The Monastery of Saint John the Theologian ( el, Μονή Αγίου Ιωάννου του Θεολόγου), commonly known as the Pelekete monastery ( tr, Pelekete manastırı; el, Moνή Πελεκητής), is a ruined
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 ...
-era monastery near modern
Tirilye
Tirilye (also known as Zeytinbağı, ''Olive yard'') is a town in Bursa Province, Turkey, situated west of Mudanya along the Marmara seashore. The area, which was inhabited since the eighth century BC, was formerly known as Τρίγλεια, ...
in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
(medieval Trigleia in
Bithynia
Bithynia (; Koine Greek: , ''Bithynía'') was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwe ...
).
The monastery dates back to the 8th century, but its exact date of establishment is unknown. Its common name, "''Pelekete''", means "hewn with an axe" in Greek, and refers to its location on a steep rock.
[Talbot (1991), p. 1620] The monastery was a centre of
iconodule
Iconodulism (also iconoduly or iconodulia) designates the religious service to icons (kissing and honourable veneration, incense, and candlelight). The term comes from Neoclassical Greek εἰκονόδουλος (''eikonodoulos'') (from el, ε ...
opposition to
Byzantine Iconoclasm
The Byzantine Iconoclasm ( gr, Εικονομαχία, Eikonomachía, lit=image struggle', 'war on icons) were two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when the use of religious images or icons was opposed by religious and imperial a ...
, and in 763/4, it was attacked and burned down by the fanatically iconoclast governor
Michael Lachanodrakon. Lachanodrakon tortured the monastery's ''
hegoumenos'', Theosteriktos, and other monks, 38 of whom were buried alive at
Ephesus
Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built i ...
.
[Talbot (1991), p. 1620] The monastery was restored towards the end of the century after the end of the first period of Iconoclasm, and a certain Makarios became its ''hegoumenos''. With the resumption of Iconoclasm after 813, he was exiled and imprisoned, but the monks of Pelekete continued to oppose Iconoclasm.
The monastery disappears thereafter from the sources, but is identified by modern scholars with the ruins of a monastery 5 km west from the town of
Tirilye
Tirilye (also known as Zeytinbağı, ''Olive yard'') is a town in Bursa Province, Turkey, situated west of Mudanya along the Marmara seashore. The area, which was inhabited since the eighth century BC, was formerly known as Τρίγλεια, ...
and dedicated to Saint John the Theologian.
Locals today call it Aya Yani or Ayani, a corrupted form of its Greek name, meaning "Saint John".
See also
*
Hilarion the Younger
References
Sources
*
External links
* {{in lang, el}
Hagiography of Makarios of Pelekete
Byzantine church buildings in Turkey
Byzantine Iconoclasm
Greek Orthodox monasteries in Turkey
8th-century churches
Buildings and structures in Bursa Province
Byzantine Bithynia