(en)  gr  ru  ro  ge

The monastery was founded in 1257 by the hermit St Simon, on the precipitous “Simonos petra”, or Simon’s rock. It was restored around 1368 by John Ugljesa, despot of Serres, but was destroyed by fire three times, in 1580,1622 and most recently in 1891. The katholikon, dedicated to the Nativity, must have been built around 1600. It was destroyed in the 1622 fire, was rebuilt immediately afterwards and frescoed in 1633.

The church’s present form is the result of extensive restoration after the fire of 1891. Simonos Petras has jurisdiction over the Convent of the Annunciation at Ormylia in Halkidiki, one of the most outstanding convents in the Orthodox world.

 

Source: Monk Chariton, Images of Athos, 3rd edition, Mount Athos, 2007

 

26 February 2013
Monasticism appeared early in the history of the organized Christian church. The moral laxity of the church in the later Roman and early Byzantine period, the dibilitation of the spiritual life of the urban Christian communities, the turmoil in the life of the church brought about by heresies and schisms, and even...
7 November 2011
Monasticism appeared early in the history of the organised Christian church. The moral laxity of the churqh in the later Roman and early Byzantine period, the dibilitation of the spiritual life of the urban Christian communities, the turmoil in the life of the church brought about by heresies and schisms, and even...
7 November 2011
The ruins of the former Hagiorite Monastery of Zygos are situated in the area of Ouranoupolis, almost forty meters outside the boundary with the Holy Mountain. The area named Zygos was first mentioned in a manuscript dated in 942 but there was no explanation as to whether it was a monastery, a village or someth...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded in the first half of the 11th century by a man from Kastamoni in Anatolia, from whom it takes its name. A more recent benefactor was the Christian wife of Ali Pasha, Vassiliki, who largely financed the restoration of the monastery in 1819-1820. The katholikon, dedicated to St Stephen the ...
5 November 2011
The Monastery was founded before the end of the 10th century in the mountain location now occupied by Old Monastery. It was also called the Monastery of the Thessalonican. It seems that Russian monks were established here very early. In 1765 the monks began to abandon the old monastery to found a new one on the co...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded before the a the 10th century. It played a leading role Revolution of 1821 in Halkidiki. The katholikon dedicated to the Ascension, was built be 1806 and 1810, and frescoed in 1811, 1818 and 1841. Notable among the monastery’s relics the so-called cross of Pulcheria, a mosaic icon of Chri...
5 November 2011
From the very beginnings of Athonite Monasticism, Karyai was a focal point of ascetic endeavour. A little above the area where is now housed our Skete, Saint Athanasios the Athonite found his first monastic home on Athos, and here in the region of the Skete, we hear mention of a Monastery named variously “Xystre” ...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded in the 14th century by a certain St Gregory. It was restored in the second half of the 18th century and doubled in size at the end of the 19th century. The katholikon, dedicated to St Nicholas, was built shortly after the mid 18th century and frescoed in 1799. The cemetery church of All S...
5 November 2011
The monastery appears to have been founded in the early 11th century, but in the 13th century it was deserted, and later it was reduced to a cell dependent on Philotheou. In 1536 it was again raised to the status of a monastery by the Patriarch Jeremiah I. Its radical reorganisation during the 1960′s ushered in a ...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded shortly before 980 and was called St Paul's or Xeropotamou. The founder seems to have been the prominent monk Paul, who also founded the Monastery of St Nicephoros, also, and still, known as Xeropotamou. In the 14th century St Paul's was reduced to a cell dependent on the Monastery of Xer...
5 November 2011
This monastery is first mentioned in 1013, recorded as the “Monastery of Pteres”. Two years later is mentioned by its present name, which to be that of the founder. In the 16th century abbot was the St Dionysios who later founded the monastery of St Dionysios on Mt. Olympos. The great St Cosmas Aetolos was a monk ...
5 November 2011
This monastery appears to have already been in existence in 1018, but after many misfortunes it was restored by the Paleologue emperors in the 14th century. In the 16th century it was destroyed by pirates and rebuilt by the Wallachian prince Petros. The katholikon, dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul, was bui...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded in 956 and is the oldest surviving monastery on Mount Athos. Due to the unstable ground on which the monastery is built, it has suffered and is still suffering serious damage, an example of this is the katholikon (dedicated to the Forty Martyrs), which must have been built in the 10th cen...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded in the early 11th century (before 1013) near present-day Dafni, and was dedicated to St Nicholas. A few decades later it was moved to approximately its present position and about the end of the century it was dedicated to St Michael. By the early 14th century it was already dedicated to t...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded shortly before 980, apparently by an iconographer named George, zographos meaning painter. The tradition of accepting Bulgarian monks at Zographou had already begun in Byzantine times, but the monastery always had monks from many nations. Services were held exclusively in Bulgarian only f...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded in 1357 by the brothers Alexios and John, respectively high military and civil officers of the Byzantine empire. The Katholikon, dedicated to the Transfiguration, was inrik around 1363 and frescoed immediately afterwards. The chapel of the Dormition of the Virgin was built and frescoed be...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded before 1169, when it is first mentioned in records. During the second half of the 14th century, when Chariton of Imbros was abbot, the monastery was generously endowed and restored by the princes of the lands along the Danube. Although Chariton became metropolitan of Hungro-Wallachia in 1...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded in 980 by the Iberian noble and distinguished general John Thornic, who essentially enlarged and renamed the old monastery of Clementos granted to him by the emperor Basil II. Of this earlier monastery’s only part of the katholikon seems to have survived, incorporated into the chapel of t...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded shortly after 1370 by St Dionysios of Korysos near Kastoria, with funds provided by the emperor of Trebizond Alexios III Comnenos. The 25 metre-high tower was built in 1520, but the greater part of the monastery was destroyed by fire in 1535. The katholikon, dedicated to the Birth of John...
5 November 2011
The monastery was founded by the reformer of Athonite monasticism St Athanasios around 963, with money provided by the emperor Nicephoros Phocas. It stands first in the hierarchy of Athonite monasteries and is one of the largest complex of buildings on Mount Athos. The core of the katholikon was built by the saint...
31 October 2011
Karyes is the capital of Mount Athos. The community already existed at the beginning of the 10th century, then known as Messi (Middle). Here was the seat of the Protos, or administrative head of Mount Athos. Here too was the Protaton, the central church of the peninsula, which was the principal meeting place for t...
5 May 2011
The monastery was founded at the end of the 10th century. In 1198 an imperial edict of Alexios III granted it to the Serbian prince Stephan Nemanja and his son, who had both taken the habit at Vatopaedi as Simeon and Savvas. Since then it has been one of the most important spiritual centres of the Serb nation. The...
5 May 2011
The monastery was founded towards the end of the 10th century by St Xenophon, apparently with funds supplied by Basil II. At the end of the 18th century the walls were extended, tripling the area covered by the monastery. The old katholikon was built around the year 1000, and both this church and the new katholiko...
Pages
Content
Bookmarks
1
2
The Memory of the Blessed Mary the Egyptian
Feast of the Annunciation at Vatopaidi
Hieromonk Neofytos from Vatopedi (1876-3 April 1967)
Penthos: The Lenten Journey to Joy
Shockingly in Paradise
On Humility
Archimandrite Agathangelos Mikhaïlidis- Xenofontinos (1908-1...
Saint John of the Ladder
John the Sinaite (+ Fourth Sunday of Great Lent): “On Vaingl...
Why are we called Christians
Concerning the Diet of the Fathers
Dimensions of the Fast
Person and Spirituality
The Orthodox Church of Finland
The Veneration of the Cross