Chilandar

    The monastery of Chilandar is first mentioned in a Greek manuscript of 1015, but as being "completely abandoned and empty", for which reason it was given to the monastery of Kastamonitou. It was certainly established a good hundred years earlier: a certain George Chelandarios (Boatman), mentioned among important Athonites in 980 was probably the founder of the monastery, which was subsequently called after him (h monh tou Celandariou). The monastery's name appears thus in Greek acts of the 11th and 12th centuries, but later, in the first Serbian sources, it takes the form of Hilandar (D. Anastasijevich). At that time the monastery was already dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (November 21). The last appearance of the form Chelandar is in a Protaton act of 1169, the signatories of which included abbot Gerasimus of Chelandar. After this, the monastery declined and was abandoned, like many other small monasteries and kellia at Milees, as this part of Athos was called in the Middle Ages. Up till that time, the area had been prey to constant attacks by pirates and brigands of various kinds.

     Chilandar was renewed by the Grand Zhupan of Serbia Stefan Nemanja (the monk Simeon) and his son Rastko (St. Sava). Sava came to Athos in 1191 and was shorn in Roussikon, but soon moved to the Greek monastery of Vatopedi. Here he awaited his father, who had renounced the throne, entered the monastery of Studenica in Serbia in 1196, and in November the following year came to Athos as the megaloschemos (senior monk wearing the great habit) Simeon. Father and son immediately undertook all that was necessary to found a Serbian house on the Holy Mountain. First of all, early in 1198, Sava obtained from Emperor Alexius III in Constantinople a gold-sealed sigillion transferring the abandoned small monastery of Chilandar (Helandar) from the protos to Vatopedi, for the purpose of its restoration. The sigillion was accompanied by the appropriate documents: prostagma and praktikon (catastral document on the boundaries of Chilandar's estate). Work on the construction of Chilandar then commenced. Sava and Simeon managed to overcome Vatopedi's opposition to giving Chilandar to the Serbs with the aid of the Karyes protos and Assembly, who together sent a request to the emperor that Chilandar be handed over to Simeon and Sava. The latter personally requested Alexius to give the monastery the independent status enjoyed by Iviron (a Georgian monastery) and Amalfitans (Italian). Emperor Alexius agreed, and by a chrysobull of June 1198 placed Chilandar with all the holy places at Milees under the authority and administration of Simeon and Sava as a completely self-governing monastery, "to be a gift to the Serbs in perpetuity". Shortly after, in the latter half of 1198, Simeon Nemanja issued a gold-sealed charter to Chilandar constituting it as a Serbian monastery and the hereditary foundation of the Nemanjich family. At the same time, the nucleus of Chilandar's landed property was created: Alexius gave Simeon the serfs of nine villages in the Prizren district for Chilandar; in addition, the monastery was given two vineyards, four bee-farms, one mountain and 170 Vlach shepherds, together with some separate contributions of cattle and salt. Nemanja's son and successor on the Grand Zhupan's throne helped his father and brother to raise Chilandar as quickly as possible In this connection, the first abbot of Chilandar, Methodius (Metodije), visited Serbia in 1198.

    The economic basis of Chilandar's existence in the Middle Ages was its landed property. From the nine villages and other gifts in the Prizren region bestowed on the monastery by Simeon Nemanja's founding charter in 1198, Chilandar's estates expanded during the 13th and 14th centuries into the largest complex of monastic holdings in medieval Serbia, stretching "from Thes­salonica to north of Parachin". The precise size and economic potential of these estates have still not been studied, but they are known to have included huge areas of land in the Pech and Hvosno regions, in the Pomoravlje region (beside the River Morava), in the Thessalonica and Struma (Strymon) areas, and particularly on Chalcidice. By the beginning of the 15th century, Chilandar had over thirty metochia with 360 villages over which it exercised full feudal rights, "together with considerable judicial, administrative and financial privileges, so that it virtually constituted a state within a state" (R. Grujich). By the mid- 14th century, Chilandar possessed almost a fifth of the Athos peninsula alone, which means about 60 square kilometres.

  The rich archives of Chilandar monastery, with 172 Greek, 154 Serbian and two Bulgarian charters from the Middle Ages (the Russian and Romanian charters are of later date), combined with other sources, make it possible to reconstruct in considerable detail the monastery's history in the 13th and 14th centuries, and its growth in spiritual, economic and political importance. Without exaggeration, Chilandar may be described as the centre of medieval Serbia's spiritual life and an important intermediary and representative in Serbia's relations with Byzantium. Without its intermediary role, it is inconceivable that Serbia would have adopted Byzantine civilization and the classical heritage. As it was, the elite of the Serbian Church, literature and theology passed through Chilandar. In the eyes of Byzantium, Chilandar was a lasting proof of Serbian legitimacy, recognized and confirmed by imperial chrysobulls. Enjoying the status of a Byzantine "imperial lavra", this rich and independent monastery was Serbia's best diplomatic mission in Byzantium.