The Theotokos Kecharitomene Monastery (, Mother of God, full of grace) was a female convent built in the early 12th century in the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

capital,

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, by Empress

Irene Doukaina Irene Doukaina or Ducaena (, ''Eirēnē Doúkaina''; – 19 February 1138) was a Byzantine empress by marriage to the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. She was the mother of Emperor John II Komnenos and the historian Anna Komnene. She w ...

. It survived until the 15th century. The monastery is chiefly known through its extensive charter (''

typikon A typikon (or ''typicon'', ''typica''; , "that of the prescribed form"; Church Slavonic: ') is a liturgical book which contains instructions about the order of the Byzantine Rite office and variable hymns of the Divine Liturgy. Historical de ...

''), issued by its founder and based on the model of the

Theotokos Euergetis Monastery The monastery of Theotokos Euergetis () was a monastery in the European suburbs of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, established in 1049 and surviving until the 13th century. History The monastery was founded in 1049, when a certain Paul retir ...

. It was built in the northern part of

, adjacent to the male monastery of Christ Philanthropos, founded slightly earlier (1107) by Irene. The two were separated by a wall, but served by a common water system. According to the ''typikon'', the monastery was initially envisaged to house 24 nuns, but the rules allowed the number to be raised to 40. It was

cenobitic Cenobitic (or coenobitic) monasticism is a monastery, monastic tradition that stresses community life. Often in the West the community belongs to a religious order, and the life of the cenobitic monk is regulated by a Monastic rule, religious ru ...

, with the nuns sleeping in a common dormitory rather than individual cells. The nuns lived in strict seclusion, and no men were allowed to enter the complex apart from the two priests, the steward, and the nuns' confessor, all four of whom were further required to be eunuchs. The only exception was made for the entry of a physician, who was to be either a eunuch or elderly. As an imperial foundation, it was closely associated with the ruling

Komnenos The House of Komnenos ( Komnenoi; , , ), Latinized as Comnenus ( Comneni), was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. The first reigning member, Isaac I Komnenos, ruled from 1057 to 1059. ...

dynasty, and Empress Irene built apartments for herself and other women of the imperial family. Irene's daughter

Anna Komnene Anna Komnene (; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine Greek historian. She is the author of the '' Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Her work constit ...

was forced to retire there after her husband's death, and it was here that she wrote the ''

Alexiad The ''Alexiad'' () is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial Attic Greek. Anna described th ...

''. The monastery is last attested in the 15th century, when the Russian pilgrim visited it. No known remains survive.

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