"The Lonely Mountain: The Emergence of a ‘Hagiorite’ Identity on Medieval Mount Athos," Zachary Chitwood, Mary Jaharais Center for Byzantine Art & Culture, 24 January 2023 12:OO PM ET (Online)

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art & Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross Presents:

The Lonely Mountain: The Emergence of a ‘Hagiorite’ Identity on Medieval Mount Athos

Zachary Chitwood (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz)

24 January 2023 12:00 PM ET (ONLINE)

General view of Mount Athos (detail), Romanian Skete of St. John the Baptist (1859). Image: Athanasios Karakatsanis, ed., Treasures of Mount Athos (Thessaloniki, 1997): p. 197, no. 2.134.

The Mary Jaharis Center is pleased to announce its first lecture of 2023. This lecture contextualizes the emergence of a unique “Athonite” or “Hagiorite” identity on Mount Athos over the course of the Middle Ages. In Late Antiquity most Byzantine authors identified sacred mountains through the lens of biblical history, especially the mountains associated with the life of Jesus (Mount of Olives, Mount Tabor) or the Prophet Moses (Mount Nebo, Mount Sinai). By the time of the emergence of communal monasticism on Mount Athos in the middle of the tenth century, Athos could be counted as one of several “Holy Mountains” that housed monastic confederations within the Byzantine Empire, most of which were in western Asia Minor. Yet by the end of the medieval period, the term “Holy Mountain” had strong associations with Athos.

The rich documentation of medieval Mount Athos allows the mapping the development of a “Hagiorite” identity in a variety of different contexts. In this lecture, three strands of Athonite identity will be explored: 1) in a legal sense, with Mount Athos as a circumscribed monastic space with specific rights and privileges; 2) as a literary construct, as a place of longing and desire; 3) as a landmark within the sacred geography of the Orthodox world. 

This lecture will take place live on Zoom, followed by a question and answer period. Please register here to receive the Zoom link.

Zachary Chitwood is a Lecturer in Byzantine Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant MAMEMS “Mount Athos in Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Society: Contextualizing the History of a Monastic Republic, ca. 850-1550”. He has published on various aspects of Byzantine culture, including law, monasticism and interactions with the wider medieval world.