The Contribution of Archimandrite Dionysios and Other Works of the 19th century

Also from Ainos was the archimandrite and exarch of the Monastery in Jassy Dionysios, who was responsible for the radical ‘restocking’ of the sacristy after the catastrophic consequences of the uprising of 1821. Under threats to their lives, the monks were forced to hand over to the Turks what seems to have been a considerable part of the valuable treasures which they had not succeeded in hiding. The Abbot Theophilos quotes the words of Dionysios at the crucial moment when the decision had to be taken: “ I am of the opinion that we should hand them over, because if we do not hand them over, they will cut us down and take them, and I promise you that I will go out and will replace them”91. The inability of the monastic community to safeguard the sacred offerings was a moral blow and, consequently, created an obligation whose fulfilment was undertaken by Dionysios, together with other monks, and bishops. On one of the older works, made in Jassy “by the providence and under the supervision” of Dionysios, the artoklasia of 1837, it is recorded that the Monastery had had an artoklasia* made 120 years previously, but “since in the recent circumstances of the Holy Mountain in 1821 it was broken up and its price was given for the needs of the monastery”, a new artoklasia was made, paid for by money collected by the efforts of Grigorios, Metropolitan of Eirinoupolis, administrator of the Monastery’s property in Moldavia and Bessarabia92. However, this zeal for renewal also included works which were thought to be old or worn. Thus, two Byzantine manuscripts of the 10th-11th century and of 1314/15 acquired new silver covers, in 1844 and 1851, respectively, on the reasoning that “the old one having been worn by time it was ornamented again …” or “through the great length of time and various circumstances the adornment had been worn away …”.

The number of silverware items in the sacristy which are due to the efforts of Dionysios is large. His personality, together with the offerings and their donors, deserves to be the object of a special study. By way of indication, we cite here some of these items, drawing attention to the differences in places where they were made. Thus we have a casket of 1834 and a pair of caskets of 184393

made in Jassy by a local goldsmith, and a chalice of 1839 of Russian make94,

while the cover of 1844 to the Byzantine manuscript mentioned above is to be ascribed to a goldsmith from Ainos who worked in Jassy95. On the other hand, by the efforts of Dionysios, the revetment of the Axion Esti icon was being made by Ioannis of Ainos on the Holy Mountain. According to Theophilos of Vatopaidi, Dionysios was also responsible for the revetment of the icons of the katholikon and of the miracle-working icons of the Esphagmeni (1859), the Antiphonetria (1860), and of the Paramythia (1859)96, and for the last intervention on the Vematarissa.

In concluding, it is worth mentioning two impressive offerings from the second half of the 19th century, a holy water basin

and the famous ‘lemon tree’.

According to Abbot Theophilos, Vatopaidi owes these to the initiative of Archimandrite Chrysanthos of Imbros, who in the last decade of the 19th century made extensive alterations to the Monastery’s building complex97. The basin, nevertheless, dates from 1860 and, according to the superb inscription on it, was made on the initiative of Agapios, Abbot of the Barboi Monastery, who was from Ravna in Chalcidice. He was also the donor to the Mon­astery in 1858 of a silver chandelier98. The seven-branch lamp in the shape of a lemon tree is undoubtedly modelled on the lemon tree of the Iveron Monastery, which was a gift from the people of Moscow in 181899. The vase in which the tree grows is of neo-Classical shape, as is that of Iveron, and the holy water basin of Vatopaidi. It is decorated with gilt medallions depicting feasts of the Lord, while the foot is supported by cast lions and has medallions with the Evangelists in niello. The idea of a tree made of precious metal recalls the descriptions of the Byzantine Sacred Palace, but the models are to be sought in the similar offerings in the Roman Catholic Church, whether lemon trees or rose trees. The latter were chiefly papal gifts given by the Pontiff to princes or to cities as a mark of honour100.

From the inscription we know that the seven-branch lamp was made at Vatopaidi in 1895 by the brothers Charalambos and Vassileios Anastasiou and their nephew Athanasios, whose place of origin was Anaselitsa. In 1885 these goldsmiths were entered on the census as residents of the Holy Mountain with their workshop established at Karyes near the Church of the Protaton. The establishment of secular goldsmiths on the Holy Mountain is also documented by the Patriarchal sigillium* of 1897, which permitted only two workshops to operate in Karyes, clearly because they had exceeded the number regarded as acceptable. At the same time, from the early 19th century there is evidence of monks whose calling was goldsmithing, such as those of the kalyva* of St Thomas at Mikri Aghia Anna101. As far as we know at present, however, it would seem that important commissions were given to the lay goldsmiths who worked periodically on the Holy Mountain, such as Ioannis of Ainos, who in 1836 made the revetment of the Axion Esti.

This first review of the silver offerings which are in the sacristy of the Vatopaidi Monastery brings out and confirms its position as one of the most important of the Athonite monasteries, an example and centre of devotion for Orthodox Christians in the period of Turkish rule. The material is so rich, particularly for the 18th and 19th centuries, that the selection made here can only be indicative. Further research will unearth new data and expand upon this preliminary approach.