St. Panteleimon Monastery
Άγιος Παντελεήμων; Монастырь Святого Пантелеймона | |
Location on Mount Athos | |
Interactive map of St. Panteleimon Monastery | |
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Holy Monastery of Agiou Panteleimonos |
| Other names | Rossikon |
| Order | Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople |
| Denomination | Russian Orthodox Church |
| Established | 11th century |
| Dedicated to | St. Panteleimon |
| Diocese | Mount Athos |
| Prior | Eulogius (Ivanov) |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Monastery |
| Functional status | Active |
| Style | Byzantine (Athonite) |
| Site | |
| Location | Mount Athos, North Aegean, Greece |
| Coordinates | 40°14′13″N 24°12′07″E / 40.23694°N 24.20194°E |
| Public access | Men only |
| Other information | Russian (language) |
Saint Panteleimon Monastery (Greek: Μονή Αγίου Παντελεήμονος, romanized: Moní Agíou Panteleímonos, Russian: Монастырь Святого Пантелеймона), also known as Rossikon (Greek: Ρωσσικόν, romanized: Rossikón Russian: Россикон) or New Russik (Greek: Νέο Ρωσικό, romanized: Neo Rosiko, Russian: Новый Руссик, romanized: Novyy Russik), is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries on Mount Athos, located on the southwestern side of the peninsula of the North Aegean region of Greece. It is the Russian monastery on the peninsula. It houses Russian and Ukrainian monks, sent by the Russian Orthodox Church, and the liturgies are delivered in Russian, despite the fact that all monks on Mount Athos become citizens of Greece.
History
The monastery was founded by several monks from Kievan Rus' in the 11th century, which is why it is known as "Rossikon". It has been inhabited by mainly Russian monks in certain periods of its history. It was recognized as a separate monastery in 1169. The original monastery is known as Old Russik.
Russian pilgrim, Isaiah, confirmed that by the end of the 15th century the monastery was Russian.[1]
The monastery prospered in the 16th and 17th centuries being lavishly sponsored by the tsars of Russia and Serbian dukes of Kratovo, but it declined dramatically in the 18th century to the point where there were only two Russian and two Bulgarian monks left by 1730.
The construction of the present monastery on a new site, closer to the seashore, was carried out during the first two decades of the nineteenth century, with the financial help of the ruler of Moldo-Wallachia, Skarlatos Kallimachos. Russian monks numbered 1,000 in 1895, 1,446 in 1903, and more than 2,000 by 1913. During the Tatar yoke in Russia, most of the monks were Greeks and Serbs. The monastery occupies the nineteenth rank in the hierarchical order of the twenty Athonite monasteries. It is coenobitic (i.e., it is a communal monastic life). It also contains four sketes.
In 1913, the monastery was the site of a raging theological argument (Imiaslavie) among Russian monks, which led to tsarist Russian intervention and the deportation of approximately 800 of the monks on the losing side of the debate.[2]
The Monastery of St Panteleimon was repeatedly gutted by fires, most famously in 1307, when Catalan mercenaries set it aflame, and in 1968. The first Russian leader to visit the monastery was President Vladimir Putin on September 9, 2005.
In the modern era
Today, the monastery features the architecture of a small town, with buildings of various heights and many domes. It is the largest of the monasteries on the peninsula.[3] Although destroyed by a fire in 1968, one wing of the monastery was used as the guest quarters, with a capacity of 1,000 monks. The monastery's katholikon (main church) was built between 1812–1821 and is dedicated to St. Panteleimon. It features the same style found in all the Athonite churches. Aside from the katholikon, the monastery has many smaller chapels.
The library is housed in a separate building in the monastery's court. It contains 1,320 Greek manuscripts and another 600 Slavonic ones, as well as 25,000 printed books. In addition, the library has a few priceless relics, such as the head of Saint Panteleimon, one of the most popular saints in Russia. The 19th-century monastery bells are said to be the largest in Greece. There is a daughter community at the monastery at New Athos, Abkhazia. Included in its collection are the Uncial 052 and Minuscule 1093 (Gregory-Aland).
After the transfer of Athos to the Kingdom of Greece in 1912, and especially with the start of World War I in 1914, the stream of pilgrims and monks from Russia was disrupted and later was strictly controlled by the government of Greece until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. As a result, the number of Russian monks in the monastery and on Mount Athos generally, was reduced from several thousand in the 1900s to 13 in the early 1970s. In the 1990s, Greece relaxed its restrictive policy and the monastery subsequently underwent a relative revival. As of May 2016, there were approximately 70 Russian and Ukrainian monks.[2]
Notable monks
See also
- Russian Orthodox Church
- List of monasteries in Greece
References
- ^ Bakalopulos, A. E. (1973). History of Macedonia, 1354-1833. [By] A.E. Vacalopoulos. p. 166.
At the end of the 15th century, the Russian pilgrim Isaiah relates that the monks support themselves with various kinds of work including the cultivation of their vineyards....He also tells us that nearly half the monasteries are Slav or Albanian. As Serbian he instances Docheiariou, Grigoriou, Ayiou Pavlou, a monastery near Ayiou Pavlou and dedicated to St. John the Theologian (he no doubt means the monastery of Ayiou Dionysiou), and Chilandariou. Panteleïmon is Russian, Simonopetra is Bulgarian, and Karakallou and Philotheou are Albanian. Zographou, Kastamonitou (see fig. 58), Xeropotamou, Koutloumousiou, Xenophontos, Iveron and Protaton he mentions without any designation; while Lavra, Vatopedi (see fig. 59), Pantokratoros, and Stavronikita (which had been recently founded by the patriarch Jeremiah I) he names specifically as being Greek (see map 6).
- ^ a b ERASMUS (May 29, 2016). "Greece, Russia and religious diplomacy". The Economist. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
- ^ Norman, Edward (1990). The House of God: Church Architecture, Style and History. Thames & Hudson. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-500-28556-5.
- ^ Γουμενίσσης, Ι. Μ. (October 12, 2019). Εξηγήσεις και επεξηγήσεις εκκλησιαστικής ιστορίας και δεοντολογίας για το Ουκρανικό. orthodoxia.info (in Greek).
External links
Media related to Moni Agiou Panteleimonos (Athos) at Wikimedia Commons
- "Home page". Mount Athos (in Greek). Archived from the original on February 24, 2008.