Late Byzantine Monasteries in Thessaly during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

Monasticism and monasteries played a central role in the spiritual and material life of late medieval Thessaly. As a case study, we will present the multi-functional role played by three of the major rural monasteries of Thessaly (Theotokos Lykousada, Theotokos tōn Megalōn Pylōn and St George of Zavlantia) within the society and economy of late Byzantine Thessaly. Their struggle to survive was expressed through the development of an important network of relations with prominent representatives of the political and ecclesiastical authorities of the time. Through this network of contacts, it sought to assert and maintain their rights, both in terms of their autonomy from the ecclesiastical authorities and the freedom of their own internal organisation, as well as their properties. The case of all these monasteries is exceptionally welldocumented as the body of evidence includes archival documents, such as chrysobulls, horismoi and other documents issued by the Byzantine emperor, Serbian, Ottoman as well as other local rulers, manuscripts, and architectural remains.

Dimitris Agoritsas holds his PhD in Byzantine History from the University of Ioannina. He has taught Byzantine history at the Ionion University (Corfu), University of Patras and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His research focuses on Late Byzantine history, social history, education, hagiology, and monasticism. Most of his publications include Constantinople, the city and its society during the first Palaiologans (1261–1328), Thessalonike 2016 and Vita of Saints Nekrarios and Theophanes Apsaras, founders of the Holy monastery of Varlaam, Holy Meteora 2018.