13.40 Sigillion-letter issued by Patriarch Ieremias II
May 1581
Simonopetra Monastery, Archives
Parchment, 93.5 x 49 cm
The lead seal of the Patriarch is suspended from the bottom of the parchment on a green cord.
The Simonopetra Monastery, like all the other Athonite foundations, boasted handsome buildings, precious relics and treasures, valuable books and vestments. By the work of the Devil all this was lost in a great fire (December 10, 1580). The conflagration also destroyed all the monastery's documents, with the result that there is now uncertainty and confusion about the property it possesses. The Athonite Synaxis, in order to put this right, has issued a document listing all the foundation's landed property both on the Holy Mount and elsewhere. The Monastery has requested the Patriarch to confirm the content of this document. The Patriarch agrees to their petition and with this present sigillion confirms the content of the document, repeating the list of properties and re-stating their boundaries. No-one may henceforth contest the Monastery's ownership of these properties, under pain of excommunication.
Bibliography: Unpublished. Cf. Vamvakas 1985, no. 1, p. 111.