Holy Skete of Saint John the Baptist

History and present days

On the verdant slope west of the Iviron Monastery there is the Skete of Saint John the Baptist. It is inhabited by Greek monks. Most of its huts are uninhabited today, and some (as the Hut of the Holy Apostles) are in a dilapidated state.

The huts are scattered on the slopes of a small ravine; the main one is on the northern slope. The most important hut is that of Saint Nicholas, also known as the Hut of the New Martyrs. There, near Father Nikephoros, who was the spiritual adviser of Patriarch Gregory V, were settled the holy New Martyrs Efthymios the Peloponnesian from Dimitsana (†1814), Ignatios from Stara Zagora of Bulgaria (†1814) and Akakios from Neochori of Thessaloniki (†1816), who were martyred in Constantinople. Their honorable remains were buried in the church built in the hut, under the church of Saint Nicholas (where their icon is located), and consecrated by Euthymios' neighbor, Gregory V.

Many other new martyrs have lived their monastic life in the Skete. Among them Saint Constantine of Hydra (†1800), who was martyred in Rhodes and is honored as its patron saint, has lived in this place. An interesting portable icon of him is still preserved there.

Hermitage Guide

The Skete dates back to 1730, but it existed in a looser form, since the New Martyr Jacob (†1520, Adrianople), who is depicted in the iconostasis of the Kyriakon, lived there with his students, deacon Iakovos and monk Dionysios. In the Kalyve, near the Kyriakon, lived for a certain period Saint Makarios the Notaras, a leading figure of the movement of Kollyvades and collaborator of Saint Nicodemos the Athonite in the compilation of the Phylokalia. In the 1960s, in one of the huts, the monk Basil Gontikakis lived near the elder Paisios.

“The Skete of 1965 must have been no different from the Skete of 1865. Almost all the tools and household utensils were handmade. The monks were manual workers… The huts of the Skete were built with stone and ground. The roofs were made of slate, which had to be "walked on" in the summer, so as not to get water in the winter. The plates and jugs of water and wine in Kyriakon were made of clay. The monks cultivated the gardens with a tool called ‘diceli’. They cut wood with an axe. They carried the water with wooden troughs, made of long chestnut logs... Each hut produced the summer's vegetables and the year's oil. Most of the huts had monks. Some of them had a long and uninterrupted tradition... Some huts were empty. Others, turned into ruins. However, they were all straight and humble. They spoke of the life that passes away. And of the plea that remains... The Skete had the spiritual nobility that creates things with modesty. Old Mitrofanes once came to the hut and said to me: ‘What are you doing, Father Basil? Are you painting holy pictures? Me myself am calligraphing the earth with my ‘diceli’. The land of the Skete was calligraphed with the pitchfork and the souls of the simple monks were dug up with their effort and patience.” Archim. Basil, rector of Iviron, Beauty and silence in the Athonite state, 1999.

The Kyriakon (1779) is large and stone-built. The remarkable folk-tropical frescoes (1799) are the work of the monk Nikephoros from Karpenisi and were made at the expense of Hieromonk Paisios from Zante, a well-known sponsor of religious engravings (paper icons).

The dome is supported by four columns with painted angels on the capitals. The iconostasis is particularly tall and carved in wood. On the west side there is a built-in trapeza. Next to the cloister is the cemetery church (All Saints, 1783). The complex of the Kyriakon is being restored by the care of the monks of the Skete, who, when once digging a pond, found a large marble slab that was impossible to break or move, so they took the portable icon and put it in the dug pit, saying that if no water came out in 24 hours, they would leave it there; the next day, they saw on the marble slab a large cross and three smaller ones, from which water was gushing. The fathers recount the event and say with humor that it confirms the proverb "the Saint also wants a threat". The Skete is home to a monk, an old printer, who was arrested during the Nazi occupation for helping, together with his brother who was also a monk, many British and New Zealanders to escape from being sent to the Dachau concentration camp.