11.2 Sakkos of Dionysios IV
17th c., 2nd half
Iviron Monastery
125 x 119.5 cm
Vienna workshop
Embroidered on brocade with an overall pattern of floral sprays, this dalmatic sakkos is decorated with a series of small enamel icons: on the front, James, Luke, two archangels, the Deesis and ten apostles, and on the back the Holy Trinity, the other two archangels, the Annunciation, and the Virgin in the 'Prophets from above'. A gold-embroidered baroque border surrounds each enamel and the neck opening.
Patriarch Dionysios IV Mouselimis Comnenos, a native of Constantinople, served as Patriarch five times during the period 1671-94. He was a close friend of Eugenios Giannoulis the Aetolian, who was perhaps his mentor, and an intimate of both John Serban, Voevode of Hungary-Wallachia (1682) and Constantine Brankovan-Basarab, Prince of Wallachia. His patriarchy is associated with a document of exceptional importance: the reply to the Calvinists on the dogma of the Orthodox Church (1672). His scholarship was praised by both contemporary chroniclers and foreign diplomats. He died in exile in Wallachia (1696), and was buried in the Radulvoda Monastery. In 1678 Dionysios made over his library and a number of embroidered vestments to the Monastery of Iviron (Theochari 1957). He also offered vestments and sacred vessels to the church of the Patriarchate.