Hilandar is a
Serbian monastery. It was founded in 1198 by the Serbian Saint Sava and
his father, Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja (who
later became a monk there,
taking the monastic name of
"Simeon") of Raška. Because its founders are Serbs and the first monks
were of the Serbian
Orthodox Church it is also called "The Serbian monastery" and is nowadays the monastery where Serbian Orthodox monks traditionally
reside. Today, Hilandar represents one of the greatest shrines for the Serbian
people. Hilandar does not have an abbot, but an under-abbot. The Mother of God
through her Icon of Three Hands is considered as
the abbess.
After
the fall of Serbia and Bulgaria under Ottoman rule,
the influx of Serbian monks decreased
at the expense of Bulgarians, particularly from Macedonia. From the 17th to the 19th century, Hilandar was predominantly Bulgarian-populated: in his account
of 1745, the Russian pilgrim
Vasily Barsky writes that the monks
of Hilandar were all Bulgarians. Ilarion
Makariopolski, Sophronius of
Vratsaand Matey
Preobrazhenski have all lived there, and it was
in this monastery that Paisius of
Hilendar began his revolutionary Slavonic-Bulgarian
History.
The monastery was dominated by Bulgarians until 1902.
In
the 1970s, the Greek government offered power grid installation to all of the
monasteries on Mount Athos. The Holy
Council of Mount Athos refused, and since then every monastery
generates its own power, which is gained mostly from renewable energy sources.
During the 1980s, electrification of the monastery
of Hilandar took place, generating power mostly for lights and heating.
In 2004, an accident happened when one of the heaters was not turned off and the old, dry wood used to
build that portion of monastery ignited. The fire significantly damaged
Hilandar, and about 40-50% of the monastery
burned to the ground. It is currently undergoing
restoration.
Among
the numerous relics and
other holy objects treasured at the
monastery is the Wonderworking Icon of
the Theotokos "Of
the Akathist", the feast day of
which is celebrated on January 12. Since Mount Athos uses the traditional Julian Calendar, the day they celebrate as
January 12 currently falls on January 25 of
the modern Gregorian Calendar.
Miracle-working icons within the monastery
The
monastery possesses the Wonderworking Icon of the Theotokos "Of the Three Hands" ,
traditionally associated with a miraculous healing
of St. John Damascene around
the year 717, According to tradition, while he was
serving as Vizier to
the Caliph, he was
falsely accused of treachery and his hand was
cut off. Upon praying in front of an icon of the Theotokos his hand was miraculously restored. In thanksgiving, he had a
silver replica of his hand fashioned
and attached it to the icon.
The library holds 181 Greek and 809 Slavic manuscripts, abour 20 000
printed books (3 000 in
Greek language).
The monastery contains about
20 working monks.
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