The Slavic Archive

Since the Byzantine era, the Vatopedi Monastery developed relations with most Slavic-speaking peoples, which continued during the period of the Ottoman conquest. These relations are reflected both in the numerous Slavonic documents in the Romanian archive of the Monastery (which mainly refer to affairs of its shares in Russian-occupied Bessarabia), and in those in Slavic, which date from the 13th century onwards and mainly refer to the benefactions of various rulers towards it.

The oldest document is a paper chrysobull of 1230 by the Vlach-Bulgar ruler John Asanis, who donated a village in the Serres region to the Monastery. From the following century (14th) donations by Serbian rulers begin, for which chrysobulls are issued, initially in Greek and later in Slavic. The two oldest are from 1346 and 1348 and were issued by Stefan Dusan with the subject of ratifications of Vatopedi possessions and privileges and donations to the Monastery. Similar documents were issued in 1369 and 1371 by John Ugclesis, which concern Vatopedi property in Porto Lagos. Various documents of Serbian rulers of the 15th century are written in Slavic, such as the parchment gold bullion of Stefan Lazarević (1417) in which he grants the Monastery an annual financial grant and a village.

Also of great interest are the documents of the Russian Tsars kept in the Monastery, with which they benefactors the Monastery or grant facilities to the monks of Vatopedi who travel for matters. The first category includes the parchment document of Peter the Great (1688) and the second includes the parchments of Theodore Ivanovich (1589) and Michael Theodoreovich (1632).

Other documents of the Slavic archive have been published by the Monastery itself and refer to internal matters, such as the concession of 1432, by which the tower of Kolitsou with the cells and its surrounding area was granted (according to the then regime of the "brothers") to two voivodes, in exchange for a sum of money.