ABSTRACT
A decisive turning-point? The foundation of the Great Lavra around 963-64 by St Athanasios the Athonite (c. 925/30-c. 1001), with the support of his friend Nikephoros Phokas, is normally regarded as a decisive turning-point in the history of the Holy Mountain. Yet what kind of turning-point was it? The early sources regularly style Athanasios's foundation 'the new Lavra',1 but wherein precisely did its novelty consist? In his work on the Holy Mountain was Athanasios a traditionalist or an innovator - or perhaps both of these things at once?
