Theotokos Euergetis Monastery

The monastery of Theotokos Euergetis (Greek: Θεοτόκος Εὐεργέτις, lit. 'Theotokos the Benefactress') was a monastery in the European suburbs of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, established in 1049 and surviving until the 13th century.

History

The monastery was founded in 1049, when a certain Paul retired to his estate, located some 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the walls of Constantinople, and settled there as a monk. He was joined by a few other monks, and a few cells were erected to house this small community.[1] When Paul died in 1054, his successor as abbot, Timothy, became the monastery's second founder. Timothy managed to accumulate sufficient wealth to build a new church and larger cells, and in c. 1055 he issued the monastery with new regulations in the form of two charters (typika): one for the rules of daily life, and one for its liturgy.[1] The former was used as a model for the foundation typika of a number of major Byzantine monasteries, such as those of Theotokos Kosmosoteira, Heliou Bomon, Kecharitomene, and Hilandar, and is the main source of information about the Theotokos Euergetis monastery itself.[1]

According to the typikon, the monastery also included a hospice for travellers, and had a dependency (metochion) within Constantinople.[1] One of the main benefactors of the monastery was the Serbian prince and archbishop Saint Sava, who visited it often between 1196 and 1235.[1] During the Latin Empire, the monastery became a dependency of the monastery of Monte Cassino, but it appears that the Greek monks of Euergetis were allowed to remain.[1] The monastery disappears from the record after the 13th century.[1]

References
  1. Talbot & Cutler 1991.

Sources
  • Talbot, Alice-Mary; Cutler, Anthony (1991). "Euergetis Monastery". In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 740–741. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.

Further reading

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