In the 16th century, the Wallachian prince Neagoe Basarab presented the monastery with a gold reliquary which contained the right hand and cranium of St John the Baptist. In 1765, the fathers sent the sacred cranium to their dependency on the island of Agios Eustratios to bless the fields of the islanders, which were plagued by destructive grasshoppers. On the way, however, the relic was stolen by pirates; fortunately, it was later found in the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, where it is still preserved in a special structure today. After this incident, it was decided to never remove the remaining relic of the Baptist's right hand from the monastery.
