Third Workshop for the ERC Starting Grant “Mount Athos in Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Society: Contextualizing the History of a Monastic Republic (ca. 850 – 1550)”
As is well-known, Mount Athos is today an exclusively male monastic preserve governed by the so-called baton (“untrodden”) rule, which prohibits the access of both women and female animals to the peninsula. Nonetheless, throughout history, women were connected with the Holy Mountain in manifold ways, in dynamics of patronage, spiritual advice and familial ties. The aim of this workshop is not only to uncover this largely neglected aspect of Athos’ history during the medieval period but also to explore other forms of gender, such as that of masculinity (including eunuchs).
Please click the link below to join the conference online:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83545343731?pwd=cGMQGLtWk2g7MLIQv-CaiQmONC2ADA.0K4t6FiJQkDMMR-B
Wednesday, September 27th
2:00-2:30 p.m.
Welcome, Opening Remarks
2:30-4:30 p.m.
Session 1: The Virgin and Mount Athos
Mary Cunningham “Gregory Palamas and the Hesychastic Virgin Mary: Female Sanctity from a Male Monastic Perspective”
Tinatin Chronz “’Rejoice, Opener of the Gates of Paradise!’ Liturgical Veneration of the Keeper of the Gate (Portaitisa) in Iviron on Mount Athos”
Georgi Parpulov “The Virgin’s Garden”
4:30-5:00 p.m.
Coffee/tea break
5:00-6:30 p.m.
Session2: Women and Liturgical Commemoration
Kirill Maksimovič “Liturgical Commemoration of Women at the Serbian Athonite Monastery of Hilandar (13th–15th centuries): a Prosopographic Approach”
Emanuela Mindrila “The Commemoration of Women in the Liturgical tradition of Vatopedi Monastery: Remarks on Ms. Vatopedi 1945”.
6:30 p.m.
Reception and then Dinner for Conference Participants
Thursday, September 28th
9:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Session 3: Female Patronage
Taisiya Leber “The Role of Women in the Patronage of Mount Athos and Athonites from a Transottoman Perspective
Alice Isabella Sullivan “New Forms of Athonite Patronage: The Impact of Royal Women from Moldavia and Wallachia in the Late Middle Ages”
Lilyana Yordanova “Slavic Female Patronage on Mount Athos and its Socio-Political Context”
11:00-11:30 a.m.
Coffee/tea break
11:30 a.m.-1:00p.m.
Session4: The abaton in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Zachary Chitwood “Both Athonite and Antiochene?: The abaton in the writings of Nikon of the Black Mountain”
Rosemary Morris “The Diegesis Merike Revisited”
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Catered Lunch for Conference Participants
2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Session 5: Gendered Space
Ekaterina Mitsiou “Double Monasteries, abaton and the Gendered Space of Athos”
Leonora Neville “Masculinity, Ethics, and Power on Mount Athos”
3:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m.
Coffee Break
4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Session 6: Legal and Technical Aspects
Olivier Delouis “Une loi impitoyable between Economics and Morality: The abaton in Bithynia, Mount Athos and Elsewhere, and Its Reception through the Ages”
Anastasios Nikopoulos “The Institution of the Ban on the Monastic Republic of Mount Athos as a Legal Component of its Status”
Alexander Watzinger “How to Digitally Map Sex and Gender in Research Projects-Pitfalls and solutions”
7:30 p.m.
Dinner for Conference Participants
Friday, September 29th
10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Session 7: Women and Outside World
Mihailo Popovic “Serbian Noble women and the Clergy in the Middle Ages: A Comparison between Mara Branković and Jelena Anžujska regarding Athonite Monks and Franciscan Friars”
Vanessa de Obaldía “Women in the Life of SimonopetraMonastery: The Multifaceted Nature of a Special Relationship”
12:00-12:30 p.m.
Concluding Remarks and Discussion
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Catered Lunch for Conference Participants
(Ill: Mount Athos and its saints © Σκήτη Προδρόμου Μονῆς Μεγ. Λαύρας, Γεννάδιος Μοναχός, 1859)
