In the currently available translations of the complete works of Saint Sava it is possible to find, among other things, a disputed phrase in the 13th chapter of the Typikon of Chilandar regarding the status of the Chilandar monastery and its hegumenos. The translation of this typikon is largely based on the text of the oldest manuscript copy dating from 1206 (Chil., AS 156). Earlier translators failed to capture the meaning of the successive clauses that place the monastery and the hegumenos at the same grammatical level. A multifaceted linguistic analysis, supported by the evidence of the corresponding phrase in the Typikon of Studenica, which is with great certainty assumed to have been shaped by Saint Sava, shows that the current interpretation is untenable. It is impossible to find the so-called ‘hegumenic monasteries’ on the Typikon of Chilandar, either in the oldest manuscript copy, or the later ones, from the third quarter of the 14th century. The phrase simply refers to ‘the monastery and the hegumenos, i.e. ‘monasteries and hegumenoi’.
