Balamand Monastery Collection

Balamand derives from the French Belmont, the name given by twelfth-century Cistercian monks to their first monastery in the Levant, founded on a hill three hundred meters above sea-level, overlooking the coastal plain sixteen kilometers southeast of Tripoli and eighty kilometers north of Beirut.
Since 1603, the site has been the center of an Antiochian Greek Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to St. George. It remains a place of prayer and contemplation, but since the 1970s, Balamand has become a complex of religious and educational institutions. These include the monastery itself; the secondary school of Our Lady of Balamand the St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology, and the University of Balamand, founded in 1988, of which the Institute has become a part.               

HISTORY                  
The nature of the site suggests that an early Byzantine monastery may have existed at the site. It is certain, however, that Cistercian monks from France founded the monastery of Our Lady of Belmont in 1157, as the first and most important of several Cistercian establishments in the Levant.

The buildings of the monastery, completed between 1157 and 1169, reveal a high level of prosperity, which lasted until the later thirteenth century. Although no document survives to record the life of the Cistercian abbey, its importance can be guessed at from the extent of arable land that belonged to it. The Cistercians were renowned for their strenuous agricultural activity, easily apparent from the numerous cellars, depots, and barns at Belmont monastery.

The destruction of the Crusader States by [he rising Mamluk power cut short the prosperity of Belmont. The monastery is mentioned in Cistercian records for the last time in 1287. The Mamluks finally took Tripoli in 1289, massacring and enslaving the population.    

The three centuries between the end of Belmont and the re-establishment of the monastery by Orthodox monks are poorly attested. Archaeological surveys conducted since
1964 have uncovered no ceramics or other remains from the Mamluk period, suggesting that the monastery was completely abandoned. On the other hand, an Orthodox manu-script written in Syriac and Arabic, dated 1492, indicates that there was an occupation of the site around that time by hermits, although it was probably short-lived.            

The name Balamand is first recorded in the Ottoman census of Syria drawn up in 1521, five years after the Ottoman conquest. It is listed as a farm belonging to the estate of an
Ottoman official. As such, it is mentioned again in the second Ottoman census of 1571 as belonging to the estate of the citadel of Tripoli. These official entries make no mention of
the monastery itself, but manuscripts copied at Balamand in 1598-1599 show that there was a limited, probably unofficial monastic occupation at the end of the century.        

The official restoration of Balamand monastery took place in 1603. The first page of the monastic register, written in 1610, records that the Cistercian abbey had been restored
by Greek Orthodox monks after lying abandoned for 330 years, following agreement between the Orthodox hierarchy and the notables, monks, and people of the district of al- Kura. The action was taken by Youwakim, metropolitan of Tripoli (1593-1604), with the indispensable support of local Muslim officials, and Sulayman al'Yaziji, the Christian secretary to the Ottoman governor of Tripoli. The monastery was derelict and possessed no land; however, the surrounding agricultural estate was officially transformed into monastic waqf (land held in mortmain). The first abbot was Makarios al-Dirant, previously abbot of Kaftoun, and about a dozen monks initially moved from Amyoun to Balamand. Vineyards, mulberry orchards, and olive groves were planted; a flock of goats and a herd of cows were acquired. By 1610, when the register was written, monastic life was firmly established and it continued to flourish uninterruptedly.  Balamand was fortunate to pass unharmed through the conflicts that ranged Lebanese clans, factions, and confessions against one another throughout the Ottoman period. Indeed, the monastery became an important local center, renowned for its hospitality to refugees and visitors of all kinds. The English traveler, Henry Maundrell, stayed at Balamand in 1697 and left a valuable description:
The Monks of this Convent were as I remember forty in all. We found them seemingly a very good natur'd, and industrious, but certainly a very ignorant People. For I found upon enquiry that they oculd give any manner of Rationale of their own divine Service. And to shew their extreme simplicity, I cannot omit a compliment, made to the chief of them, viz. that he was as glad to see him, as if he had beheld the Messiah himself coming in person to make a visit to him.                                  

Nor is this ignorance to be much wondered at; for what Interval of time, they have between their hours Devotion, they are forced to spend, not in Study, but in managing of their Flocks, cultivating their Land, pruning their Vineyards, and other labours of Husbandry, which they accomplish with their own hands. This toil they are obliged to undergo, not only to provide for their own sustenance, but also that they may be able to satisfy the unreasonable exactions, which the greedy Turks, upon every pretence they can invent, are ready 10 impose upon them. But that it may be the better guess'd what sort of men these Greek Monks are, I will add this further indication, viz. that the same Person, whom we saw officiating in the Altar, in his embroyder'd sacerdotal Robe, brought us the next day,
on his own back, a Kid, and a Goat's Skin of Wine, as a present from the Convent.[1]

From an early date, the monastery of Balamand entertained good relations with the Russian state and Church. In 1651, the monks of Balamand wrote to tsar Alexis, requesting the dispatch of aims. The monk Saba was placed in charge of collecting contributions from Russia. The tsar and Patriarch Nikon ordered all border officials to facilitate the passage of the archimandrite Saba, supplying horses and guards and forbidding any levy of taxes upon him.
An important recorded event in the history of Balamand during these long centuries was the schism within the Antiochian Greek Orthodox Church during the early eighteenth century. Balamand was a key objective of the Catholic effort to promote a Uniate movement within the Antiochian Church. According to Antoine Nacchi, the Jesuit Superior-General for Syria and Egypt at that time, “Balamand has always had the reputation of being the richest and largest of all the monasteries that the Greeks possess in Syria”[2]. Nevertheless, the region of al-Kura remained attached to Orthodoxy, and the Uniate crisis was felt less acutely at Balamand than it was in most Orthodox parishes and monasteries farther south.

 Following the departure of the Uniates in the early 1720s, the number of monks fell to thirty. They were heavily taxed by the Ottoman state. According to Russian sources, after the beginning of the Greek revolt in 1821, the Monastery of Balamand suffered reprisals and was abandoned for a time. In 1830, there was a revival with the coming of the superior Athanasios.