ST. GEORGE AT HADIES, KASSOS.

ST. GEORGE AT HADIES, KASSOS.

The monastery and the church are situated South West on the island of Kassos. The icon was found in 1690 by a group of fishermen from the Island who had gone fishing at Avlaki, which is on the North West side of the island. When they were getting ready to leave, they saw something glistening at the bottom of the sea. The youngest of the group dove in and found a piece of wood covered by weeds. Upon cleaning the wood, they saw the image of St. George atop a horse. They were awed and thrilled by this find. They were, however, faced with the problem of what to do with the icon. They each had a different opinion. They finally decided to go with the suggestion given by the elder of the group; that is, to build a monastery at the place which would b e indicated by the Saint. They put the icon on the on the back of a donkey and decided that wherever the donkey stopped, that would be the site indicated by the Saint. When the donkey arrived at the region of Lakkous, instead of taking the usual road towards the villages, he went towards Milaraki, where he stopped and refused to go any further. That is how the place where the monastery was to be built was chosen. The group of fishermen were: Nikoletos Michail, Hadzinikitas Yeroyiannis, George Skevofilakas, Minas Ioannou, Diakakis, Nikitas Sakellaris, George Sakellaris, Para-Souranis, George Nikolaides, Erginia Meleti.

The shepherds of Kassos chose the date of 23^rd April for the yearly festival in honour of the Saint. When the Turks razed the island on the 7-8 June 1824, they also did a lot of damage to the monastery. Someone shot the icon and made a whole where the saint’s heart is. Legend has it that that soldier was then killed by another Turk.

The monastery was renovated in 1902 by a descendant of Nikolettos Hadzinikita Yeroyianni who returned to Kassos and who bore the same name as his forefather. The renovation was completed in 1903 and the Archibishop of Karpathos, Kassos, who represented the Archdiocese of Konstantinople to whom the monastery belonged, was named overseer.

Eleftherios Venizelos and his wife, as well as a big group of Officers, spent some time at this Monastery in 1935, after the coup d’etat in mainland Greece