Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Serbian monastery on athos , founded by Simeon and sava of serbia . By a chrysobull issued in 1198, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III placed the monastery under the founders' direct authority, granting it complete and permanent self-government. Its typikon was drawn up by Sava on the model of the Virgin Evergetis (Benefactress) monastery of constantinople . In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, through the generosity of Byzantine emperors and Serbian rulers and nobility, Hilandar acquired vast lands and revenues. The Mother of God is venerated as abbot of Hilandar. The monks lead a cenobitic life. icons (including the Virgin with Three Hands or Panaghia Tricheirousa), manuscripts, liturgical objects and ecclesiastic embroidery bear witness to the monastery's cultural attainments. The present katholikon was built by King Milutin around 1300. Its original wall paintings, later repainted, are now largely restored. The exonarthex was added towards the middle of the fourteenth century, although popular tradition ascribes it to the patronage of Prince Lazar, around 1370. Among Hilandar's fortifications the most prominent is St Sava's pyrgos , or fortified tower, with fourteenth-to-seventeenth-century additions. King Milutin's early fourteenth-century tower guards the path from the monastery to the sea. His famous tower in the port, Hrusija, is only partly preserved. ... log in or subscribe to read full text