Posts in category: Η Μονή στην Ελληνική Επανάσταση 1 – Ξενοφώντος

The monks returned to the Xenofontos Monastery after the departure of the Ottoman soldiers from Mount Athos in 1830. As soon as life at the Monastery returned to normal, the construction of the new cathedral that had been interrupted in 1821 was resumed.

Following these events, most of the fathers were forced, like many other monks, to abandon the monastery and seek refuge at a dependency of Xenofontos on the island of Skopelos, the small Monastery of the Saviour. They also took the relics with them. The Monastery was then occupied by Ottoman soldiers.

A month later, in May 1821, when Meletios (the bishop of Kitros), papa-Giannis (the priest of the church of St Minas) and other notable citizens were executed in Thessaloniki, a monk of the Monastery, Damianos, was also put to death with them.

The first consequence of the participation in the struggle was the interruption of the massive reconstruction work. However, a much more dramatic consequence was that at least four monks of the monastery – Chrysanthos, Neofytos, Isaac and Xenofontos, whose names were recorded in the monastery's Prothesis prayer book and in other sources of the time – were martyred in Konstantinople and Thessaloniki in 1821 in 1822. They are also mentioned in Dositheus of Kostamonitou's work on new martyrs written in 1855. In fact, the holy monk Chrysanthos was martyred in Konstantinople on Easter Sunday (10 April 1821), the same day the Patriarch of Konstantinople Gregory V was hanged from the gate of the Patriarchate.

The important contributions of the Athos fathers in general, and the monks of Xenofontos Monastery in particular, during the Revolution of 1821 is little known to the world. On May 18, 1821, Emmanuel Pappas declared the Revolution in Karyes. The fraternity of the Xenofontos monastery actively participated in the Revolution in Macedonia, with the monk Gedeon at the front line. When the Revolution failed, the Monastery paid a heavy price for this action.