Xeropotamou Monastery

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The Xeropotamou monastery, drawing from the Brockhaus from 1894

Moni Xeropotamou ( Greek Μονή Ξηροποτάμου Moní Xiropotámou , German 'Kloster am Trockenbach' ) is an Orthodox monastery in the monastic republic on the Athos peninsula in Greece . It is on the road from Dafni to Karyes at an altitude of 200 m.

In the hierarchy of the Athos monasteries it is eighth today, before the 16th century it was fifth. It is one of the twenty self-governing monasteries on Athos and was dedicated to Saint Nikephorus when it was founded , and has been dedicated to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste since the middle of the 13th century . Until 1661 it was a koinobitisches monastery, while all other Athos monasteries had adopted the idiorrhythmy ; this way of life was resumed in 1981.

Well-known works of art include a cross relic and the paten of the Pulcheria , supposedly from the 5th century, in reality a panhagiarion made of steatite from the 14th century. The library of the monastery has 550 manuscripts from the 10th to the 20th century and 4,000 old prints, the archive holds 35 Byzantine and 200 post-Byzantine Greek documents and copybooks. The current buildings date from the 18th century.

history

A foundation by Empress Pulcheria is a legend with no verifiable real foundation. The monastery was probably founded shortly before 956 as the second of the Athos monasteries. In research it is controversial whether Paulos Xeropotamites can be regarded as the founder during the joint rule of Constantine VII and Romanos II . From the 11th to the 13th century, Xeropotamou was one of the richest monasteries on the peninsula because of its land holdings, but the crisis caused by pirate attacks in the first half of the 13th century was soon overcome. Severe fires occurred in 1507 and 1609. While 90 monks were still living in the monastery in 1489, there were only 23 in 1569. Economic support came from the Danube principalities and the Aegean Islands during the Turkish era .

literature

Web links

Commons : Xeropotamou Monastery  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tou Motzichiakou , tou Cheimarou and tou Chloropotamou are occasionally used as alternative names .
  2. ↑ Ioli Kalavrezou-Maxeiner: Byzantine Icons in Steatite . (= Byzantina Vindobonensia. 15). Verlag der Österreichischen Akadademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7001-0682-3 , no.131.

Coordinates: 40 ° 13 ′ 40.5 ″  N , 24 ° 13 ′ 11.3 ″  E