Skete of Saint Anna

History and present days

In the Skete of Saint Anna, as well as in the New Skete, the layout of the settlement resembles that of Pelion. The cells emerge from the dense vegetation, perched on the northern and southern slopes of a deep ravine traversed by a stream. However, the slope here is much steeper than in the New Skete. The highest cell is at an altitude of 450 meters, while the main monastery is at 300 meters. The ravine is crowned by the marble cone of Mount Athos. The gray rocks and the barren landscape remind us that we are approaching the Athonite Desert and that the skete is merely an oasis.

Hermitage Guide

The layout of the skete’s settlement can be compared to two semicircles. The left rocky arm (north) of the inverted semicircle extends to the sea. At the top of this arm stands the massive Church of Saint George of the Kalyve of Kartsonaioi. It was constructed according to the plans of the architect Pavlos Mylonas, who dedicated a great part of his work to Mount Athos. The Kartsonaioi brotherhood was founded by Hieromonk Gabriel Kartsonas the Spiritual (1876-1956), originally from Arfara in Messinia. He settled there with his elder, Gerasimos the Spiritual (†1914). He was a prominent iconographer, a student of Theophilοs. In 1917, he was exiled by the French to Mytilene. The skete also housed his three younger brothers. The Kartsonaioi iconographic house became renowned. Among the latter, there were the famous chanters Dionysios (†1959) and Panteleimon (†1992).

At the base of the rocky arm, near the sea, there is the Monastery of Paisios, where Monk Moses resides. On the narrow beach below the monastery, there are makeshift sheds for storing the speedboat used by a former taxi driver from Thessaloniki for chartered trips. To the right, the elegant two-story building is the Monastery of Saint Eleftherios. It has a roof covered with slate tiles and a spacious porch at the front with a palm tree. On the eastern side, towards the inland, there is a large addition with a tiled roof. It is also known as Vouleutirio, from the ancient monastery mentioned in a document from 1010 with the exact same name. It was dedicated to Theotokos and was deserted due to pirate raids.

In the 14th century, Saint Nephon the Athonite and Saint Gerontios, the last abbot of the monastery, used to live there. Later, Saint Gerontios settled in the area of Saint Panteleimon, where a spring miraculously gushed forth through the intercession of Theotokos. This spring dried up when its water was used for watering the vegetable garden and washing clothes. In a vision, Theotokos told the saint that the water was only to sustain the lives of the ascetics. Miraculously, a new spring gushed forth, now considered a holy water source. The present cell and church were built in 1729 by the monk Samuel from Kythira. The building was renovated in 1900 by the Holy Monastery of Great Lavra. At Saint Eleftherios, Elder Ananias the Spiritual and the Bishop of Miletoupolis, Hierotheos (1935-1958), used to live.

To the right side, there is the skete’s arsanas. It stands in the middle of the two semicircles, where the main church of the skete is located. It is easily recognizable due to its purple and mauve façade plastering.

To the right of the arsanas, near the beach, there is the Monastery of the Nativity of the Lord, where people from the island of Chios are located. The monastery was founded by the Elder Ignatius (†1947) from Chios, a hero of the Balkan Wars who, during the Nazi occupation, risked his life to smuggle many British and New Zealanders soldiers to the Middle East. It is located at the base of the southern rocky arm, on the ridge of which there is the Monastery of the Forerunner with its concrete domes. There, Elder Theoleptos resides. To the right there is the Monastery of All Saints, where people from Volos live. Above there is the Monastery of the Holy Cross, where the Ananaioi, renowned iconographers, reside. Father Ananias the Spiritual (†1977) lived there. Below the brotherhood of Ananaioi there is the Monastery of Agathangelos (The Dormition of Theotokos)—Agathangelos was a monk with knowledge who took on the abbacy of the deserted Monastery of Esphigmenou. Higher up on the slope there is the Monastery of Saint Artemios, where Elder Nektarios the Romanian (†1982, 95 years old), who never left Mount Athos, was tonsured and lived ascetically. Very close, there is the Monastery of Saint Panteleimon, where Saint Gerontios settled when he left the Vouleutirio. In an even higher spot, there is the path leading to the part of the skete known as Little Saint Anna.

It is the largest and oldest skete on Mount Athos. It was previously called the "Skete of the Lavra." The area was inhabited by hermits long before its official recognition. Findings confirm habitation since 1007. Most of its cells have an integrated church and a small area of arable land. Between the 51 cells, 35 are inhabited, while the rest are in ruins. Some (such as the Monastery of the Three Hierarchs) are being restored and renovated.

The boat houses at the arsanas are similar to those of the New Skete. However, there have been great attempts of modernization. This modern spirit is also reflected in other buildings (chapels, fountains) along the path of the arsanas. Perhaps this is why it is referred to as the "aristocratic skete," akin to the designation "Paris of Athos" used for the Vatopaidi Monastery. It is indeed one of the most holy areas in Mount Athos.

During the Ottoman period, the Skete of Saint Anna, like the Skete of Kausokalyvia and the Iviron Skete of Saint John the Forerunner, operated as a "training ground for martyrs" with renowned spiritual fathers such as Hieromonk Bessarion, who became a spiritual trainer. In the Skete of Saint Anna used to live the holy martyrs Makarios (†1590, Bursa), Nikodemos (†1722, Elbasan), Kosmas (†1760, Konstantinople), Loukas (†1802, Mytilene), Hilarion (†1804, Konstantinople), Nikitas (†1809, Serres), David (†1813, Thessaloniki), Paul of the Peloponnese (†1818, Tripoli), and Nektarios (†1820, Izmir). With the help of the enslaved Christians, the new martyr David has built the chapel of the Transfiguration at the top of Mount Athos.

The skete has also housed saintly figures, including Saint Sophronius and Saint Savvas the New of Kalymnos (†1948, canonized in 1987), as well as many renowned ascetics, spiritual guides, and teachers of prayer, including Elder Minas the Montenegrin, who was implementing a rule of 3,000 prostrations and 150 prayer ropes daily, and the scholarly Hieromonk Joseph, former Metropolitan of Tarnovo, who translated the Psalms into Homeric verses. Athonite monks took on the leadership and staffed the Grigoriou (Hieromonk Neophytos) as well as the Esphigmenou Monastery (Archimandrites Theodoritos and Agathangelos).

From the arsanas starts a paved path. It follows the water flow and after 1,400 steps, it branches off: to the right, it continues towards Little Saint Anna, and to the left (after 150 steps), it reaches the main church complex.

The difficulty of the ascent is confirmed by the tradition that narrates that, when Patriarch Cyril was residing at the skete, a novice would ascend heavily burdened from the arsanas, sweating, being exhausted and troubled by negative thoughts. He would rest on a stone and hear the voice of Theotokos telling him that the labors of porters are a pleasing sacrifice and that their sweat will be counted as martyr's blood on the Day of Judgment. At that spot, in the Patriarch’s olive grove, below the main church, a chapel was built.

The abundance of water makes it possible to cultivate the plant Coix Lacryma L. This plant, resembling a reed, produces an ear with hard grains known as "Tears of the Virgin." With these, the cell and skete monks make prayer ropes renowned throughout the East. The water flow was also used in the past as a water mill for processing woolen monk's caps.

Near the beach, we pass right by the Monastery of the Dormition of Theotokos, where Father John the Spiritual resides. Elder Andreas the Faster, from Epirus, used to live ascetically there.

Directly below the new building that houses the library, there is the Monastery of the Ascension. Elder Philotheos from Nauplio used to live there. He is considered to be the greatest benefactor of the skete and a spiritual guide of the new martyr Nikodemos. Elder Nikodemos (†1960, 100 years old), formerly the cook of the British High Commissioner of Cyprus, known for his hospitality and the dishes he prepared for all feasts, has also lived his monastic life there. At the same level as the Monastery of the Ascension, there is the impressive Monastery of the Twelve Apostles, better known as the Monastery of the Patriarch. It was built in 1759 by the Patriarch Cyril V (†1775), the founder of the Athonian Academy. His skull is housed there. The Patriarch lived as a simple subordinate in the community of the Kalyve. It is told that the fathers of the skete gave him a donkey for his service (he took care of the estate with the olive grove). Cyril, returning one hot summer day from the olive grove to the Kalyve, was blessed to see two splendidly dressed young monks wiping the sweat from the donkey, telling him that he did not deserve rest because only the animal had been exhausted from carrying the load. From then on, the Patriarch carried all the loads himself. The elder Nikandros the Spiritual (†1938) lived in the Patriarch's Kalyve. Today, the hieromonk John, the secretary of the Holy Community, also resides there.

The main complex of the skete is surrounded by a protective wall. It was renovated in 2000 and is easily recognizable from the sea due to its colorful external plastering. It includes a church, dining hall, guesthouse, the residence of the current Bishop, and the skete’s library. On the lintel of the entrance there is a fresco of the Dormition of Saint Anna (1997, Deposition of the Hieromonk Cherubim). In the courtyard of the complex, which is larger than many monasteries outside Mount Athos, there is a pavilion with an unparalleled view of Cape Portes, the islet of Diaporti, and the western coast.

The church began to be rebuilt during the patriarchate of Dionysius IV of Vardalis (1680), who at that time was residing in the Monastery of Great Lavra. In 1728, the national benefactor Zoïs Kailandis helped with the construction of the right side chapel and the narthex. Between 1752-55, Archimandrite Philotheos, with the help of donors, rebuilt it, making it more spacious. As the rock on which it is built, limited its expansion in length, the church was expanded in width and the choirs are enormous. The domes of the choirs form disproportionately large spherical segments compared to the drum of the central dome. In a glass-enclosed arcosolium on the south side there are the graves of Patriarch Cyril V, Archimandrite Philotheos, and Hieromonk Daniel the Spiritual, who are depicted in a fresco to the left and right. Daniel came to Saint Anna from the Cell of Saint George of the Sheep and built the Kalyve of the Nativity of Theotokos, which is located high above the cemetery. He donated to the main church his most precious relic: the holy foot of Saint Anna the Theopromitor. The relic, a gift from the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, is kept in a silver-gilded case and is particularly miraculous in cases of childlessness. Many times the monks transport it by boat to ships making the circuit, in order to be venerated by childless married couples.

The glass-enclosed narthex of the main church extends to the south side of the church. On the eastern side there is a niche with a fresco depicting Saint Anna holding Theotokos in her arms.

The altar and the main church are fully painted. On the walls of the altar there are depicted full-length ascetics (Saint Paul the Theban, Saint Macarius the Egyptian, Saint Dionysius of Olympus, etc.). On the vaults there are the martyrdoms of saints (Saint Gobdella, Saints Marcellus and Myron, Saints Victor, Mina, and Vincent, etc.). In the depiction of the martyrdom of Saint Demetrios, the central spot is occupied by the scorpion that appeared in the saint’s prison. Figures that are rarely seen are also depicted: Saint Orsisius, Saint Athanasius the Lepentrian, Saint Castor, Saint Gargalos. Like the altar, the main church is not particularly bright. The size of the interior is surprising. The spacious surfaces are covered with oversized compositions. The frescoes are work of the painters Athanasios and Konstantinos from Korçë (1757), who also painted the Katholikon of the Monasteries of Philotheou and Xeropotamou, as well as the main church of the Xenophontos Skete. Some of the frescoes have been cleaned.

Additionally, the main church houses a part of the precious skull of Saint Nectarios the New Martyr and parts of the relics of the holy new martyrs Makarios, Ignatius, Euthymius, and Akakios.

Higher up the slope, to the right of the main church, near the heliport, there is the cemetery. The cemetery church (Life-Giving Spring, 1729) was built by the former Metropolitan of Arta and Nafpaktos Neophytos, who was residing in the Iviron Monastery. Below the cemetery there is the cave where Saint Gerasimos the New (†1579), protector of Kephalonia, lived as a hermit. In the area of the cave there is the Kalyve of the Holy Trinity, where Hieromonk Vissarion the Spiritual, a spiritual guide of the new martyrs Luke and Hilarion, used to live. Father Paisios from the Monastery of Philotheou currently resides there. At a lower level, to the left, there is the Kalyve of the Presentation of Jesus, where Hieromonk Amphilochios of Simonopetra and Elder Eleutherios (†1933, 110 years old) lived their monastic life. There is also a large glass-enclosed balcony. To the left, there is the Kalyve of Saint Demetrios, where Father Makarios the Spiritual from Chios (1982, 67 years old) was staying. To its right there is the Kalyve of the Transfiguration. Directly below it, at a lower level, there is the Kalyve of the Annunciation, where Father Theodosios the Spiritual († circa 1950) resided. The Elder Callistos the Ephesian (†1932, 90 years old), a prominent chanter and librarian of the skete, who published the Acts of the Council of Florence and the Service of Saint Mark of Ephesus, also used to live there. In the same area there is the Kalyve of the Presentation of Theotokos, where the Theophilaioi, a renowned iconographic brotherhood, reside. It was founded by the Elder Theophilos of Madytos, a skilled music teacher, who came to the Skete in 1826 and lived in strict asceticism (for 20 years he slept only 1 hour a day). He was born in 1798, nine years after the French Revolution, and passed away in 1918, a year after the Bolshevik Revolution. In the Kalyve of the Theophilaioi used to live the two brothers from Madytos, the Elder Gabriel Lambis the Spiritual (†1959) and the Elder Michael the Blind (†1952), as well as Elder Dositheos (†1858), who, when he once missed the weekly boat from the Russian Monastery to the skete, was blessed to be carried on a boat by the Archangels. A student of the Elder Theophilos was Nectarios the Angel-Voiced, a Romanian who left with other compatriots and founded the Skete of the Forerunner in Vigla.