Mount Athos and Byzantine Monasticism

Papers from the Twenty-Eighth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham, March 1994

Anthony Bryer, Mary Cunningham

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780860785514
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351916608
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The papers in this volume derive from the 28th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, held for the Society for the promotion of Byzantine Studies at the Univesity of Birmingham in March 1994. Virtually from the time of their first foundation, the monastic communities of Mt Athos assumed a central position in the world of Orthodox Christianity. The spiritual, and political and economic influence of the Holy Mountain soon transcended the boundaries of the Byzantine empire within which it lay, to take on a supra-national importance and become one of the pillars of Orthodoxy after the fall of the empire. For the historian, the significance of Mt Athos is enhanced by the fact that its archives contain the most substanial body of Byzantine documentation to have survived the Middle Ages, and its libraries, treasuries and buildings have preserved much that has elsewhere been lost. These archives are now largely edited, and investigation of the art and archaeology is yielding substantial evidence. The papers in this volume, by an international set of scholars, embody the fruits of this research. Starting from Athos itself, they embrace the whole phenomenon of Byzantine monasticism, dealing with questions of asceticism, authority, community, economy, enlightenment, fortification, hesychasm, liturgy, manuscripts, music, patronage, scandal, spirituality, and women (to take an alphabetical sample). Together these papers provide a coherent and immediate view of scholarship in the field.

1. St Athanasios the Athonite: traditionalist or innovator?

Kallistos Ware Bishop of Diokleia

A decisive turning-point?

The foundation of the Great Lavra around 963–64 by St Athanasios the Athonite (c. 925/30-c. 1001), with the support of his friend Nikephoros Phokas, is normally regarded as a decisive turning-point in the history of the Holy Mountain. Yet what kind of turning-point was it? The early sources regularly style Athanasios’s foundation ‘the new Lavra’,¹ but wherein precisely did its novelty consist? In his work on the Holy Mountain was Athanasios a traditionalist or an innovator – or perhaps both of these things at once?

In one respect there can be little doubt about Athanasios’s influence. The foundation of the Great Lavra was followed by a rapid influx of fresh recruits, both to the Lavra itself and to other parts of the Mountain, and during the second half of the eleventh century the monastic population of Athos increased rapidly. The Lavra, at first limited to 80 monks,² soon increased to 120,³ and then – within fifteen years of its foundation – to more than 150.⁴ According to his biographer, Athanasios of Panagiou, when Athanasios the Athonite died there were more than 3,000 monks on the Holy Mountain as a whole.⁵ (Compare the figures for the present century: in 1903 there were 7,432 monks, more than half of them Slavs; in 1971 the number had decreased to 1,145; today there are about 2,000 monks.) With good reason his biographer claims that, through Athanasios, ‘the whole mountain became a city’⁶ – a conscious reminiscence of the Life of St Antony of Egypt attributed to Athanasios.⁷ In the matter of monastic statistics, then, the foundation of the Great Lavra undoubtedly represents a turning-point.

The cave of St Athanasios, founder of the Great Lavra, in 1883 (see also p. ix).

There is a second way in which the emergence of the Great Lavra constitutes a turning-point in Athonite history. When, prior to 964, various emperors had dealings with the Holy Mountain, they addressed the general body of Athonite monks in their totality.⁸ With the foundation of the Lavra, for the first time imperial patronage was extended to a specific foundation rather than to the Mountain as a whole. Significantly the monastery of St Athanasios is described in the early acta as ‘the royal Lavra’.⁹

Thus far, however, the changes mentioned concern the external aspect of the Holy Mountain: its numerical size and its relationship with the outside world. What kind of effect did the foundation of the Great Lavra have upon the inner life of Athos? How far, if at all, did Athanasios introduce a form of the monastic life which had not existed hitherto on the Mountain? Julien Leroy has argued that Athanasios brought about a ‘collective conversion’ of Athonite monasticism,¹⁰ but this is contested by Denise Papachryssanthou.¹¹ Which of them is right? What light on this matter is shed by Athanasios’s own writings, the Typikon, the Diatyposis and the Hypotyposis, and how is the monastic ideal understood in these sources?¹²

‘Everything in common’: Athanasios’s monastic programme

When, following the death of Nikephoros Phokas in 969, Athanasios was attacked by his fellow Athonites as an innovator and a revolutionary who was ‘destroying the ancient rules and customs’ of the Mountain,¹³ he replied that, on the contrary, he sought to be entirely obedient to the ‘traditions of the fathers’.¹⁴ This claim seems justified, at any rate if we consider not simply the previous history of monasticism on Athos itself but, more broadly, the earlier monastic history in the Greek east as a whole. For what Athanasios and Nikephoros sought to do in the Great Lavra was precisely to found a monastery that followed the full cenobitic programme as established by the monastic reform of St Theodore the Stoudite (759–826), who in his turn was drawing on St Basil of Caesarea (d. 379). A century later St Christodoulos of Patmos likewise took the Stoudite reform as his model.¹⁵

It is true that, in the sources relating to Athanasios the Athonite, there is a surprising absence of references to Basil and Theodore. Neither is mentioned in the Vita Prima, while there is only a single reference to Theodore in the Vita Secunda;¹⁶ the three legislative texts of Athanasios never refer to Theodore by name and make only two references to Basil.¹⁷ But, despite this silence, there can be no doubt whatever that Athanasios’s debt to Theodore is direct and fundamental. Out of the twenty-four sections in the Testament of Theodore the Stoudite,¹⁸ Athanasios has incorporated – virtually word for word – no less than fourteen sections in his own Typikon, while Athanasios’s Hypotyposis takes the Stoudite Hypotyposis¹⁹ as its model.²⁰ If, via-à-vis the earlier history of the Holy Mountain, Athanasios was an innovator – and that is a question to which we shall return in due course – he was at the same time totally traditional in his innovations. Except at one significant point, noted below, he is a faithful disciple of Theodore.

Let us consider in more detail how Athanasios understands the Basilian-Stoudite monastic programme.

The monk and the martyr Although his biographers emphasize the compassion and affection shown by Athanasios, there is also in his character an unmistakable element of severity. Like the desert father Arsenios of Egypt, to whom Athanasios was compared,²¹ he was noted for his tears.²² In his own writings he regards the monk as the one who mourns: ‘We were called to mourning (penthos), not to rejoicing/²³ It will be remembered that, in the Syriac tradition, monks are known as ‘mourners’. In this connection Athanasios draws on the ancient theme of the monastic life as a form of inner martyrdom.²⁴ Monks are to struggle ‘as athletes and martyrs’, he says;²⁵ and he promises to his disciples that, if they remain obedient to the instructions of the abbot, ‘the choir of the martyrs will receive you’.²⁶ For Athanasios the cutting off of self-will through obedience is a way of laying down one’s life for Christ.

A life of prayer Athanasios calls the monastic life an ‘angelic calling’;²⁷ the task of the angels is to praise and glorify God, and this in Athanasios’s eyes is also the primary work of the monk. So in the Hypotyposis he supplies detailed instructions about the church services to be performed daily by the community (although there are some surprising omissions: for instance, he does not specify how frequently the monks should receive holy communion). As he makes clear in the Typikon, he has deliberately chosen for his monastery a site that is remote and extremely difficult of access, in order to ensure that the monks remain ‘undistracted and free from external activities’²⁸ – free, that is to say, from all that might divert them from their main task of prayer. If the prayer that the monks are to offer on the world’s behalf is not in fact greatly emphasized in Athanasios’s Typikon, this is surely because he takes the point for granted. Monastic intercession for the emperors and the Christian empire is, however, stressed in the Chrysobull of Basil II and Constantine VIII issued to the Lavra around 978:

What foundations are to a house and oars to a boat, the prayers of the saints are to the empire. Who can doubt that what the sword, the bow and military strength could not achieve, prayer alone has often brought to pass easily and s...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Spring Symposia of Byzantine Studies: a record
• List of Abbreviations
• Section I From Stoudios to Athos
• 1. St Athanasios the Athonite: traditionalist or innovator? Kallistos Ware Bishop of Diokleia
• 2. Symeon the New Theologian (d.1022) and Byzantine monasticism John A. McGuckin
• 3. The origins of Athos Rosemary Morris
• 4. Byzantine monasteries in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (Synaxis, Mt Papikion, St John Prodromos Monastery) Ch. Bakirtzis
• Section II Community and Spirituality
• 5. The Athonite monastic tradition during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries Dirk Krausmüller
• 6. Women and Mt Athos Alice-Mary Talbot
• 7. Athos: a working community Archimandrite Ephrem Lash
• Section III Economy and Patronage
• 8. The monastic economy and imperial patronage from the tenth to the twelfth century Alan Harvey
• 9. Patronage in Palaiologan Mt Athos Nikolaos Oikonomides
• 10. The buildings of Vatopedi and their patrons Stavros B. Mamaloukos
• 11. ‘A and holy mountain’: early Ottoman Athos Elizabeth A. Zachariadou
• Section IV Music and Manuscripts
• 12. The libraries of Mt Athos: the case of Philotheou Robert W. Allison
• 13. Hesychasm and psalmody Alexander Lingas
• Section V Art and Architecture
• 14. The architectural development of the Athonite monastery Peter Burridge
• 15. The ‘Tzimiskes’ tower of the Great Lavra Monastery Sotiris Voyadjis
• 16. Recent research into Athonite monastic architecture, tenth-sixteenth centuries Ploutarchos Theocharides
• 17. The painted psalms of Athos Günter Paulus Schiemenz
• Section VI Athos Beyond Athos
• 18. L’Athos, l’orient et le caucase au Xle siècle Bernadette Martin-Hisard
• 19. L’Athos et les Roumains Virgil Cândea
• 20. Athos and the Enlightenment Paschalis M. Kitromilides
• Index