Moni Agiou Mina, Chios

The Holy Monastery of Agios Minas is a nunnery in the prefecture of Chios.

It is dedicated to Saints Minas, Victor and Vikentio and is celebrated on November 11.

Today, only 2 nuns live in the monastery.

Position

The monastery is built on the top of a hill, near the village of Neochori, about 9 km south of the city center of Chios.
Historical data
Initial Development

The Holy Monastery was founded by the priest Neophytos Koumanos and the son of the priest Minas Koumanos, after the occupation of the island by the Turks, between the years 1572-1595. With Sigilios of Patriarch Jeremiah II of Tranos, the Monastery became Stavropegian, as the two priests - owners of the Temple, founded it with part of the Holy Cross.

The Monastery was immediately manned, initially as a Men's Monastery, beginning its development. During its heyday, the monastery had the Catholicos, the bell tower, the Library, the bank, the Cells, as well as ancillary buildings (cisterns, ovens, warehouses and stables). In fact, the Katholikon of the Monastery of Agios Minas is an imitation of the Katholikon of the Holy New Monastery of Chios, as it belongs to the type of single-aisled octagonal temples with a dome.

During the Turkish occupation, the Monastery had a rich Library and School. In fact, Patriarch Grigorios ED, the Metropolitan of Chios Platon Fragiadis, the scholar Daniel Filippidis and the Preacher of the Metropolitan Church of Chios, Fr. Iakovos Mavros, attended the School of the Monastery.

Slaughter of Chios
The painting "The massacre of Chios" by Eugene Delacroix

One year after the start of the Greek Revolution, the Easter period of 1822, with the arrival on the island of a force of Greek revolutionaries under Antonios Bournias and Lykourgos Logothetis, the Turkish authorities became enraged and on Thursday, March 30, 1822, the Turkish fleet immediately arrived. the massacre of the inhabitants, the looting and the burning of the city of Chios.

The residents of the city immediately started moving to the villages, the countryside and the Monasteries of the island, including the Monastery of Agios Minas, where about 3000 unarmed residents took refuge. During the Resurrection Divine Liturgy of April 2, 1822, where the Preacher of the Holy Diocese of Chios, Fr. Iakovos Mavros, officiated, the Turks attacked the Monastery. Despite the initial resistance and the killing of several Ottoman besieged by the gunmen under the direction of Ioannis Fatouros and Konstantinos Monogiou, they did not succeed.

The fortified Christians tried to enter the Catholicos of the Monastery, while those who did not catch up were slaughtered by the Turks. Those who were locked inside the Catholicos of the Monastery, were burned alive and in fact blood and skull formations appear on the floor. The Abbot of the Monastery, Theodosios Loufakis, was killed immediately and the Preacher of the Diocese was impaled with the Pole of the Resurrection.

Women with babies and children tried to hide in a dry fountain at the back of the monastery, but were betrayed by the cries of the babies and the Turks threw lighted sticks at them and burned them all alive.

Modern times

After the catastrophic earthquakes of 1881, most of the buildings of the Monastery were destroyed, including the Catholicos of Agios Minas. The repairs of the Monastery's buildings were completed in 1892. The perimeter walls of the church were rebuilt on the remains of the old ones, the Sanctuary was remodeled, while the pebbled pavement was kept intact. The Monastery is going through a period of long crisis, with few monks and many financial debts so that the buildings of the Monastery can be restored.

In 1932, the monastery was transformed into a women's monastery and has been operating since then. The last renovation efforts of the Monastery were completed around 1950, when the Catholicos was formed in its current form, in the style of post-Byzantine technique.

In the Courtyard of the Monastery there is the church of the Forty Martyrs, which also houses the Holy Osteophylax of the Monastery with the bones of many victims from about 2000 of the Massacre and one sheet of the old Central Entrance of the Monastery.

External links

Blog of the Holy Monastery of Agios Minas Chios

(Greek) Database of the Hellenic Statistical Authority.

Municipal unit Agios Minas
Municipal Community Thymiana
Agia Ermioni (Αγία Ερμιόνη, η)
Thymiana (Θυμιανά, τα)
Karfas (Καρφάς, ο)
Kerameia (Κεραμεία, τα)
Lefkonia (Λευκωνιά, η)
Moni Agiou Konstantinou Fragkovouniou (Μονή Αγίου Κωνσταντίνου Φραγκοβουνίου, η)
Plaka (Πλάκα, η)
Community Neochori
Moni Agiou Mina (Μονή Αγίου Μηνά, η)
Neochori (Νεοχώρι, το)
Paralia Agias Foteinis (Παραλία Αγίας Φωτεινής, η)

See also: Chios (island)