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Monastery of Christ Philanthropos

Συγγραφή : Stankovic Vlada (8/9/2008)
Μετάφραση : Loumakis Spyridon

Για παραπομπή: Stankovic Vlada, "Monastery of Christ Philanthropos",
Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Κωνσταντινούπολη
URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11772>
Μονή Χριστού Φιλανθρώπου (28/6/2007 v.1) Monastery of Christ Philanthropos (28/3/2011 v.1) 
 

1. The Comnenian foundation

1.1. Foundation and patron

The male monastery of Christ Philanthropos was founded at the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century. Its foundation is attributed to empress Eirene Doukaina, with the participation of her husband Alexios I Komnenos in all probability. The simultaneous establishment of Eirene’s other foundation, Panagia Kecharitomene (it was a female monastery), and the proximity between these two monasteries –separated by a wall – had led to the conclusion that they were part of a common imperial donation. The typikon of the monastery of Christ Philanthropos has not survived, in contrast to the typikon of Panagia Kecharitomene where certain details concerning the male monastery are included: the water supply of both monasteries was common∙ the monastery of Christ Philanthropos encompassed a garden among other things∙ the monastic typikon was made in three copies, such as the typikon of Kecharitomene, of which one was kept in the archive of Hagia Sophia, one in the monastery itself and the third one was given to the abbot to use.1

The evidence for the monastery of Christ Philanthropos is scanty, especially if we take into consideration that it was an imperial foundation. The date of monastery’s erection can be only partly assigned: the monastery’s abbot Sophronios is mentioned in 11072 and it is conjectured that the erection of the monastery began after 1095 and queen mother Anna Dalassene’s retirement from the political life to the monastery of Christ Pantepoptes that she had founded. It is considered as almost certain that together with the female monastery of empress Eirene Doukaina, […] whose first typikon is dated to the period 1108-1111. Much later, at the beginning of the 13th century, historian Niketas Choniates points out that emperor Alexios I Komnenos, whom he records as the founder of the monastery of Christ Philanthropos, was buried in there.3 An abbot of the monastery at the end of 12th century was a friend of metropolitan Eustathios of Thessaloniki, a fact that reveals, together with abbot’s appointment by the emperor, the significance of the monastery in Constantinople.

1.2. Location

Based on the evidence deduced from the typikon of the neighboring monastery of Panagia Kecharitomene, the location of these two monastic complexes can be roughly determined. The foundation of Eirene Doukaina lay on the same street as the church of Saint Anna at Deuterion, while it bordered the female monastery of Saint Nicholas, a fact that confirms that both monasteries of the imperial couple lay in Constantinople’s Tenth Region, to the north of the church of Holy Apostles. It lay probably near Anna Dalassene’s monastery of Christ Pantepoptes, in that part of Constantinople where Komnenoi built their most important foundations, among which Christ Pantokrator complex.4

1.3. Dedication of the monastic church

The members of Komnenos dynasty most of the times dedicated their foundations to Christ or to Theotokos, manifesting the special bond of the emperor with Christ, the heavenly king, and the empress with Theotokos. Characteristic examples are Christ Pantepoptes of Anna Dalassene, Christ Philanthropos and Panagia Kecharitomene of Eirene Doukaina, Christ Euergetes of John Komnenos (elder son of sebastokrator Isaak and nephew of Alexios I) and certainly the big complex of Christ Pantokrator of Alexios’ son, emperor John II Komnenos and empress Eirene-Piroska. As far as the epithet «Philanthropos» is concerned, it refers to the special emphasis laid on philanthropy with regard to Alexios I’s imperial ideology. The frequency with which Anna Komnene employs the designation of charitable (philanthropos) in order to describe her father’s character and works in Alexiad is characteristic.

2. The Palaeologan monastery

1.2. The patrons

Founder of this second Palaeologan monastery was Eirene Choumnaina, wife of despotes John Palaiologos, son of Andronikos II Palaiologos. After John’s death, in 1307, she retired in her foundation receiving the monastic name Eulogia, until her death in 1355. It is reported that her father, Nikephoros Choumnos, also retired in a certain monastery dedicated to Christ Philanthropos, where he met his death in 1327 under the monastic name Nathaniel; this monastery was founded by his wife and it was a male one, but it seems that there was some sort of relation between these two homonymous monasteries, although no certainty exists concerning their topographical proximity.5

2.2. Archaeological remains and identification

Russian travelers at Constantinople in the 14th and 15th centuries mention a church of Christ Philanthropos in the area of Mangana. It seems that the monastery housed the relic of Saint Abercios and lay near a fountain of holy water, where Christians gathered for all kinds of healing. The church was also related to a miraculous icon of Christ. The tradition of healings in the church survived until the 19th century.6

Between 1921 and 1923, while the French army camped at Topkapi, excavations in the region brought to light remains identified with three monuments of the Mangana quarter: Saint George, Theotokos of Odegon and Christ Philanthropos. With the latter one some substructures and an underground cistern were related, mainly based on its proximity with a small holy-water spring. If the identification is correct, then it is probably the Palaeologan church, judging by the brick plastic decoration on the exterior surfaces. However, the remains are not enough for the reconstruction of the monument’s ground plan.7

3. Relation between the two monasteries of different periods

The typikon of Eirene Choumnaina for the monastery of Christ Philanthropos is only fragmentary preserved. The remaining fragment is essentially a reprise of the same part from the foundation document of Eirene Doukaina for Theotokos Kecharitomene.8 However the influence of the older typikon over the later one is not enough to prove the relation between the homonymous monasteries of these two different periods. Even more obscure remains the relation of the male Palaeologan monastery of Christ Philanthropos either to the older one or to the contemporary female one. The surviving remains do not allow us to draw any conclusions regarding this matter. The relation between the foundations of the Comnenian and the Palaeologan period remain essentially unclear; based on the existing evidence R. Janin concludes that these were two different monasteries in two different quarters of Consatntinople.9

1. Janin, R., La géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire byzantin 1: Le siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat oecuménique, t.III: Les églises et les monastères (Paris 21969), p. 525. Jordan, R., «27. Kecharitomene: Typikon of Empress Irene Doukaina Komnene for the Convent of the Mother of God Kecharitomene in Constantinople», in Thomas, J. and Constantinides Hero, A. (ed.), Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founders’ Typika and Testaments (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 35, Washington DC 2000), p. 649.

2. Jordan, R., «27. Kecharitomene: Typikon of Empress Irene Doukaina Komnene for the Convent of the Mother of God Kecharitomene in Constantinople», in Thomas, J. and Constantinides Hero, A. (ed.), Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founders’ Typika and Testaments (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 35, Washington DC 2000), p. 649. Cf. Lambros, Sp., Catalogue of the greek manuscripts on Mount Athos vol. I (Cambridge 1895), p. 176.

3. Van Dieten, J.A. (ed.), Nicetae Choniatae Historia (CFHB 11, Berlin-New York 1975), p. 19.

4. Janin, R., La géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire byzantin 1: Le siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat oecuménique, t.III: Les églises et les monastères (Paris 21969), pp. 526-7.

5. Talbot, A.-M. «47. Philanthropos: Typikon of Irene Choumnaina Palaiologina for the Convent of Christ Philanthropos in Constantinople», in Thomas, J. and Constantinides Hero, A. (ed.), Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founders’ Typika and Testaments (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 35, Washington DC 2000), p. 1383.

6. Majeska, G., Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Washington, D.C., 1984), pp. 371–74.

7. Müller-Wiener, W., Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbul: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul bis zum Beginn d. 17. Jh. (Tübingen 1977), p. 109. Mathews, T.F., The Byzantine churches of Istanbul. A photographic survey (University Park, Pa., 1976), p. 200.

8. Talbot, A.-M. «47. Philanthropos: Typikon of Irene Choumnaina Palaiologina for the Convent of Christ Philanthropos in Constantinople», in Thomas, J. and Constantinides Hero, A. (ed.), Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founders’ Typika and Testaments (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 35, Washington DC 2000), p. 1384.

9. Janin, R., La géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire byzantin 1: Le siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat oecuménique, t.III: Les églises et les monastères (Paris 21969), pp. 525-7. Cf. Janin, R., «Les monastères du Christ Philanthrope à Constantinople», Études Byzantines 4 (1946), pp. 135–62.
     
 
 
 
 
 

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