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Scattered heritage – Part 3 of 6
By Nove Cvetanoski
THE MYSTERIOUS MT. ATHOS (Sveta Gora)
Caption: According to Prof. G. Ilinski, an expert on the Mt. Athos literary heritage "collection era" and its last witness (he was there in 1908), the best and the oldest transcripts done by St. Clement's followers are being kept in the Mt. Athos monasteries. The Ohrid Charters were concealed from the Russian scholar V. Grigorovič. There is no information on their location today or whether they are in the Zographiou monastery, which still stores Macedonian manuscripts and books.
Of Macedonian heritage written in the Glagolitic Alphabet there are only eight manuscripts and four fragments preserved. These are not kept in Macedonia, but in foreign libraries and museums. There is evidence that there are still some Glagolitic (as well as Cyrillic) manuscripts preserved, hidden and unavailable for Macedonian scholars, within the monasteries of Serbia and Monte Negro. The evidence also shows that there are such manuscripts in the monasteries of the mysterious Mt. Athos, due to its specific history and limited access. The history of Mt. Athos, which is located in the ethno-geographical territory of Macedonia, encompasses Macedonian spiritual, enlightenment and cultural tradition, and therefore it bears consideration when discussing the issue of Macedonian handwritten heritage.
What is, actually, Mt. Athos?
Mt. Athos is a significant spiritual, cultural, historical, and literary centre of the Eastern Christian-Orthodox Church. It's on the easternmost end of Halkidiki, in the Aegean part of Macedonia (on the Athon Peninsula, 60 km long, where no tourist access is allowed). It is a type of Monks' Republic, which consists of monks' brotherhoods, with self-governing administration independent from the ecclesiastical hierarchies within the Orthodoxy, and the administrative head office—the Protate of the Mt. Athos monasteries—is in the so-called "town" Karaya. Some historic resources reveal that this monk's community existed as early as in the 4th century, but it became the true spiritual centre of the Orthodox Christianity in the 8th or the 9th century, when the monks completely took over the Peninsula.
According to some researchers of Mt. Athos history, there were around 180 monasteries on the Peninsula in the 11th century. In the 12th century, there were over 200 monasteries and many more additional residences for ascetic monks as well as monks' cells. Viktor Grigorovič, after his stay there in 1844, wrote that there were 30 large temples, 30 residences for ascetic monks, 20 cemetery churches, 200 Paracletes' objects, and 400 small churches (660 objects in total). Today at Mt. Athos there are 20 monasteries, 12 residences for ascetic monks, around 800 cells and several thousand monks. (As many as 10,200 monks resided there in 1812)
Mt. Athos has always been and still is the world's largest site for prayer, fasting, repentance and preservation of the original dogma and Orthodox Canon, but at the same time it's also a historical and cultural monument. It is a type of a museum of antiques, a treasury of precious items, a custodian of the Orthodoxy as well as of the Balkan Slavs' heritage.
Over the centuries, fruitful literary activities were taking place in this spiritual centre. As a consequence, the monasteries created abundant libraries, which stored old manuscripts of great significance for the cultural history of the Balkan nations.
In the past, the Mt. Athos monasteries were attacked many times, even plundered (they were the target of the Crusaders' expeditions, and in 1205 they fell under Roman rule). During frequent fires the libraries' archives were demolished, especially the Slavic (Macedonian) archives, which were destroyed deliberately or by negligence. Nonetheless, most of the manuscripts, i.e. thousands of them, were carried away from Mt. Athos in the 19th century.
In spite of that, there are over 10 thousand manuscripts and old books (of which more than a thousand Slavic ones) preserved in these monasteries today. Most of the Slavic manuscripts are preserved in the Monasteries of Chilandar and Zographou. In the former, which is in the possession of the Serb monks, there are more than 800 manuscripts, and in the latter, which used to be in the possession of Macedonian monks and afterwards was taken over by Bulgarian monks, there are more than 300 manuscripts. Old Church Slavic manuscripts can be located in other Mt. Athos monasteries as well, such as: the Monastery of Iveron, of St. Panteleimon, of St. Pavle, the Great St. Anastasia Monastery and many others.
Although it is the biggest spiritual centre of the Eastern Christian Church, Mt. Athos has always been closed off from the external world (the exceptionally strict access regime was in force until the end of the 20th century). In spite of the seclusion and the usurpation of manuscripts and other valuable objects from Macedonia, there are substantiated findings that numerous valuable Macedonian manuscripts and antiques exist hidden within the Mt. Athos monasteries. This assertion is based on the fact that the history of Mt. Athos encompasses the Macedonian spiritual and cultural tradition.
What is hidden under the mysterious veil of Mt. Athos?
Mt. Athos is much older than the Glagolitic Alphabet and many other milestones of civilisation, but the presence of the Glagolitic Alphabet there was recorded during the lifetime of St. Clement (and Cyrillic literary monuments were recorded after the fall of Samoil's Empire, when the ecclesiastical enlightenment activities were confined to the monasteries, especially the monasteries of Mt. Athos, due to its autonomy). Nonetheless, Mt. Athos was not a distant world, but it was on Macedonian territory, especially several of the former 200 monasteries in which Macedonian monks resided.
THE SECRETS OF ZOGRAPHOU
The most significant monastery for the history of Macedonian culture and Orthodoxy is the Monastery of Zographou. Historic resources reveal that three monks from the Ohrid region in late 9th or early 10th century founded this monastery in the Monks' Republic. The monastery is especially significant and interesting for the Macedonian handwritten tradition. According to some sources, the three spiritual brothers arrived to Mt. Athos and formed a "monks family" in 898—according to other sources, it happened in 911—which means after the arrival of Clement (and Naum, who followed Clement) in Ohrid in 882. This Mt. Athos monastery was the centre of the Macedonian monkhood in the middle Ages. Many of the greatest Macedonian spiritual and enlightenment workers—such as Partenij Zografski, Ilarion Zografski, Nathanail Kučeviski, Cyril Pejčinović, and Anatoly Zografski—stayed there.
The Monastery of Zographou was demolished and burnt several times, which means that its ecclesiastical and art valuables were destroyed along with it. It still has a wealth of artistic, historic and ecclesiastical items such as: iconostases, old icons, frescoes, crowns of bishops, golden objects, expensive church robes, etc. From all those valuable things, most information is preserved about the old manuscripts, a part of which has been carried away and can now be found throughout Europe. The most prominent manuscripts that were preserved in this Monastery are the Gospel of Zographou and the Papers of Zographou from the 10th century. The monastery's library, even today, stores numerous old manuscripts, among which are manuscripts of Macedonian origin, such as: the Menaion of Dragan from the 13th century, the oldest hagiography of St. Naum Ohridski, manuscripts of Jovan Kratovski and others.
Mt. Athos is considered to be a closed world, but the Monastery of Zographou is literally padlocked. Namely, according to one of the few Macedonian men that recently visited this Monastery (the access to women has always been prohibited), Dr. Simon Drakul—who wrote in the monograph of his own ancestor, Anatolij Zografski from Lazaropole—the keys from the padlocks, which hide away all the tacit places of Mt Athos' treasury of our spiritual heritage relics, are partly in the hands of the Greek territorial autonomy, partly in the special Mt. Athos' Internal Police Control, and partly in the possession of the Bulgarian-state-sanctioned authorities who adopted the monastery, usurping the Macedonian hereditary rights.
This mysteriousness, as well as the apparent presence of old Macedonian manuscripts on Mt. Athos, increases the curiosity about Macedonian cultural treasures even more. And only the small insight we have into it speaks volumes of the written heritage that is there on this sacred peninsula.
In the 19th century, only few curious visitors and researchers of literary treasures were fortunate enough to visit Athon. Among the first visitors was the Croat Antun Mihanović, serving as Austrian consul in Salonica. After him came the Russian scientists Viktor Grigorovič and G. Ilinski.
Grigorovič stayed on Mt. Athos from September 1844 to the 1st of January 1885, mostly in the Monastery of Zographou and at Anatoly Zografski's. Thus, Grigorovič is one of the greatest experts on the treasures of the Mt. Athos monasteries. He wrote that there were 13,000 books and even 2,800 manuscripts, 455 of which were Slavic ones. He stated that most of the Slavic manuscripts were written during the 14th and 15th centuries, and a smaller amount was written in the 13th century, at the same time as the Glagolitic Gospel of Zographou.
Considering that Slavic literacy began on Macedonian territory and due to the fact that Mt. Athos is situated within the borders of the Macedonian ethno-geographical territory (in the past even more so), it is very likely that those manuscripts were created in Macedonia. But unfortunately, just as from every other part of Macedonia, these written monuments were destroyed or transported somewhere else. Historic sources reveal several such cases. One of the biggest outflows from the Mt. Athos libraries took place in the 15th century when many manuscripts and books were taken to the Library in Florentine. In 1517 many manuscripts were taken to Russia; with the help of Arsenij Suhanov, no fewer than 700 manuscripts were taken to Moscow. (When discussing the destruction of the manuscripts, it should be considered that the monasteries were often affected by fires, so that the monastery libraries, along with the handwritten treasures in them, were often damaged; only one of the 20 existing monasteries has never been affected by fire during its existence). These manuscripts, states Dr. Simon Drakul, were either transcribed in the monastery cells or were brought by monks, who came to Mt. Athos in their older age.
But many Macedonian manuscripts, and Slavic manuscripts in general, on Mt. Athos were destroyed in a different manner. Viktor Grigorovič wrote in one of his books that in the past there had been more Slavic manuscripts than the amount he stated, but they had rotted or had been deliberately burnt. He also quotes eyewitnesses' testimonies about burning manuscript piles: "In Zographou, not much before my arrival, a pile of manuscripts had been burnt. From eyewitnesses I learnt that they were burnt without any second thought, and it happened in the monasteries of Vatopedi, Xenoph, Simona-Petre and Philotes… Many manuscripts were lost in the monasteries' inaccessible places, because when the Greeks came to rule a monastery, they would bury the whole of its library, so that any reminders of its former rulers were wiped out".
If you consider the above, writes Dr. Simon Drakul in his Monograph of the Archimandrite Anatoly Zografski, along with the information that no learned visitor of Mt. Athos in the past had ever left the site without taking a book in his luggage, it is amazing how such important books can still be discovered. The above refers to Barski and Mihanović as well. The latter, as an Austrian consul, informed Grigorovič about the existence of the Glagolitic Gospel in Monastery of Zographou. Mihanović himself was brought enormous amounts of books for review from Mt. Athos; he, according to his own criteria, from all that treasure selected only three loads for himself. At that time no one cared about the value of the Macedonian literary heritage – Zographou monks gave the Glagolitic Gospel as a gift to the Russian tzar Alexander in 1860; and the Chilandar monks gave the Gospel of Miroslav to the Serbian king Aleksandar in 1896. The brotherhood of the monastery Esphigmenou sold lots of books to an English traveller, because at the time monks from some Balkan countries (primarily the Greek monks), instead of preserving Macedonian literary treasure, insisted on getting rid of it, the easier the better – so that it burnt not only in accidental fires, but in monastery furnaces as well.
One of the greatest experts on the Mt. Athos written monuments is G. Ilinski, who stayed on Mt. Athos in 1908. He discovered that in the Monastery of Zographou at the time there were still 184 Slavic manuscripts, seventeen of which were from the 13th century (the total amount of manuscripts, however, used to be several thousand).
Ilinski wrote that Mt. Athos had preserved for science the oldest, the greatest and the most valuable Glagolitic monuments. The Monastery of Iveron preserved the document considered to be, according to its date, the oldest monument not only of the Glagolitic alphabet, but also of all Slavic ones. Of those without dates, according to Ilinski, the most significant are the Glagolitic Gospel by Zographou and the Tetragospel of Maria. According to him, the best and the oldest transcripts from St. Clement's School in Ohrid and from the Preslav School were preserved on Mt. Athos.
THE OHRID CHARTERS
Every Mt. Athos monastery used to have a public library, as well as a secret one. Several monasteries, one of them being the Monastery of Zographou, were assumed to be wealthiest in manuscripts, having numerous Slavic, i.e. Macedonian manuscripts and books. Grigorovič wrote that when he came to the Mt. Athos monastery of Zographou, he wanted to see the libraries and the Charters. Anatoly Zografski from Lazaropole took upon himself the responsibility of showing Grigorovič around. He showed him the Glagolitic manuscript later known as The Gospel of Zographou—which Mihanović had already paid attention to—and the five Charters, which Russia was already familiar with. But, instead of the monastery's library, Anatoly Zografski showed Grigorovič his private library, situated in a comfortable place, but yet not fully unpacked. (His library was very large; he had taken with him several thousand books from his one-year stay in Russia. His will was that after his death his private library was to be left to the Monastery of Zographou.) Anatoly Zografski knew the reason for this curious Russian traveller's arrival and he was probably afraid that Grigorovič would take old and valuable items to his country; because Grigorovič, besides making a literary treasures inventory, wanted to see the mysterious Ohrid Charters as well. "All that I was told about the Ohrid Charters being lost was untrue, because they were found after my departure from the Monastery of Zographou", Grigorovič wrote later.
Grigorovič had evidence that the so-called Ohrid Charters were in the Monastery of Zographou. Expressing an interest for them, he wrote: "I never doubted that these significant Ohrid documents were kept in the Monastery of Zographou, especially after I discovered that the last Archbishop of Justiniana Prima, on his way to Constantinople, had died in a cell of the Monastery of Zographou in Karaya. At the exact time, when the monastery's landlord was explaining this, I asked him to show me the Ohrid Charters. There are lots of them here, he blurted out, and they can be identified by the green signature. It is well known how important these Charters are for the academic testimonies from Ohrid... The next day, the same monk, very indifferently explained to me that the Ohrid Charters used to be there, but weren't there any more... In order to defer the attention from them, he gave me three wrinkled Charters, saying they were from Ohrid."
The Ohrid Charters haven't been found to this day. Probably the Monastery of Zographou's gates, and Mt. Athos gates in general, conceal many other secrets. In fact, in the 20th century, the Monastery of Zographou was one of the most isolated Mt. Athos monasteries, which is also symptomatic, because it was usurped by Bulgarian monks. Therefore, all this evidence and all these assumptions point to the possibility that today, the Bulgarian monks in the Mt. Athos Monastery of Zographou possess written monuments extremely significant for Macedonia and for Slavic literacy in general.
In spite of all the secrecy, it was established that there are many significant Macedonian manuscripts in the Monastery of Zographou, such as: a holiday menaion (also containing the poetry of Naum Ohridski) and Dragan's menaion (with original Slavic hymns of praise) from which pages are torn, but 219 parchments sheets remain—both dating from the 13th century; also from the 13th century, The Zographou Psalter of dijak Radomir, which is one of the best illuminated manuscripts in this monastery; then a Prologue and a Zographou Collection from the 14th century, and many others. How many Macedonian heritage secrets in this monastery remain to be revealed?
Despite the passion with which the Greeks destroyed Macedonian literary monuments, in the Greek "St. Catherine" Monastery on Sinai there are the Sinai Psalter, written in Western Macedonia in the 11th century (containing 106 sheets, although the final ones are missing) and the Sinai Missal from the same century, 109 sheets; its three last sheets are preserved in St. Petersburg. At least we have records of them. But will it ever be possible to discover how many Macedonian manuscripts and books are in the Mt. Athos monasteries, as well as in monasteries throughout Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Monte Negro and Russia?
By Nove Cvetanoski
THE MYSTERIOUS MT. ATHOS (Sveta Gora)
Caption: According to Prof. G. Ilinski, an expert on the Mt. Athos literary heritage "collection era" and its last witness (he was there in 1908), the best and the oldest transcripts done by St. Clement's followers are being kept in the Mt. Athos monasteries. The Ohrid Charters were concealed from the Russian scholar V. Grigorovič. There is no information on their location today or whether they are in the Zographiou monastery, which still stores Macedonian manuscripts and books.
Of Macedonian heritage written in the Glagolitic Alphabet there are only eight manuscripts and four fragments preserved. These are not kept in Macedonia, but in foreign libraries and museums. There is evidence that there are still some Glagolitic (as well as Cyrillic) manuscripts preserved, hidden and unavailable for Macedonian scholars, within the monasteries of Serbia and Monte Negro. The evidence also shows that there are such manuscripts in the monasteries of the mysterious Mt. Athos, due to its specific history and limited access. The history of Mt. Athos, which is located in the ethno-geographical territory of Macedonia, encompasses Macedonian spiritual, enlightenment and cultural tradition, and therefore it bears consideration when discussing the issue of Macedonian handwritten heritage.
What is, actually, Mt. Athos?
Mt. Athos is a significant spiritual, cultural, historical, and literary centre of the Eastern Christian-Orthodox Church. It's on the easternmost end of Halkidiki, in the Aegean part of Macedonia (on the Athon Peninsula, 60 km long, where no tourist access is allowed). It is a type of Monks' Republic, which consists of monks' brotherhoods, with self-governing administration independent from the ecclesiastical hierarchies within the Orthodoxy, and the administrative head office—the Protate of the Mt. Athos monasteries—is in the so-called "town" Karaya. Some historic resources reveal that this monk's community existed as early as in the 4th century, but it became the true spiritual centre of the Orthodox Christianity in the 8th or the 9th century, when the monks completely took over the Peninsula.
According to some researchers of Mt. Athos history, there were around 180 monasteries on the Peninsula in the 11th century. In the 12th century, there were over 200 monasteries and many more additional residences for ascetic monks as well as monks' cells. Viktor Grigorovič, after his stay there in 1844, wrote that there were 30 large temples, 30 residences for ascetic monks, 20 cemetery churches, 200 Paracletes' objects, and 400 small churches (660 objects in total). Today at Mt. Athos there are 20 monasteries, 12 residences for ascetic monks, around 800 cells and several thousand monks. (As many as 10,200 monks resided there in 1812)
Mt. Athos has always been and still is the world's largest site for prayer, fasting, repentance and preservation of the original dogma and Orthodox Canon, but at the same time it's also a historical and cultural monument. It is a type of a museum of antiques, a treasury of precious items, a custodian of the Orthodoxy as well as of the Balkan Slavs' heritage.
Over the centuries, fruitful literary activities were taking place in this spiritual centre. As a consequence, the monasteries created abundant libraries, which stored old manuscripts of great significance for the cultural history of the Balkan nations.
In the past, the Mt. Athos monasteries were attacked many times, even plundered (they were the target of the Crusaders' expeditions, and in 1205 they fell under Roman rule). During frequent fires the libraries' archives were demolished, especially the Slavic (Macedonian) archives, which were destroyed deliberately or by negligence. Nonetheless, most of the manuscripts, i.e. thousands of them, were carried away from Mt. Athos in the 19th century.
In spite of that, there are over 10 thousand manuscripts and old books (of which more than a thousand Slavic ones) preserved in these monasteries today. Most of the Slavic manuscripts are preserved in the Monasteries of Chilandar and Zographou. In the former, which is in the possession of the Serb monks, there are more than 800 manuscripts, and in the latter, which used to be in the possession of Macedonian monks and afterwards was taken over by Bulgarian monks, there are more than 300 manuscripts. Old Church Slavic manuscripts can be located in other Mt. Athos monasteries as well, such as: the Monastery of Iveron, of St. Panteleimon, of St. Pavle, the Great St. Anastasia Monastery and many others.
Although it is the biggest spiritual centre of the Eastern Christian Church, Mt. Athos has always been closed off from the external world (the exceptionally strict access regime was in force until the end of the 20th century). In spite of the seclusion and the usurpation of manuscripts and other valuable objects from Macedonia, there are substantiated findings that numerous valuable Macedonian manuscripts and antiques exist hidden within the Mt. Athos monasteries. This assertion is based on the fact that the history of Mt. Athos encompasses the Macedonian spiritual and cultural tradition.
What is hidden under the mysterious veil of Mt. Athos?
Mt. Athos is much older than the Glagolitic Alphabet and many other milestones of civilisation, but the presence of the Glagolitic Alphabet there was recorded during the lifetime of St. Clement (and Cyrillic literary monuments were recorded after the fall of Samoil's Empire, when the ecclesiastical enlightenment activities were confined to the monasteries, especially the monasteries of Mt. Athos, due to its autonomy). Nonetheless, Mt. Athos was not a distant world, but it was on Macedonian territory, especially several of the former 200 monasteries in which Macedonian monks resided.
THE SECRETS OF ZOGRAPHOU
The most significant monastery for the history of Macedonian culture and Orthodoxy is the Monastery of Zographou. Historic resources reveal that three monks from the Ohrid region in late 9th or early 10th century founded this monastery in the Monks' Republic. The monastery is especially significant and interesting for the Macedonian handwritten tradition. According to some sources, the three spiritual brothers arrived to Mt. Athos and formed a "monks family" in 898—according to other sources, it happened in 911—which means after the arrival of Clement (and Naum, who followed Clement) in Ohrid in 882. This Mt. Athos monastery was the centre of the Macedonian monkhood in the middle Ages. Many of the greatest Macedonian spiritual and enlightenment workers—such as Partenij Zografski, Ilarion Zografski, Nathanail Kučeviski, Cyril Pejčinović, and Anatoly Zografski—stayed there.
The Monastery of Zographou was demolished and burnt several times, which means that its ecclesiastical and art valuables were destroyed along with it. It still has a wealth of artistic, historic and ecclesiastical items such as: iconostases, old icons, frescoes, crowns of bishops, golden objects, expensive church robes, etc. From all those valuable things, most information is preserved about the old manuscripts, a part of which has been carried away and can now be found throughout Europe. The most prominent manuscripts that were preserved in this Monastery are the Gospel of Zographou and the Papers of Zographou from the 10th century. The monastery's library, even today, stores numerous old manuscripts, among which are manuscripts of Macedonian origin, such as: the Menaion of Dragan from the 13th century, the oldest hagiography of St. Naum Ohridski, manuscripts of Jovan Kratovski and others.
Mt. Athos is considered to be a closed world, but the Monastery of Zographou is literally padlocked. Namely, according to one of the few Macedonian men that recently visited this Monastery (the access to women has always been prohibited), Dr. Simon Drakul—who wrote in the monograph of his own ancestor, Anatolij Zografski from Lazaropole—the keys from the padlocks, which hide away all the tacit places of Mt Athos' treasury of our spiritual heritage relics, are partly in the hands of the Greek territorial autonomy, partly in the special Mt. Athos' Internal Police Control, and partly in the possession of the Bulgarian-state-sanctioned authorities who adopted the monastery, usurping the Macedonian hereditary rights.
This mysteriousness, as well as the apparent presence of old Macedonian manuscripts on Mt. Athos, increases the curiosity about Macedonian cultural treasures even more. And only the small insight we have into it speaks volumes of the written heritage that is there on this sacred peninsula.
In the 19th century, only few curious visitors and researchers of literary treasures were fortunate enough to visit Athon. Among the first visitors was the Croat Antun Mihanović, serving as Austrian consul in Salonica. After him came the Russian scientists Viktor Grigorovič and G. Ilinski.
Grigorovič stayed on Mt. Athos from September 1844 to the 1st of January 1885, mostly in the Monastery of Zographou and at Anatoly Zografski's. Thus, Grigorovič is one of the greatest experts on the treasures of the Mt. Athos monasteries. He wrote that there were 13,000 books and even 2,800 manuscripts, 455 of which were Slavic ones. He stated that most of the Slavic manuscripts were written during the 14th and 15th centuries, and a smaller amount was written in the 13th century, at the same time as the Glagolitic Gospel of Zographou.
Considering that Slavic literacy began on Macedonian territory and due to the fact that Mt. Athos is situated within the borders of the Macedonian ethno-geographical territory (in the past even more so), it is very likely that those manuscripts were created in Macedonia. But unfortunately, just as from every other part of Macedonia, these written monuments were destroyed or transported somewhere else. Historic sources reveal several such cases. One of the biggest outflows from the Mt. Athos libraries took place in the 15th century when many manuscripts and books were taken to the Library in Florentine. In 1517 many manuscripts were taken to Russia; with the help of Arsenij Suhanov, no fewer than 700 manuscripts were taken to Moscow. (When discussing the destruction of the manuscripts, it should be considered that the monasteries were often affected by fires, so that the monastery libraries, along with the handwritten treasures in them, were often damaged; only one of the 20 existing monasteries has never been affected by fire during its existence). These manuscripts, states Dr. Simon Drakul, were either transcribed in the monastery cells or were brought by monks, who came to Mt. Athos in their older age.
But many Macedonian manuscripts, and Slavic manuscripts in general, on Mt. Athos were destroyed in a different manner. Viktor Grigorovič wrote in one of his books that in the past there had been more Slavic manuscripts than the amount he stated, but they had rotted or had been deliberately burnt. He also quotes eyewitnesses' testimonies about burning manuscript piles: "In Zographou, not much before my arrival, a pile of manuscripts had been burnt. From eyewitnesses I learnt that they were burnt without any second thought, and it happened in the monasteries of Vatopedi, Xenoph, Simona-Petre and Philotes… Many manuscripts were lost in the monasteries' inaccessible places, because when the Greeks came to rule a monastery, they would bury the whole of its library, so that any reminders of its former rulers were wiped out".
If you consider the above, writes Dr. Simon Drakul in his Monograph of the Archimandrite Anatoly Zografski, along with the information that no learned visitor of Mt. Athos in the past had ever left the site without taking a book in his luggage, it is amazing how such important books can still be discovered. The above refers to Barski and Mihanović as well. The latter, as an Austrian consul, informed Grigorovič about the existence of the Glagolitic Gospel in Monastery of Zographou. Mihanović himself was brought enormous amounts of books for review from Mt. Athos; he, according to his own criteria, from all that treasure selected only three loads for himself. At that time no one cared about the value of the Macedonian literary heritage – Zographou monks gave the Glagolitic Gospel as a gift to the Russian tzar Alexander in 1860; and the Chilandar monks gave the Gospel of Miroslav to the Serbian king Aleksandar in 1896. The brotherhood of the monastery Esphigmenou sold lots of books to an English traveller, because at the time monks from some Balkan countries (primarily the Greek monks), instead of preserving Macedonian literary treasure, insisted on getting rid of it, the easier the better – so that it burnt not only in accidental fires, but in monastery furnaces as well.
One of the greatest experts on the Mt. Athos written monuments is G. Ilinski, who stayed on Mt. Athos in 1908. He discovered that in the Monastery of Zographou at the time there were still 184 Slavic manuscripts, seventeen of which were from the 13th century (the total amount of manuscripts, however, used to be several thousand).
Ilinski wrote that Mt. Athos had preserved for science the oldest, the greatest and the most valuable Glagolitic monuments. The Monastery of Iveron preserved the document considered to be, according to its date, the oldest monument not only of the Glagolitic alphabet, but also of all Slavic ones. Of those without dates, according to Ilinski, the most significant are the Glagolitic Gospel by Zographou and the Tetragospel of Maria. According to him, the best and the oldest transcripts from St. Clement's School in Ohrid and from the Preslav School were preserved on Mt. Athos.
THE OHRID CHARTERS
Every Mt. Athos monastery used to have a public library, as well as a secret one. Several monasteries, one of them being the Monastery of Zographou, were assumed to be wealthiest in manuscripts, having numerous Slavic, i.e. Macedonian manuscripts and books. Grigorovič wrote that when he came to the Mt. Athos monastery of Zographou, he wanted to see the libraries and the Charters. Anatoly Zografski from Lazaropole took upon himself the responsibility of showing Grigorovič around. He showed him the Glagolitic manuscript later known as The Gospel of Zographou—which Mihanović had already paid attention to—and the five Charters, which Russia was already familiar with. But, instead of the monastery's library, Anatoly Zografski showed Grigorovič his private library, situated in a comfortable place, but yet not fully unpacked. (His library was very large; he had taken with him several thousand books from his one-year stay in Russia. His will was that after his death his private library was to be left to the Monastery of Zographou.) Anatoly Zografski knew the reason for this curious Russian traveller's arrival and he was probably afraid that Grigorovič would take old and valuable items to his country; because Grigorovič, besides making a literary treasures inventory, wanted to see the mysterious Ohrid Charters as well. "All that I was told about the Ohrid Charters being lost was untrue, because they were found after my departure from the Monastery of Zographou", Grigorovič wrote later.
Grigorovič had evidence that the so-called Ohrid Charters were in the Monastery of Zographou. Expressing an interest for them, he wrote: "I never doubted that these significant Ohrid documents were kept in the Monastery of Zographou, especially after I discovered that the last Archbishop of Justiniana Prima, on his way to Constantinople, had died in a cell of the Monastery of Zographou in Karaya. At the exact time, when the monastery's landlord was explaining this, I asked him to show me the Ohrid Charters. There are lots of them here, he blurted out, and they can be identified by the green signature. It is well known how important these Charters are for the academic testimonies from Ohrid... The next day, the same monk, very indifferently explained to me that the Ohrid Charters used to be there, but weren't there any more... In order to defer the attention from them, he gave me three wrinkled Charters, saying they were from Ohrid."
The Ohrid Charters haven't been found to this day. Probably the Monastery of Zographou's gates, and Mt. Athos gates in general, conceal many other secrets. In fact, in the 20th century, the Monastery of Zographou was one of the most isolated Mt. Athos monasteries, which is also symptomatic, because it was usurped by Bulgarian monks. Therefore, all this evidence and all these assumptions point to the possibility that today, the Bulgarian monks in the Mt. Athos Monastery of Zographou possess written monuments extremely significant for Macedonia and for Slavic literacy in general.
In spite of all the secrecy, it was established that there are many significant Macedonian manuscripts in the Monastery of Zographou, such as: a holiday menaion (also containing the poetry of Naum Ohridski) and Dragan's menaion (with original Slavic hymns of praise) from which pages are torn, but 219 parchments sheets remain—both dating from the 13th century; also from the 13th century, The Zographou Psalter of dijak Radomir, which is one of the best illuminated manuscripts in this monastery; then a Prologue and a Zographou Collection from the 14th century, and many others. How many Macedonian heritage secrets in this monastery remain to be revealed?
Despite the passion with which the Greeks destroyed Macedonian literary monuments, in the Greek "St. Catherine" Monastery on Sinai there are the Sinai Psalter, written in Western Macedonia in the 11th century (containing 106 sheets, although the final ones are missing) and the Sinai Missal from the same century, 109 sheets; its three last sheets are preserved in St. Petersburg. At least we have records of them. But will it ever be possible to discover how many Macedonian manuscripts and books are in the Mt. Athos monasteries, as well as in monasteries throughout Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Monte Negro and Russia?
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