Monastery of Osios Patapios Loutraki Greece

 

Osios Patapios (Saint Patapios) – Feast Day 8 December

 

 

Italy, so I have heard, has more churches per square mile, than any other country in the world, I’m sure Greece must be a close second!

Our little town of Loutraki has its fair share, one of them, Osios Patapios (Saint Patapios) monastery, situated high up on the Gerania Mountains, looking down over Loutraki, is, I think, the most interesting.

Located about fourteen kilometres from Loutraki, Osios Patapios, is at an altitude of about seven hundred metres above the Gulf of Corinth.

 It’s quite a trek, once you’ve parked your car at the bottom of the one hundred and forty four steps, up to the monastery!

 The views though, makes the effort worthwhile, the whole gulf of Corinth is laid out in front of you.

 

 

 

At the bottom of the steps there were a couple of ladies selling honey and products made from bees wax, you nearly always find this at the entrances to Greek monasteries, the products are usually made by the nuns or monks themselves.

 I had to laugh at a large sign describing one of the products here:

 “Cream for hemorrhoids made from beeswax!

 I hope it didn’t have a sting in it!

 

 

It took us a while to reach the monastery; you just can’t help but keep stopping to look at the splendid view along the way.

 

 

I made it up the 144 steps!

 

 

The entrance opens onto a small courtyard; here is the chapel of The Virgin Mary of Egypt and, in the farthest corner, the cave containing the relics of Saint Patapios.

 

 

 The History of Osios Patapios

 

 Saint Patapios, was born in Thebes, Egypt in the fourth century AD and is known as Saint Patapios of Thebes, of wealthy, Christian parents, and, from a young age, he lived as a hermit in the desert.

 Later in life, he left Thebes for Constantinople, where he lived in the area of Blachernae, here, he built, The Monastery of the Egyptians.

This is where he eventually died and why the small chapel, next to the cave of Patapios is named “The Virgin Mary of Egypt”.

 

 

 

 

Relics of Osios Patapios

 

 

Osios Patapios, a women’s monastery, home to forty nuns, was established in 1952.

The monastery is built around the caves, where the relics of St. Patapios of Thebes (which, after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453), were were discovered, on the Gerania mountain of Loutraki, near Athens, by Angelis Notaras, a nephew of St. Ipomoni.

There the relics lay, until they were discovered in 1904 by a priest, from Loutrak, Constantine Sossanis, when workmen demolished a wall, whilst enlarging one of the mountain caves.

 

 

The relics had been placed under tiles and leaves to protect the body from the damp.

 A scroll, bearing the name Patapios, a large wooden cross and some Byzantine coins, were discovered along with the remains.

 Today, the relic of Saint Patapios, is housed in a sanctuary, carved out of the rock of the Gerania Mountains.

 

 

 

Relics of Saint Ipomoni (St.Patience, a female saint), namely her skull, and a hip bone of Saint Nikon, are also housed at the Monastery of Osios Patapios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 St. Ipomoni, before becoming a nun, had been Empress Helen, mother of the last Eastern Roman Emperor, Constaintine Palaiologos,  also known as Helena Dragaš, noted for her pious works, was buried in the Monastery of the Pantocratoras in Constantinople, where her husband and three of their children (of which two were monks as well) were also buried.

 The memory of St. Ipomoni is celebrated on May 29, the day that Constantinople fell to the Ottomans.

 

 

I haven’t visited Osios Patapios for a long time, I do remember, that if you were wearing trousers, or a sleeveless top, the nuns provided you with something to cover your shoulders, usually an apron, to use as a shawl, or a skirt, to put on over your trousers.

 As recently as 1977 when I first arrived in Greece, it was frowned upon for girls to wear trousers, and certainly not in a church.

 MGG has four sisters, my Mother-In-law would never allow them to wear trousers, and they never did until after they were married, today, when they go to visit her, they never wear trousers, not now from the fear of being yelled at, but out of respect.

 I also remember, a nun would show you the shriveled up hand of the relic, with the aid of a torch, things have “progressed”, I say this with tongue in cheek, I see they now have a fluorescent light over the Saint’s coffin.

 I forgot to look for the shriveled hand!

The first Mother Superior of the monastery was Patapia, Father Nectarios Marmarinos was their Spiritual Father, the last Mother Superior, Isidora died last month on the twenty seventh of October (2014), and Mother Superior Isidora is buried in the courtyard of the monastery.

 

 

 

 

 

The new Mother Super is to be Sister Chrisovalanti, who will be officially named Mother Superior on the eighth of December, the name day of Osios Patapios.

 

 

Saint Patapios is the patron Saint of dropsy!

 I never knew that dropsy had a patron saint, his name day is celebrated on the eighth of December.