Administrative Region : West Greece
Regional unit : Achaia
Moni Agiou Athanasiou (Μονή Αγίου Αθανασίου) Achaia
The Monastery of Saint Athanasios of Filia is an Androa Conventual Monastery belonging to the Holy Metropolis of Kalavryta and Aigialeia. It is located near the village of Filia, Kalavryta and is built on the south side of the mountain "Thisvetios" (a branch of Chelmos), at an altitude of 840 meters. It is approximately 35 kilometers from Kalavryta and approximately 107 kilometers from Patras.
History
The exact date of the foundation of our Monastery is unknown. According to tradition, its foundation dates back to the late 10th century when Nikephoros Phokas was Emperor of Byzantium. The first written evidence of the existence of the Monastery comes from a patriarchal seal of 1652 or 1653, according to which the Patriarch of Constantinople Paisios I proclaims it patriarchal and stauropegic. In 1781, Patriarch Gabriel IV renewed the privileges of the Monastery with a new Patriarchal seal, while a little later (1798) Patriarch Gregory V, after also renewing the privileges of the Monastery, set, at the same time, the annual contribution of the Monastery to the Patriarchate at 105 groschen.
The Monastery made a great contribution during the Revolution of 1821, as it was a supply center and shelter for the fighters fighting against the Turks. At the same time, the Monastery, after selling a share of its land in the Patras region, allocated the sum of 6000 groschen to be spent on the needs of the struggle. Its monk was the eminent hierarch Metropolitan Grigorios of Derkon, who was killed by the Turks in June 1821 in Constantinople. The fountain that survives in front of the Monastery's catholicon was also constructed in 1819 at his own expense. On July 15, 1826, the monastery was set on fire by Ibrahim's troops and most of its archives were destroyed. Of the approximately 70 monks that the Monastery had before the Revolution, only seven remained in 1830, while its debts were constantly increasing. In 1850, the monastery was taken over by the hieromonk Parthenios Chronis, from the neighboring village of Filia, and in a short time he managed to restore the monastery both financially and in terms of human resources. By the time of his death in 1875, the number of monks exceeded 60. The monastery then began to decline, resulting in its annexation to the Monastery of the Holy Lavra of Kalavryta as a metocvhi in 1928.
On June 25, 1943, the Italian occupation troops plundered the monastery and arrested two monks who were there. When one of them, Fr. Ambrosios Paparrigopoulos, tried to escape, he was killed by Italian fire. Two months later, on August 25, 1943, the Monastery was set on fire by the Germans. After the end of World War II, the reconstruction of the Monastery began, but was not fully completed. To date, only the south wing and the katholikon of the Monastery have been restored.
Description
The katholikon of the Monastery is dedicated to Saint Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria. It is a stone-built, tiled-roofed church in the style of a three-aisled basilica with an octagonal dome that was built in 1763 according to an inscription on a marble stone above the entrance door. The church had a wooden carved iconostasis with many old icons that unfortunately are not preserved today, due to the burning of the Monastery by the Germans in 1943.
The Monastery celebrates on January 18, the day of memory of Saint Athanasius, and on May 2, the day of the transfer of his holy relics.
Sources
Christos Vl. Karathanasis, Holy Monastery of Saint Athanasius of Filia, Co-published by the Brotherhood of the Philiotes of Kalavryta "Saint Vlasios" and the Group of Friends of the Monastery of Saint Athanasius of Filia, Athens 2010.
Papandreou, Georgios (1906). Kalavryta Yearbook: namely a treatise on the historical province of Kalavryta. Athens: Michael I. Saliveros.
External links
Tourist guide of Achaia Prefecture - Monasteries, nea.gr. Retrieved from the archived original: 02/10/2016.
| Community Filia |
|---|
| Agioi Theodoroi (Άγιοι Θεόδωροι, οι) |
| Zevgolatio (Ζευγολατιό, το) |
| Kalyvia (Καλύβια, τα) |
| Moni Agiou Athanasiou (Μονή Αγίου Αθανασίου, η) |
| Filia (Φίλια, τα) |
Greece :
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M -
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/"
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
| Ancient Greece
Science, Technology , Medicine , Warfare, , Biographies , Life , Cities/Places/Maps , Arts , Literature , Philosophy ,Olympics, Mythology , History , Images Medieval Greece / Byzantine Empire Science, Technology, Arts, , Warfare , Literature, Biographies, Icons, History Modern Greece Cities, Islands, Regions, Fauna/Flora ,Biographies , History , Warfare, Science/Technology, Literature, Music , Arts , Film/Actors , Sport , Fashion --- |
