Assessing the Contacts between Stefan Báthory and the Serbian Monks from Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos in the Light of a Sixteenth-Century Model Letter

Abstract

The paper deals with contacts between Polish King and Lithuanian Grand Duke Stefan Báthory (1576–86) and the Serbian monks from Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos. The contacts are presented based on a model letter found in the letter-writing manual from the Hilandar Archive (no. 153). The monks asked Báthory for the introductory and travel letters for their journey to Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, where they would search for new benefactors [ktetors] and financial assistance from the Ruthenian Orthodox Christians. The model letter, supported by other written sources, also sheds light on the general characteristics of contacts with Catholic Polish-Lithuanian authorities and other rulers who mediated intercultural relations between the Ruthenian Orthodox Church and the Serbian (and Balkan in general) monastic milieus. These relations had a special significance for the group (confessional-cultural) identity of the Ruthenian Orthodox Christians and their tradition in the Counter-Reformation climate due to the proselytic policy and polemical attacks in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.