Legal Status

The monastic system of life that prevailed from the beginning in the Vatopedi Monastery was the coenobitic one and according to one tradition, Saint Athanasius the Athonite himself had determined the operating regulations of the Monastery. The coenobitic system would last for several centuries and only in the middle of the 14th century were there concessions of privileges and facilities from the Monastery to aristocratic donors, which could be considered as the beginnings of the idiosyncratic system.

The idiosyncratic system as its internal operating regime seems to have been introduced gradually at the end of the 14th century AD and prevailed with the Ottoman conquest. In 1449 the Vatopedi monks decided to convert it into a coenobite. However, this decision does not seem to have had any substantial effect. A new attempt to prevail the coenobite system in 1574 (part of the general policy of Patriarch Jeremiah II for monastic reform) does not seem to have borne fruit and the role of the abbot remained formal.

Vatopedi will follow the idiorrhythic system at least until 1821. Within the framework of this system, in the 17th century. the actual administration seems to be exercised by the abbot, but towards the end of the century the position of the sacristan becomes more important. On the contrary, the title of abbot, although it continues to be awarded, has no substantial significance. In 1740, especially in Vatopedi, the sacristan begins to share the governance of the Monastery with two abbots, who participate with him in the elected three-member administrative committee. The situation would change in 1821 with the decision to convert the Monastery into a commune, but this did not take effect due to the Revolution. During the 20th century. The peculiar system is partly responsible for the phenomena of decline of the Vatopedi Monastery, which were definitively halted in 1990 with the re-adoption of the coenobitic system.