Monastic Community of Mount Athos

Origins

Hermits lived on the mountainous Athos peninsula from at least the 9th century. In 963 Athanasios the Athonite, with the backing of his friend the general and future emperor Nikephoros Phokas, founded the Great Lavra, the first large monastery. The first charter, the Tragos, issued under John Tzimiskes around 972, organised the community under a Protos at Karyes.

Rule and society

Twenty ruling monasteries, Greek, Serbian (Hilandar), Russian (Saint Panteleimon), Bulgarian (Zograf) and others, own the land and send representatives to the Holy Community at Karyes. Women have been excluded since the Middle Ages. Life follows the Byzantine liturgical calendar and day, and the monasteries hold great libraries of manuscripts and icons.

To the present

Athos kept its autonomy under Byzantine, Serbian and Ottoman rulers. Greek forces took it in 1912, and the Treaty of Lausanne and the Greek constitution of 1927 confirmed its self-government under Greek sovereignty, with a civil governor. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.