Byzantine era: the first monasteries[edit]

A Byzantine watch tower, protecting the dock (αρσανάς, arsanás) of Xeropotamou monastery

The chroniclers Theophanes the Confessor (end of 8th century) and Georgios Kedrenos (11th

century) wrote that the 726 eruption of the Thera volcano was visible from Mount Athos, indicating
that it was inhabited at the time. The historian Genesios recorded that monks from Athos
participated at the seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicaea of 787. Following the Battle of Thasos in
829, Athos was deserted for some time due to the destructive raids of the Cretan Saracens. Around
860, the famous monk Efthymios the Younger[18] came to Athos and a number of monk-huts
("skete of Saint Basil") were created around his habitation, possibly near Krya Nera. During the reign
of emperor Basil I the Macedonian, the former Archbishop of Crete (and later of Thessaloniki) Basil
the Confessor built a small monastery at the place of the modern harbour (arsanás) of Hilandariou
Monastery. Soon after this, a document of 883 states that a certain Ioannis Kolovos built a
monastery at Megali Vigla.
On a chrysobull of emperor Basil I, dated 885, the Holy Mountain is proclaimed a place of monks,
and no laymen or farmers or cattle-breeders are allowed to be settled there. The next year, in an
imperial edict of emperor Leo VI the Wise we read about the "so-called ancient seat of the council
of gerondes (council of elders)", meaning that there was already a kind of monks' administration and
that it was already "ancient". In 887, some monks expostulate to the emperor Leo the Wise that as
the monastery of Kolovos is growing more and more, they are losing their peace. [citation needed]
In 908 the existence of a Protos ("First monk"), the "head" of the monastic community, is
documented. In 943 the borders of the monastic state were precisely mapped; we know that Karyes
was already the capital and seat of the administration, named "Megali Mesi Lavra" (Big Central
Assembly). In 956, a decree offered land of about 940,000 m2 (230 acres) to the Xeropotamou
monastery, which means that this monastery was already quite big.