Mount Athos and the Church Union of 1439
Mount Athos and the Church Union of 1439

Summary/Abstract: Four separate texts, three in Slavonic and one in Greek, describe a thirteenthcentury sack of Mount Athos perpetrated either by ‘Franks’ (Roman Catholics) or by a Greek emperor of Constantinople who had pledged allegiance to the Pope. The manuscript tradition of these stories cannot be traced back further than the mid-fifteenth century. They contain inconsistencies and imprecisions which cast doubt on their veracity. All four evidently record a legend developed in response to the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438), whose act of union was initially endorsed by representatives of two Athonite monasteries: Lavra and Vatopedi.

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