Holy New Venerable Martyrs Nikodemos of Meteora (+ 1551) and Daniel of Meteora

 Verses

"What of you Nikodemos?" He said during his passion,
"I am being put to death for the love of the Lord."

We are told by Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, who wrote the verses above, that the "Holy New Venerable Martyr Nikodemos from Meteora was martyred for his piety in the year 1551." Besides this, we have no other information about this Saint or what led to his martyrdom, other than the fact that he lived at the Great Meteoron Monastery and was martyred on August 16th.

Synaxis of All the Holy Venerable Fathers of Meteora

On the Sunday of the Paralytic, it has been established in Meteora and Kalambaka to commemorate the Synaxis of All the Holy Venerable Fathers of Meteora, whose asceticism for the love of God shine as a bright example for our own sanctification.

 

A Unique Manger Scene in a Cave of Meteora

Kalambaka has a long tradition with their mangers, as in the past they had set up another special manger in the center of the square with life-size figures of people and animals. Beginning in 2019, however, the idea was to make a Manger scene in a cave of Meteora, that could be seen by all, and this unique feature has become an annual tradition since, with enthusiastic results.

History of the Oldest Monastic Settlement of Meteora, the Monastery of the Holy Spirit

Just above the village of Kastraki rises the very high rock known as Agio Pneuma (Holy Spirit). It takes its name from a small church dedicated to the Holy Spirit, carved around 950 in a cave at the top of the rock of the same name by an ascetic named Barnabas. Barnabas is one of the first anchorites of Meteora for whom we have written sources. It was here that the oldest monastic settlement of Meteora was established, but is no longer in operation today as a monastery.

The long-shaped caves on the north side of this same rock, as seen from the side of the main road where scaffolding is still visible inside, indicate the spot served as a place of punishment where the monks of Meteora were sent to repent under great austerity. This is known as the Prison of the Panagia.

Every year for the celebration of the Holy Spirit on the day after Pentecost the inhabitants of the village together, young and old with the priest, go up an accessible path to the church on the rock to celebrate the Divine Liturgy.

Eldress Philothei Agiometeriotissa (+ December 9, 2020)

 

 

By Archimandrite Demetrios Kavvadias

 

On Saturday, January 16, 2021, a Holy Hierarchical Forty-Day Memorial Service was held at the Holy Monastery of Rousanou at Meteora for the repose of the servant of God Philothei the Nun, Abbess of this Holy Monastery.

In the world she was known as Sophia, one of the seven children of Priest Michael and Presvytera Andromache Kosvyras, who saw the light of day on March 31, 1949 in the town of Kalambaka. Her family was originally from Agnantia, Trikala, but they went to Kalambaka for more security because at that time the wider region as well as all of Greece was groaning from the sufferings of the civil war which came to complete the evil brought to our homeland by World War II. The priests and their families were also targeted and so Father Michael lived with his family in Kalambaka.

Monastery of the Veneration of the Chains of the Apostle Peter at Meteora

Alysos, which is Greek for "Chains," is a giant rock that lies north of Kalambaka, southwest of the Holy Trinity Monastery and is divided northwest by a canyon ten meters deep from the rock of Agios Modestos (commonly known as Modi).

The total height of the rock is 620m. On the east side it is three hundred feet high from the base, and on the northwest side eighty. The ascent took place from the northwest side of the lower rock, with a ladder of one hundred and more steps. The entire surface of the rock accounts for fifteen acres. There was built the Holy Monastery of the Veneration of the Chains of the Apostle Peter, which the Orthodox Church celebrates on January 16th. Today it is called by the locals "Altsos" and there are few ruins.

Amazing Footage from Meteora in 1917 and Mount Athos in 1918

The first two minutes show Meteora in 1917, and the rest shows Mount Athos in 1918 - specifically the hermitages and monasteries, as well as a procession from Vatopaidi to Karyes, then from Iveron to Vatopaidi.

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra Has Reposed

The neptic father Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra was born Alexandros Vapheides in Piraeus, Greece, in October 1934 to pious parents who had roots in Asia Minor. His paternal grandmother Eudoxia had been from Constantinople, and his grandfather Alexandros was from Selyvria in Thrace and was a student at Halki Theological School. In 1906 they moved to Simantra in Cappadocia where they worked as teachers for the Greek students until the Asia Minor Catastrophe, when they went to Greece. Though they were married, they lived as monastics, often keeping vigils and living a life of prayer. His grandmother Eudoxia reposed as a nun with the name Eutaxia and his mother also reposed as a nun with the name Aimiliani. This is the type of family the future Elder was raised with, who taught him to love prayer, the reading of the lives of the saints and their writings, and living a life completely dedicated to God.

Saint Anthony Kantakouzenos, Founder of the Monastery of Saint Stephen at Meteora

St. Anthony of Meteora (Feast Day - January 17)

The beginning of monastic life at Meteora on the rock of Agios Stephanos, where the Monastery of Saint Stephen is located today, dates back to early in the 12th century. Saint Anthony Kantakouzenos, in the first half of the 15th century, is the first founder of the monastery, and Saint Philotheos (June 13), who renovated or rather rebuilt from its foundations the old small and elegant Katholicon, the present Church of Saint Stephen, in 1545 is referred to as its second founder.

Saint Joasaph the Former King, Second Founder of the Great Meteoron Monastery (+ 1423)

St. Joasaph of Meteora (Feast Day - April 20)

Verses

Athanasios with Joasaph in the heavens,
Now dance together have shared in hard work.

The real successor of Saint Athanasios and the second founder of the Great Meteoron Monastery was the holy monk Joasaph. He was born around 1349/50, and baptized with the name John. John was son of the Greek-Serbian King of Thessaly and Epirus, Symeon Uros Palaiologos (1359-1370), whose seat was at Trikala. His mother, Thomais, was daughter of the Despot of Epirus Nikephoros II (+ 1359). From his father’s side he was related to the Roman imperial family of the Palaiologoi, whose surname he was proud to bear. Maria Palaiologina, great-granddaughter of the Roman Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259-1982) from her father’s side (John Palaiologos), and granddaughter from her mother’s side (Irene) of the great logothetis Theodore Metochetes, founder of the famous Chora Monastery at Constantinople, was married to John’s grandfather, the Serbian King Stephen Uros III (1321-1331). John had a younger brother named Stephen. His sister Maria Angelina Komneni Doukaina Palaiologina (+ 28 Dec. 1394), the great benefactress and donatrix of the Great Meteoron Monastery, had married the Despot of Ioannina Thomas Preliubovic (+ 23 Dec. 1384).

Saint Athanasios, Founder of the Great Meteoron Monastery (+ 1380)

St. Athanasios of Meteora (Feast Day - April 20)

Verses

Meteora's stone Athanasios,
You worked hard to make a path to the cornerstone.

The foundation of the Monastery of the Great Meteoron, or the Transfiguration Monastery, is the starting point of organized monastic life at Meteora. This monastery is the oldest, largest and most formal of the extant Meteora monasteries, as its name “Great Meteoron” implies. Perched on the most imposing rock, it occupies a commanding position among the monastic complex of Meteora.

The Great Meteoron was founded shortly before the middle of the fourteenth century by Saint Athanasios of Meteora, who was also its first founder and the first to organize a systematic monastic community. Athanasios, the son of eminent parents, was born at Hypati, the well-known medieval town of New Patras, in 1302 and was baptized Andronikos.

Queen Marie of Romania, the First Woman to Enter the Great Meteoron at Meteora

Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938) was "one of the world’s most celebrated royals” and ”the Princess Di of her day”, as People magazine called her in 1985.

Among her achievements, one can count being the very first royal woman to appear on the cover of Time magazine (the cover of 4th of August, 1924), the first woman to be appointed corresponding member of the French Academy of Beaux Arts, and the first woman to ever reach the Great Meteoron Monastery.

Saint Philotheos of Sklataina, Second Founder of the Monastery of Saint Stephen at Meteora (+ 1550)

St. Philotheos of Sklataina (Feast Day - June 13)

Our Venerable Father Philotheos was born in 1475 in the village of Sklataina, which since 1927 is called Rizoma and is located in Trikala of Thessaly. The beginning of monastic life at Meteora on the rock of Agios Stephanos, where the Monastery of Saint Stephen is located today, dates back to early in the 12th century. Saint Anthony Kantakouzenos, in the first half of the 15th century, is the first founder of the monastery, and Saint Philotheos, who renovated or rather rebuilt from its foundations the old small and elegant Katholicon, the present Church of Saint Stephen, in 1545 is referred to as its second founder.

Saints Nektarios and Theophanes, Founders of Barlaam Monastery at Meteora

Sts. Nektarios and Theophanes of Barlaam (Feast Day - May 17)

The Holy Hieromonks Nektarios and Theophanes were brothers, who were born to the eminent family known as the Apsarades of Ioannina in the late fifteenth century. Their parents and three sisters took on the monastic schema and went to dwell in a cell in a village of the island of Ioannina. The two brothers received a remarkable education at the famous Monastery of Philanthropinon which was under the abbot Makarios. But at a young age they were filled with divine love, therefore they decided to follow the monastic path. In the Hermitage of the Honorable Forerunner on the island of Ioannina they found an elder named Savvas (Feb. 3), and received from him the monastic schema in 1495. They remained with him for ten years until his repose on 9 April 1505, thus gathering the fruits of the hesychastic life.

Saint Dionysios the Merciful, Metropolitan of Larissa (+ 1510)

St. Dionysios the Merciful (Feast Day - March 28)

Regarding Saint Dionysios the Merciful, Metropolitan of Larissa and founder of the Monastery of Saint Nicholas Anapausas at Meteora, there are no hagiographic texts, services, synaxaria or biographies.

Saint Dionysios is depicted in a fresco from 1627 on the left aisle of the Church of the Holy Unmercenaries in Trikala, where the seven "Holy Archbishops of Larissa" are depicted in chronological order from left to right: Saint Thomas Gorianitis, Saint Cyprian the Wonderworker, Saint Anthony the Most Erudite and New Theologian, Saint Bessarion, Saint Dionysios the Merciful, Saint Mark the Hesychast, and Saint Bessarion of the Savior.

The Relics of Saint Haralambos the Wonderworker

1. The largest portion of the skull of St. Haralambos is found in the Monastery of Saint Stephen at Meteora. We do not have much information how they came to acquire it, except that it was given to them by Prince Vladislav II of Wallachia (allegedly given in either 1398, 1412 or 1413, although Vladislav II reigned 1447-1456). How the Wallachians came to acquire it is not known, but two dependencies were also given to the Monastery in Wallachia.

The Cave Chapel of Saint Silouan the Athonite in Meteora

Below the Monastery of Saint Nicholas Anapavsa in Meteora, in a natural cave, can be found the Chapel of Saint Silouan the Athonite, which was established by Archimandrite Polycarpos Venetis, current Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Nicholas. On the feast of St. Silouan on September 24th, an all-night vigil takes place here to celebrate his memory.

Saint Savvas the Spiritual Father of Ioannina (+ 1505)

St. Savvas the Spiritual Father (Feast Day - February 3)

Saint Savvas was of noble birth and lived in the fifteenth and early sixteenth century, though his place of origin is unknown. From a young age he came to love poverty in imitation of Christ, and he spent his whole life as a humble and poor hermit, living in asceticism at the Sacred Monastery of the Honorable Forerunner on the island of Ioannina. There he contested against evil spirits and transformed his passions, in imitation of his patron Saint Savvas the Sanctified. He never owned a new coat or a second pair of shoes because, whenever he saw someone penniless or sick, he would be eager to give them his clothing and his food.

Historic Liturgy at an Isolated Hermitage of Meteora

A historic Divine Liturgy took place on May 24, 2014 at an isolated hermitage of Meteora that can only be accessed by rock climbing.

A Birds-Eye View of the Monasteries of Meteora (video)

Meteora from TKYSSTD on Vimeo.