254 | New Light on Old Glass

Chapter 24The Abbot Philotheos, Founder of the Katholikon of Hosios Loukas Old and New Observations*Nano Chatzidakis

IntroductionHosios Loukas is one of the most prominent monuments of medieval Byzantium and one of the most important monastic foundations in Greece. The grandeur of its construction and the splendour of its interior with marble revetment and mosaic decoration (Pl. 1) attracted scholarly interest1 and restoration2 at an early stage. Nothing is left of the monastery’s archives and there is no direct information about either the founder of the monastery or the date of its foundation. A reference by Cyriacus of Ancona naming the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomachos (r. 1042–55) as the founder has never been supported by any reliable document. The iconographic programme (in mosaic) comprises only ten scenes and more than 170 individual saints. A saint’s portrait in the nave and an impressive group of 26 monks are placed in the northwest and southwest bays. Among them is Nikon Metanoite, a local saint who died in ad 997, thus providing a secure terminus post quem for the mosaic decoration of the katholikon.3

The publication by Manolis Chatzidakis of a fresco representing an anonymous abbot who turns to offer the model of a wide-domed church to St Loukas standing frontally in prayer (Pls 2–3), provided new evidence for the identity of the founder of the katholikon.4 The fresco was found in a special place of honour under an arch in the northeast compartment, flanking the sanctuary on its north and the saint’s larnax on its west.5 The abbot, who is depicted as an old man with a long white beard (Pl. 3), was identified on the basis of his facial features as Philotheos, the abbot of the monastery, who appears twice in the frescoes of the crypt:6 first on a medallion on a groin vault along with three other abbots of the monastery, Theodosios, Loukas and Athanasios (Pls 4, 6), accompanied on the flanking

Plate 1 Interior of the katholikon at Hosios Loukas, general view towards the east

The Abbot Philotheos, Founder of the Katholikon of Hosios Loukas | 255

groin vault by St Philotheos (Pl. 6) and the homonymous saints’ patrons of the other three abbots (Pls 5, 7). The abbot Philotheos was distinguished a second time, with the same facial features, among a group of monks who pray to St Loukas in the entrance of the crypt.7 The pious act of the katholikon’s foundation by Philotheos was also mentioned in four canticles from the vespers of the Akolouthia of the Anakomidi (Service of the Translation of the Relic) of St Loukas,8 explicitly praising his initiative in the translation of the saint’s relics to the new church, the katholikon. According to this text, the translation took place on the day of the celebration of the Ascension on 3 May; according to the Grumel tables, this coincides only in the years 1011 or 1022.9 It is notable that 3 May is still the most important feast day of the monastery – even more important than the name day of the saint (7 February).

Different opinions concerning both the founder of the monastery and its date have been expressed by Eustathios Stikas10 and Paul Mylonas,11 who disregarding the representation of Philotheos as a donor of the katholikon, insisted on the attribution of its foundation to the Emperor Constantine Monomachos; a different date, before the end of the 10th century, has been proposed by Carolyn Connor,12 but this has been criticized by Christopher Walter13 and myself,14 who both point out that the depiction of Nikon

Metanoite as a saint with a nimbus cannot have occurred before his death in ad 997. The above-mentioned opinions have also been criticized by Dimitrios Sophianos15 who provided further arguments regarding the authentication and dating of the texts of the Akolouthia (the Service), which are proved to be contemporary with the translation of the relics of the saint into the new church, thus confirming Chatzidakis’ theory. Charalampos Bouras considers the katholikon to be an accomplished creation, implying a genuine architectural project designed by a great architect, and founded by the abbot Philotheos;16 he has also provided new arguments for dating its construction to 1011 after a marble inscription which refers to the marble decoration of a dependency of Hosios Loukas at Aliveri, Euboea, in the year 1014.17

Nicolas Oikonomides, in his study of the early years of the katholikon,18 confirmed the crucial role played by Philotheos in the building of the katholikon in 1011 and adduced new evidence for the activity of the first abbots, also establishing identifications for two other abbots represented on the same groin vault as Philotheos in the crypt (Pl. 4):19 Theodosios was identified with the famous abbot Theodoros Leovachos who, as is known from the typikon of the Virgin Naupaktiotissa,20 ruled the monastery around 1048, and the abbot Loukas, depicted with a long white beard, was

Plate 2 Drawing of the wall paintings of the northeast compartment with the abbot Philotheos donating the katholikon to Hosios Loukas

Plate 3 The abbot Philotheos offering the model of the katholikon. Wall painting, northeast compartment

Plate 4 The abbots Athanasios, Philotheos, Luke and Theodosios on a groin vault in the crypt

Plate 5 Patron saints of the homonymous abbots (see Plate 4) on a groin vault in the crypt

256 | New Light on Old Glass

identified with the eponymous abbot ruling the dependency of Hosios Loukas at Aliveri at the beginning of the 11th century as indicated by an inscription of 1014 which mentions his death in 1005.21

Following this short introduction I will focus on the unnoticed, until now, presence of the abbot Philotheos in the mosaic decoration of the katholikon and on some already known written material. I will comment first on the figure of St Philotheos in the diakonikon and then revisit the canticles of the Akolouthia of the translation of the relics of St Loukas and the dedicatory inscription of Gregorios on a marble slab inserted in the marble decoration of the narthex.

St Philotheos in the mosaic decoration of the diakonikonIn the mosaic decoration of the entrance to the diakonikon is the figure of a saint accompanied by the inscription ‘ΑΓΙΟΣ ΦΙΛΟΘΕΟΣ’ (St Philotheos) (Pl. 8). He has a round face with large eyes, short brown hair and a neat beard. He is represented full length as a simple priest wearing a purple tunic and encheirion and holding a book and a small cross. His facial features and costume are exactly the same as on the portrait of St Philotheos represented as the patron saint of the abbot Philotheos on the groin vault of the crypt (Pl. 6).

But who was St Philotheos? His known representations are extremely rare; he appears in the Menologion of Basil II (Vat. Gr. 1613, fol. 38)22 with the same facial features and priest’s costume (including the epitracheilion).The only source of his life is the Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae, where he is celebrated on 15 September.23 According to this short text, Philotheos was a priest from the town of Myrmikos in the theme of Opsikion in Asia Minor; he was married to a good woman and was the father of children; he died in peace. Only one event is explicitly described in this short text: he resisted the translation of his relics to another place by appearing miraculously in front of those who wanted to enact this translation and by insisting that his relics should remain where they were originally buried. It is notable that Hippolyte Delehaye, the editor of the Synaxarium, suggests that St Philotheos was a 10th-century saint probably contemporary with St Loukas.24 One could also remark on the coincidence of events regarding the translation of the relics of the two saints as we know that the relics of St Loukas were translated to the new katholikon in a larnax and put exactly above the place where he was first buried.25

A parallel examination of the display of the saints in the mosaic decoration of the entrance to the prothesis and to the

diakonikon (Pl. 1) provides us with some useful information about the prevailing criteria for their choice and placement: Prothesis (Pl. 9) Diakonikon (Pl. 10)1. Gregory the Great of Armenia 1. Gregory of Nyssa2. Ignatios Theophoros (of Antioch) 2. Philotheos, priest3. Clement (of Rome) 3. Hierotheos (of Athens) 4. Cyril of Alexandria 4. Dionysios Areopagites (Athens)

One may remark that in the prothesis there are represented four hierarchs and in the diakonikon three hierarchs and a simple priest named Philotheos. Furthermore, a symmetrical arrangement of the two homonymous Great Fathers of the church, Gregory of Armenia and Gregory of Nyssa,26 is noteworthy. In this context, St Philotheos as a simple priest appears as an intrusive figure. This is clearer if we consider the whole decoration of the diakonikon which exclusively comprises the figures of bishops: on the groin vault, Antipas, Anthimos, Eleutherios and Polykarpos, and on the inner arch, Spyridon, Achilleios, Silvester and Kyprianos.27 One can also assume that the destroyed original mosaic decoration of the prothesis (groin vault and inner arch), also comprised a similar programme with hierarchs.

St Philotheos the priest is placed among two illustrious hierarchs of the city of Athens – St Hierotheos and St Dionysios (Pl. 10): the former was the first bishop of Athens who was appointed to this post by St Paul.28 His cult in the region of Attica is known from the 12th-century church

Plate 6 The abbot Philotheos, detail of the groin vault (Plate 4)

Plate 7 St Philotheos, the priest, patron saint of the homonymous abbot (detail of the groin vault, Plate 5)

Plate 8 St Philotheos, the priest, detail of the mosaic in the entrance to the diakonikon

Pl. 9 Gregory of Armenia, Ignatios, Clement and Cyril of Alexandria, detail of the mosaic in the entrance to the prothesis

The Abbot Philotheos, Founder of the Katholikon of Hosios Loukas | 257

dedicated to his name, Hagios Hierotheos near Megara.29 St Dionysios Areopagites, a noble Athenian and a member of the Areios Pagos (Supreme Tribunal), was a disciple of Hierotheos who converted to Christianity after St Paul’s sermon on the rock of Areios Pagos adjacent to the Acropolis; he was thus considered as the protector of the city of Athens.30 During the 10th century he was a well-known saint included in the text of Elpius,31 where the description of his facial features corresponds to those in the mosaic of Hosios Loukas; he appears also in the 10th-century mosaic decoration of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, but without the epithet Areopagites.32 Thus, the added epithet Areopagites in Hosios Loukas could indicate a special emphasis on his place of origin. In this context the placing of the priest Philotheos among the two founders of Athens’ first church could be considered as a telling allusion to a related and crucial visit by St Loukas to Athens c. ad 910–11, where, according to his Vita, he prayed in a church of the Virgin (probably the church on the Parthenon) and was converted to the monastic life in a monastery which remains as yet unidentified.33

In conclusion, the presence of Philotheos the priest in the mosaic decoration of the diakonikon suggests that there was a special purpose in honouring the prodigious activity of the homonymous holy abbot for the foundation of the katholikon and for the translation of the miraculous relics of St Loukas.

The written sources

The canticle of the AkolouthiaI shall now proceed with a re-examination of four of the canticles written for the Akolouthia of the translation of the relics of St Loukas and on the occasion of the inauguration of the new church, the katholikon, already known from the studies of Manolis Chatzidakis34 and Demetrios Sophianos.35 They were composed during a period when the abbot Philotheos was still alive and most probably before the end of the incursions of the Bulgars in the region in 1018 when Basil II visited Athens on pilgrimage.36 Three canticles of the first canon (two of the fifth ode and one of the sixth ode) and one canticle of the ninth ode of another independent canon,

related to the translation, contain the name of the abbot Philotheos (Φιλόθεος, underlined) three times as the founder of the katholikon and responsible for the translation of the relics of St Loukas to the new church (katholikon). On those verses we can add some more observations:

’Απὸ ψυχῆϛφιλοθέου, παμμάκαρ,

κεκινημένος, ἔσπευσεν ὁ Φιλόθεος φιλοθέως

σὲ καταθεῖναι ὡς ἀπόθετον χρῆμα

ἐν τῇ θήκῃ, ᾗ νῦν κατάκεισαι, πρότερον ἐν γῇ

τεθαμμένον καὶ μύρον βλύζοντα.(...)

Ναόν σε γεγονότα Τριάδος ἱερόν

τῆς παναγίας, Λουκά παμμακάριστε, μετέθετο ὁ Φιλόθεος ναῷ

έν καινῷ, ὃν ἥγειρεν εἰς σὸν ὄνομα πιστῶς.

***************‘Ο ποίμνην σου ποιμαίνων τὴν λογικήν

φιλοθέως, Λουκᾶ παμμακάριστε, πόθῳ θερμῷ

πίστει τε κινούμενος τῇ πρὸς σέ, ὡς ἀληθῶς φιλόθεον

ἔργον, τὴν σεπτὴν ἀνακομιδὴντοῦ θείου σου λειψάνου εἰργάσατο έμφρόνως,

ὢν καὶ καλούμενος Φιλόθεος.37

The word ‘philotheos’ occurs four more times (underlined and italicized): first as an epithet, φιλόθεος, meaning ‘the one who loves God’, and second as an adverb, φιλοθέως, meaning ‘with the love for God’, in a poetical play (alliteration) on the proper name of the abbot Φιλόθεος. With the special emphasis given to this term, which appears in total four times in the same canticles and in close relation to the name of Philotheos mentioned in the same verses three times, the author of these canticles intended to emphasize not only the name but also the venerable act of the abbot who was responsible for the translation of the relics and the building of the new church, the katholikon of Hosios Loukas.

The marble inscriptionThis interpretation can be confirmed if we revisit the first of the already known dedicatory inscriptions on two small white marble slabs inserted in the marble revetment and flanking the upper part of the central entrance from the narthex to the nave of the katholikon.38 The first (l. 0.24m; h. 0.19m), is placed to the left of the entrance (Pls 11–12).

ΛΟΥΚΑ ΤΡΙΣΜΑΚΑΡ ΤΟΦΙΛΟΘΕΟΝ ΕΡΓΟΝ

ΓΛΥΦΕΝ ΔΕΧΟΙΟ ΕΚ ΧΕΙΡΩΝ ΓΡΗΓΟ

(Λουκᾶ τρισμάκαρ τὸ / φιλόθεον ἔργον / γλυφὲν δέχοι / o ἐκ χειρῶν Γρηγο//).

The inscription continues on the second slab:ΡΙΟΥ ΟΠΕΡ ΤΕΤΕΥΧΕΠΡΕΣΒΕΙΑΙΣ ΣOY ΘΑΡ

Plate 10 Gregory of Nyssa, St Philotheos the priest, Hierotheos and Dionysios Areopagites, detail of the mosaic in the entrance to the diakonikon

258 | New Light on Old Glass

ΡΗΣΑΣ ΔΙΔOYC ΕΙC ΠΕΡΑC ΚΑΙ ΝCΝ ΟΦΛΗΜΑ

TΩN+

(-ρίου ὅπερ τέτευχε / πρεσβείαις σου θαρ/ρήσας δίδου εἰς πέ/ρας καὶ λύσιν ὀφλημά/των +. ‘Thrice blessed Luke receive at the hands of Gregory, this pious work of sculpture which he has wrought by thy intercessions, giving it for the ending and remission of sins’).39

This inscription, which refers to the offering of the pious work of supervising (or commissioning) the marble revetment of the church by Gregorios,40 comprises the epithet φιλόθεον once more, in order to characterize the ἔργον (underlined), meaning here the pious act of the building of the katholikon, in a poetical allusion to the name of the abbot Philotheos. Furthermore, we can observe that in the above-mentioned canticle for the translation of St Loukas’ relics, this same expression, ‘φιλόθεον έργον’, recurs one more time (in italics):

‘O ποίμνην σου ποιμαίνων τὴν λογικήν φιλοθέως, Λουκᾶ παμμακάριστε,

πόθῳ θερμῷπίστει τε κινούμενος τῇ πρὸς σέ,

ὡς ἀληθῶς φιλόθεονἔργον, τὴν σεπτὴν ἀνακομιδὴν

τοῦ θείου σου λειψάνου εἰργάσατο ἐμφρόνως,

ὢν καὶ καλούμενος Φιλόθεος

The word ἔργον meaning here, the act of the translation of the relics of St Loukas.

The previous remarks offer an interesting echo of the prevailing intellectual climate at that time in the monastic milieu of Hosios Loukas. We cannot know if the author of the text of the marble inscription was the donor of the marble revetment of the katholikon, Gregorios. On the other

hand, the use of similar expressions in both cases does not allow us to assume that the author of both texts was one and the same; however, we can suggest that the author of the text of the inscription was aware of those canticles and most probably contemporary with their author. Seen in this context the presence of the abbot Philotheos, either explicit or concealed, in the mosaic or fresco decoration as well as in the dedicatory inscriptions and the texts of the Akolouthia of 3 May, reveals once more the erudite as well as the intricate thought processes that shaped the iconography of the katholikon. The evident honour given discretely to the person responsible for the translation of the relics of St Loukas to a new and larger church, appropriate for the needs of a growing pilgrimage centre, should be obviously discernible not only to the learned monks of this monastic foundation, but also to the high-ranking visitors from the neighbouring city of Thebes.41

Notes* A longer version of this paper has been published in Cahiers

Archeologiques 54 (2011–2012), 17–32: N. Chatzidakis, ‘La présence de l’higoumène Philothéos dans le catholicon de Saint-Luc en Phocide (Hosios Loukas). Nouvelles remarques’.

1 G. Kremos, Φωκικά, Προσκυνητάριον της εν Φωκίδι Μονής του Οσίου Λουκά, 3 vols, Athens, 1874–80; R.W. Schultz and S.H. Barnsley, The Monastery of Saint Luke of Stiris in Phokis and the Dependent Monastery of Saint Nicolas in the Fields near Skripou in Boeotia, London and New York, 1901; E. Dietz and O. Demus, Byzantine Mosaics in Greece, Hosios Lucas and Daphni, Cambridge (Mass.), 1931.

2 E. Stikas, Το οικοδομικόν χρονικόν της μονής του Οσίου Λουκά, Athens, 1970.

3 N. Chatzidakis, Hosios Loukas (Byzantine Art in Greece), Athens, 1997, 22–3, fig. 9, nos 126–51, figs 36–42; N. Oikonomides, ‘How to become a saint in eleventh century Byzantium’, in E. Kountoura-Galake (ed.), The Heroes of the Orthodox Church, The New Saints, 8th–16th centuries (National Hellenic Research Foundation, Institute for Byzantine Research, International Symposium 15), Athens, 2004, 473–91, esp. 484–9; N. Patterson-Sevcenko, ‘Three saints at Hosios Loukas’, in Kountoura-Galake ibid., 459–72.

4 M. Chatzidakis, ‘À propos de la date et du fondateur de Saint-Luc’, Cahiers Archéologiques 19 (1969), 127–50, reprinted in M. Chatzidakis, Studies in Byzantine Art and Archaeolog y (Variorum Reprints), London, 1972a, no. XII; M. Chatzidakis, ‘Περί μονής Οσίου Λουκά νεώτερα’, Ελληνικά 25 (1972b), 298–313; M. Chatzidakis, ‘Précisions sur le fondateur de Saint-Luc’, Cahiers Archéologiques 22 (1972c), 87–8.

5 Chatzidakis (n. 3), 54–5, figs 50–1.6 Ibid., 84, 90–1, figs 84–5, 96–7.7 Ibid., figs 96–7.8 Chatzidakis 1969 (n. 4); D. Sophianos, ‘Η Mονή του Oσίου

Λουκά. Έλεγχος και κριτική της αξιοπιστίας και ερμηνείας των πηγών’, Μεσαιωνικά και Νέα Ελληνικά 4 (1992), 23–80.

9 Chatzidakis 1969 (n. 4).10 Stikas (n. 2). 11 P. Mylonas, ‘Nouvelles remarques sur le complexe de Saint-Luc en

Phocide’, Cahiers Archéologiques 40 (1992), 115–22 (with previous bibliography).

12 C. Connor, Art and Miracles in Medieval Byzantium: The Crypt at Hosios Loukas and its Frescoes, Princeton, 1991.

13 C. Walter in: Revue des Études Byzantines (1992), 334–5 (Book review). 14 N. Chatzidakis in: Burlington Magazine 136, no. 1090/1 (1994), 30–1

(Book review). 15 D. Sophianos, Όσιος Λουκάς, Ο βίος του οσίου Λουκά του

Στειριώτη: Προλεγόμενα, μετάφραση, κριτική έκδοση του κειμένου, Athens, 1989; Sophianos (n. 8).

16 C. Bouras, Byzantine and post-Byzantine Architecture in Greece, Athens, 2006, 92, 103, 106; C. Bouras, Τρόποι εργασίας των βυζαντινών αρχιτεκτόνων και αρχιμαστόρων (English summary: Working methods of the Byzantine architects and master builders),

Plate 11 Dedicatory marble inscription in the narthex

Plate 12 Drawing of the dedicatory marble inscription (see Plate 11)

The Abbot Philotheos, Founder of the Katholikon of Hosios Loukas | 259

Ακαδημία Αθηνών (Μνήμη Μανόλη Χατζηδάκη, 4 March 2008), Athens, 2010, 23–4, 41.

17 C. Bouras, ‘Παρατηρήσεις στο καθολικό της μονής της Θεοτόκου Περιβλέπτου στα Πολιτικά της Εύβοιας’, Αρχείο Ευβοϊκών Μελετών 28 (1988–9), 53–62.

18 N. Oikonomides, ‘The first century of the monastery of Hosios Loukas’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 46 (1992), 245–55.

19 Chatzidakis (n. 3), figs 85, 91–5.20 J. Nesbitt and J. Witta, ‘A confraternity of the Comnenian era’,

Byzantinische Zeitschrift 68 (1975), 360–84; T. Chatzidakis-Bacharas, Les peintures murales de Hosios Loukas: les chapelles occidentales (Tetradia Christianikis Archeologikis Etaireias No 2), Athens, 1982, 105–6, 183–8.

21 Bouras (n. 17); G. Velenis, ‘Επιλεγόμενα σε επιγραφές του μετοχίου του Οσίου Λουκά Εύβοιας’, in Αρμός, τιμητικός τόμος Ν. Μουτσόπουλου, Thessaloniki, 1991, 351–61.

22 Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, 8 vols, J. Kirschbaum and W. Braunfels (eds), Rome-Fribourg-Bale/Vienna, 1976, 8, 208.

23 Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae, Propylaeum ad Acta SS Novembris (ed. H. Delehaye), Brussels, 1902, col. 47; A.P. Kazhdan (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (hereafter ODB), 3 vols, New York/Oxford, 1991, vol. 3, 1663.

24 Synaxarium (n. 23), col. 47.

25 Chatzidakis 1969 (n. 4), 128; see also, Schultz and Barnsley (n. 1), 34. 26 ODB 2, 882–4.27 Chatzidakis (n. 3), 22–3, fig. 9, nos 20–7.28 Synaxarium (n. 23), col. 103.29 D. Mouriki, ‘Stylistic trends in monumental painting of Greece

during the eleventh and twelfth centuries’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 34–5 (1980–1), 77–123, esp. 111, pls 63–7.

30 Synaxarium (n. 23), cols 101–2; ODB 1, 629.31 M. Chatzidakis, ‘Eκ των Ελπίου του Ρωμαίου’, Eπετηρίς της

Eταιρείας Bυζαντινών Σπουδών 14 (1938), 393–414, esp. 412 (reprinted in Chatzidakis 1972a (n. 4), no III).

32 C. Mango and E.W.J. Hawkins, ‘The mosaics of Hagia Sophia at Istanbul, the Church Fathers in the north tympanon’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 26 (1972), 3–41, figs 57, 59.

33 Sophianos (n. 8), 132 and 16–17; Bouras 2010 (n. 16), 134–40, 266–7.34 Chatzidakis 1969 (n. 4), 130.35 Sophianos (n. 8), 24–37, 70–9.36 Sophianos (n. 8), 26–37; Oikonomides (n. 18), 253–4.37 Sophianos (n. 8), 70–1.38 Schultz and Barnsley (n. 1), 28.39 Translation by: Schultz and Barnsley (n. 1), 28. 40 Chatzidakis 1969 (n. 4), 141, n. 36.41 Oikonomides (n. 18).