Dependencies Outside of the Holy Mountain

For the monasteries of Mt Athos, possession of metochia was a fundamental prerequisite for their very existence; although the metochia were administratively dependent on the monasteries, the monasteries were financially dependent on the metochia.

The first reference to the metochia of Simonopetra is to be found in the Ugljesa chrysobull. The founder, in his desire to secure for the Monastery a lasting source of income, bought and certified the purchase of large estates which, until their expropriation in around 1933, were its basic financial supports. Over the passage of time, the metochia were further extended, primarily by purchase but also by donation.

Sacred Simonopetrite Metochia in Greece

St Charalampus metochion in Thessaloniki

The St Charalampus metochi in Thessaloniki (illus. 38) lies to the east of the church of St Athanasius and to the north of Egnatia Ave., in Exadaktylou St. It was in the Monastery’s possession at least as early as 1619. In 1752, the Iveron Monastery laid claim to it, but the matter was settled by a document of agreement. It is a typical Athonite urban metochi, whose principal purpose was to facilitate the monks of the Monastery whenever they were in Thessaloniki on monastic or personal business. It consists of the church of St Charalampus and a two-storey house with six rooms on each floor, a basement, a stable, a storeroom, large and small summer rooms, two more rooms, a fountain, a tank, a lavatory and a small courtyard.

In 1812 an adjacent courtyard was purchased. During the 19th century, the Bishopric of Thessaloniki attempted to gain control of St Charalampus, but without success. Towards the end of the century, the metochi was rented out, though the Monastery retain the exclusive use of some of its rooms. In 1905, a new church was built on the site of the earlier one, which had fallen into disrepair. The metochi, which has been restored and is a group of buildings unique of its type in Thessaloniki today, continues to be used by the Monastery for the purposes for which it was set up.

St. Artemios & Antypas Metochia on the island of Siphnos.

The Monastery has two metochia on the island of Siphnos: those of St Artemius and St Antypas. The church of St Artemius at Apollonia was dedicated to the Monastery by its founder, the priest-monk Ieremias, who was a member of the brotherhood of Simonopetra.During the period in which Greece was ruled by Count Capodistrias, a school was built in the courtyard of the metochi and it is still in use today.

The Sacred Simonopetrite Metochion of the Ascension in Athens.

When Archimandrite Neophytos passed away he was succeeded in the abbacy by Archimandrite Ioannikios. During his abbacy, in 1908, father Ignatios, a relative of a Simonopetrite monk, donated to the Monastery some six acres of hilly pastures, in the province of Attica, far from Athens. The church built on the property rendered it suitable for monastic use. Abbot Ioannikios was succeeded in the abbacy by Archimandrite Hieronymos, whose family also came from . Archimandrite Hieronymos, (1871 to 1957), was a gifted elder of exceptional spirituality, one of the most distinguished Hagiorite monks of his time. In addition to being a very effective and inventive abbot he composed numerous supplicatory canons and devotional services; accordingly, he was a member of the committee that drew up the Charter of the Holy Mountain. His energetic toils created frictions that caused him to be fought against, slandered and, eventually, being forced to resign the abbacy of Simonopetra. He was followed by twenty monks when he left the Monastery. After four months in exile at the Monastery of Koutloumousion, he withdrew to the said Simonopetrite Metochion in Athens. He became a popular beacon of the Lord’s word and through his hard work effectively developed the humble church on the spiritually barren property, into a Simonopetrite Metochion (dependency) devoted to the feast of the Lord’s Ascension. Throughout his many years of stewardship Archimandrite Hieronymos shined as the spiritual shepherd of thousands of faithful Athenians. His efforts and accomplishments earned him the title of “Spiritual Guide of Athens” and “Caregiver” to the thousands of refugees flooding Athens from the devastated, in Turkish hands, Asia Minor. The larger surrounding area, the original grassland for livestock, was allocated by the Government, in the 1920’s and 30’s, to housing for the aforementioned refugees. The new neighborhood was named Vyronas in honor and memory of the famed Lord Byron, the great British Philhellene, hero of the 1821 Greek War of Independence. It is now a vibrant densely populated section of the Athens main. The Metochion itself features a good-size church on the top of the hill, and full monastic facilities for a number of monks, mostly Simonopetrites, on business –pertaining to State and health issues – in Athens. It also has a suitably equipped Convention Center; all in the mist of six acres of tall pine trees. The Metochion is overseen by a Simonopetrite steward who also functions as the officiating priest in daily church services, open to the public. Elder Hieronymos has been duly acclaimed for his doings and, in culmination, was sainted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2019.

Sacred Coenobium of the Annunciation in Ormylia, Chalkidike.

The Nunnery of the Annunciation was formed on the basis of the unexpropriated parts of the Vatopedi metochi at Ormylia in Halkidiki, which were bought by Simonopetra in 1974. Today, it houses a numerous female community and is one of Greece’s most notable monastic foundations, with work of importance in the spiritual, social and artistic fields.

https://www.ormyliamonastery.com/en/

Ormylia, Foundation.

In 1982, the HMSP and the Sacred Coenobium of the “Annunciation of the Mother of God” established the center “Panagia Philanthropini” (meaning “All Holy the Philanthropist”) with the financial contribution of the Hatzipateras family.
In 2006 a charity organization, named “Ormylia Foundation”, was founded per Law 3440 / 2006.
The purposes of the Foundation’s establishment are:
- - Engage in preventive medicine, advancement of medical research, offering of medical care and development of social ministries to the populace of the wider region.http://www.ormyliafoundation.gr/en/
Scientific diagnosis, protection and documentation of items of Art and Cultural Heritage.

The Sacred Simonopetrite Metochion of Panagia Trygis on the Island of Lemnos

This project relates to the rehabilitation of the building infrastructure (a total of 4600 m2) and of the surrounding area owned by Simonopetra in Daphne.

The island of Lemnos, known for its wines and other Mediterranean agricultural products, in the northeastern Aegean has always been blessed with numerous Metochia of Athonite Monasteries; the Holy Mountain Athos being only 60 kms away.

Simonopetra, has owned a dependency on the island since the 14th century. The property was donated to Simonopetra by the Ruler of Serbia Ioannis Ouglesis (+1364), a great benefactor of Simonopetra in gratitude for the curing of his daughter by St Simon, the founder of Simonopetra. Located in an area of vineyards near the village of Propouli, it is dedicated to the Dormition of the AllHoly Mother of God and is known by the name of Panagia Trygis [from the word trygos meaning the harvest of grapes]. The original church of the Metochion was already built by the 14th century and had been rehabilitated and expanded many times since. A major rehabilitation was effected in 1706 by a monk named Agapios Axiotis as commemorated on a plaque still existing on the ruins of the original church. The original Metochion featured a number of chapels including one dedicated to St Maria Magdalene – who is considered a co-founder of Simonopetra – as well as adequate monastic living facilities (cells etc) for the monks serving the Metochion. All such buildings including the church had been in scant ruins for many decades, even centuries. In the last dozen years the sovereign Monastery has embarked upon a renovation effort and has erected a reasonably adequate church dedicated to Panagia Trygis serving the local population. Plans are to reactivate the monastic nature of the place, alas without its original vineyards which have been savagely encroached, over the centuries, by invaders and locals.

The Metochion is renowned, over the centuries, for its exceptional miracle-working Icon of Panagia. The Icon is uniquely characterized by the white outer garment worn by the AllHoly; in orthodox iconography the Mother of God is nearly always depicted as wearing a royal purple overdress. Many miracles are attributed to the Icon which is piously venerated throughout Greece. On the feast of the Virgin’ s Dormition, on the 15th of August, each year, large pilgrim crowds flood the Metochion in celebration of Her Memorial. Simonopetra has, in recent years fully reactivated the pertinent feastal rituals. Lemnos, like most Greek islands, has more of its people in diaspora than on the island itself. These people regularly pay homage to their birthplace and the AllHoly Mother of God in the summer, making for the unusually large crowds attending the feastal rituals.

The Sacred Simonopetrite Metochion of St. Nicodemus’ in Goumenissa, Kilkis

In one of the most beautiful slopes of Paikoat an altitude of about 700 meters and 7 km from Goumenissa, over the village Pentalofo, the Monastery of St. Nicodimos of Mount Athos is located.

The monastery is a glebe of the Holy Monastery of SimonosPetras of Mount Athos, it has a dependency and similarities with it. The creation and development of the Monastery of Saint Nicodimoswas reached with inspiration, visions and the labored effort of the Abbot Archimandrite Chrysostomos and

the original three-member youth group who framed him. In 1981 the Catholic of the monastery -Central church- was erected in the presence of three Metropolitans.It is a church dedicated to St. Nicodimos (the ground segment is dedicated to Saints Raphael, Nicholaos and Irene).

There, it was transferred for the first time outside Mount Athos, the sacred skull of St. Nicodimos of Mount Athos, the patron of the monastery, a great personality of the modern Greeks, a prolific ecclesiastical writer of the 18th and 19th century. St. Nicodimos of Mount Athos was from Naxos and he served as a wise teacher and scholar during the Ottoman rule, the doctrine of the enslaved Greeks whose books nourished spiritually generations of Greeks, insulated and protected them from two serious risks of that era, Islamization and Latinization.

https://filoinikodimou.blogspot.com/

Sacred Simonopetrite Metochia in France

The Lord has blessed and guided Simonopetra per its modern day founder Elder Aemilianos (+2019) and the distinguished – originally in Roman Catholic Theology , more specifically Patrology – Elder Placide Deseille (+ 2019) to found four Greek Orthodox monastic establishments in anti-clerical France. Elder Placide with two of his disciples Fathers Elie and Seraphin journeyed extensively to Mount Athos, the final and decisive step in their search of true Christian spirituality, a search that had started in the 1960’s in the Russian Orthodox Seminary of St Sergius in Paris. They met with Archimandrite Aemilianos in the late 1970’s; after deep and agonizing consideration they diverted from their original intention to cloister on Mt Athos and, after converting to Orthodoxy, [Elder Placide’s conversion required the complicated papal consent due to his high ranking within the RC church] they joined the Simonopetrite Brotherhood.

Soon after they returned to France and founded, over time, four (three communal and one hermetic) exceptionally rich in hands-on spirituality monastic entities, even as they struggle financially in anticlerical France the law of which makes outside financial support for religious establishments extremely expensive. All three of the cenobitic (communal) monasteries have influenced deeply, by their unadulterated way of life, their lay surroundings and have become centers of familial interaction with their widercommunities, often in the mode of early Christian agapes. The Simonopetrite Metochia in France are:

Monastère Saint Antoine le Grand

Monastère (for men) Saint Antoine le Grand in Saint-Laurent-en-Royans [www.monasteresaintoine.fr] founded in 1978 by Elders Placide and Seraphin in Southwest France on the foothills of the Fronch Alps, in a derelict farm house transformed, by the hard toil of the monks and their lay disciples into an iconic monastic facility, largely self supporting..

Monastère de la Protection de la Mère de Dieu

Monastère (for women) de la Protection de la Mère de Dieu, Mas de Solan, La Bastide d’ Engras [www.monastere-de-solan.com] founded in 1978 by Elders Placide and Seraphin. Οriginally, seven sisters – including some former RC nuns – inspired by the teaching of Elder Placide, moved into a deserted farm house in the middle of France intending to turn it into a monastery. Elder Aemiianos, howeve, was enlightened to guide them further south where the sisters were able to purchase a deserted – again – farm with a ruined house which by divine grace they were able to develop into what is now better known as Monastere-de-Solan. The nuns live by their own professionally streamlined biological farming toils and income thereof. Their wines, in particular, have gained wide recognition.

Monastère de la Transfiguration

Monastère (for women) de la Transfiguration, Terrasson [www.monastere-transfiguration.fr] founded in 1978 by Elder Elie. The nuns under the spiritual guidance of Archimandrite Elie are currently striving to complete construction of their exemplary new church. They, also, devotedly maintain a relationship with French Christian tradition having acquired and restored the caves of Saint Sour, troglodyte caves situated in the cliff overlooking the Vezere valley where Saint Sour and her disciples lived in the 6th Century. The monastery values its financial independence; it operates a sheep farm with livestock, rams and ewes, is raised for breeding and sale and it cultivates a walnut orchard. It is also making fruit jams.

Monastère Sainte-Marie-du-Désert

Monastère Sainte-Marie-du-Désert on the island of Porquerolles, Hyeres, near Marseilles, in the historic Fort de la Repentance; the hermitage, by special permission of the Navy of France, of Father Seraphin, since 1996.