Xeropotamou Monastery
Xeropotamou Monastery is one of the 20 self-governing Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos. It is ranked eighth in the Athonite, the hierarchical order of the twenty monasteries on Mount Athos.
About this building
It is one of the oldest monasteries in Athos. It already existed in 956, under the reign of Constantine VII, when it received a grant by a general named John. The monastery is dedicated to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, a group of Roman soldiers who were executed as part of the Great Persecution ordered by the Roman Emperor Licinius.
The katholikon or main church was built between 1761 and 1763. The monastery has seven chapels dedicated to the Archangels, Saints Contantin and Helen, to the Elevation of the Holy Cross, to Saint John the Baptist, Saints Theodosios and George and to the Presentation of the Virgin. It houses numerous relics, including a fragment of the True Cross. Its library holds 409 handwritten codices and 4,000 volumes of printed books.
