Posts in category: Ιστορια Αγ. Παυλου Κεφ. 2

Today, the Monastery has a new and dynamic population which, under the spiritual guidance of the saintly leader Archimandrite Parthenios (Abbot since 1974), maintains its important presence in the Athonite and wider Orthodox circle. The presence of Romanian monks gave a new impetus to the brotherhood. The construction projects undertaken during recent years exemplify the vitality of the brotherhood and its love for the esteemed presence of the Monastery in the contemporary world, while at the same time paying respect to its history and the fathers who came before them.

After the failed revolt in Chalkidiki in 1821 in which the Athonites participated, the majority of monks abandoned the area, and some monasteries – St Pavlos Monastery among them – were occupied by Ottoman forces. With the exception of two or three monks, the monks of St Pavlos left for the islands of the Aegean (e.g. Skopelos and Hydra), while the artefacts of the Monastery had been taken to the islands of the Ionian Sea (e.g. Zakynthos). When the Ottoman troops left the Athonite peninsula and the area began to return to normal, the Monastery tried to recover its artefacts and to stabilize its economic condition. In fact, it is said that two monks from the Monastery, Sabbas Rosianos and Gerasimos Loverdos, requested help from distant leaders, including the Russian czars Alexandros I and Nikolaos I, and received financial help to recover the metochia of the Monastery which had been illegally seized by locals.
The decade of 1830 was an important one in the recent history of the Monastery. The monks continued the work of building the new cathedral, a project which had been begun by Anthimos Komnino but had been interrupted by the Revolution and so remained half-finished. In addition, an important event for the Monastery was its return to the system of cenobitic life in 1839, which was formally reinstated by an 1840 edict from the Patriarch Gregorios VI. The first Abbot was Stefanos, a hieromonk and Prior of the Dionysios Monastery.
1839 was also the year that the construction of the new cathedral was completed, and it was consecrated in 1844. The central figure in all the efforts relating to the renovation was the Archimandrite Sofronios Kalligas. The Archimandrite not only helped to complete the project, but was also appointed as Abbot, and served from 1843-1882, a long period of time, with some brief intervals of interruption. The new cathedral was inaugurated so as to celebrate its feast on the same day as that of the the Presentation of Christ (Υπαπαντής) because, according to tradition at the Monastery, the founder St Pavlos had dedicated the first small church in the name of the Presentation.
The renovation projects continued during the following years. Unfortunately, a particularly-destructive fire occurred during the night of 3rd-4th January 1902. A large part of the southwest wing of the Monastery complex and about 220 Slavic codices were destroyed, leaving a large gap in the records of the Monastery’s history.
Just as the Ottoman conquest of 1423/4 had found the Monastery in a phase of restructuring, so did the 1912 liberation of the peninsula by the Greek army. It had a new, large cathedral, along with a spacious monastic compound ready to receive new monks. Already by the 1830s decade, monks from Kefallonia had started to arrive. From that time up until the second half of the 20th century, they would comprise the majority of Greek monks of the brotherhood at the Monastery.
After 1922, the arrival in Greece of the refugees from Asia Minor led to the loss of the Monastery’s metochia in Chalkidiki, since the properties were taken over by the Greek state to provide lands for the refugees, a policy which affected all the Athonite monasteries. Today, the estate of the Monastery is comprised of real property in urban areas, which generate income used by the Monastery for its maintenance. The region south of Athos which the Monastery holds rights to is rich in timber, and provides an important additional income to the Monastery.
In addition to the figures mentioned above who played an important role in the history of the Monastery, the Archimandrite Serafeim Padazatos – who served as Abbot between 1910-1932 and 1934-1960 – must be included. Among his other contributions, he published the periodical St Pavlos of Xeropotamos for decades, a unique attempt by the Monastery to make its history known to a wide reading audience, thereby also benefiting Mt Athos as a whole.

However, the 18th century was also a period of growth for the skete-based monastic system (σκητιώτικου μοναχισμού) on the Athonite peninsula. It is not known exactly when the sketes operating today (i.e. the New Skete and St Dimitrios of the Ravine (Λακκοσκήτη, Lakkoskiti)) were founded, but according to patriarchal documents, the New Skete was founded in 1713. A indicative account of the structures and the population of the Monastery is found in a 1764 Ottoman-era census record for Mt Athos.
According to this document, the New Skete already had a central church and 23 inhabited kalyvia, while St Dimitrios of the Ravine also had a central church and 18 inhabited kalyvia; both sketes had a considerable number of monks in residence. Thus, both sketes must have been founded in the first half of the 18th century.
During the entire course of the 16th to 18th centuries, when we have reliable evidence, the Monastery had around 30-35 monks living within the compound. Towards the end of this period, for which more detailed information is available, around that same number of monks must have been living in the two sketes, and also around the same number in the metochia, i.e., 30-35 + 30-35 + 30-35. In other words, only one-third of the St Pavlos monks lived within the Monastery complex, while its total strength (including the monks living in the sketes and the metochia) amounted to about 100 monks.

Despite all the donations and properties which the Monastery had received, the total extent of its productive landholdings outside the Athonite peninsula were reduced, while the number of metochia remained more or less the same. This situation was caused by the illegal settlement on or use of land by local Christian and Muslim villagers, and the need to pay the exorbitant taxes levied by local Ottoman officials, phenomena which were a reality the monks had to confront almost daily. The metochia frequently had to be mortgaged to Muslims, even for long periods of time, in order for the monks to be able to pay their required taxes.
Around the 18th century, an important change in the history of the Monastery occurred: The population of monks who up until that time had mainly been Slavic-speaking (i.e. Serbs or Bulgarians) were gradually replaced by Greeks. Thus, after 350 years of operating with a majority of Slavic-speaking monks, the population of St Pavlos Monastery once again had a majority of Greek-speaking monastics. The reason for this change is not known. It is possible that the Austro-Ottoman wars of 1684-1699 ended the Ottoman control over Mt Athos and the areas of greater Macedonia and Serbia from which the monks mainly had come to the Monastery. Moreover, the presence of the Greek-speaking Fanariotes in the countries around the Danube helped increase the number of Greek monks. Finally, the general spiritual and economic development of Hellenism during the 18th century, together with the larger number of Greek monks residing at the monasteries, resulted in the predominance of the Greek language on the Athonite peninsula.
The change did not immediately help the Monastery. During the 18th century, the difficult economic situation continued, and the retention of the properties outside the Athonite peninsula was an enormous challenge. At the end of the century, however, a figure appeared who would change the picture of the Monastery and would lay the foundation for its future development. This figure was the Archimandrite Anthimos Komninos.
According to tradition at the Monastery, Anthimos, a member of a wealthy family, was born in Silyvria in eastern Thrace in 1762. By 1788, he is mentioned in sources as being a deacon at the Monastery, while in 1791, he became the overseer of the wealthy metochi Zitianos in Vlachia. This provided him with the opportunity to generate a great profit, which he invested in the Monastery he had chosen for his life of repentance. In 1798 and 1806, he financed the production of two copper engravings depicting the Monastery, which were a necessary accessory for the monks who travelled to distant areas for the purpose of soliciting donations.
In 1814, he left Vlachia and took up residence in the Monastery, having had already drawn up an ambitious plan in 1804 for a structural renovation programme. His goal was the expansion of the monastic complex towards the south, which required the removal of rocks from a large area in order to widen the interior of the Monastery and to create a larger courtyard. The construction of a new cathedral was also included in his plans. By 1821, it is known that Anthimos had succeeded in constructing a new bell tower and a number of fountains, to lay the foundations of the new cathedral, and to finance work in the hospital and in the refectory.
The outbreak of the Greek Revolution abruptly interrupted his renovation projects, since he himself, likely a member of the Company of Friends (a secret group involved with organizing and financing the Greek Revolution), left Mt Athos first for Italy and from there to Vlachia. He died in Bucharest in 1828. In his will, which is kept in the archives of the Monastery, Anthimos left about 430,000 grosia to the Monastery, a huge sum for that time, a proof of his managerial abilities and of his great contributions to the Monastery.