The Monastery of Panagia Katsimikadas (dedicated to the memory of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary) is located near the villages of “Taps & Mouriatada” municipality Trifylia Messinia, is an idyllic place with unique natural beauty that draws you to him like a magnet and you n to climb to worship the grace of the Virgin Mary.

The monastery of Panagia Katsimikadas Mouriatada village belongs to the municipality Trifylia built mountain Egaleo or cold at an altitude of 650m, overlooking the Ionian Sea.

An orchard of God, a corner of paradise, a piece of Eden, is the site of Katsimikadas.

The twig of the more than hundred years old plane tree, hang two bells. The largest brings over of the date 1880.

A few meters behind the shrine, to ‘the source. The vrysomana throughout the year is rich and gives gurgling water. A refreshing water that you drink and rejoice that digests “irons”, as all have noticed and have admitted. Drink, quench your thirst and drink again. Blessing God!

At the top, there is a modern hostel for the accommodation of pilgrims.

HISTORY of THE MONASTERY.

When built the Monastery of Our Katsimikadas not known. There are no written documents and written testimonies to us talk about the beginning of. The beginning, lost in the mists of time.

The monastery was during the years of foreign rule (Venetian – Turkish) and many times it served as a haven of thieves.

Somewhere in the 10th century, it must place the roots of the Monastery. Tradition says that the monastery was destroyed for the first time in 1230.

The time of the second Venetian occupation, as shown from the files Grimani, the Monastery of Katsimikadas and monks had with the abbot and assets presents which gave it the right to have the entity as a monastery. And, to have the monastery, at that time a certain glamor, should the roots have been deep and lost in some centuries behind.

The Turkish Pashas,Ibrahim burned the Abbey in late May 1825 and destroyed whatever had landed property, burning and cutting olive trees. At that time, the Monidrio – as mentioned – the Katsimikadas didn’t have monks, it was deserted. The estate was managed and rented to people in Kyparissia, to the villages in the area, initially Cathedral and towards the end of the decade the City Kyparissia. But after the suppression of the Revolution Giannakis Gritzalis – the so called ‘Vlachoepanastasis “- from the Bavarians, the capital of Messinia moved to Kalamata.

All these years the monastery had not monks. Presented abandoned and deserted. The fields and trees, which increasingly scarcer, rented from Arkadinos or by villagers of nearby villages so grown, not to devastate. In 1863, as today, the monastery was celebrating the birth of God ¬ interest on September 8. Of the many monks who lived in the monastery was quite known, this monk was Abbot Gabriel. Testimonies of the inhabitants of the villages, Mouriatada and charcoal came probably around 1880 came from Smyrna. In 1894 under the carved stone lintel should be completed the building work of the church. Grew church and grow taller approximately one meter. Still grew and the building that housed the “cells”. Then Gabriel mantrose and fencing the site of the monastery, planted trees, plane trees and cypresses and everything else felt good. They also cultivated a vineyard “alpha” as characterizing today’s elders who remember it.

In 1910 he formed the exterior area and built the gate and she brings the lintel engraved date. Beneath the cross carved the name of the mason in capital letters (THOMAS VARDAKIS). The Monk was active and industrious as a bee; he used to go to market with the tray in his hands and said: “The donation for your Katsimikada.” He sat down as a monk until 1920, when he left for home. Since then, they lost his tracks.

In all the decades, people used to do a kind of vacation near the mountain and not near the sea, some families Kyparissios went up to the Monastery of Katsimikadas to spend the summer and breath the mountain air in their lungs. It was then that tuberculosis decimated the world and was still a rough disease.

The feast of Our Lady celebrated solemnly every year and pilgrims flocked from the evening and spend the night in the monastery. That is until today. Even without interruption in the convent is running the third day of Easter, with the participation of many believers.

Somewhere in 1955-1960, when Metropolitan Trifylia – Olympia was late Damascene (Hatzopoulos) became landscaping effort of the convent and configuration space on a site representation of the Passion of the Lord. In the context of the then renowned painter Yannis Theodorakopoulos, painted in large sheet metal surfaces: the “Last Supper”, which was suspended in the temple – on the southern side – and still survives, the “ascent of Christ – the cross on shoulder – Calvary “- to the slope above the church – the” crucifixion of the Lord in the midst of two thieves with the Roman soldier to embroider side “- beneath the chestnut trees – and the” burial “of the rightmost bit , in a stone-built grave. At that time, many sequences of Holy Week were chanting outside under these images – representations. And they had really scatter thrilled, to those who happened to attend.

In recent years paid a collective effort – detailed talk goes to other pages – for building the modern hospice, from the Association of Athens Kyparissios “Arcadia.”

From 1996 to today the monastery serves the active and industrious monk Spyridon Perri, who with excess of the zeal gave life in the monastery. The assistance of many was remarkable. The visitor of the monastery can admire historical findings kept in keimiliofylakio, which was founded in 1997 when the elder Spyridon remains longer in the monastery cleaning areas that had been left alone for more than 16 years, began to find various relics. Some of them are:

• The silver lamp of 1885
• Apostolothyra Chronology 1886
• Archangels Michael and Gabriel adorning the side doors of the sanctuary and painted on Mount Athos in 1923
• The Great High Priest, 1921
• Church (Functional – Monthly) books printed in Greek Printing of St. George in Venice in 1862 and some printed in Greece in 1896
• The Pentecostarion 1875
• The silver chalice of the 1880 and 1885
• Worn Holy icons from the 19th century

Tel.: 2761022568