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Gregorios Monastery
The monastery of Gregorios, dedicated to St. Nicholas (feast day December 6th), stands on a rock jutting out into the sea on the south-west side of the peninsula, between the monasteries of Simonopetra and Dionysiou.
The katholikon, dedicated to St. Nicholas, was first built by loachim, following the style of all the other Athonite churches. An inscription to the right of the entrance tells us that its wall-paintings were executed in 1779 by the painters Gabriel and Gregorios of Kastoria. In 1846, during the abbacy of Neophytos, the narthex was built and decorated. The wooden iconostasis is richly carved with scenes from the Old Testament.
Many treasures and portable icons are housed in the main church. The finest icons are those of St. Nicholas and two of the Panagia, surnamed the Galaktotrophoussa and the Pantanassa. The latter has survived all the fires and, according to the legend it bears, was presented to the monastery at the end of the fifteenth century by Mary Paleologina, mother of the prince Bogdanos.
Especially worthy of mention amongst the many treasures of the monastery are a fragment of the True Cross, the feet and right hand of St. Anastasia and other holy relics, two gold-embroidered epitaphiol and other fabrics, old vestments and ecclesiastical plate, crucifixes, richly bound Gospel Books and many other sacred objects.
Many books were destroyed by the fire, and the library is relatively poor. It is, however, well-organised, housed in a vaulted room in the western wing. It contains 297 manuscripts, of which eleven are written on parchment, and some are illunimated. The library preserves the only extant manuscript (six leaves) of 'The Shepherd of Hermas", from which three pages were stolen and smuggled to Leipzig by the antiquities thief Simonides. There are also about 4,000 printed books amongst which are some valuable incunabula and old books.
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