The monastery of Theotokos Euergetis (Greek: Θεοτόκος Εὐεργέτις, lit. 'Theotokos the Benefactress') 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 retired to his estate, located some 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the walls of Constantinople, and settled there as a monk. He was joined by several other monks, and a number of cells were erected to house this small community.^[1] When Paul died in 1054, his successor as abbot, Timothy, became the monastery's second founder. Timothy managed to accumulate sufficient funds to build a new church and larger cells, and in c. 1055 he issued the monastery with new regulations in the form of two charters (typika): one for the rules of daily life, and one for its liturgy.^[1] The former was used as a model for the foundation typika of a number of major Byzantine monasteries, such as those of Theotokos Kosmosoteira, Heliou Bomon, Kecharitomene, and Hilandar, and is the main source of information about the Theotokos Euergetis monastery itself.^[1]

According to the typikon, the monastery also included a hospice for travellers, and had a dependency (metochion) within Constantinople.^[1] One of the main benefactors of the monastery was the Serbian prince and archbishop Saint Sava, who visited it often between 1196 and 1235.^[1] During the Latin Empire, the monastery became a dependency of the monastery of Monte Cassino, but it appears that the Greek monks of Euergetis were allowed to remain.^[1] The monastery disappears from the record after the 13th century.^[1]