Romanos of Vatopaidi, monk (1889–1966)
One of the latest of the illustrious choir of Vatopaidi musicians is the protopsaltis Romanos. He was born in 1889 in Gomati of Chalkidiki. He went to the Monastery of Vatopaidi in 1919 at the age of thirty. He began his training in the art of chant near the protopsaltis Vasileios Nikolaidis Zangliberinos. He served for a while as protopsaltis at the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem and afterwards at the church of the Protaton in Karyes. He then became protopsaltis at Vatopaidi Monastery, where he served till the end of his life. In 1944 he was advance as a council member of the Monastery. Romanos taught music to many monks and laymen. One of his student who stood out was the monk Ignatios, who chanted together with him and was his stand-in at the chanter’s stand in the right-side choir. Romanos was also involved in composing melodies. In the library of Vatopaidi there are more than twenty codices written in his own hand with compositions that are, for the most part, unpublished. In the Mousikos Thisavros tis Litourgias [A Musical Treasury of the Liturgy], which was published in 1931, there are liturgical hymns in the first mode diphono. Romanos departed this life in 1966.