MOUNT ATHOS, ‘the Holy Mountain’. The peninsula which projects into the Aegean Sea from the coast of Macedonia and terminates in Mount Athos has long been entirely the property of monasteries of the E. Orthodox Church. The first monastic settlement of which there is reliable evidence is the foundation of the monastery of the [Great] ‘Lavra’ by St Athanasius the Athonite in 961. There are now 20 virtually independent monasteries on the peninsula. Such matters as are of common concern to the whole mountain are legislated for by a council, made up of one representative from each monastery, and an executive committee of four members. The monasteries contain many valuable MSS and works of art. The peninsula, cut off from the mainland by forest, forms a natural monastic enclosure, from which women are excluded.

R. Curzon, Visits to Monasteries in the Levant (1849), pt. 4, pp. 327–449. A. Riley, Athos, or the Mountain of the Monks (1887). G. Smurnakes, Tò Ἅγιον Ὅρος (Athens, 1903); R. M. Dawkins, The Monks of Athos (1936). P. Sherrard, Athos: The Mountain of Silence (1960). Le Millénaire du Mont Athos 963–1963: Études et mélanges (2 vols., Chevetogne [1963–4]), with bibl. E. Amand de Mendieta, Mount Athos: The Garden of the Panaghia (Berliner Byzantinische Arbeiten, 46; 1972). P. Sherrard, Athos: The Holy Mountain (1982). S. Papadopoulos (ed.), Simonopetra: Mount Athos (Athens, 1991). G. Speake, Mount Athos: Renewal in Paradise (New Haven and London [2002]). R. F. Taft, SJ, ‘Mount Athos: A Late Chapter in the History of the Byzantine Rite’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 42 (1988), pp. 179–94, with other arts. pp. 157–78. G. Millet (ed.), Monuments de l’Athos, 1: Les Peintures (Monuments de l’art byzantin, 5; 1927). Archives de l’Athos (Paris, 1937 ff.). Catalogues of MSS include S. P. Lambros, Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts on Mount Athos (2 vols., Cambridge, 1895–1900) and those of S. Eustratiades and Arcadios (MSS of the Monastery of Vatopedi; Harvard Theological Studies, Cambridge, Mass., 11; 1924) and Spyridon and S. Eustratiades (MSS of the Lavra; ibid. 12; 1925).

FOUNDER

ATHANASIUS the ATHONITE  (c.920–1003) A native of Trebizond, he became a monk in Bithynia, but migrated thence to Mount Athos, where he established (961) the first of its famous monasteries (the Lavra). His foundation, though resisted by the eremites already settled on Athos, prospered through the support of the Emperors Nicephorus Phocas and John Tzimisces (969–76). He became Abbot-General (πρῶτος/prōtos) of all the communities on the Mount, of which 58, including Iveron, Vatopedi, and Esphigmenou, were in being by his death. Feast day, 5 July. (He is not to be confused with the Athanasius mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for this date, a 5th cent. deacon of Jerusalem.)

His Typicon and Testament are pr. in P. Meyer, Die Haupturkunden für die Geschichte der Athosklöster (1894), pp. 102–22 and 123–30 respectively. Early Gk. Life by a monk named Athanasius, ed. J. Pomialovsky (St Petersburg, 1895); further Gk. life, based on an earlier text, ed. L. Petit, AA, Anal. Boll. 25 (1906), pp. 5–89, with Fr.tr. by Hiéromoine Pierre in Irénikon, 8 (1931), pp. 457–99, 667–89; 9 (1932), pp. 71–95 and 240–64; also pub. separately, Chevetogne, 1963. Both lives ed. J. Noret (CCSG 9; 1982), with introd. and bibl. Id., ‘La Vie la plus ancienne de saint Athanase l’Athonite confrontée aux écrits laissés par le saint’, Anal. Boll. 100 (1982), pp. 545–66. J. Leroy, OSB, ‘S. Athanase l’Athonite et la Règle de S. Benoît’, Revue d’Ascétique et de Mystique, 29 (1953), pp. 108–22. See also bibl. to athos, mt.

MONASTERIES

Mount Athos and the Island of Patmos	The Peninsula and "Mountain" of Athos

First monastery on Athos. Founded 963 by Athanasios the Athenite.  Cenobitic community of 317 monks (1990).

One of the oldest monasteries on Mount Athos with between 60 and 100 monks, Esphigmenou is extremely conservative and violently anti-ecumenical.  For several decades the monks have refused to pray for the Patriarch of Constantinople, whom they consider heretical because of his support of ecumenism.  Chief among their concerns is his willingness to pray with Catholics and welcome the Pope. A black flag flies over the monastery proclaiming Orthodoxy or Death. Suspended by the Patriarch and condemned by the Greek authorities in absentia to a twenty-year prison sentence, the Abbot refuses to leave.  Monks were have been accused of throwing molotov cocktail bombs at their replacements, and some have been jailed. 

Pantokrator Monastery, Athos

Six monks live in the skete of Elijah

Smaller sketes and hermitages exist.  Some are almost inaccessible

xcxxcxxc  F ” “ This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 20014....x....  ’ “”.