Location: Distomo, Boeotia
Hosios Loukas or Saint Luke is a medieval Greek Orthodox monastery near Distomo, Boeotia region in Greece. It was placed on UNESCO World Heritage list. Hosios Loukas Monastery was found in the 946 AD by a hermit monk Saint Luke who lived on a western slope of Mount Helίkon. The oldest structure in this religious complex is the Church of the Theotokos Panagia erected here in the second half of the 10th century during reign of Emperor Romans II (959- 963 AD). A second church of Katholikon that is adjacent to the previous was constructed in the early 11th century. During Frankish period Hosios Loukas Monastery was transferred to the Catholic Church. During Ottoman Turkish invasion it was looted by the Turkish troops. Despite this is remained an important religious and spiritual sanctuary for the Greek people. During the Greek Uprising of 1821 Hosios Loukas served as a secret base for the "armatoloi" and "klephtes" or freedom fighters.
History
The monastery of Saint Luke is located
on a picturesque slope of Elikon in a location where once stood the
temple of Steritida Dimitra and is surrounded by a plateau covered
by an olive grove. The natural landscape has not been altered by
residential or other activity and retains its authenticity.
Information about the history of the monastery is taken from the
life of Saint Luke, anonymous work of 962, and the Sequences of the
Assumption and Resurrection of his relic, sources that are
considered reliable by archaeologists. According to these data, the
founder of the monastic life in the Monastery is Osios himself, who
practiced there for the last seven years of his life (946-953). He
was born in Kastri, Fokida, in 896 to refugee parents from Aegina.
Monasticism followed early on and at the end of 910 or 911 he was a
monk in Athens, then in various sanctuaries of Fokida and the
opposite Corinthian coast in Korfos, Corinth. The movements of Osios
were dictated by the threat of the Bulgarians of Symeon. 946/947 is
installed on the site of the current monastery and dies in 953.
Osios was a figure beloved by the local population but also by
the officials of the Greek issue whose seat was Thebes. He practiced
philanthropy and healing while he had the gift of prophesying the
future. In fact, in 941 he had predicted the recapture of Crete by
General Nikiforos Fokas during the reign of Romanos II (961) with
the attributed words: "Romanos is handling Crete". These abilities
of the saint and his fame after his death contributed to the area
gaining pilgrimage interest and in fact the general of the Krinitis
theme financed the construction of a church during the saint's
lifetime in 946, St. Barbara, which was completed after the saint's
death. Osios was buried on the floor of his cell and in 955 monks
built a cruciform building around his tomb as well as the first
cells of the monastic community.
Information on the
construction of a new majestic temple to house the relic diverges.
However, the resurrection is placed in 1011 and the construction of
the new katholikon is considered to have taken place at the time
when the abbot was a Philotheos. In 1014 the monastery flourished
and had two estates in Evia, Antikyra and Agios Nikolaos in Kampia,
Boeotia. According to the discussion that wants the monastery to
enjoy imperial favor (either Romanos II or Basil II or Constantine
the Gladiator) due to its monumental architecture and rich
decoration, the prevailing version is considered to be the mixing of
imperial workshops under Constantine IX. (Gladiator), which
coincides with a more general renaissance of the arts in Byzantium.
Archaeologists disagree on the dating of the older buildings:
Hatzidakis claims 1011 (during the reign of Basil II), Stikas in
1042 (during the reign of Constantine IX).
After 1204 and the
Frankish occupation in Greece, Latin monks settled in the monastery,
while with the Turkish occupation it returned to Greek hands. Over
the centuries it has suffered destruction and looting, yet it
preserves very rare architectural and decorative wealth. Restoration
work began in 1938 by the Archaeological Service and the
Archaeological Society and continues to this day with great success.
Architecture
The church of Panagia, the oldest in the
complex, is the only one known to have been built mainly in Greece
in the tenth century.
It follows the architectural type of
the complex four-column cruciform inscribed church with a dome,
which distinguishes the architectural school of Istanbul. A spacious
narthex was added to the main temple, the simple one. To the west of
the simple idiosyncratic exonarthex consists of an open porch with
two closed compartments at both ends which protruded from the
outline of the main temple. The southern part of the exonarthex was
incorporated into the later church, the catholic of the monastery.
During the restoration works, under the orthomarbling of the
katholikon, an exceptional fresco was revealed, which once decorated
the east wall of the southern part of the exonarthex. The only
fresco that survives from the original decoration of the church of
the Virgin Mary tells the story of the appearance of the archangel
Michael in Jesus of Navi before the fall of Jericho. Murals are
preserved in both the southern part of the cross and the deaconry.
There are a total of five forms of hierarchs that have been dated to
the end of the 12th century.
The Katholikon, built to house the relics of the
saint, is the largest church in the complex and is located south of
the church of Panagia. It belongs to the architectural type of the
cruciform octagonal temple, in which the dome (approximately 9 m in
diameter) rests on eight pillars instead of the four of the normal
registered cruciform church. These pillars are placed closer to the
walls, enlarging the central space of the main temple. This type is
especially known as a complex octagonal or continental, as the
cruciform arrangement is kept in the roof arches and between them
are inserted half-walls. Characteristic of the type is the
configuration of a peristope around the central area of the main
church.
Of the chapels that frame the square core, the
northeastern one is of special importance because the marble
reliquary of the saint has been placed there, at the point of
contact with the northern antenna of the cross. It is the part of
the katholikon that is connected to the church of Panagia,
facilitating the passage of the pilgrims in front of the relic and
their entrance to the church of Panagia. Simultaneously with the
katholikon, the crypt was built, which has in its plan the shape of
a cruciform four-column temple. The crypt houses the original tomb
of Saint Luke, located on the north wall, just below the katholikon,
where the relic of the saint was placed. Two more tombs in the crypt
belong to prominent abbots of the monastery.
Other buildings
that have been restored are the bordonareio (stable), which exhibits
walled frescoes of the 18th century. from the church of Agios
Spyridon, part of Saint Luke in the area of Sterio, the lighting
with the characteristic chimney and the bank, which since 1993
operates as a museum and includes architectural members from various
building phases and finds from the surrounding area.
Decoration
The prophecy of Osios about the recapture of Crete is
honored by the image of Jesus Navi on the outer wall of the church
of Panagia (revealed during the restoration in 1964), Jesus was
considered a "fighter of the faith", whose help was effective in
wars against the Arabs. The Katholikon contains the most
well-preserved sets of mosaics from the period of the Macedonian
Renaissance. But the whole is not complete: the original image of
Christ the Almighty in the dome is missing, as are the figures of
the archangels usually placed between the upper windows.
There is evidence that the monastery was famous throughout Byzantium
for its luxurious decoration, which spread to all surfaces. Apart
from the walls, the sculpture, the gold and silver paintings, the
frescoes and the mosaics (extremely impressive on the concave
surfaces, the interior was adorned with icons, chandeliers, silk
curtains and altar fabrics (anti-menses). Despite the losses, the
Katholikon "gives the best impression one can get anywhere today on
the shape of the interior of a temple in the first centuries after
the end of the Iconoclasm".
In particular, the rich interior
decoration of the Katholikon includes:
"Compositions of colored marbles [that] cover the floor of the temple, as well as the vertical surfaces of the walls. The brilliant mosaics that adorn the upper surfaces of the katholikon, are one of the most important mosaic sets of mid-Byzantine art. They date back to around the second and third decade of the 11th century, ie they are earlier than the other two large mosaic ensembles in Greece, those of the New Monastery of Chios and Daphni. In the niche of the sanctuary is depicted the Virgin enthroned Infant, while in the low dome above the sanctuary is represented the Pentecost. The large arch above the entrance of the sanctuary depicts the two archangels Michael and Gabriel. The Christological cycle is represented by four scenes in the semicircles (the Evangelism that is not saved, the Nativity, the Epiphany and the Baptism) and by four scenes from the cycle of the Passion (the Holy Wash, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Psalm) . Two Old Testament scenes are preserved in the deaconry, Daniel in the Lions pit and the Three Children in the furnace. The mosaic decoration is completed by representations of a very large number of saints, mainly monks, hierarchs, military saints and holy doctors. The two chapels, northwest and southwest, a small part of the northeastern part and the crypt are decorated with frescoes dating to the third quarter of the 11th c."
Castle of Saint Luke
At the top of the hill of
the monastery of Saint Luke there is a castle, built on the site of
an older fortification. The four sides of the wall are preserved,
the masonry of which includes plaster and bricks.