The monastery of Xenophon is built on a low hill close to the sea, between the monasteries of Docheiariou and St Panteleimon. It is dedicated to St George (feast day April 23rd).

The new katholikon was built between 1809 and 1819 with money donated by Philotheou. It stands on the north side of the court and is impressively grandiose - the largest Greek katholikon on Mount Athos. It boasts a marble iconostasis made beautiful both by its design and by the polychrome stone in which it is fashioned. Contemporary, and equally attractive, is the altar. There are no murals, apart from one or two recent examples in the prothesis and the esonarthex, where there are two large and splendid mosaic icons, of St George and St Demetrios. The icons of the Deesis and the Twelve Apostles in its night choir have probably survived from the iconostasis of an earlier chapel and are dated to the late sixteenth century.

Amongst the the treasures of the monastery which deserve mention are the two mosaic icons of which we have already spoken, a small icon of a kind rarely found, made of steatite and bearing a representation of the Transfiguration of Christ, a fragment of the True Cross, precious reliquaries containing the relics of many saints, sacerdoral vestments, ecclesiastical plate and many other objects.

The well-organised library of the monastery is housed in a secure room on the south-west side. It contains about 300 manuscripts of which 8, and two liturgical scrolls, are written on parchment. It also possesses Turkish seals, various documents and more than 4,000 printed books.

A view of the monastery from the sea.The domes of the newer, ...		The primary church of the monastery. It is located in the no ...		One of the many fields that are worked on by the monks (it i ...		Moving towards the interior of the monastery		A western view of the monastery from the sea

A view from inside the monastery		A bell inside the monastery		The entrance of the monastery		Xenophon Monastery