Rarely in Greek history can one find an institution that has been functioning for more than a thousand years: The Xenofontos monastery is mentioned for the first time in a document of the year 998, signed by the founder, Xenofontos, as 'monk and abbot of the Monastery of St Georgios'. It is one of the earliest cenobitic monasteries on Mt Athos, founded at the time of St Athanasios of Athos. A large collection of documents, inscriptions, manuscripts, and relics, as well as tradition and oral history, support the memory and history of this long life. The millennial age of the monastery, which was appropriately celebrated in 1998, makes it a unique repository for collective memory.
