Тайната на манастира Погоян
The Mystery of the Pogoyan Monastery

Summary/Abstract: Two previously unpublished Greek inscriptions name Hierodeacon Theophylact from Naxos as the donor of a silver reliquary made in 1817 for the forearm of St Onuphrius the Younger and of a silver paten made in 1827. Both objects were given to the Pogoyan Monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, whose abbot Theophylact was, and carry chased images of these two apostles. The identity of the monastery itself is ambiguous: this could be either a convent once located near Ostanitsa (modern Aidonochori) in Epirus and documented as the recipient of Russian and Wallachian donation charters, and one near the town of Lyaskovets in central Bulgaria. St Onuphrius the Younger is an equally enigmatic figure: he might perhaps be one of the three Russian monks of that name who attained local saints’ status in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Hierodeacon Theophylact’s dedicatory inscription of 1817 states that Onuphrius’ forearm was given to the Pogoyan Monastery in AM 7121 (AD 1612/13) by Radu, Voivod of Wallachia, i.e. by Prince Radu IX Mihnea.

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