Peloponnisos SearchDESTINATIONS FOR EVERY TRAVELER

Agios Nikolaos Convent

COUNTY: Elis MUNICIPALITY: Pineios

Clear
17.91ºC

Type

Nunnery

TL;DR

Visit the Agios Nikolaos monastery to experience the mysticism surrounding the area where St Nikolaos Kavasilas, the Last of the Initiates, had lived.

Agios Nikolaos monastery, without monks today, is on the outskirts of Kavasila or Kavasilas village. The name of the village comes from the Saint Nikolaos Kavasila who led a monastic life in the region and founded the monastery in the 14th century. The spaces of the monastery are arranged around a square yard in the middle of which there is a well. On one side of the yard there is a single-naved little church and behind the church there is the central-plan building of Golgotha constructed in 1980’s.

The theologist Thomas Athanasios Agrafiotis, teacher at the primary school of the village, in a speech he quoted: “The founder of the church, Saint Nikolaos Kavasilas (1322-1390 A.D.) is considered to be one of the greatest teachers of Orthodoxy during the Byzantine empire. He was born in Thessaloniki in a period of political decline. Yet, theology was flourishing. He finished his studies in Constantinople and stayed for a while in Mount Athos with Saint Grigorios Palamas who initiated him into the teachings of Hesychasm: how to commune with the Uncreated Light and be united with God and Its divine energy, through a pure heart and praying the Jesus prayer “with the heart”. It was a mystical teaching which advocated the true meaning of orthodox faith and the union with God. That was the teaching of Saint Nikolaos Kavasilas, who was known as the Last of the Initiates. He was very respected and wrote many books. He was engaged in politics, economy and social justice, and left a legacy of great missionary work”.