ABSTRACT
The concern of the Church with the recovery of the ancient ethos of Orthodox monasticism on Athos could be interpreted as part of a broader
policy of ecclesiastical reconstruction and reorganization of the resources of Orthodoxy in the Ottoman empire, which can be seen to unfold from around 1750 to the outbreak of the French Revolution. In addition to the initiation of the cenobitic reorganization of Athonite monasticism, the programme of Orthodox reconstruction in the forty years leading up to 1789 involved two other major initiatives: one was a pastoral revival that mostly involved a sustained interest in strengthening and modernizing education; the other was the assumption of wide-ranging missionary activity designed to stem the inroads of Islamization among rural Orthodox populations in the Balkans. Finally a fourth component of the programme could be seen in a policy of rapprochement with Russia, pursued by the patriarchs of the mid-eighteenth century, especially Seraphim II (1757-61). What seems to emerge from such a reading of the fragmented and rather anecdotal evidence that constitutes the historical record for this period, is a policy of closing the ranks of Orthodoxy, motivated by the pressure of heterodox propaganda, both Catholic and Protestant, among the Orthodox of the Ottoman empire. Particularly interesting in respect of this policy - if such it was - is the close connection of everything that took place with Mt Athos. Obviously, the patriarchs were well aware of the Holy Mountain's pivotal position in the world of east European Orthodoxy and attempted to capitalize on it.
