Monastery of Stoudios

Propontis (Sea of Marmara), from the Menologion of Basil II

(c. 1000).

The Monastery of Stoudios, more fully Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner "at Stoudios" (

Orthodox world

; even today they have influence.

The ruins of the monastery are situated not far from the

.

History

The Stoudites gave the first proof of their devotion to the Orthodox Faith during the

(r. 741–775); after his death however, some of them returned.

During St. Theodore's administration also the monks were harassed and driven away several times, some of them being put to death.

Theodore's pupil, Naukratios, re-established discipline after the Iconoclastic dispute had come to an end. Hegumenos Nicholas (848-845 and 855-858) refused to recognize the Patriarch St. Photios and was on this account imprisoned in his own monastery. He was succeeded by five abbots who recognized the patriarch. The brilliant period of the Stoudios came to an end at this time.

Nea Moni monastery on Chios

).

In the middle of the eleventh century, during the administration of Abbot Simeon, a monk named

.

As regards the intellectual life of the monastery in other directions, it is especially celebrated for its famous school of

In the eighth and eleventh centuries, the monastery was the centre of Byzantine religious poetry; a number of the

monastic vows

in the Stoudion.

In 1204, the monastery was destroyed by the Crusaders and was not fully restored until 1290, by Constantine Palaiologos. The Russian pilgrims Anthony (c. 1200) and Stephen (c. 1350) were amazed by the size of the monastic grounds. It is thought that the cloister sheltered as many as 700 monks at the time. The greater part of the monastery was again destroyed when the Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453.

The 5th-century monastery's church, which has the plan of a basilica, was converted by Bayezid II's Albanian equerry, Ilias Bey, into the mosque İmrahor Camii (literally, Mosque of the Equerry). The ancient structure sustained grave damage from the great fire of 1782; the 1894 Istanbul earthquake also contributed to its ruin.^[3]

Following the 1894 earthquake, a group of Russian Byzantinist scholars led by

. During the subsequent decades the ruins of the monastery complex were looted by local inhabitants to repair their houses, while the magnificent 13th century pavement still lies open to elements "and disappears slowly but steadily". In 2013 plans were announced that the church, currently a museum, was to be converted into a mosque after a restoration.^[4] It was announced in 2023 that restoration of the edifice was due to start later that year^[5] and which has been ongoing as of January 2024^[6]

• Degrees of Orthodox monasticism
• History of Eastern Orthodox Christianity
• Sabas of Stoudios

• 
  Street view of the monastery
• 
  Exterior walls of the monastery
• 
  The Apsis

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Studion". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Official Website of the Ecumenical Patriarch | Studius^{[permanent dead link‍]}

External links

Media related to Monastery of Stoudios at Wikimedia Commons

• Byzantium 1200 | Monastery of Saint John of Stoudios