Saint Panteleimon | |
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Свети Пантелејмон | |
![]() The exterior of the monastery
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Basic information | |
Location | Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia |
Affiliation | Macedonian Orthodox Church (Eastern Orthodox Church) |
District | Plaošnik |
Architectural description | |
Architect(s) | Clement of Ohrid |
Architectural type | Middle-Byzantine |
Architectural style | Byzantine style |
Capacity | 3,000 |
Saint Panteleimon (Macedonian: Свети Пантелеjмон, Sveti Pantelejmon, pronounced [pantɛlɛjˈmɔn]; Greek: Άγιος Παντελεήμων) is a monastery in Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia situated on Plaošnik. It is attributed to Clement of Ohrid, a disciple of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. Archaeologists have come to believe that the monastery was the site where the first students of the Glagolitic alphabet (used to translate the Bible into Old Church Slavonic) were taught.
The monastery is believed to have been built when Saint Clement arrived in Ohrid, at the request of Boris I of Bulgaria and restored an old church. Sources say that Saint Clement was not satisfied with the size of the church and therefore built a new one over it and assigned Saint Panteleimon as its patron saint.
Saint Clement used his newly created monastery as a liturgical building and a place for teaching his disciples his variation of the Glagolitic alphabet, known as the Cyrillic script. Clement personally built a crypt inside the monastery in which he was buried after his death in 916; his tomb still exists today.