Mertzimekis NIkolaos, The presence of Athonites in the territories of present-day Bulgaria in the 17th and 18th centuries: spiritual and socio-economic relations
Important information about the presence of Athonites in the territories of present-day Bulgaria in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as their relations with the local populations, can be drawn from parrhesiai,r egisters ofbusiness transactions (kodikes lepsodosias), he correspondence of the stewards of the metochia, etc. It was not uncommon for the inhabitants of these areas to ask the Athonites to send " ... a venerable spiritual father who has some knowledge of letters". As was to be expected, the pious attitude of local Christians towards a particular metochion led them to nurture feelings of devotion and respect for the governing monastery, causing them to have a strong and constant desire to be in contact with it. The operation of the metochia and the resulting constant presence of Athonites there also enabled certain stewards who were also hieromonks to cover the needs that occasionally arose in local parishes.
The Athonite monasteries, with the wide network of metochia that they possessed in the Balkan peninsula, were able, either through the monks at the metochia or travelling monks, to carry out spiritual work, to organise pilgrimages, to preserve and strengthen the bonds between lay people and the monasteries and the monastic ideal and to make the travels of their monks safe and productive both for the Orthodox congregations and for travellers. The metochia in these territories served as embassies of the Athonite monasteries in the world outside Athos. It is no accident, for that matter, that in three cities in these territories, with which the Athonite monasteries had both spiritual and other kinds of relations, monastic areas by the name of 'Sveta Gora' (Mount Athos) were created.
Our research so far has revealed that ten of the twenty Athonite monasteries owned monastic estates in the territories of present-day Bulgaria in the 17th and 18th centuries. Nevertheless, there were also travelling monks from other monasteries. Moreover, these areas served as staging-posts to the Danubian principalities and faraway Russia, to which Athonites often travelled on fundraisng missions (ziteies)
