„Света Гора у доба Селима II [Mount Athos during the Rule of Selim II]“, Хиландарски зборник 9 (1997) 143-16

Medieval Mount Athos between Wealth and Poverty (The Medieval Mediterranean, 142). , 2024

Part 1. Capital Connections: Athonite metochia in Constantinople ‎1. Athonite metochia in Constantinople (10th–12th Centuries) (Oltean) ‎2. Mount Athos and the Wealth of Constantinople (14th–16th Centuries) (Melvani) ‎Part 2. Problems of Property: Founding and Financing Monasteries on Medieval Mount Athos ‎3. General Legal Norms for Monastic Property in Byzantium and Their Implementation on Mount Athos: The Case of Hilandar (Maksimovič) ‎4. Pourquoi fondait-on des monastères sur l’Athos aux xe et XIe siècles? (Kaplan) ‎5. Annuity Endowments and Sovereign Foundations on Mount Athos (Chitwood) ‎Part 3. Iberian Efflorescence: Three Case Studies from the Golden Age of Iviron Monastery ‎6. Liturgical Commemoration and Its Material Value in the Georgian Book of Commemorations (Agapes) of Iviron Monastery (Chronz) ‎7. In Praise of a Businessman: The Hegumenate Account of Paul of Iviron (1170–1184) (Smyrlis) ‎8. The Dynamics of Donations to Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos (According to the Book of Commemorations [Agapes]) (Tabuashvili and Kekelia) ‎Part 4. Consolidating Wealth in a New World: Mount Athos and the Ottomans ‎9. Endowment, Rule, and Theology: Political Theology in the Endowment Deeds for Mount Athos of 15th- and 16th-century Wallachia (Grigore) ‎10. Archival Treasures of the Holy Mountain: Interpreting Ottoman and Arabic Documents as Sources of Athonite Wealth (de Obaldía) ‎Part 5. Material Remains: Athonite Manuscripts, Seals, and Digital Humanities ‎11. Byzantine Monasteries and Their Wealth as Shown by Lead Seals: The Case of the Imperial Monastery of Lakape (Filosa) ‎12. Manuscripts as Part of the Wealth of Athonite Monasteries (Melissakis) ‎13. OpenAtlas: An Open-Source Application to Map Historical Data with CIDOC CRM (Eichert, Richards and Watzinger)

Medieval Mount Athos between Wealth and Poverty, 2024

Athonite monks had access to landed property in Constantinople throughout the Palaiologan period. The great monasteries of the Lavra and Vatopedi held organized dependencies (metochia) in the Byzantine capital and in the wider Bosporus area, thanks to which they were able to manage their activities within the framework of the entangled economic networks of the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. The Serbian monastery of Hilandar was also heavily involved in Constantinopolitan affairs through its connections with the so-called Xenon (hospital) of the Kral, which was attached to the monastery of Saint John of Petra in the capital. The Athonite presence in Constantinople continued even into the sixteenth century, when the newly-founded monastery of Stavroniketa acquired property in early Ottoman Istanbul as a result of donations. The proposed paper will examine archival evidence and the topography/geography of the Athonite metochia of Constantinople, in order to explore how Athonite communities controlled their Constantinopolitan estates and how they adapted to the changing circumstances of the time.

Medieval Worlds

Following the re-establishment of the Cult of Images in 843, the Bithynian Olympus (present-day Uludağ, Turkey) became the site of so many monastic settlements that it was all but impossible for the ascetics there to find true solitude. Therefore, they set their sights on Mount Athos in Chalkidiki, and began to settle there from the ninth century onwards. It was a turbulent time for the region, and as a result of complex political developments the land was abandoned and reverted to the state (klasma lands), with the tax revenues benefitting central authorities rather than local communities. The economic growth of the ninth century thus explains the conflicts over the lands around Mount Athos between the peasant population, the monasteries founded in the Chalkidiki region, and the monks on Athos itself. These conflicts were exacerbated by the foundation of the large institutions of Xeropotamou, Lavra and Iviron-the latter two of which also enjoyed the status of »imperial monasteries«. The extant documentation allows us to better understand both the attempts by the monastery to appropriate the lands and the resistance to these attempts by the village communities, who were particularly concerned with retaining grazing lands for their animals. Interestingly, the officials and judges in charge of the region seemed to have favoured the village communities in these conflicts.

Palaeographical examination of the accompanying inscriptions of the Palaeologan decoration in the Katholikon of the Vatopedi monastery 11.20-11.40 Petros KAPSOUDAS An eleventh c. inscription from the belfry of the katholikon of Megisti Lavra, Mount Athos 11.40-12.00 Oleg ULYANOV Panagiars from Athos with dedicatory inscriptions (to the history of the study) 12.00-12.20 Oleg ULYANOV A Greek Christian Text of Prophecies of the Hellenic Wise Men on Athos frescoes 12.20-12.50 Questions-Discussion 12.50-13.00 Coffee Break 3rd SESSION-Byzantine and Post-byzantine inscriptions. Case studies Chair: Dimitris LIAKOS 13.00-13.20 Paschalis ANDROUDIS Inscriptions with Psalms from the byzantine church of Prophet Eliah at Thessaloniki 13.20-13.40 Miljana MATIĆ "The stronghold of the Faithful"-Inscriptions and Cryptograms of the Elder Nestor's Cross at the Serbian Monastery of Dečani: A Reflection of Postbyzantine Monastic Practices 13.40-14.00 Darina BOYKINA The Silver Bowl from Samokov and Its Inscriptions 14.00-14.30 Questions-Discussion 14.30-17.00 Lunch Break 4th SESSION-Inscriptions in Athonite art Chair: Brad HOSTETLER 17.00-17.20 Paschalis ANDROUDIS Unknown and little-known minor inscriptions on Mount Athos 17.20-17.40 Arianna D'OTTONE RAMBACH Lā raʾà li-makdhūb-Non est consilium mendacii arguto: Mamluk wisdom on a speaking tray from Mount Athos 17.40-18.00 Frédéric TIXIER À propos d'une plaque émaillée des Rois Mages du Mont Athos : iconographie et inscriptions 18.00-18.20 Ioannis LIAKOS, Savvas PRASTITIS Notes from Cypriot musical manuscripts on Mount Athos. A first approach. 18.20-18.40 Eka TCHKOIDZE Georgian ktetor's inscriptions from Philotheou Monastery 18.40-19.10 Questions-Discussion 19.10 END OF THE CONFERENCE

Mount Athos and the Economy of Chalkidike, Tenth to Fifteenth century, in Η εξακτίνωση του Αγίου Όρους στον ορθόδοξο κόσμο: τα μετόχια – Mount Athos: Spreading the Light to the Orthodox World. The Metochia (Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2015), 35-59

The paper explores the role the Athonites and their estates played in the evolution of the economy and settlement in Chalkidike from the foundation of the great monasteries of Lavra and Iviron in the late tenth century to the Ottoman conquest of the peninsula around 1423. We first consider the factors that determined the wealth of the Athonites as well as their behavior as great landowners. In the second part, we study the evolution of Athonite landholding in the Chalkidike during the period in question. This part is based on a table provided as Appendix, which registers all available data on the properties the monasteries held in Chalkidike. Six maps, based on this table, indicate what is known regarding the Athonite landownership in the peninsula at given moments. In the third and final part we attempt an assessment of the role of the monasteries for the economy and settlement in Chalkidike.