The first journey to Athos Monasteries and Skites

Bishop Porfiry (Uspensky) (1804-1885) is an outstanding representative of the Russian Orthodox Church and an interesting personality of the XIX century. Russian orientalist, Byzantologist, traveler, Bible translator and the famous archaeologist. Among the many of his merits, especially stands out - the creation of the first Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem. In mid -1845, Porfiry (Uspensky) went to Athos, where he stayed until June 1846, visiting all Athos monasteries and carefully studying their libraries. He compiled a detailed list of manuscripts stored on Athos, and even rewritten many of them. The result of the activity of Porfiry (Uspensky) was his work on the history of the Athos Mountain, covering the period from ancient times to the middle of the XIX century. He described in detail the natural conditions of Athos, the most interesting monuments of architecture, explained the origin of the name of the area, and gave a characteristic of its inhabitants. From this book, the modern reader learn a lot of new information for himself - historical events, legends about the Holy Mountain, many interesting data on the construction of Athos monasteries, the life and works of their inhabitants. The applications include: an introductory article on Porfiry (Uspensky) from the publication of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of 1894, St. Petersburg, "Book of my Being", vol. I. Diaries and autobiographical notes of Bishop Porfiry (Assumption), an essay on Bishop Porfiry (Assumption) of the Metropolitan of Odessa and Izmail Aga Fangel, "Porfiry (Assumption) and the establishment of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem", in which the author (O.A. Osidizhko) talks about his life path and merits to Orthodoxy, historical science and Russia, the list of some printed works of the bishop Porfiry (Assumption) and books on him. Reprint edition