06 — Athos and Hilandar

The last two years of Simeon’s life, on the Holy Mountain. This section follows the abdicated sovereign’s extraordinary journey to Mount Athos in 1197 to join his monk-son Sava at Vatopedi; the chrysobull of Emperor Alexios III Angelos (1198) granting them the ruined monastery of Hilandar; the refounding of Hilandar as the Serbian house of the Athonite republic, with its founding charter; and the death of Simeon before the icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria on 13 February 1199.

Tradition: Serbian Orthodox

Contents

• Vatopedi and the Chrysobull — the journey to Athos, the reunion with Sava at Vatopedi, and the imperial chrysobull of Alexios III (June 1198) that granted the derelict Hilandar to father and son “for the Serbs as an eternal gift.”
• Hilandar and the Death Before the Hodegetria — the refounding of Hilandar and its charter, and the death of the monk Simeon before the icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria, 13 February 1199, as St. Sava’s own account tells it.

See Also

• The Great Renunciation — the tonsure that preceded the journey
• The Myrrh-Gusher — the cult that grew from his tomb at Hilandar
• St. Sava: Founding Hilandar — the same events from the son’s side
• Mount Athos: The Ruling Monasteries — Hilandar, fourth among the twenty