou monastery was occupied by Turkish soldiers to control the Sigitiko gulf. Several of her monks escaped, taking the relics with them. After the departure of the Turks they returned, but with one tenth of the relics. In 1835, an unsuccessful attempt was made to convert the monastery into a koinovio. Gradually new buildings were added. The newest entrance, built in 1852, is located in the same wing as the original one, but further north, with the pediment resting on two marble columns and with a measured inscription of the patron poet Ilias Tantalides. In 1863 the north side was completed and in 1888 the west side.

During the 19th century, a school was created by Archimandrite Dionysios († 1874), where its monks learned letters. A student of Dionysius was also Eugenios Dagou, who, coming from the Promyri of Pelion, was the abbot of the Dagou monastery in Romania, was a deep connoisseur of Byzantine music and was awarded by the Greek government the silver Cross of the Knights of Sotiros for his services of the country's education.

In the middle of the 20th century, the monastery of Xiropotamos had only 30 monks. On March 4, 1952, a fire broke out that burned about 150 cells on the northeast side, as well as two chapels with icons of the monastery. In the same year, the restoration was decided and entrusted to a two-member committee, consisting of the monks Eusebius and Dorotheos, while at the same time permission was granted by the Greek state for fundraising in Macedonia. In 1969, half of the southern wing, where part of the Library was housed, burned down. In February 1973 a fire destroyed the mansion and the entrance of Ilias Tantalidis along with the mural and the inscription.

In 1970 the Xiropotamou monastery had again only 30 monks. Accompanied by monks from the Filotheou monastery in 1980, it was manned and the following year (9.3.1981) with the seal of the Patriarch of Constantinople Dimitrios I, it was converted into a koinovia. Hieromonk Ephraim (1940–1984) was installed as abbot. Today, the monastery is managed by abbot Hieromonk Iosif.

Museum, Sacristy

The Vault of the Xiropotamos monastery was housed together with the Library above the narthex of the catholicon, "on the left side of the Catechisms". Today it is located in the southeast wing of the monastery. The relics it contains are registered in a separate code, on the basis of which they are delivered and received.

Among its relics is the world's largest piece of Sacred Wood. According to one tradition, it was a gift from Emperor Romanos I, while according to another, it was a tribute from Empress Pulcheria. The famous steatite stone disk, the so-called of Pulcheria (the disk is not older than the 14th century), which belongs to the category of Panagiaria, is also a valuable work of micro-technics. On its shallow circular bottom, on a surface with a diameter of 15 cm., it has engraved liturgical inscriptions and miniature figures in the representation of the Preparation of the Throne. Many gold-embroidered vestments, sacred vessels and other objects are also kept in the Vault.

Icons

The iconostasis of the Xiropotamos monastery is the catholicon itself and the chapels. In the Holy Altar, in the dances of the chanters and in other places, approximately two hundred portable icons are preserved, some particularly noteworthy, such as the icon of the Introduction of the Virgin, placed in the right shrine, from the 15th century, and the icon of the Virgin with the infant that is on the despotic throne. Also worthy of mention is a built-in marble slab from the 11th century, with the figure of Saint Demetrius in relief, which according to tradition comes from the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople.

Library

It is not known when the Xiropotamos library was founded. As is the case with most monasteries, its formation began in the years of its foundation or a little later, that is, in the second half of the 10th century. The occasional adventures of the monastery apparently did not leave the library unaffected, as e.g. the pirate raids of the 13th century or the fires of 1507 and 1609/1610. However, there are no written testimonies about the destruction of manuscripts.

From the 13th century we have evidence of the acquisition of manuscripts. It is about the will of the monk Theodosios Skaranos, from Ermylia (Ormylia), who around 1270 dedicated his possessions to Xiropotamou. The paragraph of the testament that refers specifically to the books is indicative on the one hand of the way the monastery library developed and on the other hand of the composition of a monk's individual library. Theodosios has: "Bibliaries; Gospel daily webran, Apostle daily webran, Chrysostomos, Basil the Great, Pre-consecration, Prayer book, Psalter, Minaion three pieces having month five, Theologian, typical of Saint Sabbas cotton cloth, Theotokorin, reading festive after a black garment" «Βιβλιάρια· ευαγγέλιον καθημερινόν βέβρανον, Απόστολος καθημερινός βέβρανος, Χρυσόστομος, Μέγας Βασίλειος, Προηγιασμένη, Παρακλητικήν, Ψαλτήριν, Μηναίον κομμάτια τρία έχον μήνας πέντε, Θεολόγος, τυπικόν του Αγίου Σάββα βομβύκινον, Θεοτοκάριν, αναγνωστικόν πανηγυρικόν μετά ενδύματος μαύρου».

From the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century the Library was enriched with manuscripts written in the same script. Much had been written either in the monastery or by its monks, a fact that perhaps certifies the existence of a library.

There is information from the 16th century about donations of manuscripts by rulers and personalities of Wallachia, such as e.g. by the ruler of Moldavia Petro Rares in 1534 or by Anka, daughter of Banu Udriste.

In 1596, based on notes from two codices that are now in Moscow, Xiropotamou Monastery buys an unspecified number of manuscripts from Xenophontos Monastery.

In 1654, Tsar Alexios and Moscow Patriarch Nikon sent the monk Arseniy Shusanov to Mount Athos to purchase old liturgical codes so that the texts of the Russian Church could be revised. Of the 498 codices collected by Arsenios, only six come from the Xiropotamou monastery.

In the mid-17th century (1643–1649), the Catholic priest Athanasius the Orator acquired a large number of codices from various monasteries for financial consideration on behalf of the French Cardinal Mazarin and Chancellor Pierre Séguier. Perhaps only one manuscript, today's Paris, was extracted from the Xiropotamos monastery. Coisl. Gr. 64 of the 12th century, with speeches by John Chrysostom in Genesis.

For the 18th century there is a rudimentary record of 1766, preserved in a Parisian manuscript and copied by Minas Minoides, where about 80 titles for about 140 bodies of books are recorded.

In 1775, when Kaisarios Dapontes, librarian among others of the monastery, returned from his fund-raising tour, among his belongings there were, among other things, "91 volumes of books for the library of various materials, including manuscripts".

In 1801 the English philologist Joseph Dacre Carlyle visited the monastery library and reported that it was in better condition than any other monastery library and that the books were kept in a dry and decent place, fully protected from dust and bugs . He was impressed by the manuscripts of the classical authors, both in Greek and Latin, but also by the excellent editions of patristic and theological texts.

Carlyle together with his colleague Philip Hunt compiled a rudimentary catalog of manuscripts of Mount Athos. Spyridon Lambros published his gleanings in Νέο Ελληνομνήμονα, Neo Hellinomnemon. On p. 46 of the catalog it is stated that the codices of the Xiropotamos monastery amount to 134 and the following are highlighted: "1 Hebrew ms. of Genesis, 1 Dorotheus, 6 Miscellanies Mod. Greek by Daponte, 1 on Geography Mod. Greek, 1 History of Sultan Murad, 1 Lucian dialogues (not an old copy)'. The number of 134 manuscripts noted by English philologists cannot be ascertained if it corresponds to reality. Perhaps it is a miscalculation, since Spyridon Lambros ninety years later, found and described 341 codes.

Some general information is given by the English traveler Robert Curzon, who visited the monastery in 1837. He informs us that its library is located in the chancel of the cathedral and has only 30 to 40 worthless manuscripts and a thousand printed books.

In 1843 Konstantinos Minadis or Minas Minoidis (1788–1859) visited the Xeropotami library as part of his mission on behalf of the French government to acquire manuscripts. Of the 206 manuscripts he collected from his tour to Athos, we do not know if he also took any from the Xiropotamou monastery.

In 1876, the brother of the monastery, Eugenios, the former abbot of the Dagos monastery in Iasion, passed away, "he left to the monastery a small fortune, a beautiful library and the precious Holy vestments".

In 1969, half of the south wing of the monastery, which housed the Library with newer books, was burned, but its contents were saved.

Today the Library is still located in the space above the narthex of the catholicon. The manuscripts, the printed forms published up to the year 1800, the foreign language books of the Eugene library, the Byzantine archive and most of the post-Byzantine archive are kept there.

Archive

The archive of Xiropotamos monastery had already been classified since the Byzantine era. Two other classifications were made, one between the 17th and 18th and the other between the 18th and 19th centuries. However, the oldest known list is from 1766. A copy of it is preserved from the hand of Minas Minoidis around 1852 and is contained in the manuscript Par. Suppl. Gr. 654, 232r–235v: "Catalogue of the kingdoms of gold bullion and edicts and seals and dedicatory years and restrictions and all other letters old and new, Turkish, Wallachian and Roman...". Another attempt at classification was made in 1862, the documents were divided into 18 categories and a new catalog was drawn up with the title: Book containing all the documents...

The pre-hegumen Eudokimos made a more systematic attempt at classification in 1926. He published the list of documents in the History of the Xiropotamos monastery, Ιστορία της μονής Ξηροποτάμου, where he writes about the archive, which is also found, together with the library, in the catechisms of the Catholic: "There is also an Appendix to it from the right Catechisms, established in 1921 and gathered up to Today, 887 volumes, a supernumerary number of books, included the surviving Epistle of the Monastery, consisting of 110 Volumes separated and classified in a separate Index, from 1807 to the end of 1924, and 7 Numismatic Codes, from 1815 November 21 to the end of 1924. earlier, either Correspondence , or accounting Books, apart from the Vlachs, are not preserved, except for a Code of Practices, starting from 1670".

His catalog is divided into three parts: "the first part includes the Byzantine documents from the foundation of the Monastery up to the Alosis (Fall of Constantinople), the second the Greek Documents from the Alosis to the present day and the third the Turkish Documents". For the Wallachian documents, which are a separate part of the Archive, Evdokimos planned the creation of a separate catalog.

During the fire of 1507, the documents of the monastery were destroyed, so an attempt was made to replace them. Thus, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, chrysobula, sigils and letters were either created or bronzed, so that the monastery could maintain its privileges related to its foundation going back to the 5th century, as well as the ownership of territories her.

In relation to this effort, the legend was created that Sultan Selim I (1514–1519) issued the famous Hatti Serif in favor of the monastery, where, among other things, he states: that place to be determined and to be a permanent endowment and dedication to the said Monastery of Xiropotamos".

Among the documents forged and not currently available to the monastery in its Archive, we highlight the chrysobula of Theodosios II (427), Romanos I Lekapinos (924), Nicephoros Komnenos (end of the 13th century), Michael I ΄ Palaiologos ( 1272), of the king of Serbia Stefanos Milutin (1292), of Andronikos II Palaiologos (1302), of John, nephew of Andronikos III (1407), the patriarchal seal of Timothy II (1611), and others.

The chrysobul of Romanos I Lekapinos was first published by Konstantinos Oikonomos in the journal Evangeliki Salpix (vol. 3.5, March 1, 1838, 135–144). It met several translations: Russian (Barski), Latin (Migne), French (Ragavis), Wallachian (Theophilaktos Kyllinios), Italian (1802). The first to point out its forgery is Amphilochios Philotheitis, followed by Theodoritos, Frearitis, Manuel Gideon, etc.

In the chrysobul of Andronikos II Palaiologos subtle interventions were made. Nicodemus the Saint, however, proves that this is a forged document.

Gerasimos Smyrnakis also expresses doubts about the authenticity of specific documents, pointing out the difference in the writing, the contradictions between them and their anachronisms, while at the same time he refers to other scientists who consider them fake, e.g. in Jus Graeco-Romanum (1892) by the distinguished German jurist Zacharia von Lingenthal or in the History of the Ottoman Empire (Geschichte des osmanischen Reichs, 1827–1835) by the Austrian historian and diplomat Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall.

In 1942, Stéphane Binon, in an extensive (350 pages) and particularly detailed work entitled Les origines légendaires et l'histoire de Xéropotamou et de Saint-Paul de l'Athos, locates and studies the forged or copper-plated documents of Archive of Xiropotamou Monastery. The question of the authenticity of documents from its Archive was reformulated in 1964, when Jacques Bompaire published the Actes de Xéropotamou.

The post-Byzantine archive of Xiropotamou Monastery consists of 191 loose documents from the years 1527/1528–1800 and 12 archival codes of the 17th–19th centuries. It was presented in the form of epitomes by Paris Gounaridis in 1993 (see Bibliography). During the researcher's research, an original sales document from the year 1180 as well as copies of Byzantine documents, which are not included in the 1964 edition of the Archives de l'Athos series, were also found.

Manuscripts-Codices

In 1837, when Robert Curzon visited the Monastery of Xiropotamos, its Library was housed above the exonarthex of the catholicon in the "catechumens", where it is still today. It is a long narrow space, divided into two sections, with the inscription "1892" on the wooden entrance door.

Around 1922, the library was "established in its best form and includes 3,944 volumes, including 341 manuscript codices, of which 20 parchments of the 1st-14th centuries of ecclesiastical material, one cotton, Tetravangelon of the 14th century, 239 parchments of all kinds, in fact church, 16th-17th century and 83 charts of church music 16th-19th century". «κατηρτίσθη ἐπὶ τὸ εὐπροσωπότερον καὶ περιλαμβάνει 3.944 τόμους, ὧν 341 χειρόγραφοι κώδικες, ἐκ τῶν ὁποίων 20 περγαμηνοὶ Ι΄–ΙΔ΄ αἰῶνος ἐκκλησιαστικῆς ὕλης, εἷς βομβύκινος, Τετραυάγγελον ΙΔ΄ αἰῶνος, 239 χαρτῶοι παντοίας ὕλης, μάλιστα ἐκκλησιαστικῆς, ΙΣΤ΄–ΙΗ΄ αἰῶνος καὶ 83 χαρτῶοι ἐκκλησιαστικῆς μουσικῆς ΙΣΤ΄–ΙΘ΄ αἰῶνος».

The manuscripts now number 566, with 425 cataloged and 133 uncatalogued, coming from additions after 1932, and mostly in the years 1980 to 1986. 22 are parchment and 536 are paper. They are chronologically distributed from the 10th to the 20th century. A significant number of manuscripts come from Caesarius Daponte during the 18th century. In terms of content, the largest part of the collection consists mainly of theological and liturgical texts, 144 musical and 15 philological. Among the philological ones are the Ethics of Plutarch, two works of Plato, the Nepheles of Aristophanes, three discourses of Themistius, the Iliad of Homer, works of Galen and Hippocrates, the Progymnasmata of Aphthonius, the Grammar of Theodoros Gazis, etc. , most of which have a detailed explanation. Also, the twenty or so school manuscripts of the 18th century should be mentioned, with names of students and their place of origin.

The first systematic cataloging was done by Spyridon Lambros and published in the first volume of his catalog in 1895, where 341 manuscripts are described. In 1932, the prior of Xiropotamos, Evgenios, published a new, detailed catalog, where in addition to the above 341 manuscripts, he included 84 more.

In addition to these printed catalogs there are also two manuscripts, almost identical, which were compiled by the same librarian in the years 1907 and 1921, and include titles of printed and manuscripts in uniform numbering.

In 1973 Linos Politis in collaboration with Manousos Manousaka dated the additional manuscripts of the catalog compiled by the previous Evdokimos.

From 1975, Grigorio Stathis began to publish the monumental four-volume catalog of the Byzantine music manuscripts of Mount Athos, including the musical manuscripts of the Xiropotamou monastery. The edition was completed in 2015.

A systematic effort to study the manuscripts of the monastery was made by Efthimios Litsa from 1987 to 1989, which was published in 1999 (see Bibliography).

In 2006, Panagiotis Sotiroudis began compiling a supplementary catalog of the Greek manuscripts of the monastery for those manuscripts that came from discoveries and new acquisitions after the cataloging of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The catalog was published in 2012 with the collaboration of the monk Zacharias (see Bibliography) and it describes the nos. 426–557. A little later, in 2015, the same researchers in their article (see Bibliography) describe the numbers 554–566, which relate to the identification of nine more manuscripts, while 554 to 557 were joined by fragments (parchments and parchments), which had already been included in the 2012 list, but it was considered appropriate to supplement their description.

The oldest item in the collection is a fragment of two leaves from a 10th-century large-lettered vellum Evangelist. Next chronologically is Codex 119, also a tear of 16 parchment leaves, from the 10th century, with speeches by John Chrysostom in Genesis.

From the illustrated and decorated manuscripts of the monastery let us highlight here:

The Tetraevangelas 115 (14th cent.), 107 (late 12th cent.) and 221 (1340), all with representations of the Evangelists and titles. Also Codex 85 (1663), which contains the liturgies and is decorated with titles, initials and an image of Saint Nicholas. Also, the musical Code 380 (1759), which, in addition to numerous titles, initials and other ornaments, contains an image of John Damascene writing and one of the enthroned infant Virgin Mary.

Printed Books

The printed matter and foreign language books published up to the year 1800 of the library of Eugenios, former abbot of the Dagos monastery in Iasi, are located, together with the manuscripts, the archive and the sacristy, in the space above the Catholic narthex. The forms from 1801 onwards are kept in another location of the monastery in the south-west wing.

In total, the library of the monastery has about 6,000 printed books.

Thomas Papadopoulos in the Libraries of Mount Athos (p. 3) mentions that the first Greek edition he has located in the monastery of Xiropotamos dates back to 1495. It includes, among other things, the Introductivae grammatices of Theodoros Gazis (In hoc volumine haec insunt Theodori introductivae grammatices libri quatuor) , printed in Venice in aedibus Aldi Romani (Theodore's Grammatical Introduction of the four).

Let us also mention the edition of the memorandum of Alexander of Aphrodisias in Aristotle's Localities, printed in Venice in 1513, in addition to those about Aldon, edited by Markos Mousouros, the edition of Pindar (Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, Isthmia) which was printed together with commentaries in Rome in 1515 by Zacharias Calliergis, and the 1525 edition of Aristophanes' nine comedies, printed in Florence by Philippus Junta.

Scholars

Saint Paul the Xeropotaminus (10th century), wrote a discourse on the Introductions of the Theotokos, Eight canons by sound on the Forty Martyrs and an iambic canon on the Holy Cross.

George Pachymeris mentions a certain Isaac Xiropotaminos (13th century).

In the 16th century, Grigorios Xiropotaminos lives, then patriarchal protosygello and later metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Artis.

Konstantinos (Caesarios) Dapontes (1713–1784) from Skopelos is an important personality of the modern Greek 18th century. He became a monk in the monastery of Panagia, located in the hermitage of Piperi near Skopelos, in 1753. He joined the brotherhood of the Xiropotamou Monastery in 1757. Daponte's writing and publishing output is particularly rich. In addition to his published works, many still unpublished texts of his belong to the Library of the Xiropotamou Monastery.

Great was his contribution to the enrichment of the library with the many and important books he presented to the monastery, returning from the quest to find resources. His effort for the literacy of the monks was important, as can be seen in the record of lending books to them.

The hieromonk Anthimos Drosos Bryennios from Pelion was engaged in the writing of church prayers, while he worked simultaneously for 30 years on the writing of his work Evaggelikὴ harmonia, which he completed in 1770.

Hieromonk Christoforos Xiropotaminos (†1793) in 1776 published in Venice a Manual containing the Prayer Rule and the KD houses to the Holy, and Animal Cross. He also issued the chrysovulas of Romanos and Andronikos, two other documents of the monastery, as well as hymns to the Holy Cross, composed by Nikolaos Velaras.

During the 19th century we have a series of learned brothers of the Xiropotamos monastery. They are Dionysios Agiomamites (1830–1873), Eugene Dagou (1821–1876), Nathanael (†1896), Agathangelos (†1898), Eugene of Lesvius (1871–1924), Eudokimos of Crete (1868–1938), Basil Vlasaki (1875–1961), Pavlos (1882–1920), Kyriako Zachariadis (1856–1916), Chrysantho Makri.

The bibliographic laboratory. In his research, Linos Politis (1974) identified scripts in the monasteries of Dionysios and Xiropotamos from the last quarter of the 16th century until the middle of the 17th. The evidence that allows us to talk about such a workshop in the Xiropotamou monastery is the common style of writing and decoration in the manuscripts. Both monasteries used a script that is a continuation of the script of the Guides monastery, with which it has the same characteristics. There are quite a few manuscripts preserved in the monastery with this type of writing. They date from the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century. Of course, it cannot be certified with certainty whether they were all written inside the monastery or by monks in its Sworkshop. Clear evidence exists only for some scribes and only for some of the manuscripts of the early 17th century. Among the scribes of this period, mention should be made of Matthew (beginning of the 17th century), Cyril (1610–1632), Joasaph (1619–1631), Joachim (1616–1621), the most productive Antonios (1629–1649) and Theocletos.

The activity of the workshop must certainly have continued after 1649. According to a note, Manuscript 11, which had apparently worn out from use, was "renovated" by the monk Alypios in 1703.

There is also a second group of scribes who wrote in the same script from the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century, but there are no indications if they worked in the monastery or if they are its brothers. Of these let us mention Christophoros, Leontius, Raphael, Daniel and Sophronius.

Finally, a third group of undated codices with the same script comes from anonymous calligraphers.
Abbot Archimandrite Joseph (Ιωσήφ)

Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_109