Greece, Asia Minor, And Blachia
The Monastery acquired a large number of dependencies outside of Agios Oros even as early as the period of its founding, with gifts of the founders and other patrons. The most important, which are mentioned repeatedly in Byzantine and post-Byzantine records in the archives of the Monastery, are located in eastern Macedonia and in the islands of the northern Aegean, i.e. either in areas subject to the brothers Alexios and Ioannis, or which provide access to the Monastery by sea. These are described in summary below.
Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
1) Marmarios. At the lower reaches of the Strymon, this dependency was a gift to the Monastery from its founders. It includes an extended area around the Byzantine settlement Marmari, which is located very close to the present day community of Amfipolis.
Marmarios is one of the most important dependencies of the Monastery, with income derived from livestock raising, agriculture, the operation of mills, and aquaculture. During the Ottoman period, much of the land was lost due to the frequent seizures by local Ottoman officials, and by the encroachment of squatters on the land, causing the Sultan to publish edicts and other official Ottoman documents upholding the Monastery's ownership rights to the land. In the later Ottoman period, the property was divided into three parts: (1) the dependency of Genikiois (approximately located at the site of the contemporary city of Amfipolis), (2) the dependency of Agiasmat (located next to the contemporary village of New Mesolakkias), and (3) the dependency of Pravistas (today's Palaiokomi).
2) The monidrio of Pantokratoros in Eleutheropoupolis. In two documents of the Monastery, the chrysobull of Manuel II Palaiologos, dating to January 1394, and the patriarchal sigilli of Anthony IV, from June 1394, the monidrio bearing the Monastery's name appears among its possessions in the Macedonian area. It is referred to as having houses, vineyards, fields, and a water mill, a description which creates the image of a large and economically robust dependency.
3) The monidrio of the Virgin Mary in Chrysoupolis, at the eastern estuary of the Strymonos, close to the Dionysios Monastery's dependency of Orfanios, is referred to in the same documents mentioned above for the dependency in Eleutheropoupolis. This dependency also has buildings, vineyards, and an oil press. It is considered likely that, even though references to it do not appear in later documents in the Archive of the Monastery, it continued to function up until the 16th century, when the then-Ottoman city of Chrysoupolis is mentioned for the last time, at which time the settlement was abandoned and the city was fell into ruin.
4) The village Vobliani (today's Acropotamos) in Lykoschisma, together with its lands.
5) The monidrio in Christoupolis (today's Kavala), with dwellings, fields and vineyards. The settlement is mentioned in the Life of St. Filotheos of Athonite, while it's location is believed to be at the site of the present-day church of Panagia of Kavala.
6) In Papagiannia, at the mouth of the Nestos river, the Monastery operates an aquaculture facility.
7) On Thasos, the island which had already been a dependency and protected by the Monastery, the founders donated vast expanses of land and property, mainly through the provisions in the Will of Ioannis. In particular, in Limena (today's Marmarolimenas), the tower and the forth which had been established by Ioannis, along with the surrounding dwellings, the church of St John the Baptist and the old church of St Georgios, as well as the entire area with gardens, vineyards and a watermill was transferred to the Monastery, along with vast expanses of land in other areas. In documents from 1363, mention is made of the dependency-monidrio of Sts Constantine and Eleni located at Proasteio.
8) Monidrio of the Sts Anargyroi. After the deaths of the founders, the Monastery acquired this dependency in the area of Kaki Rachi (today's Kallirachi). The unit included vineyards, fields, orchards of olive and almond trees in the area known as Celadonia. The church in the dependency survives until today, having been renovated at the end of the 19th century. On icons from this period of Christ and the Sts Anargyrioi, there are inscriptions which connect them with their transfer to the Monastery.
9) Adrianoupolis. This dependency was dedicated to the Monastery by the brothers Thomas and Georgios Kritopoulos at the end of the 16th century. They also transferred other properties to the Pantokratoros: The Monastery of the Holy Trinity of Anypodytos, which they had founded outside of Adrianoupolis, and with a cruciform church dedicated to St John the Baptist at the castle of Adrianopolis, which was given to the Monastery in 1591. Unfortunately, the church was destroyed by a fire in 1760 and never rebuilt.
10) St Minos of Thessaloniki. This dependency consists of real property located within the city, which was lost to the monastery during the Greek Revolution for Independence (1821-1828).
11) In Northern Macedonia and in particular Meleniko, the Monastery has had a dependency from the middle of the 16th century.
CHALKIDIKI
12) Azapiko in Longo. This is the dependency in Sithonia, south of present-day New Marmara, which had become a property of the Monastery during the end of the 14th century, and is mentioned in a number of documents in the Archives prior to the year 1491, when the border between it and the neighboring dependency of Simonopetras. It is referred to by later historians as the 'property by the Kofo Lake.'
13) Nikitis, known today by the name Kamara, is a property belonging to the Monastery since the year 1499.
14) The Monastery's property in Ormylias was mentioned in documents for the first time in 1508. Around the second half of the 18th century, the fields of the dependency were taken over by residents of the town, but were subsequently restored to the Monastery, who later leased them to the residents.
15) Azapiko in Balta (present-day Kassandra). This small holding of the Monastery is referred to in Ottoman documents in the archives.
16) Livestock grazing areas and aquaculture facilities in Komitisa (present-day New Roda).
17) Three livestock grazing areas in Palaiochori.
18) Dwellings, watermills and stables in Metaggitsi.
19) A watermill in Vrasta.
NORTHERN AEGEAN ISLANDS
20) In Limnos, the Monastery held vast expanses of land which had been granted through donations since the time of its founding. A number of documents in the archives refer to the agricultural holdings in Upper Chorios, Paranisia, Akti, Akrotirion, and Fako.
The dependency in Alexopurgos, which is the most significant one in Limnos, dates to the end of the 14th century; the buildings and tower were the work of monks from the Monastery. It had developed in the region which had been ceded to the Monastery by the Emperor Ioannis V Palaiologos, near the village Pisperagos. The property was expanded through gifts of additional lands by Manuel II Palaiologos. Centuries later, in 1792, records show the dependency as being mortgaged to a local Ottoman official (αγά) in Limnos due to the huge debt the Monastery owed to the regional governor (Καπουδάν πασά). The church has been renovated and survives today, along with some of the older buildings.
21) Lesbos. This holding in Mantamado was developed in the 18th century, as the result of a gift of one dwelling and olive trees by the Pantokratoros hieromonk Kallinikos and his parents in 1729.
ASIA MINOR
22) St Nikolaos in Aivali. This dependency was founded at the beginning of the 18th century in the northern part of Kydoneios, at the site of Loggos, and fluorished during the next century, increasing its land and, in 1803, receiving as a gift from the residents of the city the church of St Nikolaos, which was renovated in depth during the following decades at the expense of the Monastery. The holding consisted of dwellings, shops, and a significant number of olive trees. It was destroyed during the Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922.
23) The property in Smyrni appear in the records at the end of the 18th century, when it is reported that it was not functioning properly. The local Abbot, Iakobos of Pantokratoras, tried to remedy this.
BLACHIA
24) Katsori (Cascioarele), near Bucharest, is one of the most important properties of the Monastery, dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, which was given to Pantokratoros by the leader of Blachia Alexandro Ilias on 13 February 1629 at the request of the local monks. Treasurers of this dependency, such as Meletios Katsoranos in the middle of the 19th century, financed significant construction projects there.
It is important to mention that during the last centuries of Ottoman rule, the Monastery also acquired many small holdings in different regions of Greece: Serres, Moglena, Turnavo, Amfissa, and others. Today the Monastery has only a small number of properties compared to those of the past, since a large part of the lands belonging to the dependencies were given to the refugees who had been torn from their homes after the Asia Minor Catastrophe, an act which constitutes a major offering by the Athonite monks to the Greek nation in the spirit of neo-Hellenism.
