The Athonite Patronage of Stephen of Moldavia, 1457-1504

• Published in: Speculum 2019-01, Vol.94 (1), p.1
• Main Author: Sullivan, Alice Isabella
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 15th century; Byzantine civilization; Christianity; Medieval period; Monasteries; Patronage; Religious art; Royalty; Stephen III of Moldavia (1433?-1504)
• ISSN: 0038-7134; 2040-8072
• DOI: 10.1086/700642

Although princely endowments to monasteries outside Moldavia often occurred, most numerous were the gifts and donations from the Moldavian princes, and in particular from Stephen III, to the monastic communities on Mount Athos. As I demonstrate, Moldavian aid to the Orthodox monasteries on the Holy Mount intensified during the second half of the fifteenth century. Stephen sought through his support of Athos—the pan-Orthodox and multinational community of Christians that served as an enduring emblem of Orthodox Christianity, especially after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople—to nurture and renew symbolically the former glory of the Byzantine Empire. His efforts ensured his perpetual commemoration by the Athonite communities and also, perhaps more importantly and by extension, rendered Moldavia, as a polity, an heir to Byzantine Orthodoxy. In undertaking this task as patron and protector of Mount Athos, Stephen, moreover, like all the rulers that came before him with similar intentions, also cast himself as an heir to the authority of Byzantine emperors among the Christian peoples under Ottoman control. Upon this ideological basis, Stephen established the protection of his domain and his resistance against the Ottoman Empire.