Athonias Academy

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The Athonias Academy

The Athonite or Athonias Academy (Greek: Αθωνιάς Εκκλησιαστική Ακαδημία)
is located in the Southwest Wing of the building of the Skete of Agios Andreas, near Karyes, at an altitude of approximately 400 meters. Initially, Athoniada (1749–1821) was housed in a specially built complex on a hill near the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi, to its east, while during the period 1832–1930 the school functioned in various cells of Karyes..

History

Athoniada was founded on the initiative of Abbot Meletios Vatopaidinos. The founding seal of the school was issued by the patriarch Cyril V in 1748, while for its housing a magnificent building was rebuilt, at the expense of the Vatopedi monastery, on an adjacent hill. It included 170 rooms, Bank, Chapel, Library and classrooms. It had the form of a High Academy, according to a similar Patriarchal Seal, where it is named as "a school of Greek lessons, education and universal instruction in logical, philosophical and theological sciences". As the main permanent financial resource of the school, the annual ecclesiastical rights of the patriarchate granted to it by the diocese of Ierissos and Mount Athos and which amounted to 24,000 aspras were granted.

The first director and teacher of ancient Greek was Neophytos Kafsokalyvitis and then Agapios Agiotafitis, who managed the school for only 4 months, as he was "taken out of Thessaloniki by vicious murderers, genocidals returning from Galatist of his homeland". In 1753, the scholar Evgenios Voulgaris took over the directorship, with a particularly high salary, 1,000 grosci a year, and with the condition that he would have "an assistant teacher at home with me". Panagiotis Palamas, who taught grammar lessons, was appointed Voulgaris' assistant teacher. The school's curriculum included classical Philology, ancient and modern Philosophy, Mathematics and Physics.

The School quickly gained a great reputation and attracted a large number of students. However, the novelty of Eugene's teaching at the time, the internal disputes and factions, had a negative effect on its operation. Eugene resigned from the directorship. In 1759 he voluntarily left Mount Athos, fled to Constantinople, where he assumed the direction of the Patriarchal Academy. However, the school continued to operate, but with many problems.

Successive attempts did not bring the desired results. The first attempt was due to the patriarch Seraphim II (1757–1761) and ended with the resignation of the director Metsovite Nikolaos Zerzoulis in 1761. This was followed by the abandonment of Athoniada by the students, who preferred the traditions of Eugenios at the Patriarchal Academy of Constantinople. From 1761 to 1769 it appears that the school was not in operation. Patriarch Ioannikios III (1761–1763) invited Nikiforos Theotokis, an admirer of Voulgaris, to take over the direction of the school, but this attempt was also unsuccessful.

And other attempts, in 1769, failed due to reactions from the monks of the Vatopediou monastery, who did not approve the placement of the Kozanite hieromonk Kyrillosand his student Ioannis Pesaros (1749–1806) as the director of the school. In 1782, another attempt at the initiative of Gabriel IV also failed. In 1784, Kyprianos and his brother Ioannis, originally from Crete, appeared as teachers. Kyprian remained the schoolmaster until his death in 1799. During his administration, Athonias fell into an inferior grammar school, which had nothing to do with that of Voulgaris. After his death, its operation seems to have stopped temporarily.

In 1801 the patriarch Kallinikos V made efforts for its reconstitution. His movement did not work, although local committees were established to strengthen it in about 120 cities in Europe, Russia and the Balkans. Among the supporters is Adamantios Korais in Paris. The situation for the course of the school worsened with the interventions of the patriarch Gregory V, who in the period 1808-1818 was in exile on Mount Athos, as he received many reactions when he tried to transfer it from Vatopaidi to Karyes.

Finally, Athoniada ceased its operation in 1821. Her last teacher was Athanasios Philippides or Philippoupolites, who was appointed in 1804.

Among the students of the school are Cosmas Aitolos, Iosepos Moisiodax, Christoforos Makraios, Christodoulos Pamplekis, the neomartyr Athanasios of Xirokrini, Gabriel Kalonas, Athanasios Parios and Rigas Feraios.

During the period 1832-1842 it seems that an "Organization of the Athonia School" functioned in Karyes. The lessons were probably held in the building of the Holy Episcopacy, where "it seems that a part of the room, which was allegedly used as a School, was allocated, but it is not functioning regularly".

The school was re-established in 1842 with a patriarchal letter of Germanos IV. For its housing, the Holy Community bought from the Koutloumousiou monastery the cell of the Holy Forerunner of Sakalleros, which was located at the NE entrance of the Karea. The cell, which was in a dilapidated condition, was demolished. In its place, the construction of a new building began, which was completed in 1844. The name of the school is now "Central Athonia School". Its operation began only the following year, in 1845, with Daniel Magnitas the Iberian as director. The new school offered its services until 1925. During this period, 35 teachers are listed, among them Bartholomeos Koutloumousianos, Nikiforos Glykas and Christoforos Ktenas.

Since 1930, Athoniada has been housed in the external guest house of the Vatopedini Skete of Agios Andreas (Serai) in Karyes. Archimandrite Athanasios Pantokratorinos took over as the first schoolmaster. It operates to this day, with one interruption between the years 1940 and 1953.

In 1953, it reopened in the complex of Skitis Agios Andreas as the "Athonia Ecclesiastical Academy" and Boarding School (free food and accommodation). Metropolitan Nathanael of Miletoupolis was appointed as its first headmaster. Among the courses, "maintenance of libraries based on elements of librarianship" was also provided. Also, in the timetable of 1972, hours of librarianship, printing and bookbinding courses were specified.

Today, the General Ecclesiastical Gymnasium - Ecclesiastical High School of Athonias of Mount Athos is a legal entity under public law, equal and equivalent to the other public schools of the Greek territory, and provides the same possibilities of access to Higher Education. The students, in addition to the Clockwork program of Secondary Education, are additionally taught theological courses, church music and iconography. The school's resources come from grants from the Ministry of Education and the Holy Community.

Library

Today the library of Athoniada is housed on the first floor of the school building and includes only printed materials. The origins of the library of today's Athoniada coincide with the establishment of the first Athoniada School in Karyes in 1844. The library of the original, Vatopedi, Athoniada was transferred after the closure of the school in 1821 to the Vatopaidi monastery.

For the establishment of a library during the first period of operation of Athoniada (1749–1821) there is special care already from the first years after its foundation. Many efforts were made by Evgenios Voulgaris, who, in addition to enriching the library, also tried to organize a printing press. Among other things, his letter of thanks to the Jerusalem patriarch Ephraim II, for the copies of the Grammar he received and which he distributed to his students, is preserved. Also, Evgenios Voulgaris is the one who in 1755 received the library of the monk Sophronios, an ascetic in a cell of the Lavra in the area of Amalfi, who bequeathed it to Athoniada.

The library of the first Athoniada, after its operation ceased in 1809, was moved to the Vatopedi monastery. In the 1641 Codex of the monastery, in a catalog of books of the school, 337 volumes are numbered. Of these, 17 are manuscripts.

Nikiforos Theotokis (1731–1800) also bequeathed his personal library to Athoniada. But his books were never delivered to the school. They reached the monastery of Iberon and from there, after pressure from the patriarchate and Dorotheos Proiou, they were transferred in 1805 to the Patriarchal Pangoino School in Kourou-chesme.

In the Archives of the Holy Community, in Karyes, some catalogs of books of Athonias can be found. One of them is of Dionysios Lavriotos, dated February 10, 1849, which lists 299 books, almost all of them priced. In the same year, Bartholomeos Koutolumousianos recorded the books and movable objects of the school. He informs us that some of the library's multiple copies were sold, which he names. This record contains a total of 446 books. Of these, 50 were sold. Also, in 1853 a list was drawn up by order of the Holy Episcopate. It contains a total of 464 books. In 1856, Archimandrite Zacharias Daniilopoulos Xiropotaminos, from Galatista of Halkidiki, vicar at Agios Georgios in Vienna, donated his library to Athonada. It consisted of 224 recorded volumes of books (the catalog in the Vatopedin Archives). There is also another handwritten catalog dated September 21, 1885, where 191 titles are recorded.

With the reopening of the school in 1930, the reorganization of the library began. At its first session, on 22.11.1930, the Ephorate of Athoniada, under the chairmanship of the schoolmaster Athanasios Pantokratorinos, decided to transfer the library from the building of Karea and its accommodation in the Skete of Agios Andreas, the allocation of an amount of 5,000 drachmas for the purchase of the published volumes of the Great Greek Encyclopedia of Drandakis and their completion in the following year, and the appeal, through the Holy Community, to the monasteries for the donation of any multiple copies. The monasteries responded. Thus, most of the books of Athoniada are a donation of the holy monasteries. In 1931 the Vatopedi monastery donated 41 volumes of various books. In the same year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also donated 175 volumes of books and various pamphlets. In 1935, Pagratios the Iberian, a doctor, offered Athoniada the entire Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Eleftheroudakis.

During the years 1956–57 a manuscript catalog was drawn up, which incorporated the books of the previous catalogs and added those entered until its compilation. It lists 1,062 titles of Greek and 436 foreign language publications.

The effort to enrich the library continued. During the period 1978 to 1997 the books multiplied.

In 1985, in the Holy Libraries series of the Center for Modern Greek Research of the National Research Foundation, Yiannis Karas published a list of the Greek publications up to 1900 belonging to the libraries of Protato and Athoniada. The titles attributed to Athoniada reach 271. These are books of all kinds, but primarily educational. The first document that the researcher finds in the Athonia library is a 1667 edition of Hesiod's Findings, printed in Amsterdam.

Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_4487

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