Summary
In the mid-1350’s the Hegoumenos of the Chilandari Monastery was hieromonk Dorotheos, some time later a homonymous member of the Serbian Athonite confraternity would become the Protos of the Holy Mount of Athos and would remain in that position for more than 10 years. Whether the warden of Serbian convent was identical to the Athonite Protos or the two namesakes and compatriots were contemporaries, that was the question which had been intriguing many scholars in the past hundred years and the findings of their researches hadn’t yielded a singular solution. There was a suggestion that he should be identified with a certain hieromonk of the same name, recorded in the manuscripts that had belonged to Helen, the widow of Tsar Stephen Dušan. Another fanciful assumption was made when it was indicated that, in fact, there were two Protoi Dorotheoi, one of Greek and the other of Serbian ancestry, that had governed over the monastic community of Athos in sequence. Further disarray was made when the Serbian monk at the head of Athonite congregation was confounded with his namesake and younger contemporary, Dorotheos of Xeropotamou, who was the Protos between 1384 and 1387. Nevertheless, a thesis propounded by George Ostrogorsky, that Chilandari’s and Protaton’s headmen were different Serbian hieromonks, gained the prevalence. Still, by comparing the Slavonic signatures of the Athonite Protos a number of palaeographical similarities could be discerned, which is leading to a conclusion that they were written by the same hand; and that is a sound testimony to the fact that two Serbian Dorotheoi were one and the same person. Keywords: Dorotheos, Mount Athos, Chilandari Monastery, Hegoumenos, Protos, signatures, XIV century.
