Monastery Proussos(Moni Panagias Proussiotissas)

At the beautiful and impressive location that is shaped on the edges of the mountains Kaliakouda and Chelidona is built the historic Monastery of Panagia Prousiotissa or Monastery Proussos. It is dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin and is one of the few monasteries that survive in Evrytania. It is also one of the most important pilgrimages of Sterea Ellada (Central Greece), since the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary attracts a lot of visitors throughout the year. It is a men’s monastery and it celebrates on the 23rd of August.

The foundation of the monastery is related to the miraculous icon, which is considered the work of Luke the Evangelist. According to tradition, in the period of iconoclasm, in the first half of the 9th century, in the years the last iconoclast emperor Theophilus, a new nobleman, in order to save the icon attempted to transfer it from Proussa to Greece. However, the icon disappeared in a strange manner and some years later, the shepherds in the area found it in a cave at Proussos, where it is kept even today, inside a chapel.

The monastery operated for many centuries, becoming really important to the intellectual life and in the first decades of the 19th century the famous School of Greek Letters of Roumeli operated here. In the period of the Revolution of 1821 it played an important role as a refuge and a base if operation for the fighters of the area and Georgios Karaiskakis was closely related to it. But in modern times, during the Italian and the German occupation, it was the refuge of the members of the Greek resistance and in 1944 it was torched by the German troops.

West of the catholicon there is the cavernous chapel of Evresis (finding), the crypt where they keep the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary. The icon is covered with a silver garment, a donation by Georgios Karaiskakis. The chapel was constructed in two stages, in the 13th – 14th century and in the 16th century. The complex also includes a hostel to accommodate visitors, and a museum with precious relics, icons, codices and books, as well as some of the weapons of Karaiskakis.

Video by: Σπύρος