The history of our monastery is lost in the depths of time.
The sacred book of the Acts of the Apostles confirms that Verria and the surrounding region received the Gospel message from the Apostle Paul himself. After the first visit by the Apostle of the Gentiles, Saints Silas and Timothy remained in Verria and continued for a while to spread the word among the people. The accuracy of the narrative and the opinion of expert scholars confirm that the Apostle Luke must have passed through the city, following in the footsteps of his teacher, Paul, as a travelling-companion.
The true fact of Paul’s visit to the land of Imathia was absorbed into tradition and then re-worked as a delightful folk tale.
It is deeply etched into the popular spirit, throughout the region of Pieria, that, when Saint Paul left Verria, he came to a certain point on Mount Vermion. Being thirsty, he prayed and caused the earth to yield an abundant supply of cool water. This point is the Life-Receiving Spring, which is outside Verria on the old road from Verria to Kozani. It was from here that the saint crossed over into Pieria and began the descent to the sea. He went as far as Methoni, where he embarked on a ship to Athens.
In Pieria, wherever he stopped to rest, he pushed his wooden staff into the soil. And wherever he did so, the word of the holy Gospel bore fruit and monasteries sprang up.
One of the monasteries which grew from the rod and certainly from the word of the Apostle Paul is the present one, the Holy Monastery of the Honourable Forerunner, Pieria.
Although the roots of monasticism draw their sustenance from the life-giving waters of the Holy Gospel, monasticism in general was organized in various places by the great fathers of our Church: in Egypt by Antonios the Great; in Cappadocia by Basil the Great; in Epirus by Diadohos, Bishop of Fotiki; and in other regions by other holy fathers.
After the vicissitudes of the Church during the Iconoclast controversy, which lasted almost two centuries, a new page began in the history of Orthodox monasticism. And it was at this time that the history of monasticism began in our region, on the blessed banks of the River Aliakmonas. Here it was that Saint Klimis (Clement), later Archbishop of Ochrid, became a monk, as did Saint Antonios, the patron saint of Verria.
Saint Klimis became a monk towards the end of the 9 th century, while Saint Antonios lived in the 10 th .
It would seem, then, that the Monastery of the Forerunner had a large part to play in the ambitious renovation and cultural programme of Saint Fotios, the great patriarch of Constantinople, both within the Greek peninsula and in the Balkans in general.
In the 14 th century, our region was again deserted. So when the shining light of the Church, Saint Gregory Palamas, arrived from Thessaloniki, he found only hermits living in caves in the region, engaged in tremendous ascetic struggles of privation and fasting.
Gregory himself settled in one of these caves, while the rest of his disciples took up residence in others in the neighbourhood. Among his disciples were his two younger siblings, Makarios and Theodosios. The Blessed Theodosios actually passed away here and his holy relics are a valuable treasure for us.
In those same years, the Blessed Athanasios came to St John’s Monastery. From here he became acquainted with Saint Iakovos, the disciple of the Blessed Gregory the Sinaite who became a Metropolitan in neighbouring Servia. Athanasios lived here for a while together with his Elder, his spiritual father Blessed Gregorios Vyzantinos. When the two of them left, they went to Meteora, in Kalambaka, Thessaly, and there they built the Monastery of the Great Meteora, dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ.
Also in the 14 th century, another disciple of Gregory the Sinaite arrived, Blessed Theodoros. He lived for a short time in Thessaloniki where he heard about the spiritual life in the skete. He arrived in Pieria by boat, enjoyed his encounters with the holy ascetics and then returned to Thessaloniki. Thereafter he went into Bulgaria, taking with him the niptic and hesychast spirit, in accordance with the teachings of Blessed Gregory the Sinaite, and building the Monastery of Kilifarevo, near Trnovo.
In the 16 th century, Dionysios, the Abbot of the Monastery of Filotheou on the Holy Mountain, arrived from Athos. He established the cenobitic way of life and built the first katholiko (main church). He was later obliged to leave because of the constant demands of the people of Verria that he become their bishop, and went and settled in the area of Soulpata, near today’s village of Sykia, Pieria. From there he went to Olympus, where he founded the monastery of the Holy Trinity, the monastery which today bears his name. So Saint Dionysios is actually considered a founder of our monastery and, is naturally commemorated as such in our various acts of worship.
Blessed Nikanor the Thessalonian was a friend and fellow ascetic of Blessed Dionysios. The spiritual friendship of these two holy men was so great that Nikanor left a clause in his will that his own monastery, on Mount Kallistraton, in Zavorda, was to take its abbot from our monastery, in the event that there was a lack of monks.
In the 16 th century, Blessed Theofanis, who was also from the Holy Mountain, from the Monastery of Doheiariou, which he had rebuilt and whose abbot he was for a time, came to the region of Imathia and was very active here. Blessed Theofanis founded a monastery dedicated to Our Most Holy Lady Skitiotissa, and another women’s monastery, outside the town of Verria, dedicated to the Archangels, to whom the Monastery of Doheiariou is also dedicated. In 1595, he also founded another monastery, on Mount Vermion outside Naousa, which was also dedicated to the Archangels and which today bears his name. Indeed, in the opinion of the experts, it was he who was instrumental in the arrival of many people from Ioannina to populate the town, which, out of gratitude, honours him as its patron.
It is also believed that Saint Theonas, the Archbishop of Thessaloniki lived in a cave in our region after he left the Holy Mountain and before he built the Monastery of Saint Anastasia, to the east of Mount Hortiatis. In the 18 th century, in about 1776, Saint Kosmas Aitolos, the great saint of the Greeks enslaved to the Turks, stayed here. Using our monastery as a base, he went out into the surrounding villages of Pieira, where his passing is remembered to this day and the cross or the place where he stopped to preach are pointed out to visitors.
In those same years, Blessed Athanasios Parios was associated with the fathers and it is almost certain that he visited the monastery. Blessed Athanasios it was who edited and supplemented the ancient Service of Saint Clement the Confessor, Equal to the Apostles, Archbishop of Ochrid and Wonder-Worker.
These are the twelve best known saints to have been associated with our monastery so far, passing through and living briefly or for a more extended period in the shelter of the wings of the leader of monastics, Saint John the Forerunner.
After the revolution in Naousa, the apostate, Emin Aga, who had renounced his Christian faith and became known as Labut (the Cudgel) Pasha for his appalling brutality, took vengeance and burned all the monasteries on Mount Vermion, in Pieria and the adjoining region.
The Monastery of the Honourable Forerunner did not escape his ire, but at least the holy fathers had managed to conceal the treasures, particularly the holy relics. When they returned, they found scorched earth, but with faith in the Honourable Forerunner and the aid of the holy relics they were able, by 1835, to rebuild the burnt buildings, the new katholiko and a good part of the fortified wall. The new buildings were not now two-storeyed, however, but had a single floor above the ground floor.
The monastery assumed the form it has today in 1835. In the 1960’s, however, part of the eastern wing was built with cement and now houses the abbot’s quarters. Some important renovations were carried out in 1987 and also in the decade from 1990-2000.
Archimandrite Porphyrios
Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Timios Prodromos-Skitis in Veroia,
