Voulgaron and Paradeisi: Two metochia at Halone

In the small island of Halone (now Pa§a Liman Adasr) in the Sea ofMarmara there were to be found several properties belonging to largemonasteries of Greece proper which had been administered in the traditionalmanner as metochia. The paper concerns two such metochia. comprisingof several properties each, that since the 18th century had beenlinked with the monastery of St. Nicholas in the island of Andros.The first such property -no more than a small field- we hear of wasdedicated to the monastery in 1723, and in the course of the followingyears other properties were added to it so that by 1767 they were allgrouped to form the metochion of Voulgaron. These little plots of landwere mostly vineyards, wine being the main produce of Halone.In the meantime the local monastery of St. Parasceve at Paradeisi, themost important on the island, came to be faced with serious financialdifficulties and was in heavy debts. Eventually it was felt that it couldhardly survive independently, and in 1790 the local community of thewhole island (which incidentally was inhabited almost entirely by Greeks)and the Metropolitan of Proikonnesos, who had then his residence on theisland, came into an agreement with Neilos Palaiologos (a monk of St.Nicholas in charge of the metochion of Voulgaron) as a result of whichSt. Parasceve became also a metochion of St. Nicholas. Thus the largermonastery of Andros undertook to repay the debts, to administer thesmaller monastery and its properties at Halone and also to provide badlyneeded monks for this administration.This state of affairs continued up to 1922 when all Christian populationof Halone was compelled to emigrate. At periods the relationship betweenthe monks of St. Nicholas and the people of Halone was difficultand was especially so after the middle of the 19th century when monasticismin Greece proper was undergoing a period of decline. Destructivedisease of the local vineyards also contributed to the sad state of affairs. Arbitrary seizures of land, litigations and appeals to the Patriarchate ofConstantinople are constant features of this period.A rather extensive collection of archival material is preserved in themonastery of St. Nicholas, and out of these 70 relevant documents arepublished. This rich documentation not only illustrates the history of thetwo metochia but also provides information on the conditions on the islandand in general serves as source material for customs, place-names,names of persons etc. which is valuable in view of the fact that otherarchival material on Halone may not be in existence elsewhere