Mount Athos
Mountainous peninsula in the northern Aegean, home to hermits and small groups of monks before Athanasius built the Great Lavra there in the 960s. An imperial charter of 971–972 gave its monks a common rule.
Athanasius the Athonite describes Athos as a peninsula running out into the sea, steep and without harbours on either side, so cut off in winter that he had to plant his own vineyard. Monks already lived there under a protos, who gave a newcomer a place after two or three years (Athanasius, Typikon 6; 10). The charter of the emperor John Tzimiskes speaks of the superiors of the Mountain meeting in council with the whole body of the brothers (Tragos (Typikon of John Tzimiskes) preface). See the Great Lavra and the Monastic Republic of Athos.
What happened here
- AD 963 to AD 972, estimated dateThe Great Lavra and the Monastic Republic of Athos
With the backing of the general and emperor Nikephoros Phokas, the monk Athanasius builds the Great Lavra on Mount Athos as a self-governing monastery. A few years later an imperial charter gives all the monks of the Mountain a common rule.
- 1341 to 1351, firm dateGregory Palamas and the Hesychast Councils
Councils at Constantinople in 1341 and 1351 uphold the monk Gregory Palamas against Barlaam. God’s essence is beyond reach, they teach, but his uncreated energies, seen as the light of Tabor, are shared by the saints. The Orthodox Church holds this teaching as its own.
- 1782, firm dateThe Philokalia Is Published
A Greek anthology of writers on watchfulness and the prayer of the heart, gathered from the libraries of Mount Athos, is printed at Venice in 1782. Its preface offers the prayer to laypeople as well as monks. A Slavonic version follows at Moscow in 1793.