20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The Romanian monks from Athos Mountain 839the great Lavra, which was accused among other things that it fuelled theexistent conflicts and that it tried to take control of the hermitage. Therewere also asperities between the hermitage Lacu and the monastery itwas dependant on, Saint Pavel, which expressed its disapproval of thehermitage’s inscriptions which were all in Romanian. Sometimes Russianmonks would buy many of the cells and cribs inhabited by Romanians andthey would erase all inscriptions, making thus all traces of the help givenby the Romanian lords disappear.How were the relations between the monks and the state of Romania?Generally the state of Romania supported the monks. And I’m talkingabout both diplomatic representatives (Romania’s minister at Athens, theRomanian consul at Salonika) and the representatives of the clergy (thesaint synod, the Primat Mitropolit) who petitioned for actual supportfrom the state, in order to help the monks with the many problems theywere dealing with. The most common and most effective way of helpingwas sending subventions. The beneficiaries of these subventions wereProdromu hermitage (since 1877), Lacu hermitage (1881), The Communityof Romanin Brothers Saint Ioan Teologul, the hermitage Cucuvinu-Provata(since 1881), the hermitage Saint Gheorghe Colciu (in 1914). The sums ofmoney would vary depending on the possibilities of the state or on objectivehardships (wars, etc).The desire of many Romanian monks – and not only theirs – forsome Greek monasteries (some of the ones built by Romanians) to betransformed into Romanian ones.Generally the monks were well aware of the help given by Romanianlords to Greek monasteries and they demanded through a memorandum tothe authorities of the state that efforts be made in order to get back somemonasteries. On the other hand archived documents show that the stateand the clergy were interested that the Romanian monks be represented inChinotita de la Caries. Among the monasteries that were asked back therewas firstly Kutlumus, and then Karakalu, Zografu, and Simonopetra. Thestate forwarded the idea of getting back Kulumus monastery, or anotherone, in exchange for a few tens of millions.At one point there had been discussions that the Saint Pantelimonmonastery should become Romanian.The history of the hermitage Prodromu.Until recently the bibliography on Prodromu hermitage was very poor,consisting of the writings of Irinarh Sisman, not known by the researchers