The Monastery of Saint Mamas ( gr, Ἅγιος Μάμας) was a monastery in the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

capital,

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, supposedly first founded in the 6th century, and surviving until the end of the 14th century.

History

The monastery was located in the southwestern part of the city, near the Xylokerkos Gate in the

Theodosian Walls The Walls of Constantinople ( el, Τείχη της Κωνσταντινουπόλεως) are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey) since its founding as the ...

. According to later tradition, it was founded in the 6th century, either by a chamberlain of Emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

() called Pharasmanes, or slightly later by Gordia, sister of Emperor Maurice (). Certainly Maurice's family was associated with the monastery in some form, possibly using it as their family mausoleum: both Maurice and his wife, Empress

Constantina Flavia Valeria Constantina (also sometimes called ''Constantia'' and ''Constantiana''; el, Κωνσταντίνα; b. after 307/before 317 – d. 354), later known as Saint Constance, was the eldest daughter of Roman emperor Constantine the Great ...

, were buried there. Having fallen into decline, the monastery was restored in the late 10th century by Symeon the New Theologian, who served as its abbot for 25 years. By the 12th century, the monastery had once again declined, reportedly because the ''charistikiarioi'', laymen who managed the monastery's estates, abused their position. It was rescued by the ''

mystikos The ''mystikos'' ( el, μυστικός, "the secret one") was an important Byzantine office of the imperial chancery from the 9th through to the 15th centuries. Its initial role is unclear; he was probably the Byzantine emperor's private secretary. ...

'' George Kappadokes, who restored the monastery complex and secured its position via a

chrysobull A golden bull or chrysobull was a decree issued by Byzantine Emperors and later by monarchs in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, most notably by the Holy Roman Emperors. The term was originally coined for the golden seal (a ''bull ...

from Emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Romanization of Greek, Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; "born in the purple"), w ...

(). In the course of this process, in 1158 the abbot Athanasios Philanthropenos composed a new charter (''

typikon A typikon (or ''typicon'', ''typica''; gr, , "that of the prescribed form"; Slavonic: Тvпико́нъ ''Typikonə'' or Оуставъ, ''ustavə'') is a liturgical book which contains instructions about the order of the Byzantine Rite of ...

'') for the monastery, based on the model of

Theotokos Euergetis Monastery The monastery of Theotokos Euergetis ( gr, Θεοτόκος Εὐεργέτις, , Theotokos the Benefactress) was a monastery in the European suburbs of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, established in 1049 and surviving until the 13th centur ...

. The monastery is known to have survived at least until 1399.

References

Sources

* {{coord missing, Turkey Churches and monasteries of Constantinople