The importance of Christian monasteries for the preservation of a nation’s identity is often overlooked these days in the West, but even a brief look into the relationship between the two in various countries of Christendom confirms the help that the former give to the latter.
The oldest organized European monastery was established in Bulgaria in 344 A.D., making that an appropriate place to begin. The recovery of Bulgarian independence from the Ottoman Turks was aided greatly by the building of a monastery in the 19th century:
The Arapovo Monastery of Saint Nedelya located southeast of the town of Asenovgrad is the only Bulgarian monastery built during the Ottoman rule. In the period of Bulgaria’s National Revival, it played an important role in the spiritual and cultural awakening of the Bulgarian nation.
The monastery came to life in 1856 when a monastic dormitory was created near the gushing holy spring in the area, called in Bulgarian “ayazmo”. The construction of the monastery complex lasted several years and ended in 1859. Contributing to this deed was Archimandrite Sophronius, who became the first abbot of the newly created monastery. The chief master builder was Stoyan Buradzhitski (aka Usta Stoyu) from the village of Yogovo as the Plovdiv-based Bulgarian Church Municipality which was formed in the late 1850s during the national and church struggle for Bulgarian independence also played a role in the construction.
“In 1867 a Bulgarian school was opened in the Arapovo Monastery”, explains the monastery's acting abbot, Father Dobromir Kostov. “It had prominent enlightenment figures involved in the National Liberation Movement as teachers. According to the newspaper “Macedonia” published in Tsarigrad in this period, 60 children from the surrounding villages and about 40 poor children from Plovdiv were studying at the monastery at that time. In 1872, the Metropolitan of Plovdiv Panaret, who was also the first Bulgarian bishop appointed by the Bulgarian Exarchate, emphasized in a speech he gave that the great role of the Arapovo Monastery in the preservation of the Orthodox faith and the Bulgarian identity was its educational activity. It had a beneficial effect on the local population and helped people withstand pagan customs and superstitions. At that time, a printing workshop began to operate in the monastery, in which icons and lithographs were printed, some of them reaching as far as the towns of Prilep and Veles in Macedonia. Although it emerged late in the Bulgarian Revival period, the Arapovo Monastery of Saint Nedelya occupied a significant place in the three major lines of the Bulgarian Renaissance – new Bulgarian education, church independence, national liberation”.
For Serbia, the Hilandar Monastery on Mt Athos has been at the center of Serbian culture for hundreds of years:
Hilandar`s heritage is out of time and space. Chilandar Monastery is the first Serbian university and one of the oldest in the world. In terms of literature, religion, the study of nature, medicine, according to all of the criteria was a real university, who is trained by the best experts in these areas at this time. The monastery keeps the largest collection of Serbian charters, relics, relics of saints, old icons. Hilandar has the largest collection of miraculous icons in the world, even eight of which are the most valuable and most respected in the cristian world: the icon of the Virgin with three hands (Bogorodica Trojeručica); the icon of Christ Pantocrator, which is the most beautiful icon of Christ on the planet and icons of Holy Virgin- Odigitria, which is considered the greatest masterpiece of Byzantine art of the thirteenth century. Here is the largest library of manuscripts of the Serbian people, the largest collection of coppercut and copperwrite plates, old textiles of worship, old church plates, woodcarving works, porcelain, gold objects, crosses and the most beautiful church on Mount Athos in the judgment of Byzantine. In Hilandar was founded Serbian literacy, translation and copying activities, there is conceived Serbian medieval state of law and diplomacy, and established one of the first Serbian hospital. A place where Moravian architecture reaches its peak, through which during the last eight centuries greatest artists of icon painting and frescoes. Chilandar to the fifteenth century possessed over 30 major land`s properties – Metochia`s in Europe and Asia with over 360 villages and vast spiritual, human and material resources which can measure the power of the state.
One of the founders of Hilandar was the great St Sava. He epitomizes the blessings that can arise from monasteries for an ethnos:
. . . To all, he was a source of unity, healing, wisdom, joy, and spiritual strength, uniting the various tribes of Serbs into a cohesive nation of Orthodox believers. . . .
As time passed, the tremendous legacy of holy leadership on the part of the great Sava kept the Serbian people united under one flag: the royal kingdom of Serbia which avowed Orthodoxy and the way of Christ. He was the sole person who was responsible for the transformation of the Serbian people into a people of God. And their allegiance to the way in which he lived was to the Serbs the only true model and expression of religious, political and cultural life. Hence, as in the case of every great human being who inspires generations after him to even greater heights of civilized life, so too was it with Sava, for his ideal motivated the people of Orthodox Serbia to become, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, one of the most resplendent kingdoms the world has ever known. Religious life peaked as the monasteries in Serbia, the most beautiful being based upon the Byzantine style, were crowded with monastics who led an austere life, inspiring the Serbian people to greater heights of humility, while also leading them to exhibit the trait they were (and are to this day) most recognized for—hospitality. And, as mentioned, due to the astute ecclesiastical wisdom on the part of Sava in 1219 in Nicea, the Serbian Church was able, in 1346, to obtain her own autocephaly, i.e., her own Patriarch. Political and economic life also flourished, following the example of the Christ-like Sava, in the centuries following his repose in the Lord. A unity among the Serbs, based on their adherence to Orthodoxy and maintenance of the political ideals of their beloved St. Sava, allowed them to develop into a Balkan power to the point that in 1346 the Serbian King Dushan the Powerful was given the title of "Emperor of the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgars and Albanians."
In sum, after his death St. Sava was to the Serbs a type of ideal and measuring rod of what it meant to be a true Serb, which is, to be fully committed to Jesus Christ and the way of Orthodoxy. Religiously, Sava was thought of as an equal to St. Nicholas, the ideal and standard of bishops; as a humane politician, Sava was considered an equal to St. Constantine the Great, the founder of the Byzantine Empire; and, as a Great Martyr later in 1595, Sava was considered an equal to the humble St. Polycarp of Smyrna, the first Great Martyr to be burned to death (see April 27th, Burning of the Relics of St. Sava). Bless the Lord God! All these Christian traits and attainments manifested in one person! During the two centuries following his death, the person of St. Sava became the brightest star ever known to the Serbs, inspiring them to a way of life which succeeding generations have as yet been unable to recapture or match [via an essay by Fr Daniel Rogich—W.G.].
More recently from Serbia is St Peter of Cetinje, another example of the positive role monastics have in a country’s life (our thanks to Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson for mentioning him in one of his podcasts in years past):
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The rest is at https://identitydixie.com/2023/06/12/monasteries-are-gardens-and-guardians-of-culture/.
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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