The monastery of Saint Paul
The monastery of Saint Paul, now dedicated to the Presentation of Christ, earlier honoured the Saviour, the
Virgin and Saint Georgios. Ranking fourteenth in the hierarchy, it owes its foundation, to the
8th/9th centuries A.D., according to tradition. The monastery is probably, however, a foundation of
Pavlos Xeropotamenos in the second half of the l0th century A.D. The monastery of Saint
Paul only acquired a permanent place amongst the other Athonite monasteries after A.D. 1370,
thanks to the intervention of the Serb monks Gerasimos Radonia and Antonios Pegases. Early in
the l4th century the Palaiologoi and the kings of Serbia extended the complex, and after the Fall
of the Byzantine Empire, the Christian sultana Mara, Greek and Romanian princes of the Danubian
principalities made funds available for renovation and additional building. It was deserted at
the time of the War of Independence but finally recovered, thanks to donations by the Russian tzars.