The Monastery of Saint Sergios of Medikion (), commonly simply known as the Medikion monastery (Μονή Μηδικίου; ), and later as the Monastery of the Holy Fathers () is a ruined

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 ...

-era monastery near modern

Tirilye Tirilye (between 1968 and 2012: ''Zeytinbağı'', "Olive yard") is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Mudanya, Bursa Province, Turkey. Its population is 1,409 (2022). With the 2013 Turkish local government reorganisation, its ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

(medieval Trigleia in

Bithynia Bithynia (; ) was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast a ...

). It is best known for the role its founders played in opposing

Byzantine Iconoclasm The Byzantine Iconoclasm () are two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when the use of religious images or icons was opposed by religious and imperial authorities within the Ecumenical Patriarchate (at the time still comprising the ...

. The only remnants of the monastery complex is the perimeter wall (''peribolos''), which has a fortress-like appearance with its high walls and solid door. Above the entrance, there is a heavily damaged inscription on which only the date 1801 is legible. The historian Adolphe Hergès, in his ''Les monastères de Bithynie'', indicates that the name ''Medikios'' may derive from the name for "cloverleaf" and that the church was referred to in more recent times by the people as "''Pateron''", that is, "Fathers". Tryphon E. Evangelides and W.M. Ramsay dated the monastery's construction to 810, but Hergès preferred a date around 780. This is now the accepted date.Talbot (1991), p. 1328Nesbitt & Oikonomides (1996), p. 103 The founder of the monastery was

Nikephoros Nikephoros (), Nikiforos or Nicephorus is a Greek male name, meaning "Bringer of Victory", which was commonly used among the Byzantine Empire's aristocracy. It may refer to: Rulers * Nikephoros I Logothetes, Byzantine emperor 802–811 * Nikeph ...

, who restored a ruined church dedicated to Saint Michael and built the monastery around it. Nikephotos served as its first abbot until his death and in 813. Nikephoros participated in the

Second Council of Nicaea The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics and others. ...

in 787, where he indicates the monastery full original name as "Saint Sergios of Medikion". After Nikephoros's death, his pupil Niketas became the abbot. Niketas was persecuted with the beginning of the second Iconoclasm under Leo V (r. 813–820). He died in 824, and is celebrated by the Orthodox Church as an

iconodule Iconodulism (also iconoduly or iconodulia) designates the religious service to icons (kissing and honourable veneration, incense, and candlelight). The term comes from Neoclassical Greek εἰκονόδουλος (''eikonodoulos'') (from – '' ...

Confessor of the Faith Confessor of the Faith is a title given by some Christian traditions. In Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, Christians who professed their faith in times of Christian persecution and therefore had to suffer persecution, exile, torture, mu ...

. Both Nikephoros and Niketas were buried at the

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of Early Christian art and architecture, early Christian and Byzantine architecture, Byzantine basilicas and Church architecture, churches consisting of the entrance or Vestibule (architecture), ve ...

of the monastery's church of Saint Michael. The history of the monastery is only intermittently known thereafter. The monastery was given as a grant to

Michael Psellos Michael Psellos or Psellus (, ) was a Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek monk, savant, writer, philosopher, imperial courtier, historian and music theorist. He was born in 1017 or 1018, and is believed to have died in 1078, although it has also b ...

in the mid-11th century, by which time it was known as the "Monastery of the Holy Fathers", indicating a cult around the two founding '' hegoumenoi''. The monastery disappears from literary sources thereafter. The monastery burned down in 1800, and was rebuilt in 1801, but was in a derelict condition during a visit by

Frederick William Hasluck Frederick William Hasluck (16 February 1878 – 22 February 1920) was an English antiquarian, historian, and archaeologist. Hasluck was educated at The Leys School and King's College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class degree in classics ...

early in the 20th century. Hasluck described the ''

katholikon A ''katholikon'' or catholicon () or ''sobor'' () refers to one of three things in the Eastern Orthodox Church: * The cathedral of a diocese. * The major Church (building), church building (temple) of a monastery corresponding to a conventual ...

'' as "magnificent", and wrote that it was ornamented with originally arched and black and white mosaics in the courtyard. Pancenko, who came here in 1910, drew the attention to the old icons and likened it to "a museum where Greek Church pictures are exhibited". Evangelides (1889) defined the church as a large rectangle and he added: "It has no roof and columns, it is almost like a large inn deserted by its owner...".

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* * {{Authority control Byzantine church buildings in Turkey Byzantine Bithynia Byzantine Iconoclasm Greek Orthodox monasteries in Turkey 8th-century establishments in the Byzantine Empire Buildings and structures in Bursa Province 780 establishments Churches completed in the 780s 8th-century churches in Turkey Christian monasteries in Turkey