The Esphigmenou monastery
The Esphigmenou monastery is eighteenth in the hierarchy, the monastery is
dedicated to the Ascension of the Lord. It is mentioned officially for the first time in a document of
A.D. 1016, though tradition has it that it was a foundation of Pulcheria, sister of the emperor
Theodosius II. The name derives either from a founder monk, who was girded "with a tight rope"
(schoinioi sphinktoi) or from the site on which the monastery is built ("shut in amongst three small
mountains by the shore"). Contributions were made to the prosperity of the monastery by
Ioannis V Palaiologos, the king of Serbia Stefan IV and, after the capture of Byzantine Empire,
the tzar of Russia Alexios, the archbishops of Melenikon and Thessaloniki, and the princes of
Moldavia and Wallachia.
