Monasteries of Mount Athos

Gregoriou Monastery is located on the southwest coast of Mount Athos, perched on a rock. It was founded shortly before the middle of the 14th century and dedicated to St. Nicholas. Its founder is St. Gregory the Younger, the so-called hesychast, disciple of St. Gregory of Sinai.

The Monastery was first mentioned in documents of 1347 and 1348. It was characterized by its limited financial resources in the 14th and 15th centuries, while under Ottoman rule, it was in a dire straits. 

Two major fires determine the history of the Monastery. The first fire was caused in 1497 by Hagarene pirates, who completely destroyed it and left it in ruins. The Monastery was reconstructed and financially supported by the Moldavian ruler Stephen III, commonly known as Stephen the Great (1457-1504), as well as by other rulers of the Danubian Principalities.

The second fire occurred in 1761 and burned a large part of the Monastery which brought about a state of decline. However, it was reconstructed by monk Joachim the Akarnan, known as Makrygenis, with contributions from officials of the Danubian Principalities.

The existing Katholikon was built in 1768 and painted in 1779 by iconographers Gabriel and Gregory from Kastoria. Elder Joachim also built the southern wing of the Monastery in 1783, and expanded the monastic site behind the old eastern wall with a new higher wall, a wing and the chapel of the St. John the Forerunner.

Gregoriou Monastery was also expanded at the end of the 19th century, with the construction of the western Wing, together with the Dorter (archontariki), the monastic cells and its two marble propylons, where the main entrance of the Monastery lies.

The monastic site has a complex architectural morphology, dominated by the contiguous balconies and the reconstructed piers of the southern wing. The two courtyards of the Monastery that represent the stages of historical development stand out. The core of its initial structure can be detected on the south side of the complex with the katholikon and the belfry dominating the middle of a confined courtyard. The Monastery later expanded to the North, where a multi-storey building was reconstructed in recent decades, in the open space where an older wing was, in order to meet the new needs of the monastic brotherhood.

The cemetery church of All Saints is of great significance, with frescoes from 1739. The Konaki (representative’s residence)  of the monastery in Karyes, a former monydrion of the 10th century, is dedicated to St. Tryphon. 

During the period 1859-1905, under the abbotship of Symeon, two old Metochia were renovated in Sithonia, Chalkidiki and in Arta, and two new Metochia were added in Livadi, Kolindros in Pieria.

Restoration and maintenance works were carried out on the existing buildings from 1944 to 1972. In 1994, the renovation and hagiography of the Refectory of the Monastery was completed, and in the years 1997-2001, its eastern wing was built and completed, including the chapel of St. John the Forerunner.

The icons of Saint Nicholas, Panagia Galaktotrophousa and Panagia Palaeologina are of great significance. Manuscripts and printed codices are preserved in the library, among which a rare manuscript, “The Shepherd of Hermas” stands out. Among the heirlooms are gospels, crosses, encolpia, vestments, chrysobulls, wax seals, sigillia, firmans, etc. Another important heirloom is the 16th century gold-embroidered epitaph. 

The Monastery ranks seventeenth in the hierarchy of the Athonite monasteries and has been cenobitic since 1840, following a Sigillion issued by Patriarch Anthimus IV. In addition to the Konaki in Karyes, it has four Kathismata, five Cells and nine metochia as dependencies in Greece, as well as missionary activity in Kolwezi of Congo. Archimandrite Christophoros is the Abbot of the monastery.

The Ephorate of Antiquities of Chalkidiki and Mount Athos has carried out conservation work on portable icons, documents and manuscripts of the Monastery.

Nikolaos Mertzimekis