Pyrn Monastery
| Cistercian monastery Pyrn | |
|---|---|
| location |
 Greece Peloponnese Prefecture Laconia |
| Patronage | unknown |
| founding year | after 1223 |
| Year of dissolution / annulment |
around 1263 |
The Pyrn Monastery was a Frankish Cistercian monastery in the Principality of Achaia in today's Laconia prefecture near Monemvasia in the Peloponnese in Greece .
history
The existence of the monastery is only documented by a single surviving letter in the sources. In 1252 Pope Innocent IV wrote to the Bishop of Monemvasia about Margaret de Toucy, a very young conventual of the Pryn Monastery. Margaret had asked the Pope to be allowed to leave the convent and to be released from her oaths because she wanted to marry Leonard de Veroli, the chancellor of the Principality of Achaia . The Pope complied with Margaret's request and approved her resignation and the marriage to Leonard, which then took place.
Margaret von Toucy belonged to one of the noblest families of the Frankish crusader states of the Aegean. Her father, Narjot de Toucy , was regent of the Latin Empire , her brother Philippe de Toucy also became regent, and a sister married Wilhelm II of Villehardouin .
Since the Bishop of Monemvasia was entrusted with Margaret's case, the Pyrn Monastery must have been in his diocese and may have been founded after the conquest of Monemvasia by the Franks in 1248. However, the area around the city had been in Franconian hands since 1223. It is therefore possible that the Pyrn Monastery was located in Prinikos or Pirnikos, an area near Monemvasias where, according to a listing by the Metropolitan of Monemvasia in 1301, there was a Greek monastery that may have followed the nunnery after the Franks in 1263 and Have lost the surrounding area. The information in Innocent's letter that Margaret entered the monastery as a young girl suggests that the monastery was founded early. Since she was of marriageable age at the time of leaving the convent and the Pope spoke of a multi-year stay in the monastery, the earlier founding date for Pyrn is more likely.
literature
- Nickiphoros I. Tsougarakis: The Western Religious Orders in Medieval Greece , Leeds 2008, pp. 98-102.