FRIENDS OF MOUNT ATHOS BOOK REVIEWS
© 1997
Mount Athos and Byzantine
Monasticism: Papers from the Twenty-Eighth Spring Symposium of Byzantine
Studies, Birmingham, March 1994.
Edited by Anthony Bryer and Mary Cunningham. Aldershot: Variorum. 1996. 278 pages.
Price h/b £39.50. ISBN 0-86078-551-3.[1]
The annual Spring Symposium
has long since become a firm fixture in the diary of every Byzantinist in the
United Kingdom, and increasingly of many from outside the British Isles. These
occasions are a happy mix of serious scholarship and friendly conviviality. The
tradition of publishing the papers from the symposia, however, has been less
firmly established, though that is now changing. Starting with the 1990
meeting, Variorum Press has undertaken publication of the symposia on behalf of
the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, under whose auspices these
occasions are convened. The volume under review is the fourth in this series of
publications, and matches the high standards of its predecessors both technically
and in content. This should please the Friends of Mount Athos, and especially
the British contingent, who supported the occasion with their presence and
several of whom, including your Secretary, took an active part in the
proceedings. However, as the symposiumÕs title indicates, the focus was
primarily historical and, though present developments in the monastic
communities of Mount Athos and in Orthodoxy in general were not ignored, and
indeed in at least one paper (Robert AllisonÕs on the library of Philotheou)
were a prime instigation for the research programme under report, these were
not the main target of discussion. The symposium was concerned not so much with
the Athos that is a contemporary centre for Orthodox spirituality as the Athos that
is a monument to a past phenomenon.
For
students of Byzantine history and culture, Athos is the prime living example of
something that was a not uncommon feature of the Christian Middle Ages in the
east Mediterranean: a cluster of monastic communities in a restricted
geographical area. The dramatic monasteries of the Meteora, near Kalambaka, are
another surviving case, but many more not dissimilar clusters once existedÑon
Mount Olympus in Bithynia, for instance, or Mount Papikion and Mount Ganos in
Thrace, or Mount Latros in Caria. But Athos is unique in its integrity, to
which its relative geographical isolation, or rather near-island formation, has
contributed. Despite the vicissitudes of its thousand years of existence, its
way of life, its physical structures, and, most importantly for the historian,
more of its archives than for any other Byzantine institution have been
preserved to the present day. The symposium, while recognizing that it could in
no way Ôclaim to be either canonical or comprehensiveÕ, set out to explore
issues that reflect current scholarly concerns about the Holy Mountain. Despite
this disclaimer, the scope of the papers is broad.
Thus we find discussed the development of monasticism
in Athos, by Bishop Kallistos Ware, in terms of St Athanasios, the personality
who was a prime instigator of the monastic movement there, and by Rosemary
Morris in terms of the documentary evidence. The spiritual underpinning of the
early phases of the movement is explored by John McGuckin in connection with
Symeon the New Theologian (very illuminating on SymeonÕs political
affiliations) and by Dirk KrausmŸller, discussing ascetic practices in the
eleventh and twelfth centuriesÑon which Archimandrite Ephrem Lash provides
eye-opening contemporary insights. Alexander Lingas argues persuasively,
despite the lack of explicit textual evidence, for a link between the
kalophonic musical inventions of John Koukouzeles, from the Great Lavra, and
the hesychast practices of the time.
Much
space is given to the physical environment of the monastic communities: there
are papers by Charalambos Bakirtzis who discusses analogous structures outside
Athos, in Macedonia and Thrace, and by Peter Burridge, Sotiris Voyadjis, and
Ploutarchos Theocharides, all of whom analyse building developments on Athos
itself, how the structures now deemed typical (an enclosing, often defensive,
wall, free-standing church, etc.) came into being. Stavros Mamoulakos lists the
inscriptional evidence for the patrons at Vatopedi, and finds that, while in
the early years the sparse details give the prime role to aristocrats,
subsequently building work seems to be done on the initiative of the monastic
community itself. Then as now much would seem to depend on the vigour of the
abbot. Comparatively little is said in these papers (and, it seems, in the
course of the symposium) about the decoration of these structures, though
GŸnter Scheimenz is interesting on the revolutionary implications of the
wall-paintings that illustrate Psalms 148-50 in Koutloumousiou, Dochiariou,
Iviron, and Xeropotamou (revolutions are a sub-text to this volume).
The
surviving archival material is brought into play in the papers by Alan Harvey,
who, concentrating on Iviron and Lavra, looks at the evidence for monastic
revenues and prosperity or otherwise, mainly in the eleventh century, and by
Nikolaos Oikonomides, with a fascinating depiction of the activities of the
brothers who founded Pantokrator in the mid-fourteenth century. These were the
leaders of a piratical band who had carved out a Greek ÔemirateÕ for themselves
but ensured their personal financial security by judicious donations to the
monastery and a well-timed submission to the Turks. The Athonite monasteries
can thus be seen playing a multiple role, both spiritual and material. A
similar situation is presented by Elizabeth Zachariadou in connection with the
early Ottoman period, when she adduces instances of the monasteries and their
representatives using their protected status to function as depositories for large
amounts of cash. One of the cases that she discusses involves a woman,
Maria-Helena, daughter of the Serbian despot and grand-daughter of the despot
of the Morea, who like many other women over the centuries was an active donor
to the monasteries.
This
leads to the vexed question of the relationship of women to the Holy Mountain.
The background to the unwritten rule that the Mountain is abaton, inaccessible, to women, is discussed by Alice-Mary
Talbot. Is this an extension of the regular exclusion of females from male
monastic houses? Tenth-century regulations for the Lavra and for Athos in
general forbid the use of female animals, but specifically exclude only
beardless men and eunuchs. In legend the Holy Mountain had been granted by
Christ to his mother, and so no other woman should set foot on it. Be that as
it may, the surviving archival material makes it clear that women frequently
entered into property transactions with the monasteries, often in the normal
course of estate management and also very often in order to set up a spiritual
benefit: property would be donated in exchange for commemorative prayers. If in
these cases the women remained outside the Mountain, nevertheless in 1347-8 the
wife of the Serbian tsar Stefan Dusan accompanied him throughout a lengthy
residence in Athos; he had, however, recently conquered Serres and its
surrounding territory, so perhaps force majeure played a part.
If
the monasteries of Athos have survived relatively unscathed from raids and
depredations, the same has not always been true of its libraries. In the past
the monks themselves have sometimes been somewhat cavalier towards their
possessions, while visitors have not been over-scrupulous about what they
filched. Attitudes have changed. Over the last decade Robert Allison has been
preparing a catalogue of the library of Philotheou; his paper shows how much
can be learnt for liturgical history, on the one hand, and codicology, on the
other, from a careful examination of the holdings of even a modest monastic
collection. The large number of menaia preserved at Philotheou, for example, document the history of the
services in that monastery since its foundation in 1141.
But
the Holy Mountain, a haven of Orthodoxy, has never been the preserve of any one
national group. The final set of papers looks at ÔAthos beyond AthosÕ.
Bernadette Martin-Hisard shows how the monastery of Iviron (the Georgian
monastery) stands at a cross-roads for the complex interactions between
Constantinople and the Caucasus region in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Virgil C‰ndea discusses the Romanian presence, how the rulers of the Danubian
principalities took over the role of monastic patron from Byzantine aristocrats
until in the mid-nineteenth century they had become the principal financial
prop of the Eastern Church. Paschalis Kitromilides contextualizes the
eighteenth-century educational reforms in Athos within the Greek Enlightenment.
He argues that, although the Athonite Academy proved an abortive venture, it
none the less fuelled Greek nationalist thinking which, as he notes
ambivalently, came ultimately to eclipse Athos and the Orthodoxy that had
fuelled it.
The
collection ends with KitromilidesÕs final sombre note: are recent nationalist
tensions again to be reflected within the Holy Mountain? Surely not. But his
remarks point up the constant paradox that this repository of Christian widsom
has shown over the centuries a persistent interplay with the secular powersÑthe
revolutionary sub-text.
One
of the signs of a fruitful conference is the buzz that it generates in the
corridors; the mark of the successful publication of such a conference is the
number of questions it raises and leaves unanswered. From a ByzantinistÕs
viewpoint it would be good in the future to see further exploration of
libraries along the lines taken by Robert Allison; much remains to be
discovered about liturgical developments on the Holy Mountain; it would be
useful to see the roles and activities of alumni of the Athonite Academy
further teased out; much more can be said about the paintings and decoration of
the buildings. But this is carping: the convenors, editors, and speakers at
this symposium are to be congratulated that so much was covered and has now
been made available. The Friends of Mount Athos are urged to acquire their own
copies and make their own discoveries.
[1] This book is available to members of the Friends at the special price of £30.00 (incl. p&p). Cheques should be made payable to the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies and sent to Dr Mary Cunningham, 44 Church Street, Littleover, Derby DE23 6GD.