A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 23 - Tuesday, June 8th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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SERBIAN PREMIER VISITS CHILANDAR MONASTERY ON MT. ATHOS
Before Chilandar Prime Minister Kostunica and Minister Radulovic first visited Karyes, the administrative seat of the Holy Mountain, where Dr. Kostunica presented Protos Stefan with an icon of the Mother of God with Christ. In Chilandar the Prime Minister presented Fr. Metodije, the deputy of Abbot Mojsije, with an icon of Christ the Savior. * * *
The Holy
Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox
Church, on its part, has launched a fundraising
campaign called “A gift for Chilandar” to
provide assistance for the restoration of
Chilandar Monastery. On Bright Tuesday this year
the Holy Synod and the Serbian Orthodox Church
organized a benefit concert called “A gift for
Chilandar”. Prime Minister Kostunica said on this occasion: “Whenever I have come to Chilandar in the past I have been touched. Now more than ever for this is not the Chilandar I know. But what builds these monasteries and what is stronger than any tragedy is faith.” By the grace of God, the Church dedicated to the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple remains untouched. However, the fire destroyed more than half of the monastery complex: monastic cells, guest quarters with the dining hall, the White Dormitory, four chapels and valuable frescoes, the administrative quarters and the book store. The library, one of the pillars of Serbian literacy where a large number of parchment books and manuscripts decorated with miniatures as well as a rich collection of Serbian charters, luckily escaped the fire. The Zakonopravilo (The Nomocanon of St. Sava), a collection of canonic, church and civil laws which not only established the organization of the Serbian Church in the 13th century but influenced the constitutional consciousness of the people until the creation of the Serbian state in the 19th century, is unharmed. Also untouched is the treasury with the Abbot’s scepter of St. Sava, gifts from the Nemanjic dynasty and later medieval protectors, and Russian emperors from Ivan the Terrible to Peter the Great. ABOUT MT. ATHOS – Situated on the Athos Peninsula in the Aegean Sea, the Holy Mountain since the founding of the laura of St. Atanasios in 963 to 1204 and the fall of Byzantium under Latin rule remained under the rule of Byzantine emperors. For the next 18 years it was under Frankish rule only to be included as part of Dusan’s empire in the mid-fourteenth century.
It was under the Ottoman Empire from 1430 to
1912, when Greece obtained special status and
internal self-rule. Although under the
protection of Greece, the Holy Mountain today is
the only independent monastic state in the world
consisting of 20 inhabited monasteries, 17 Greek
and one each Serbian, Russian and Bulgarian with
about 2,000 monks. |
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Orthodox News, PO BOX 6954 |
On
Wednesday, May 26, 2004 Serbian Prime Minister
Dr. Vojislav Kostunica visited Chilandar
Monastery together with Serbian Minister for
Religions Milan Radulovic, following the
greatest tragedy the monastery endured in its
history at the beginning of March of this year.
The
damage Chilandar Monastery endured during the
night of March 3-4 of this year is estimated at
about 25 million euros and it will take some ten
years for the monastery to be returned to its
former glory. So far, thanks to the goodwill of
contributors throughout the world, about 2.5
million euros have been collected. The clearing
of the debris is already under way and will be
completed during the fall. Work is going on
around the clock with the assistance of the
Serbian and Greek Orthodox Churches and the
Republics of Serbia and Greece. The Government
of the Republic of Serbia will donate one
million euros per year for the next nine years
and has already provided one million euros for
the current year.
