Demography

Byzantine period

The exact number of the brothers of the Monastery during the Byzantine period is not known. A few decades after its foundation, in 1010, it is mentioned together with the Lavra and the Monastery of Iveron as a large institution that can assimilate smaller ones. This increase is also evident in certain provisions of the Athonite typicon of Constantine IX Monomachos (1045), which exceptionally allow the possession by the Monastery of a large ship and a pair of oxen for kneading bread, since according to calculations the Vatopedi brothers would then have been more than a hundred. Thirty-seven years later it is attested that the pairs of oxen had become two, an indication that the number of Vatopedi had increased again. From then on and throughout the rest of the Byzantine period the Vatopedi community will continue to be numerous.

Period of Ottoman conquest and modern times

1423/4-14th century.

The Vatopedi brotherhood must have decreased in numbers after the Ottoman conquest (1423-4), amid the conditions of general economic hardship on Mount Athos, which also brought about a general reduction in its population. However, at the end of the 15th century, thanks to its relative economic recovery, it was one of the most populous (sometimes the most populous) on Athos and in 1489 it was Bookshoped to number 330 monks. In 1520 and 1560-1, 271 monks were mentioned, and in the mid-16th century, 320. The number of 80 monks mentioned in an Ottoman document of 1569 certainly does not correspond to reality.

17th century-1830

The economic progress of the 17th century was not followed by a significant increase in the number of Vatopedi monks, which remained relatively stable until the 19th century. Before 1677, 300 monks were martyred in the Monastery, while in 1677 the English traveler J. Covel mentions 350. On the contrary, in 1744 the Russian traveler Barskij speaks of only 60 brothers, information that is certainly inaccurate. However, in 1801, the English travelers P. Hunt and JD Carlyle speak of 250 monks, the 1808 census of 234 and another testimony of 400 shortly before 1821. The number of Vatopedi monks would certainly have decreased after the failure of the Revolution in Macedonia, which caused the partial abandonment of Mount Athos by the monks, since, as is known, a Turkish army entered it with all the adverse consequences of such an event (in the years 1823-1830, Mount Athos numbered less than 1000 monks).

1830-20th century.

During the remaining years of the 19th and 20th centuries, the succession of prosperity and decline of the Vatopedi Monastery is also evident in its population. In 1837, the English traveler R. Curzon speaks of 300 monks, while the more detailed data of the 1885 census mention 214 only within the Monastery itself. With the settlement of a large number of Russians, mainly in the Skete of Saint Andrew, the population will reach very high levels (966 in 1903) until the second decade of the 20th century, only to decrease sharply thereafter; 485 in 1928, 127 in 1961 and 70 in 1974. The Vatopedi brotherhood will revive after the coenobiation of the Monastery in 1990. Today it numbers about 85 monks.