Posts in category: Η Ιστορία της Μονής 5 – Ξενοφώντος

In 1998, the Monastery celebrated the completion of one thousand years of uninterrupted life. In October 1998, during the festival of the Virgin Mary our Guide, a great celebration was held under the aegis of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaio. A Patriarchal Mass with a number of hierarchs as co-celebrants was conducted, among them the late Archbishop of Athens and all Greece Christodoulos. The Prime Minister and the President of the Hellenic Democracy attended the events, along with many other dignitaries and pilgrims.

1976 marked a new period of systematic reconstruction, an era of spiritual cultivation and the zenith of the brotherhood, when the group of fathers under the spiritual guidance of the Elder Archimandrite Alexios took up residence at the Monastery. The members of the group brought with them a divine passion for the monastic calling, but also for the preservation of the sacred traditions of Athonite culture in all its aspects, i.e. for the reconstruction and conservation of the buildings and sacred artefacts, and for the construction of new, elaborate sacred vessels, icons, liturgical objects, as well as traditional wood-carved constructions. Moreover, particular care was given to the preservation of the spirit of brotherhood within the community, and the tradition of offering hospitality in the spirit of fatherly love to the large number of pilgrims who visited the Monastery.

The fathers who had taken refuge in the metochi in Skopelos returned to the Monastery in 1830, after the withdrawal of the Ottoman army from Mt Athos. Among their first tasks was the resumption of the construction of the new cathedral.
The economic condition of the Monastery again suffered a setback when, after the liberation of Macedonia and Mt Athos, the Athonite metochia and lands were confiscated by the Greek state and given to refugees from the Asia Minor Catastrophe (1922). Another difficulty was brought about by World War II, during which time the Monastery had to deal with a population of aged monks and a shortage of men, conditions which led to its decline.