When the Xeropotamos Monastery was flourishing, Pavlos, led by a 'quest for silence', withdrew to the present location of the Monastery at the foot of Mt Athos. A circle of students quickly grew around him. The new monastery he founded was dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Theotokos). After his death, at the end of the 10th century, the establishment was known as Xeropotamos, or Monastery of the Virgin Mary of Master Pavlos. It seems that it was built on the middle rock, out of the three, at the top of which today stands the chapel of St Georgios, a 16th-century construction.
