History of the Monastery
The Holy Monastery of Stavronikita is dedicated to Saint Nicholas and rests on the coast, north of Karyes.
The Abbot Gregory Giromeritis and Jeremiah I, Patriarch of Constantinople, due to the benefit they brought to the monastery, are considered its new founders.
Theophan the Cretan, a most significant iconographer and a representative of the so-called Cretan School of iconography in the 16th century, painted the frescos of the Katholicon.
The mosaic icon of Saint Nicholas «Streidas», which was found in the midst of the sea with a barnacle (streidi) stuck on the forehead of the Saint, is treasured within the Katholicon. When the barnacle was removed from the forehead of the Saint, blood began to flow.
The library contains 169 Greek codices. The fifty-eight oldest are parchment dated to the time period between the 10th and 15th centuries.
