Explanation of Monastery Naming Conventions

The names of monasteries, sketes and cells on Mt. Athos typically take the form of the possessives, a word such as “monastery” or “skete” being understood:

(monastery) of [name]

In formal usage, the name of a monastery is usually expressed more fully:

Holy Monastery of Xeropotamou

Thus, the names of monasteries often end with the Greek possessive endings:

Conventions of Naming in English

In English conventional usage, however, there is no consistency in the form and spelling of the names of the Athonite monasteries. Some monasteries have come to be best known by their names with the possessive suffixes, others without them. For others, both forms are widely used:

Koutloumousi, Koutloumousiou
Panteleimon, Panteleimonos
 

Moreover, some monastic names exhibit diverse orthographic traditions in the original languages:

Vatopedi (transliteration of a Greek spelling)
Vatopaidi (transliteration of a different Greek spelling)
Chilandari (traditional transliteration of Greek spelling with Greek inflected ending -i)
Hilandari (phonetic transliteration of Greek spelling with Greek inflected ending -i)
Hilandar (phonetic transliteration of Serbian spelling)

Spellings of Monastery Names Adopted by The Friends of Mount Athos

The Friends of Mount Athos have adopted spellings that reflect common and widespread English usage, since adopting any consistent principle would be both arbitrary and pedantic.  These forms, occurring throughout A Pilgrim’s Guide to Mount Athos, may conveniently be seen in our various lists in this Guide (“Foundation and dedication of the monasteries,” “useful Telephone numbers” and our list of sketes) as well as in the Friends of Mount Athos web site (http://www.athosfriends.org).

Different spelling conventions may be used by writers whose work is cited or reproduced in these and other Friends of Mount Athos publications, newsletters and announcements.