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monk Ioannikios

monk Ioannikios

One of the owners of the monastery, the monk Ioannikios and formerly prominent Constantinopolitan official John Primikarios, is depicted. It is part of the hereditary representation of the lithi (with the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and the catechist Ioannis Primikarios as a military man and as a monk). John is depicted standing, full-length, with long white hair falling to his shoulders and a long beard. He wears a tunic and a robe and holds with both hands the effigy of the Catholicos. The latter was built in 1362/3, according to the land registry inscription, which mentions the two prominent patrons, John Primikarios (and later monk Ioannikios, pictured here) and Alexios Stratopedarchis. The two fathers of the monastery were brothers in the flesh, and they held estates in Macedonia in the period after the mid-14th century. Their military successes and their relationship by marriage with the Emperor John V Palaeologus made them the owners of large tracts of land in Eastern Macedonia, many of which they donated to the monastery.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)