Byzantine era: the first monasteries The chroniclers
Theophanes the Confessor (end of 8th century) and
Georgios Kedrenos (11th century) wrote that the 726 eruption of the
Thera volcano was visible from Mount Athos, indicating that it was inhabited at the time. The historian
Genesios recorded that monks from Athos participated in the
seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicaea of 787. Following the
Battle of Thasos in 829, Athos was deserted for some time due to the destructive raids of the
Cretan Saracens. Around 860, the monk
Euthymios the Younger came to Athos from
Bithynia. ,
The Slav Epic In 958, the monk
Athanasios the Athonite () arrived on Mount Athos. In 962, he built the large central church of the
Protaton in
Karyes. In the next year, with the support of his friend Emperor
Nicephorus Phocas, the monastery of
Great Lavra was founded, still the largest and most prominent of the twenty monasteries existing today. During the following centuries, it enjoyed the protection of the
Byzantine emperors, and its wealth and possessions grew considerably.
Alexios I Komnenos, emperor from 1081 to 1118, gave Mount Athos complete autonomy from the
Ecumenical Patriarch and the Bishop of
Ierissos, and also exempted the monasteries from taxation. Furthermore, until 1312, the
Protos of Karyes was directly appointed by the Byzantine Emperor. The second charter or of Mount Athos was written in September 1045 and signed by 180 . Emperor
Constantine IX Monomachos ratified the typikon with an imperial
chrysobull in June 1046. This charter was also the first official document that referred to Mount Athos as the "Holy Mountain". From 985 to 1287, there was a
Benedictine monastery on Mount Athos (between Magisti Lavra and Philotheou Karakallou) known as after the people of
Amalfi who founded it. The monastery was founded with the support of
John the Iberian, a Georgian and the founder of the
Iviron Monastery, and is thought to have influenced Latin Christian monasticism and piety. From 1342 until 1372, Mount Athos was under Serbian administration.
Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan helped Mount Athos with many large donations to all monasteries. In the charter of emperor Stefan Dušan to the Monastery of Hilandar the Emperor gave to the monastery
Hilandar direct rule over many villages and churches, including the church of
Svetog Nikole u Dobrušti in
Prizren, the church of
Svetih Arhanđela in
Štip, the Church of Svetog Nikole in
Vranje and surrounding lands and possessions. He also gave large possessions and donations to the Karyes Hermitage of St. Sabas and the Holy Archangels in Jerusalem.
Empress Helena, wife of the Emperor
Stefan Dušan, was among the very few women allowed to visit and stay in Mount Athos, to protect her from the
plague. She avoided breaking the ban against a woman setting foot on the mountain by not touching the ground for her entire visit, being constantly carried in a
litter. Thanks to the donations by Dušan, the
Serbian monastery of
Hilandar was enlarged to more than 10,000 hectares, thus having the largest possessions on Mount Athos among other monasteries, and occupying 1/3 of the area. Serbian nobleman
Antonije Bagaš, together with
Nikola Radonja, bought and restored the ruined
Agiou Pavlou monastery between 1355 and 1365, becoming its abbot. The time of the
Serbian Empire was a prosperous period for Hilandar and other monasteries in Mount Athos, and many of them were restored, rebuilt, and significantly enlarged.
Ottoman era The Byzantine Empire ceased to exist in the 15th century, and the
Ottoman Empire took its place. From the account of the Russian pilgrim Isaiah, by the end of the 15th century, monasteries in Mount Athos represented monastic communities from large and diverse parts of the Balkans.
Sultan Selim I was a substantial benefactor of the
Xeropotamou monastery. In 1517, he issued a
fatwa and a
Hatt-i Sharif ("noble edict") that "the place, where the Holy Gospel is preached, whenever it is burned or even damaged, shall be erected again". He also endowed privileges to the Abbey and financed the construction of the dining area and the underground of the Abbey, as well as the renovation of the wall paintings in the central church that were completed between the years 1533 and 1541. This new way of monastic organization was an emergency measure taken by the monastic communities to counter their harsh economic environment. Contrary to the
cenobitic system, monks in idiorrhythmic communities have private property and work for themselves, bearing sole responsibility for acquiring food and other necessities; they dine separately in their cells, only meeting with other monks at church. At the same time, the monasteries'
abbots were replaced by committees, and at Karyes the Protos was replaced by a four-member committee. In 1749, with the establishment of the
Athonite Academy near Vatopedi monastery, the local
monastic community took a leading role in the
modern Greek Enlightenment movement of the 18th century. This institution offered high level education, especially under
Eugenios Voulgaris, where ancient philosophy and modern physical science were taught.
Late modern times , 1885 In modern times after the end of Ottoman rule new
Serbian kings from the
Obrenović dynasty and
Karađorđević dynasty and the new bourgeois class resumed their support of Mount Athos. In November 1912, during the
First Balkan War, the Ottomans were forced out by the
Greek Navy. In June 1913, a small Russian fleet, consisting of the gunboat
Donets and the transport ships
Tsar and
Kherson, delivered the archbishop of
Vologda, and a number of troops to Mount Athos to intervene in the theological controversy over
imiaslavie (a Russian Orthodox movement).
Maryse Choisy entered Athos in the 1920s disguised as a sailor. She later wrote about her escapade in (
A Month with Men). In the 1930s,
Aliki Diplarakou dressed as a man and snuck into Athos. Her stunt was discussed in a 13 July 1953
Time magazine article entitled "The Climax of Sin". A monk named Mihailo Tolotos is claimed to have lived on Athos from to 1938. On October 29, 1938, the American community newspaper
Edinburg Daily Courier of
Edinburg, Indiana reported that Tolotos had died at the age of 82. Reportedly, Tolotos had never seen a woman in his life, as his mother had died in childbirth and he was brought up in the monastery by the monks. His 1938 death was again mentioned in January 7, 1949, edition of
Raleigh Register in an Nixon Furniture Company advertisement, saying he lived a secluded life in the monastery, suggesting he may have never left the monastery. Following the outbreak of World War II,
Time magazine described during the
German invasion of Greece in 1941 a bombing attack near Athos, "The Stukas swooped across the Aegean skies like dark, dreadful birds, but they dropped no bombs on the monks of Mount Athos". During the German occupation of Greece, the Epistassia formally asked
Adolf Hitler to place Athos under his personal protection. Hitler agreed and received the title "High Protector of the Holy Mountain" () from the monks. Athos was able to avoid significant damage during the war.
Contemporary times After the war, a Special Double Assembly passed the constitutional charter of the monastic community, which was then ratified by the
Greek Parliament. In 1953, Cora Miller, an American
Fulbright Program teacher, landed briefly along with two other women, stirring up a controversy among the local monks. The monasteries of Mount Athos have a history of opposing
ecumenism, or movements towards reconciliation between the
Orthodox Church of Constantinople and the
Catholic Church. The
Esphigmenou monastery is particularly outspoken in this respect, having raised black flags to protest against the meeting of
Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople and
Pope Paul VI in 1972. Esphigmenou was subsequently expelled from the representative bodies of the Athonite Community. The conflict escalated in 2002 with
Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople declaring the monks of Esphigmenou an illegal brotherhood and ordering their eviction; the monks refused to be evicted, and the Patriarch ordered a new brotherhood to replace them. The monasteries also have opposed ecumenism between the Orthodox Church of Constantinople and
Oriental Orthodox Churches. Following the
First and
Second Agreed Statements published by the Joint Commission of the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches in 1989 and 1990 respectively, and the subsequent
Proposals for Lifting Anathemas in 1993, a committee formed by the monasteries published a responding memorandum expressing their condemnation of what they perceived to be an imminent false union with "the Non-Chalcedonians". After the dissolution of the
Yugoslav Communist regime and
Socialist Yugoslavia many
presidents and
prime ministers of Serbia visited Mount Athos. A 2003 resolution of the
European Parliament requested the lifting of the ban on women and girls for violating "the universally recognised principle of gender equality". On 26 May 2008, five
Moldovans illegally entered Greece by way of Turkey, ending up in Athos. Four of these migrants were women. The monks forgave them for trespassing and informed them that the area was forbidden to females. In 2008 a group of Greek women contravened the 1,000-year ban on females on the mount during a protest after five monasteries laid claim to of land on the nearby Chalkidiki peninsula. About ten women jumped over the border fence and spent about 20 minutes on the monastery territory, being joined by Greek MP
Litsa Ammanatidou-Paschalidou. In 2018, Athos became an issue in
Greece-Russia relations when the Greek government denied entry to Russian clerics headed there. The media reported allegations that the
Russian Federation was using Athos as a base for intelligence operations in Greece. In October 2018, the
Moscow Patriarchate broke communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and banned its adherents from visiting sites controlled by
Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, including Athos, in retaliation for his decision to grant
autocephaly to the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In the context of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine and
related sanctions, in 2022 the money-laundering authority of Greece launched an investigation into the suspicious transfer of large funds from Russia to Russia-friendly monasteries and monks at Mount Athos. Several senior Russian officials had visited Mount Athos in the preceding months.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/oct/06/russia-ukraine-war-ukraine-retakes-more-settlements-in-kherson-zelenskiy-says-un-nuclear-chief-heads-to-kyiv-live|title=Russia-Ukraine war: Putin must lose or he will invade other European countries, Zelenskiy says – as it happened == Monastic life ==