Posts in category: Ιστορια Αγ. Παυλου Κεφ. 1

Starting from about the beginning of the 16th century and for the two following ones, the places of the Serbian leaders and nobles who supported the Monastery were taken over by the leaders of Vlachia and Moldavia (present-day Romania). Already in 1501, an annual monetary contribution to the Monastery by a noble family of Kraiovas in Vlachia had been established, while during the 16th century, Vlachian leaders built the tower at the harbour of the Monastery, and in 1521, the Vlachian leader Neagkoe Basarab financed the tower of the monastery compound. Just prior to 1612, the Zitianos Monastery in Vlachia (near Kraiovas) was transferred to the Monastery, along with its metochi, the skete Tsioutoura. In 1664, the St Pavlos Monastery acquired the monastery Ascension of the Saviour-Todireni (written as Theodoreni in Greek sources) as a methochi through a gift of Myron Konstantinos, the Commander of the Guards in Chotin, Moldavia (present day Khotyn, Ukraine). Around the middle of the 18th century, the Monastery acquired the church of St Dimitrios in Galatsi. The Monastery managed to retain the three properties, even increasing their productivity, until the confiscation of all the Athonite properties by the Romanian leader Alexandros Kouza in 1863.
As regards artefacts, the three despotic icons which decorate the icon screen of the old cathedral, all of which date to the second half of the 16th century, were gifts of the Moldavian leader Petros of Cholou (1574-1587). The continuation of the Serbian and Romanian gifts during the Ottoman period are evidenced by two other important works at the Monastery: The fresco painting of the central nave of the old cathedral, and the repair of the west wing between 1690 and 1708.
In addition to the Serbian and Romanian leaders, the Monastery also had contacts with Russian officials. The main figure responsible for this connection was the St Pavlos monk and former Bishop of Melitinis, Anatolios Meles. He visited Russia between 1749-1754 and gave a piece of the Holy Cross, one of the Monastery’s artefacts, to the Empress Elizabeth. In return, she donated 4,000 roubles to the Monastery, and granted permission for three or four monks from the Monastery to visit Russian every five years in order to solicit contributions on behalf of the Monastery.

In the 14th century, the Monastery was already in ruins, but the memory of its founding by the Great Pavlos of Xeropotamos remained. The Monastery was re-founded in 1383/4 by two Serbian monks, Chilandarinos Gerasimos (lay name Nikola) Radonja and the Vatopedian monk Antonios (the Prior Arsenio) Pagasi. Both were descendants of Serbian noble families, and the former came from the future dynastic Branković family. The two monks bought the remains of the cell of St Pavlos from the Xeropotamos Monastery, which had became the owner after its abandonment. Antonios became the first Abbot of the renovated Monastery. Using his family connections to advantage, Antonios acquired the Monastery Virgin Mary of Mesonisiotissas near Edessa, together with its estates and its holy artefacts, as a metochi from his brother, who was the administrator of Edessa. This gift was the first known acquisition of property by the Monastery outside of the Athonite peninsula. Moreover, during the first half of the 15th century, the Monastery acquired three cells within Mt Athos – The Archangel Michael, The Saviour, and Simeon, The God-Receiver (Θεοδόχου Συμεών) – the so-called Friend/Protector of Infants (Φιλογόνου) – and, more importantly, as was later proved, the metochi in the same area as today’s village of St Pavlos near New Kallikrateia, Chalkidiki. This last acquisition was a gift of the Serbian noble Radosthlavos Sabia, the spiritual child of the Abbot Antonios Pagasi.
During the entire 15th century, the Monastery continued to increase its productive lands outside of the Athonite peninsula. Because of the Serbian ancestry of the second founders, the Monastery also acquired both lands (in the area of Kosovo) and monetary gifts from Serbian leaders and nobles during the 15th century. The Serbian despots Stefanos-Gregorios Branković and Georgios Branković were among the prominent donors to the Monastery. The latter financed the construction of the new cathedral in 1447 in the name of his protector St Georgios, in a location a little north of the original shrine which had been built by St Pavlos in the 10th century. Since then, the Monastery has the names of both St Georgios and the Virgin Mary. Many of the artefacts which are safeguarded today in the Monastery are among the gifts of Serbian rulers and nobles.
After the end of the Serbian monarchy in 1459 by the Ottoman conquest, Mara Branković – the daughter of the former Serbian ruler Georgios Branković and wife of the Ottoman Sultan Mourat II – proved to be an important protector and sponsor of the Monastery. As she is called in Athonite sources, ‘Maro, the Lady from Ježevo’, dedicated very important metochia to the Monastery. The financial contributions of the Serbian nobles towards the Monastery continued until the end of the 15th century. From the beginnings of the next, the Monastery St Pavlos, together with the Monastery Chilandarios, would acquire the right to collect a monetary offering from the Democracy of Ragusa (today’s Dubrovnik, Croatia) from the former Serbian leaders. Thus, in this regard, the two Athonite monasteries would operate in a sense as heirs of the Serbian leaders of the Middle Ages. Finally, Mara Branković, according to tradition, was also the donor of the most important artefact of the Monastery: The Holy Gifts which the three Magi had brought to the newborn Christ.
A later example of the relationship of the Monastery with Serbian circles is the donation of the sum of 600 Polish grosen to the Monastery in 1547, known from a relevant source recently identified in Polish archives. According to the information, the Polish Prince Fedor Sangousko left this amount to the Monastery in his will, which was the only Athonite monastery to be remembered by the Polish noble. His relationship with the Monastery is through his wife Anna, who was the daughter of the last titular Serbian despot Ioannis Branković. Furthermore, the same Ioannis, together with his brother Georgios and their mother Angelina, had made the last-known Serbian monetary contribution to the Monastery in 1495.
At the time of the conquest of Mt Athos by the Ottomans in 1423/4, the St Pavlos Monastery was experiencing a phase of growth. Although its properties outside the Athonite peninsula were somewhat reduced during the Ottoman rule, as was true for all the other monasteries, overall the St Pavlos Monastery managed to increase its productive lands and to emerge unscathed from this difficult (for Mt Athos) 15th century.

The Holy Monastery of St Pavlos was founded, according to the Athonite tradition, by Pavlos (whose lay name was Prokopios), the son of the Emperor Michael III Rangkave (842-867). Surviving sources in the archives, however, confirm that the Monastery was founded by the well-known Athonite ascetic, the Great Pavlos of Xeropotamos, during the second half of the 10th century. This monk, after the foundation of the Xeropotamos Monastery, left for the then-deserted area in the north of the peninsula, where he founded a small monastery in the name of the Virgin Mary, and became its first Abbot. Because of the reputation of the founder, the Monastery acquired influence in the Athonite community: In 1045, its Abbott – who was the eighth Abbot in a series of 32 – wrote the Typiko (Book of Rules) of the Emperor Konstantine IX Monomaxos.
The only information known from this first phase of the history of the Monastery are its attempts to organize its productive lands, and in particular its northern border (in the area of the present-day skete of St Anna), where the Monastery of the Parliamentarians once stood. Until the beginning of the 12th century, the Monastery of St Pavlos was a relatively small monastic unit, without known properties outside the Athonite peninsula.