Monastery of Dionisiou at Mount Athos in Greece
The Holy Monastery of Dionysiou, or 'Nea Petra', stands on a narrow and precipitous rock at a height of 80 metres above the sea, between the Gregoriou and Aghiou Pavlou Monasteries. The founder of the Monastery was the Blessed Dionysius from Korysos near Kastoria. Dionysius, with much toil and in the face of many difficulties, managed to gather the resources to build the Monastery in the second half of the 14th century. His efforts were supported by the generous sponsorship of Alexius III Comnenus, Emperor of Trebizond, who was encouraged in this by the Metropolitan of the city, Theodosius, who was Dionysiou’s brother. This policy of lavish sponsorship of the Monastery was continued by the Palaeologue Emperors and later by many Princes of Moldo- Wallachia. The Patriarch Antonius IV officially gave the Monastery the title of 'Patriarchal' in 1389, and in this way it acquired an autonomous existence. Linked with the Dionysiou Monastery is the important figure of St Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople, who became a monk of Dionysiou in the mid 15th century and after many vicissitudes returned to the monastery of his repentance where he lived until his death. In the early 16th century, Radul, Prince of Moldavia, and his successor Neagoe Basarab built the Monastery's aqueduct and tower. In 1539 a fire, perhaps the worst in the history of the Monastery, reduced to ashes a large part of its buildings, which, however, were soon replaced and extended. In the 16th and 18th centuries, the Monastery, because of economic difficulties, became idiorrhythmic, but in the 19th century returned irrevocably to the coenobitic system.
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Photo credit: © Yiannis Papadimitriou / Alamy / Afripics
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