The Stoudites gave the first proof of their devotion to the Orthodox Faith during the
schism of
Acacius (484–519); they also remained loyal during the storms of
iconoclastic dispute in the eighth and ninth centuries. They were driven from the monastery and the city by Emperor
Constantine V (r. 741–775); after his death however, some of them returned.
Hegumenos (abbot)
Sabas of Stoudios zealously defended the Orthodox
doctrines against the Iconoclasts at the
Second Ecumenical Council in
Nicaea (787). His successor was
Theodore the Studite to whom the monastery owes most of its fame, and who especially fostered academic and spiritual study. He reformed the monastery based not only on the ideas of
Basil the Great, but also of
Pachomios, the ascetics of the Gazan deserts (e.g.
Barsanuphius,
John,
Dorotheus) and
John Sinaites. During St. Theodore's administration also the monks were harassed and driven away several times, some of them being put to death. Theodore's pupil, Naukratios, re-established discipline after the Iconoclastic dispute had come to an end. Hegumenos Nicholas (848-845 and 855-858) refused to recognize the
Patriarch St. Photios and was on this account imprisoned in his own monastery. He was succeeded by five abbots who recognized the patriarch. The brilliant period of the Stoudios came to an end at this time. (11th-century
mosaic from
Nea Moni monastery on
Chios). In the middle of the eleventh century, during the administration of Abbot Simeon, a monk named
Niketas Stethatos, a disciple of
Symeon the New Theologian, criticized some customs of the
Latin Church in two books which he wrote on the use of
unleavened bread, the
Sabbath, and the
marriage of priests. As regards the intellectual life of the monastery in other directions, it is especially celebrated for its famous school of
calligraphy which was established by Theodore. The art of
manuscript illumination was cultivated, with many brilliant products of the monastic scriptorium now residing in
Venice,
Vatican City, and
Moscow (e.g.,
Chludov Psalter). The
Theodore Psalter, created at the monastery in the twelfth century is in the collection of the
British Library. In the eighth and eleventh centuries, the monastery was the centre of Byzantine religious poetry; a number of the
hymns are still used in the Orthodox Church. Besides Theodore and Niketas, a number of other theological writers are known. Three of the Stoudite monks rose to become the
ecumenical patriarchs; and three emperors—
Michael V (r. 1041–1042),
Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–1078), and
Isaac I Komnenos (r. 1057–1059)—took
monastic vows in the Stoudion. In 1204, the monastery was destroyed by the
Crusaders and was not fully restored until 1290, by
Constantine Palaiologos. The Russian pilgrims Anthony (
c. 1200) and Stephen (
c. 1350) were amazed by the size of the monastic grounds. It is thought that the
cloister sheltered as many as 700 monks at the time. The greater part of the monastery was again destroyed when the
Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453. ==Modern condition==