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HOLY MONASTERY OF SPILIA

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HOLY MONASTERY

OF SPILIA

THE MONASTERY'S HISTORY

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THE MONASTERY OF SPILIA IS BUILT ON A STEEP AND ROCKY
MOUNTAIN SIDE ABOVE THE CANYON OF PETRILIOTIS
IN EAST ARGITHEA

the extremely steep and until recently difficult accessible location, has always impressed the visitor, who can see from all sides over the gaping abyss, as the dearly departed metropolitan Ezekiel used to say. The monastery is located within the land district of Koumpouriana, which was in the past one of the largest settlements of Argithea and is now almost deserted. The first ottoman censure in 1454/55 already showed 108 families which means that the settlement dates back to the byzantine period as do the most settlements of Argithea. With regard to the construction of the monastery, the oldest information we have come from a legal document bearing the patriarchal seal (sigillum) from 1677, which was issued by the Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysios the 4th (1667 – 1679). According to this document the small monastic building of the Assumption of Mary in Koumouriana was rebuilt (restoration from the foundations) by the hieromonk (priest-monk) Anania, who requested and achieved in declaring it stavropegic, which indicates that the monastery existed before the issuing date of the sigillum (legal document with patriarchal seal). Tradition preserved a different version according to which the monastery was built by the two hieromonks Athanasios and Parthenios, who came from the monastery of Agios Charalampos of the neighboring Stefaniada. On their way to their pilgrimage to the Holy Lands they found the miraculous icon in a cave under the monastery which led them to build it. The same tradition also includes the discovery of the rich well which supplies the monastery to this day with water. This narrative may represent the oldest story of the monastery about which nothing has become known and which was built from the foundations just before 1677 by the hieromonk Anania. In the initial narrative about the construction of the monastery by Athanasios and Parthenios a lost manuscript of the monastery, which was a copy of an older one, is also mentioned which according to the Archimandrite Louka Depounti mentioned the date 1604. Since the two dates don't coincide, the anno mundi may be recognized as the year 1604 or 1664, which are connected both to the patriarchal seal (sigillum) and the date of the initial katholikon. The date 1064 AC is definitely mentioned in an older manuscript and in the oral tradition of the region regarding the construction of the monastery by the monks Athanasios and Parthenios without however any verification with scientific data until this day.  The monastery became soon renowned and in the 18th century a new and large katholikon was built with lavish decorations. Its reputation was both due to the miraculous icon and the numerous healings of sick people and its connection to revolutionary movements thanks to its strategic location. It was used as an anchor point by klephts and armatoloi many times and it became the target of the Turkish forces especially during the revolution of 1866-67.


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