THE FRIENDS OF MOUNT ATHOS BOOK REVIEWS

© 2000

The Holy Xenophontos Monastery: The Icons. Edited by Stelios Papadopoulos. Mount Athos: The Holy Xenophontos Monastery, 1999. 302 pages. 142 colour illustrations. ISBN 960-86299-1-8. Price h/b $80.00 (including airmail postage).

This large-format volume (25 x 33cm) is well researched and contains high-quality reproductions of the monastery’s major icons. The translation is generally very good, particularly in that it does not read as a translation.

The opening chapter, by Kriton Chryssochoidis, outlines the monastery’s history, from its beginnings in the late tenth century until today. This illustrates just how fragile is the course of even such a large monastery as Xenophontos. It also explains why the monastery has so few old icons. By 1078, only a century after its foundation, Xenophontos was already in a semi-ruinous condition, despite its large land holdings. It was then restored by Symeon, a Byzantine official who became abbot. Then followed another period of decline following the Latin conquest of Athos and unsettlement in the Balkans. The fourteenth century brought a time of spiritual and temporal prosperity, the former due to the renewal of hesychasm and the latter in large part due to the Byzantine emperors competing philanthropically with other Orthodox rulers such as the Serbs.

The period of Ottoman rule brought in another decline for the monastery, one which was periodically ameliorated by Balkan princes and officials--particularly those from Wallachia and Moldavia. In 1784 Xenophontos became a coenobium which introduced another period of renewal. But in 1817 a serious fire destroyed much of the monastery. This and the Revolution of 1821 led to the monastery’s rapid decline. After 1830 its fortunes again turned, so that the records of 1884 tell us that 134 monks lived there. Within this period the vast katholikon was built, the large marble templon being completed by 1847. But debts accruing from this major building project, along with confiscation of properties in Romania in 1863, led to yet another decline. This low more or less continued until the monastery’s recent return to a cenobitic form of life and the influx of European funding.

All these vicissitudes mean that Xenophontos monastery does not now have many old icons: fire, forced sales, thefts, deterioration, and confiscations all demanded their price. Nevertheless, the monastery’s chief iconographic treasure, the pair of eleventh-century mosaics depicting Sts George and Demetrius, is without compare on Athos. The large painted icons of the Transfiguration and Our Lady Brephokratousa from around the late twelfth century are also of an early date, rare on Athos. Our Lady Glykophilousa Kecharitomene (late thirteenth or early fourteenth century) is another great work. From the seventeenth century the Cretan style dominates the iconography of Xenophontos, as elsewhere in the Greek monasteries of Athos. Although icons of this school retain something of the ascetic quality of good iconography, they tend to suffer from a stiffness, formality, and harshness of line absent from earlier works.

All these icons have benefited greatly from the programme of conservation begun in the early 1980s, and, more particularly, carried out in preparation for the 1997 ‘Treasures of Mount Athos’ exhibition. An excellent final chapter, by Nikos Minos, outlines some of the processes involved with this conservation work.

All these icons, plus other works up until the eighteenth century, are beautifully reproduced, some with full-page details. We wait for further such volumes showing other treasures of Athos.

AIDAN HART

Shropshire