Karakallou Monastery

Karakallou Monastery

The Holy Monastery of Karakallou (Μονή Καρακάλλου) is built 200 meters above the sea, on an open and verdant slope of a steeply sloping slope of the northwestern side of the Athonite Peninsula. It is located half an hour east of the Filotheou Monastery and at an equal distance from the sea. It occupies the eleventh place in the hierarchy of the twenty Athonian Monasteries.

History

The Monastery of Karakallou was founded in the first fifty years or so after the appearance of organized monastic life in Athos and coincides with the presence of Athanasios the Athonite.

Various opinions were expressed about the origin of the name of the Monastery. The tradition of its foundation and name to the emperor Caracalla (211–217 AD), a persecutor of Christianity, which is consolidated already in the 17th century, or the case of Victor Langlois, who associates the name with the Turkish "Kara-kules", they are not stable. The relationship of the Monastery with the Roman emperor is mentioned by the English traveler John Covel (1677) and it is adopted by both John Komnenos in his Pilgrimage (1698) and Barsky (1744). This tradition is so intense, to the point that a representation of it can be found in the cemetery church of All Saints (1768). Other speculations regarding the name of the Monastery must also be considered questionable.

Probably the name is due to the aggressive identification of its founder, a guess formulated in the 14th century by the patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos. However, this too cannot be established, since the surname Carakalos is only known to us at the end of the 13th century.

The existence of the Monastery in the 11th century results from a document of 1018 preserved in the archive of the Monastery of Megisti Lavra, where it is called Karakalou or Karakalous. In the next chronological archival sources up to 1142 it is called Caracalos, but in the same year it is also found for the first time as the Monastery of Caracalla. Until the 14th century, the Monastery was referred to in both ways, but with the predominance of the name Karakalos, which eventually prevailed.

Around 1070, in a (today lost) document of the emperor Romanos IV Diogenes (1068–1071) the possession of shares in various places was validated, which means that it was included among the recognized monasteries.

Information on the following years until the end of the 13th century is scarce. From 1169, in fact, until 1262, for about a hundred years, no archival evidence about the Monastery has survived.

During the fourth Crusade (1204), in addition to the administrative repressions of the conquest, Latin pirates plundered and deserted monasteries of the Athonian peninsula. From the Monastery of Karakallos, together with the looting, they captured the abbot and the entire brotherhood, who were redeemed and released from the Monastery of Lavra.

With the end of the Latin rule (1261), the Monastery seems to recover gradually. Names of abbots begin to appear again in the sources. However, the real prosperity begins in the last decades of the 13th century and becomes evident with the reign of Andronikos II Paleologus. In 1294, Andronikos granted privileges and estates to the Monastery with a golden deed, in order to rebuild after the pirate raids of the 13th century. It is the first document in which the financial situation of the Monastery is reflected. The same stance was taken by his grandson John V.

In the years that followed, it flourished both in terms of human resources and material (estate), which increased significantly during the 14th century. The first estate she acquired outside Mount Athos was the one given to her in 1338 by the mother of Ioannis Kantakouzenos.

The flourishing of the Monastery at the end of the 13th and the first half of the 14th century is connected with the special bond it had with the later patriarch Athanasios I, originally a monk of the Monastery, a strict ascetic and precursor of the hesychast movement. In his time, many educated monks were attracted and abandoned to the Monastery, such as Isaac, copyist of a luxurious gospel, which he dedicated to the Monastery in 1290. Athanasios I, who traveled at least seven times to the dominions north of the Danube, is also behind from the financial support from Astras, Hierakis, Ioannis Ouglesis and finally the Voivode of Hungarian Wallachia Ioannis Vladislavos.

The Monastery was at its peak when in 1393 it was declared a patriarchal crucifix by Patriarch Antonios. The number of monks was so great that it was impossible to house them in her buildings, and part of them was channeled to the oligarchy Monastery of Alypi, today a cell of the Holy Apostles.

From 1424 onwards, an economic crisis began in Mount Athos due to the taxation and arbitrariness of the Ottomans. The information on the tax burdens of the Monastery is scanty, but they must not have been high, as in the Ottoman census of 1520 it is the most underpopulated monastery.

In 1444, the Monastery was visited by Kyriakos the Agonite, who reports that he found Abbot David together with a few poor Serbian monks. In 1489, Isaias Hilandarinos mentions 30 monks, characterizing it as "arnautiko", i.e. Arvanite monastery.

At the end of the 15th century the position of the Monastery in the monastic hierarchy of the Athonian peninsula was quite high. In the Standard of Mount Athos by Manuel Palaiologos, which captures the situation on Mount Athos at the end of the 15th century, in the order of primacy of the monasteries in Protato, Caracallou occupies the sixth place. At the same time, he maintains relations with important personalities of the time, such as the lord Iakovos Malaspina, the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki Makarios, etc. In the same years, one of the most important ascetics of the 16th century, Saint Dionysios of Olympus, was an ascetic for some time in the confines of the Monastery, before being elected abbot of the Philotheus Monastery.

In the 16th century, the testimonies about the operation of the Monastery thicken and show its prosperity, which continued in the following centuries. In his report to the tsar, the envoy to Mount Athos in 1583, Ivan Messenin, informs him that he found 50 monks and 27 cell dwellers.

In 1535, with the mediation of the voivods of Moldavia, Sultan Suleiman I issued a firman, where he recognized that "the said monastery is in need of renovation" and allowed it to be "renovated on the ancient buildings", while prohibiting the construction of new buildings. In the following years, between 1548 and 1563, two more permits were issued regarding the rebuilding of the Catholicos, with an on-site inspection by Ottoman envoys.

The Monastery was rebuilt with the brave patronage of the ruler of Wallachia, Petros Rares, after a legendary fire around 1530, which, however, is not witnessed by reliable sources, or after the devastation caused by the earthquake of 1509.

The defensive complex of the tower of Arsana (1534) was also included in the building chronicle of the 16th century, a project necessary to deal with the frequent pirate raids. The name of the architect is also mentioned in the wall inscription: Syropoulos Dionysios Hatzis. Other works of this period apart from the foundation of the Catholicos also concern the renovation of the cells.

At the same time, in 1569, Domna Roxandra, widow of the ruler of Moldavia, Alexandros Lapousneanos, paid 35,000 silver to the Monastery, in order to buy back the estates that had been confiscated by Sultan Selim II. Other rulers dedicated various valuable objects to the Monastery.

In the 17th century, the Monastery had the financial support of the ruler of Iberia Arthila and his brother, who, apart from the money, donated to the Monastery the share of Agios Nikolaos in Ismailia. Many renovations, histories and repairs of buildings and chapels took place.

In the 18th century, the Monastery reached its peak. Many monks settled in it, while additions, renovations and reconstructions were carried out at the same time, as well as extensive pictorial programs. In 1707, at the expense of the prior Dionysios Iberitis and the assistance of the prior Neophytos, the north and east wings, where the guest house was located, were renovated. In 1714, at the expense of the abbot Nikodimos, the narthex and the belfry were added to the Katholikon, in which "they put the clock". In 1717, the main church of Katholikon was described by the painter Damascenοs. Around 1722, the painter Dionysios of Fournas works there. In 1750 the apse was built and in 1767 the exonarthex. In 1768, the construction and history of the new cemetery church of All Saints was completed.

In the census of 1808, 44 monastic monks and 55 cellists are recorded.

With the spread of the Greek revolution of 1821 in Macedonia and the negative consequences it had on Mount Athos, due to the aggressive behavior and the heavy tax that the monasteries were asked to pay, Caracallou was not unaffected in terms of the economic consequences and the losses in human potential. With the withdrawal of the Turkish army from Mount Athos in 1830, the Monastery of Karakallos restores its communication with the shares, the financial situation improves and the number of monks increases. However, around 1835, due to debts he was forced to pawn vestments and heirlooms. From the middle of the century, the big problems with the land ownership of the monasteries began. The confiscation of all shares by the Romanian government in 1863 also affected the Caracallou Monastery. Nevertheless, after the fire of 1874, the Trapeza, the guest house and part of the eastern side were reconstructed.

The Monastery did not recover after the liberation of Mount Athos and its incorporation into the Greek state. In fact, the financial problems worsened after 1922, when her estates were expropriated and given to refugees. From 1930 onwards, the entire Mount Athos shows strong signs of decline. In the Karakallos Monastery, the downward trend was stopped in the last decades of the 20th century. Since then it has been regrouped and renovated in buildings and manpower. In 1982 it was manned by a group of philotheist monks. In 1991, the northeast wing, which had been destroyed by fire in 1988, was reconstructed.

The Monastery of Karakallos has been functioning as a community since 1813 with the seal of the patriarch Cyril VI and the abbot of the Hieromonk Nektarios. Abbot Philotheos has been the head of the brotherhood of about 30 monks since 1982

An extensive historical diagram of the Monastery has been prepared by the historian Kriton Chrysochoidis and is contained in the volume Images of the Holy Monastery of Karakallos<./strong>, published by the Monastery of Karakallos in 2011.

Museum-Sacristy

The Vault of the Monastery of Karakallos is located in the area above the exonarthex of the Catholicon. Sacred vestments, liturgical utensils and other objects of historical and artistic value are kept in it.

Icons

The iconostasis is co-located with the Library on the ground floor of the eastern wing. In the collection of Catholic religious icons, a particularly important work of great artistic value is the icon of the Holy Apostles, painted by the hand of Dionysios of Fournas (1722). It is on the iconostasis of the Catholicos. Another excellent work is that of Constantinos Palaiokapas, where the baptism of the holy apostles Peter and Paul is told, based on a 16th century model. It dates back to 1640.

Library

The history of the Library of the Monastery of Karakallos is inextricably linked with the centuries-old history of the monastery. Formerly, according to some reports, it was housed above the exonarthex of the Catholicos.

In 1492, the archon Iakovos Malaspinas bought from Constantinople and repatriated to the Monastery a luxurious manuscript; a tetraevangelium, which had been engraved there in 1290.

The passage from the Monastery of the learned Metropolitan Makarios of Thessaloniki, who died in Vatopaidi in 1546 as a monk Michael, is marked by the presence of many brilliant manuscripts, which he donated to the library. The Monastery of Karakallos acquired part of his excellent collection.

In 1744, when Barsky visited the Monastery, he heard that there used to be a lot of books in the Monastery, but the poor monks scattered them, and now there are no teaching books left except the liturgical ones used in the services. From this trip he briefly described a Slavic encyclical letter to the press of Apantachoussa, which had been published in 1733 by the abbot of the Neophytos Monastery.

In 1837, the English traveler Robert Curzon visited the Monastery twice, who, deceiving the abbot, took at least 16 valuable manuscripts from the library.

Viktor Grigorovich, during his visit to the Monastery in 1844, was denied, as he notes, all access to the library and archive.

In 1852, when the Bulgarian scholar Konstantinos Dmitriev-Petkovich visited the Monastery, he was assured that there were no imperial chrysobuls, because they had been destroyed during the War of Independence (1821–1829). However, from a conversation he had with a Bulgarian monk of Caracalla, he was certain that this was not true, since his countryman had convinced him to the contrary, and that a Greek teacher had actually tried to read them by pouring some kind of liquid on them.

In 1988, measures were taken to protect the manuscripts and relics, while the library space was cleaned and organized.

Today it is housed, together with the Vault, in a ground floor area east of the Catholicon, which was rebuilt from the ground up in 1905.

Archive

Regarding the Archive of the Caracallou Monastery, the librarian of the monastery, the hieromonk Philippos, in his memorandum to "About Libraries" states the following: "The archive of the Library includes a few tens of archival codes and thousands of unsolved documents (mostly of the second half of 19th century and the beginning of the 20th). The Byzantine and post-Byzantine documents, up to 1800, have been studied by specialist researchers and there are certain editions for them, while the entire archive is only partially cataloged and digitized.

Of all the medieval Athonian records, that of Caracalla is the smallest. It includes only 6 acts from the period 1294–1476 and another 3 from the period 1568–1600.

Until 1875, no systematic attempt to classify the archive had been made, the year when the abbot of the monastery, Stefanos, created the unique codex of the Monastery, with the title: Codex of the Holy Royal Stavropigian Patriarchal and Synodal Monastery of the so-called Karakallos and named after the Saints glorious and glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, Including About its Builders and the buildings from time to time, and about the borders of the Monastery after the Cells and Shares of the Holy Relics, etc. And a brief historical report... This codex includes selected copies of the most official Byzantine and post-Byzantine documents, but mainly Greek translations or summaries of Turkish documents referring to the shares and estates of the Monastery. In addition, records of boundaries, relics and various historical memoranda regarding the establishment and history of the Monastery were included.

In 1867 Victor Langlois published a brief description of 10 acts he had seen at Caracalla.

In 1982, during a research mission organized by the Byzantine Research Center of the National Research Foundation, a systematic classification, cataloging and microphotographing of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine archive of the Monastery was carried out. The collaborators of the Center, Kriton Chrysochoidis and Paris Gounaridis, who made up the team of the mission, published in 1985 the Catalog of the Archives of the Monastery of Karakallos (see Bibliography).

In 2015, Kirillos Pavlikianov published the Byzantine documents and a selection of deeds from the Ottoman period (see Bibliography). He worked in the library and archive of the Karakallos Monastery for the first time in 2000 and continued three more times, in 2011, 2014 and 2015.

A new, more detailed catalog of the Caracalla archives is in progress. Its author is D. Kalpakis.

Manuscript Codices

Regarding the collection of manuscripts of the Monastery, its librarian mentions the following: "556 manuscript codices are kept in the Library, of which 45 are parchment and 6 cotton. Chronologically, 111 codices go back to the 1500s, another 216 to the 1800s, and the rest to the 20th century. The oldest ones are an Evangelist and an Elder from the ninth century, in large script. Regarding their content, of the 341 oldest codices (for which there are microphotographs in Thessaloniki, in the Patriarchal Foundation of Paternal Studies housed in the Vlatadon Monastery, since the 70s), 34 are Gospels, Apostles and Psalters, 29 are Byzantine music books, 55 of which are priestly (high priestly, priestly, prayer books, etc.), 88 liturgical books (Menaia, Prayers, Saints' Masses, etc.), 61 contain Speeches of Saints and other ecclesiastical figures (Patriarchal works, Gerontika, Kyriakodromia, etc.), 18 Lives of Saints, 13 are mixed codes and another 46 miscellaneous (canonical, grammatical, formal, etc.). All codices have been cataloged in detail by the Monastery during the years 2015–2019, and a digital catalog is available. To date (May 2021), out of 556 codices, 228 have been digitized, which contain approximately 50% of all leaves, and digitization is ongoing.”

Among the parchment manuscripts in the collection, a Gospel in capital letters from the 9th century (no. 11) and a parchment liturgical scroll from the 13th century (no. 243) stand out. Also worth mentioning is the luxurious Tetraevangelo (no. 20), which was engraved in the Monastery in 1289/90 by the scribe Isaac, was found in Constantinople in 1492 by Iakovos Malaspina, who bought it and repatriated it. The 18th-century Evangelistarium of Karakallos 252 contains full-page representations of the four evangelists in their offices.

From the collection of manuscripts there are five codices, which contain works of layman education. Three of them contain the same Orations of Isocrates in the exact same order (Ad Demonicon, Ad Nicoclea and Evagoras) and with a verse-by-line explanation in colloquial language. In addition to the above, there is Euripides' Hecabe, part of Euclid's Elements, Aristophanes' Plutus and Nepheles, Livanius' Ambassador to the Trojans, Cato's Opinions, two epigrams of Simias of Rhodius and three works from the Ethics of Plutarch.

Print Books

Regarding the collection of printed materials, the librarian of the Monastery informs us: "The printed books kept in the library are approximately ten thousand, with the oldest being two books from the 15th century (Aristotle's works and the Suida Dictionary), while there are also series of magazines, mainly older ones . Almost all the books have been cataloged in a digital database since 2015. Another two thousand or so printed books (mostly newer editions) intended for the spiritual study of the brothers are kept in a smaller library in another area of the monastery."

Thomas Papadopoulos in the Libraries of Mount Athos (p. 4), mentions that the first Greek edition he has located in the Monastery of Caracalla dates back to 1499. It is Τὸ μὲν παρὸν βιβλίον Σουΐδα ... Ἀττικῶν λέξεων συναγωγὴν κατὰ στοιχεῖον,, printed in Milan under Benediktos Mazos and Ioannous Visolos of Karpaia, edited by Dimitrios Chalkokondilis.

The next edition is from 1523 and it is the Dictionary of Favorinos, edited by Zacharias Kalliergis.

Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_452

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