Karakallou Monastery

Karakallou Monastery on Mount Athos: History, Library, Archives, and Spiritual Tradition

The Holy Monastery of Karakallou (Μονή Καρακάλλου) is one of the oldest and most historically complex monasteries of Mount Athos. Situated approximately 200 meters above the sea on the northeastern side of the Athonite peninsula, between the monasteries of Philotheou and Great Lavra, Karakallou occupies the eleventh place in the hierarchy of the twenty ruling monasteries of Mount Athos. Its setting is unusually open and verdant, built upon a steep, forested slope overlooking the Aegean.

Unlike some of the more monumental Athonite monasteries, Karakallou is notable for the continuity of its historical archive and for the richness of its library. The monastery preserves Byzantine, Ottoman, Greek, and Slavic documents spanning nearly a millennium, making it one of the most important repositories for the history of Mount Athos and the eastern Mediterranean.

Origins and the Problem of the Name

The foundation of Karakallou belongs to the earliest phase of organized monasticism on Mount Athos and coincides with the age of Saint Athanasios the Athonite in the late tenth century. The monastery certainly existed by 1018, when a document preserved in the archive of the Great Lavra Monastery refers to it as “Karakalou” or “Karakalous.” Around 1070, an imperial document of Romanos IV Diogenes confirms that the monastery possessed metochia and belonged to the recognized monasteries of Athos.

The origin of the monastery’s name has long been disputed. From the seventeenth century onward, pilgrims and writers associated the monastery with the Roman emperor Caracalla. This interpretation appears in the accounts of John Covel, in the pilgrimage book of Ioannis Komnenos, and in the descriptions of the Russian traveler Vasily Barsky. The tradition became so widespread that a representation of the emperor survives in the cemetery church of All Saints, painted in 1768. Modern scholarship, however, rejects this explanation. The emperor Caracalla was a persecutor of Christians and there is no evidence linking him to Athos.

A second theory, proposed by the French scholar Victor Langlois, connected the name with the Turkish expression “kara-kule,” meaning “black tower.” This too has been rejected. The most plausible explanation is that the monastery derives its name from its founder or an early benefactor whose family name was Karakalos or Karakalas, a view already suggested in the fourteenth century by the patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos.

Medieval History and the Fourth Crusade

The documentary record of Karakallou is intermittent. After 1169, almost no documents survive for nearly a century. The silence is broken by the catastrophe of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Latin pirates attacked the monasteries of Athos, plundering churches and seizing monks. At Karakallou, the entire brotherhood, including the abbot, was taken captive. The monks were ransomed by the Great Lavra Monastery, which temporarily took possession of Karakallou and its estates until the ransom could be repaid. According to Athonite tradition, the monastery regained its independence through the intervention of Saint Sava of Serbia, who gathered the necessary funds.

The later Byzantine period saw the monastery recover and expand. The archive preserves important fourteenth-century acts, including a chrysobull of Andronikos II Palaiologos and a praktikon of January 1342, both studied by the Byzantine historian Paul Lemerle. These documents illuminate the political instability of eastern Macedonia during the civil war of John VI Kantakouzenos and show that Karakallou possessed extensive lands and metochia.

Moldavian, Slavic, and Ottoman Influences

From the fifteenth century onward Karakallou entered a new phase. By the end of that century, according to the Ruthenian pilgrim Isaiah, the monastery had become predominantly Albanian. In the sixteenth century it was rebuilt with the assistance of the Moldavian prince Peter IV Rareș, whose patronage transformed the monastery after a period of decline.

The monastery also developed strong Slavic connections. The Bulgarian scholar Cyril Pavlikianov has shown that Karakallou preserved both Slavic manuscripts and a significant Slavic presence among its monks. His edition of the Greek, Slavic, and Ottoman documents of the monastery demonstrates that Karakallou functioned as a cultural meeting point between Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romanian Orthodoxy.

The Ottoman period added another layer to the monastery’s documentary wealth. Karakallou preserves Ottoman acts alongside Byzantine and post-Byzantine documents. These include tax records, confirmations of property rights, and legal decisions. The surviving archive extends from 1294 to 1835 and forms one of the richest documentary collections on Athos.

Architecture and the Monastery Complex

Karakallou has the typical Athonite form of a fortified monastery enclosed within defensive walls. The katholikon is dedicated to the holy apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. The principal feast is therefore celebrated on 29 June according to the Julian calendar.

The present katholikon largely dates from the sixteenth century, with later additions and repairs. Around it are arranged the monks’ cells, the refectory, chapels, guesthouse, library, and treasury. The cemetery church of All Saints, painted in 1768, is especially important because it preserves the unusual representation of the emperor Caracalla mentioned above.

The monastery also possessed a maritime fortification near the coast, studied by John Papangelos and John Tavlakis. This small fortified harbor helped defend the monastery from pirate attacks and connected Karakallou with the sea routes of Athos.

The Library of Karakallou

The library of Karakallou is among the most important scholarly collections on Mount Athos. According to the official catalogue of the National Documentation Centre of Greece, the library contains manuscripts, scrolls, archival documents, and printed books and dates in its present form to the late tenth century. The library remains the property of the monastery and is administered today under the authority of Archimandrite Philotheos and the librarian, Hieromonk Philippos.

The collection includes:

• Approximately 330 manuscripts
• Around 3,000 printed books
• Archival documents and chrysobulls
• Liturgical scrolls
• Early printed Greek books
• Slavic manuscripts
• Ottoman documents

The printed books preserve editions from Venice, Constantinople, and other centers of Orthodox printing. The manuscript collection includes liturgical books, patristic works, hagiography, canon law, and historical texts. Particularly valuable are the manuscripts donated by the learned metropolitan of Thessaloniki, Makarios of Thessaloniki, who ended his life as the monk Michael at Athos in 1546. His gifts enriched the monastery with a remarkable collection of codices.

One famous manuscript was purchased in Constantinople in 1492 by the archon Iakovos Malaspinas and returned to Karakallou. It was an illuminated tetraevangelion copied in 1290 and remains one of the treasures of the library.

Manuscripts and Scholarship

The manuscript collection of Karakallou has attracted scholars from many countries. Greek historians such as Kriton Chrysochoidis, French Byzantinists such as Paul Lemerle, Bulgarian scholars such as Cyril Pavlikianov, and specialists in Slavic studies have all worked on the archive.

The scholarly literature is multilingual and includes Greek, French, Bulgarian, English, and Russian studies. Among the most important are:

• Kriton Chrysochoidis and Panagiotis Gounaridis, catalogue of the archive
• Paul Lemerle, edition of the chrysobull of Andronikos II
• Cyril Pavlikianov, edition of the Byzantine and Ottoman documents
• Athanasios Karathanasis, study of the nineteenth-century codex of monks’ names
• Evangelos Tsigaridas, study of the icon of the embrace of Saints Peter and Paul

The monastery’s manuscripts and archives are therefore not merely relics of the past. They remain active sources for the study of Byzantine diplomacy, Ottoman administration, Slavic monasticism, and the intellectual history of Orthodoxy.

Relics and Treasury

The treasury of Karakallou contains liturgical vestments, chalices, reliquaries, carved crosses, and icons. Among the monastery’s most revered relics are the skull of Saint Bartholomew, the skull of Saint Christopher, and a fragment of the True Cross.

The monastery also preserves notable icons, among them a representation of the embrace of Saints Peter and Paul by the painter Konstantinos Palaeokapas. This icon has been studied as an important work of post-Byzantine art.

Contemporary Life

Karakallou has functioned as a cenobitic monastery since 1813, when Patriarch Cyril VI of Constantinople issued the sigillion establishing the communal form of life. Since 1982 the monastery has been governed by Archimandrite Philotheos, under whom the brotherhood has grown to approximately thirty monks.

Today Karakallou remains quieter and less visited than some of the more famous Athonite monasteries. Yet for historians and pilgrims alike it is one of the richest houses on Mount Athos: a monastery where the spiritual tradition of Athonite monasticism coexists with one of the finest archives and libraries of the Orthodox world.