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According to Christian tradition, the Our lady It landed on the sacred lands of Mount Athos and was dazzled by its natural beauty.
The ship carrying the Virgin Mary and Evangelist John was forced to drop anchor due to a terrible storm, and Theomitor, shocked by the natural spectacle he witnessed, blessed the area.
Then a voice was heard: “May this place be your heritage and your garden, a paradise and a refuge for those who want to be saved.” The “Garden of the Virgin” had just been born!
This is what tradition gives us because of what seems to have happened in very distant times. For us today, Mount Athos is a place of reverence and devotion, a seventh monastic state that since 1988 has been included in its Cultural Heritage Monuments. Unesco.
Mount Athos is characterized by a peculiar legal status that makes it an autonomous part of the Greek state.
In fact, regarding its property status, the territory of the Athos peninsula is inexhaustible and is divided among its holy monasteries. Equally constitutional is the immovable property of monasteries outside of Mount Athos.
But how was the Christian holy land born and how did it come to enjoy its self-sufficient privileges?
How you got your name
Mount Athos is known from Greek mythology, since it was there that the titanic battle between giants and Olympian gods took place. And the leader of the giants was Athos, son of Uranus and Gaia, who seized a rock and threw it against the gods, creating there on its edge. From Halkidiki The peninsula of the same name.
Thucydides, Herodotus and Strabo tell us that small communities have lived there since pre-Hellenic times and we know of some cities that existed within the peninsula.
The name change to Mount Athos is lost in the depths of time, however, one of the earliest reports comes from the 11th century. We find it in the “Testimony of the fifteen martyrs of Tiberias”, the hagiological work of the great Byzantine scholar and archbishop of Ohrid and Bulgaria, later Theophylaktou.
It was called “Mount Athos” until then and since the 12th century we now know it as “Mount Athos”. That’s what O calls it in his gold bullion emperor Alexios I Komnenos, imposing it by law: “From now on the name of Mount Athos is called Mount Athos despite everything.”
All subsequent public documents refer to it as “Mount Athos [του Άθω]»…
The first traces of monastic life.
At this time it is unknown what he will do after leaving the position. However, tradition wants Constantine I the Great to build the first Christian churches on Mount Athos, something that cannot be confirmed. What is confirmed is the Christian presence in the peninsula from the 4th century AD. C., through monks who practiced there.
Mount Athos, however, began to unite into a monastic community from the ninth century onward, when the first attempts at monastic life took place. The Great Vigla, the first monastery, is being built at this time, in the second half of the 9th century.
Here historical thought places the beginnings of the Athonite community, with the delimitation of its borders and the prohibition of entering the laity. It would soon become a privileged place for him. monasticismAs the ancient cities were now deserted and the iconoclasm of Constantinople forced many monks to seek a new refuge from the mundane.
Important monks like Peter the Athonite and Euthymius the Younger are coming to Mount Athos, establishing it in the consciousness of asceticism. In 885 AD In fact, Emperor Basil I of Macedonia defined Mount Athos as a gold bar as the exclusive residence of the ascetics, excluding any other human presence in the area.
Ascetic and community development will flourish in no time. Now (10th century) the first communities are born, the “laurels”, and the property of Mount Athos is assigned to their monks (with a gold ingot from King B ‘of Voulgaroctonos).
Athanasius the Athonite, who in 960 AD C. played an important role in the reorganization of monastic life. he introduced extensive reforms to the monopoly. A personal friend of Nikiforos Fokas founded it Great Lavra Monastery and established new standards of asceticism and coexistence.
Athanasios is the founder of monasticism on Mount Athos, the man who gave him the character that survives to this day.
How it was established as an autonomous area
The privilege of self-government is intertwined with the birth of Mount Athos. It was first awarded by Basil I to his gold bar, and soon after, in 908 AD, Emperor Leo VI the Wise reaffirmed it, further establishing the independence of Mount Athos.
A century later, Constantine IX, the Gladiator, regulated by imperial decree the internal government of the Athonite state, but also all aspects of its management. property of the monasteries. Even any commercial activity.
In the same document we find the prohibition of women. A ban that is now very strictly monitored, so that the message is universal.
At the end of the 11th century, Alexios Komnenos exempted monasteries from taxes and placed them under direct imperial protection.
In the years that followed, the small monastic state earned a great fortune, both through private donations and courageous state grants. Monasteries acquired land throughout Macedonia, exerting socioeconomic influence on neighboring populations.
The rich and adventurous history of Mount Athos has been looted and destroyed (by the Crusaders), raids and assassinations, and even internal religious strife.
In recent years, the administrative autonomy of Mount Athos was internationally recognized in 1878, with its Treaty. Berlin, before the recognition of the sovereignty of the Greek state in the region.
In 1926, the Greek state ratified the Mount Athos Charter, constitutionally formalizing its independence of self-government …
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