Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Places of worship for destination: "MONI KOUTLOUMOUSSIOU Monastery AGION OROS".
Tel: +30 23770 23226
Fax: +30 23770 23731
The monastery buildings are set in a rectangular shape with a rather
vast courtyard, with the central church (Katholicon) in its center. The refectory
is presently built a new (1995), while the central church, built in the 16th century,
is covered with five domes and with a glass covered exonarthex.
The original monastery was built before the 12th century but in the
14th centutry, abbot Chariton of Imvros, receeded to the enlargement of the monastery;
during its lifetime vast destructions were caused either by fire or by fall of
rocks.
Apart from the Katholicon frescoes dated in the mid 16th century,
the monastery possesses more than 600 manuscipts, many of which are illuminated,
as well as imporant historic archive and a large number of old printed books.
IN THE MEDIEVAL TOWNSHIP of Karyes,
with its picturesque houses dominated by the Protaton
Basilica, the mists of winter weigh as heavy as lead, as if they sought to
halt the advance of time. Only with difficulty can one make out the cobbled road
leading out of the town to a green hillside in the direction of Koutloumousi.
The mist drifts close to the ground, caressing the golden-green leaves of the
hazel trees, the slender trunks of the wild chestnuts, "where nature has
striven to offer a unique model of magnificence and beauty of form", the
vines and the olive trees, the variety of ornamental trees which betray the hand
of man among the natural vegetation. From out of this composition of elements
emerges the silent, formidable old guardian of mysteries, the castle wall, from
which in turn rise a lofty defensive tower and domes covered in lead. They stare
out over the Thracian Gulf,
over Samothrace and Imbros
and the summit of Athos itself,
crowned in white snow during the winter months. The pilgrim pauses for a moment
and quenches his thirst at the vaulted fountain, which faces the gate of the Monastery.
It was built in 1816 in the form of a house of prayer. The marble relief of the
conch bears the words: "O Christ the Word, Transfigured, Saviour, have pity
on those who reside herein. "Christ is the life of this place, and its purpose
is to bring heaven to a little parcel of earth, and to prepare men for their future
life as citizens of heaven.
The gateway to the Monastery is a neo-classical structure, with a
fine colonnaded porch. Every period has left its mark here. The iron gate opens
at dawn and is locked at sunset. Passing through the vaulted propylon the pilgrim
enters the courtyard, where a new world stands revealed, the coming together of
the artistic tendencies of a thousand years. Rows of circular arches with decorative
brickwork features, corridors and stairways with windows, all in the graceful
Byzantine style, look out over the paved courtyard. The Monastery is laid out
in the shape of an irregular rectangle. The northern, eastern and southern sides
are occupied by three-story buildings, while against the fortified wall of the
western side stands the Refectory, an L-shaped building constructed of stone.
In the centre of the cluster of buildings, dominating the other structures, stands
the Catholikon (main church), which is the heart of monastic life. It was built
shortly after 1369 and is an enlarged version of the older and smaller church.
It is the first example on Mt.
Athos of the evolved type of Athonite Catholikon.
In a conspicuous point in the courtyard stands the Phiale - an octagon
of marble with relief panels, white columns and, in the centre, a marble font,
where the blessing of the waters takes place. The Phiale was built in 1813 by
a talented sculptor from a workshop on the island
Tinos. A little farther on, opposite the entrance to the Catholikon, stands
the picturesque refectory building. Matthaios, Patriarch of Alexandria built it
in 1767, on the site of the earlier wing, which had been destroyed by fire. It
has recently been renovated and a number of monks are engaged exclusively in the
work of decorating it with paintings.
Within the Church the atmosphere is one of solemn mystery. The elegance
of the surroundings blends perfectly with the seriousness of the occasion: the
baroque wood-carving of the altar screen, with its undulating zones, the whole
surface seeming to vibrate with the rich life of the relief carvings, and the
austere wall-paintings of the Cretan School, dating from the 16th century. We
first pay homage to the icon of the Lord’s Transfiguration, and then that of the
Panagia Stylarini, in which the Virgin enthroned bears the infant Jesus in her
arms. This 14th century miracle-working icon comes from Stylari, in Marmaras,
where there was a dependency of the Monastery. The local people called the icon
"The Healer", for it was said to cure all the ailments of people in
the region around, and was held in great esteem. The annex chapel is the place
of honour of the household icon of the Monastery, the "Fearsome Protection",
painted in the 13th century. The Virgin holds the infant Lord tightly in her embrace,
but His face is turned towards the angel who bears the symbols of the Passion.
When pirates landed here, intent on plunder, by grace of the icon the Monastery
vanished and was spared. Cowering behind barred doors, the monks, their ears ringing
with the clamor of voices and firearms from without the walls, were eventually
amazed to see that the pirates had left empty-handed. Their only victim was a
passer-by whom they had hanged outside the Monastery gate, infuriated at his inability
to tell them where the Monastery had gone. Also to be seen here is the Panagia
Eleousa, from an old dependency in Serres,
long disappeared.
Each afternoon one of the priest-monks brings out the holy relics
to be worshipped. Among them is a piece of the True Cross, the foot of Saint Ann
(Mother of Virgin Mary), untouched by decay, the hand of St. Gregory the Theologian,
the head of St. Alypios, who lived as a hermit for 60 years on a column in the
Paphlagonian desert. These were gifts of the Monastery’s first patron, The Great
Emperor Alexios Komnenos (1081-1118).
ACCORDING TO ONE SCHOOL OF THOUGHT, the founder of the Monastery was
employed in the 11th century in the court of Kutlumus, the head of the Seljuk
dynasty of that name in Asia
Minor. A more likely theory is that the founder is to be sought among the
monastic communities of Palestine
in the 11th century, since in one of the old Arab dialects the word Kutlumus denotes
the church of Christ the Saviour, to Whom the Catholicon of the Monastery has
always been dedicated. The founder of the Monastery was known to later generations
as Saint Koutloumousis, "the Chosen and Beloved of God, that most excellent
in all things and virtuous Koutloumousis", in the words of the Protos Isaac
(14th century). The first signature we have of an abbot of the Koutloumousi Monastery
is to be found in a document of 1169, among the signatures of the representatives
of 28 Athonite monasteries. At that time, and for another hundred years, the Monastery
was in no position to boast of its opulence or its exalted rank in the hierarchy
of the Monasteries. Its economic stagnation was exacerbated by the depredations
of Franks and Catalans during the period of Frankish rule, and by the brutality
of the army of Michael VIII, which descended on Mt.
Athos to enforce the union with the Pope which the Greek Emperor had signed
in Lyons. Tradition has it
that the monks were hanged and their bodies buried behind the Catholikon. Yet
their sacrifice was not in vain. In 1263 the Protos of Mt.
Athos conceded to Koutloumousi the abandoned Monastery of the Prophet Elias,
and later, in 1287, the Monastery
of Stavronikita, at that time in a state of dissolution. The Protos at this
period was an elected official with administrative jurisdiction over the whole
of Mt. Athos. These additions
to the Monastery’s assets, together with the progressive temperament and the spiritual
struggles of the fathers, led to a period of rapid growth for the Monastery.
However, the pirate raids continued. At the most critical period royal
assistance arrived at Koutloumousi in the person of Andronikos II Paleologue,
followed shortly after by Theodora Kantakouzini, who wrote: "To those who
lead a virtuous life and who do battle so nobly and heroically at the monastery
honored with the name of Christ the Saviour, also known as Koutloumousi... I hereby
make a gift of the property in Serres
known as Eleousa, which I purchased from the Holy Monastery of The Savior and
Creator and Pantocrator in Constantinople,
glorious to God", stipulating explicitly that none of the provisions of her
gift should be altered. In exchange she required that her name be commemorated
daily in the holy services and that each year prayers be said for the peace of
her soul. The monastic spirit had penetrated into the royal chambers and had touched
the hearts of those who shared a sense of the more profound meaning of existence.
However, after the fatal blow struck by the Frankish crusaders, the Eastern Roman
Empire never recovered its former economic health. The monks of Mt.
Athos were obliged to seek help elsewhere.
Hariton of Imbros
took over the reins of the Monastery a little before 1362. By vigorous representations
to the rulers of Hungary
and Wallachia he managed to secure financial assistance in restoring the Monastery,
as well as gifts of land. The first benefactors were Alexandros Basarab, and his
successor Ioannis Vladislav. The latter, however, insisted that the abbot should
abolish the cenobitic system and introduce to the Monastery the new idiorrhythmic
rule, which permitted the monks to own personal property and to follow their own
daily programme. Such a system well suited the Wallachian monks, who had no tradition
of monastic life, and who wished to settle at the Monastery, but without adjusting
to the demands of the cenobitic life, with its common spiritual and economic organization.
Hariton wrote that "the cenobitic life is heaven on earth, and the allotted
fate of the fathers". Finally, however, financial hardship left him no alternative
but to yield, in sadness of heart, and to introduce the idiorrhythmic system,
but on the inviolable condition that Koutloumousi should remain a Greek monastery.
Another result of these relations was the profound influence exerted
by the Greek culture on the spiritual life of the Danubian provinces. It was no
coincidence that the Ecumenical Patriarch St. Philotheos Kokkinos appointed Hariton
Metropolitan of Hungary and
Wallachia, while he continued to carry out his duties as abbot of his Monastery.
In 1393 the Patriarch Antonios proclaimed Koutloumousi a Patriarchal
and Stavropegic Monastery. This meant that it now enjoyed the care and protection
of the Patriarch, and was free from interference or influence from any secular
power. A similar freedom was conveyed in the imperial golden bulls, by virtue
of which the Monasteries are honoured with the appellation of "royal".
By and large this privileged status was respected even by the Ottoman rulers.
And so, in the following centuries, the Monastery was free to enjoy a course of
steady growth and prosperity, by 1574 ascending to occupy sixth position in the
hierarchical ranking of the Athonite monasteries.
However, the consequences of the disintegration of the Roman Empire
were not easy to bear: an economic crisis brought on by the burden of taxation
and the confiscation of monastic estates, a decline in the number of monks. Fortunately
in due course the Monasteries succeeded in placing all their civil affairs under
the direct authority of the Sultan. At the same time Koutloumousi was able to
maintain enclaves of the faith and rallying points for the enslaved Greek people
at its dependencies in Serres,
on Andros, Imbros,
Samos, Limnos,
at Marmaras, in Sithonia, Crete
and even in Slatina in Romania.
Monks were also dispatched as priests to serve the thriving Greek communities
of central Europe. During the 17th and 18th centuries the Monastery had to rely
exclusively on the support of pious Greeks. The end of the 18th century brought
distinction to the Monastery in the work of the most distinguished figure in the
modern history of Koutloumousi, the scholar Bartholomew of Imbros,
teacher and editor of the liturgical books.
In the mid-19th century the Monastery was subjected to a new ordeal,
owing to the new expansionist policy of the Russians. An attempt was made in 1856
by instruments of the new Russian policy to impose a Russian identity on the Monastery.
Their plans, which had succeeded at the Monastery of St. Panteleimon, came to
nothing in the case of Koutloumousi, thanks to the indivisible sense of fellowship
binding the monks. This year was a milestone for another reason, too: as the result
of a unanimous petition addressed by the monks to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the
Monastery returned to its original cenobitic rule. It was at this time that a
fire reduced the northern wing of the Monastery to ashes. The priest-monk Meletios,
distinguished for his virtue and administrative talents, travelled with the blessing
of the Patriarchate as far as Russia,
western Europe and even America, with letters from the Monastery seeking financial
support. He was successful enough to be able to finance the restoration of the
northern wing, but his project of a further construction was interrupted by his
demise.
In the wake of the Second World War the Monastery was afflicted by
an alarming decline in the number of monks. The ravages of time and the almost
total loss of the Monastery’s assets in land, jeopardized its very existence.
But eventually the will of God manifested itself in the survival and gradual recovery
of the Monastery’s fortunes. It has not of course been a road entirely without
obstacles and setbacks: in 1980 the eastern wing was burned, while torrential
rains caused landslides and cracks in the Monastery buildings. But God never subjects
us to temptation and trial without providing also the necessary patience to endure,
and to await the final happy outcome.
THE DAYS AND NIGHTS of the monks are divided between communal worship,
private prayer and study, the chores of the Monastery and relaxation, the latter
determined with reference to the stamina of the individual. The monk’s striving
for oneness with God commences each day at 2 in the morning, in his cell; at 3
am the service in church begins: Midnight Prayers, Matins, Hours, Divine Liturgy.
The life of worship follows a ritual pattern established over the centuries and
adjusted to the particular conditions of each Monastery.
THE MONASTERY COMMUNITY today numbers thirty monks, while some forty
others live in the dependencies of the Monastery. Despite numerous trials and
tribulations, and thanks to the support of pious Christians, the Monastery is
now on the road of recovery. The new innovations are still guided by the spirit
of the traditional rules, while the future of the Monastery is now confronted
with a new dynamism, inspired by the spirit of renewal at work in the Orthodox
Tradition. The icon painters in the Monastery workshop continue to follow the
Byzantine models of the Cretan School. And the old art of calligraphy is still
cultivated, faithful to the old tradition, as far as the daily workload of the
monks permits. Meanwhile the Monastery, as we pass through a time which tends
to ignore the life of the spirit, has been at work building bridges by means of
which the Orthodox message can be conveyed, offering old wine in new bottles.
First and foremost, however, it perseveres in its main task, that of prayer, the
liturgical and mystical reference of all things to God.
This text is cited Apr 2003 from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople URL below.
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