1. Geographical Position and Traditions about Foundation

The monastery of Panagia (the Virgin Mary) at Soumela was built in an abrupt slope overlooking a valley crossed by the Panagia River, on the western sides of Mount Mela, approximately 40 km to the south of Trebizond, at an altitude of 1,150 m.¹ The monastery, built on an area of exquisite beauty, became later known as the Soumela Monastery.

The history of the monastery’s construction is associated with traditions dating back to the 10^th century. According to such tradition, the monastery was founded in the 4^th century by two Athenian monks, Barnabas and Sophronios.² The two monks, urged by some dream they had, travelled to Mount Mela and discovered an icon of the Virgin Mary inside a cave, supposedly one of the three legendary Theotokos icons attributed to St. Luke. Similar centuries-old traditions accompany the foundation of several important monasteries of Pontos, some of which have been built in caves.³

Soumela was an imperial and patriarchal (stauropegiac) monastery. Around the second half of the 13^th century the monastery must have been comprised the cave, possibly unadorned, a fountain of holy water to the southeast of the cave and wooden cells actually ‘hanging’ over the gorge crossed by the Panagia River.

2. The Monastery in the Years of the Grand Komnenoi

In the time of the Grand Komnenoi of Trebizond, and particularly in the years of emperors John II Grand Komnenos (1286-1297), Alexios II Grand Komnenos(1297-1330), Basil Grand Komnenos (1332-1340) and Alexios III Grand Komnenos (1349-1390), the Soumela Monastery thrived. Until the third quarter of the 14^th century the entire valley near the monastery was the jurisdiction of the Soumela Monastery, by virtue of concessions made by the Trebizond emperors.

Emperor Alexios III Grand Komnenos financed the restoration of the Soumela Monastery circa 1360-1365. An inscription of rhymed lines preserved until 1650⁴ over the central door of the monastery stated that the emperor had fortified the monastic complex with walls and towers, constructed new cells, given the church its present look and donated to the monastery an icon of the Virgin Mary.⁵

Grateful because he had survived a shipwreck, Alexios III issued a chrysobull in 1364⁶ to renew the privileges the monastery had been enjoying. By virtue of the above decree, the Emperor ratified donations concerning ownership and occupancy of the lands that the monastery possessed thanks to subsidies granted by Emperors John II Komnenos, Alexios II Komnenos and Basil Komnenos. In addition, any other real property the monastery had acquired, either purchased or donated, was aknowledged, whether explicitly mentioned in the chrysobull or not.⁶ Furthermore, the decree defined labour relations, obligations and privileges enjoyed by the paroikoi of the monastery, and stated that anybody settled in the monastic territory became the monastery's paroikos. By virtue of this document, the monastery was entirely exempted from taxes and other debts, while it remained beyond the jurisdiction and justiceship of the local rulers of Matzouka. Apart from tax exemption, the monastery was also exempted from military service (exkusseia or exkuseia, εξκουσσεία), while it only had to pay the ‘royal levy’, a tax on landed property, paid to the imperial fund twice a year (September and March).⁷

Manuel III Grand Komnenos (1390-1417), the successor of Alexios III, maintained the preferential treatment that Soumela had enjoyed by his ancestors and offered the monastery a metal reliquary for keeping a chip of the True Cross. Just before the Ottoman occupation the monastery must have included the now wall-painted cave, which constituted the katholikon of the monastery, the fountain of holy water and possibly a chapel for keeping the relic of the True Cross, as well as some of the outbuildings and the nine cells constructed on a protrusion of the cliff to the north of the cave.

3. The Monastery in the 16th century

Even after the Empire of the Grand Komnenoi was disrupted by Mehmed II in 1461, most of the Pontic monasteries remained almost intact and maintained their privileges. The Soumela Monastery thrived again in the 16^th century. Sultan Selim I (1512-1520) established close relations with Trebizond and associated his name with the Soumela Monastery considering himself a successor to the Grand Komnenoi.⁸ His close relations with the monastery were attributed to his Greek mother Maria, whose place of birth, Douvera, was the monastery’s jurisdiction. By an official decree (firman) in 1512 Selim, like Alexios III before him, ratified all monastery privileges, sponsored the copper covering of the roof and offered five massive silver candlesticks. Soumela was benefited by Sultans Selim II and Murad III as well. Selim II issued a firman recognizing the landed property of the monastery.

4. The Monastery in the 17th-18th century

The monastery continued to prosper during the 17^th century, thanks to donations resulting from the re-operation of the silver mines of Chaldia. It should be noted that there was often tension because the monks wanted to safeguard their privileges in prosperous areas, like Koloneia (now Sebinkarahisar), controlled by monks until 1693. In order to deal with the tension, abbot Euthymios and his monks made a compromise in 1686 and appointed two financial advisers for managing the monastery interests. At times, the archbishops of Chaldia, many of which were descended from the Fytianos family, the supervisors of the mines, showed particular interest in the Soumela Monastery, especially in the period 1686-1744, as evidenced by lots of inscriptions preserved in the monastery. The monastery was extensively restored in that period. All the preserved wall-paintings, most of the chapels, the addition of the apse to the east of the cave and various outhouses were either restored or decorated. Thanks to its prosperity, the monastery published a book on its history, written by the deacon Neophytos Kausokalybites. It was published in Leipzig in 1775 on the initiative of the archimandrite Parthenios Metaxopoulos from Soumela.

5. The Monastery in the 19th century

After the establishment of the bishopric of Rodopolis in 1860 and the abolition of the restrictive measures against the cryptochristians in 1865, the monastery prospered again. The present access to the monastery was formed in 1864 and it was then that the aqueduct, the library and the present front of the katholikon were built. The old wooden cells, which hung above the gorge, seem to have been destroyed in that period. They were replaced by buildings intended for the accommodation of the monks and the numerous pilgrims, who covered financially the renovation of the monastery.

The needs of the monastery were also financed by occasional ziteies (collections). In 1744 and 1763 the monk Ioannikios travelled to Ankara, Erzurum, Crimea, Scythopolis and elsewhere in order to find money. Most of the 19^th century bishops travelled to the Greek communities of Pontic Russia to ask for financial aid.

6. The Monastery in the 20th century

The monastery was badly damaged during the World War I, because it was laying on the Russo-Turkish lines for more than a year. The last monks left the monastery early in 1923. Then the place was used as a hideout by tobacco smugglers. Around 1930 the place was severely burned, while vandalisms followed in the next decades. However, since 1961 the interest in preserving the exquisite scenery of the area has contributed to the protection of the monastery from complete destruction. Lots of travellers have been visiting the monastery every year.

The Greeks from Pontos built near Veroia the New Soumela Monastery, reminiscent of their place of pilgrimage in Pontos. The icon believed to have been made by St. Luke is kept in this monastery, while the reliquary of the True Cross, donated by Manuel III Grand Komnenos to the original Soumela Monastery, is kept in the Byzantine Museum of Athens. The icon of the Virgin Mary donated to the monastery by Alexios III Grand Komnenos is kept in the National Gallery in Dublin, while another icon from the monastery is currently in Oxford.⁹ The silver candlesticks of Sultan Selim I were stolen in 1877, while 67 of the 84 hand-written codices (the earliest ones dating to the 12^th century) and about 150 published books from the monastery’s library have been transferred to the Archaeological Museum of Ankara.

7. Sources of Information about the Historical Background of the Soumela Monastery

In his paper on the history of the monastery, Neophytos Kausokalybites includes a series of sources referring to the chronicle of its foundation. He makes a special mention to John Xiphilinos (Patriarch of Constantinople in 1064-1075), Akakios Sabbaites, Athanasios Daimonokatalytes (a controversial figure who probably lived in Trebizond in the 17^th century), Dositheos (Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1669-1707), Dionysios (Metropolitan of Chaldia in the second half of the 18^th century) and Nikodemos of Colchis. Ο. Lampsides and Ε. Weigel checked Kausokalybites’s reports to find out that from all six writers that according to Kausokalybites mention the Soumela Monastery, only the works of the two of them still exist: Akakios Sabbaites and Dositheos, Patriarch of Jerusalem.¹⁰ What is more, the information that John Xiphilinos, Athanasios Daimonokatalytes and Nikodemos of Colchis wrote about the history of the Soumela Monastery is to be found only in Kausokalybites’s work.¹¹

According to Lampsides, Akakios Sabbaites lived in the late 12^th and the early 13^th century.¹² Little after 1204 he wrote the Life of the Founders of the Soumela Monastery, making extensive reference to the two monks who, according to the legend, had founded the monastery on Mount Mela. A code of Sabbaites’s work is preserved in the Monastery of St. Dionysios in Mount Athos (cod. 268). It is possible that Kausokalybites had used Sabbaites's work as his source of information, in order to recount the tradition about the foundation of the monastery.