Timios Prodromos Monastery

The Monastery of Timios Prodromos of Serres is an important and extremely beautiful pilgrimage. It is situated 12kms northeastern of Serres, at the western part of a deep gorge of mountain Menikio.  

Saint Ioannikios from Serres was a monk and a hermit of Mount Athos. Then he became a bishop. He was the first owner of the Monastery in 1270. In 1300, his nephew and successor, Saint Ioakim, built the Catholicon, the Trapeza and he also built tall walls around the Monastery. Thanks to his rare political vision, he foresaw the danger of the possible expansion of the Ottomans in Macedonia, so he sent representatives in Prousa in order to ensure the publication of a firman (law) (1372) that protected the Monastery from the illegal actions of the Turks once and for all.  

Gennadios Sholarios, the first Patriarch after the Fall of Constantinople, was a monk in the Monastery of Timios Prodromos from 1457 to 1462 and he stayed there until his death. He was buried near the tombs of the two owners of the Monastery. In 1854, his relics were translated and they have been put in a special shrine until these days.  

The Catholicon is a monument of byzantine hagiography. Its murals were made by the Macedonian icon-painter Panselinos. The oldest of them were made during the priorship of the second owner, Ioakim, and they are famous for their expression, realism and passivity.

Since 1986, there have been nuns in the Monastery who came from the Monastery of Panagia Odigitria (Our Lady Hodeghetria) of Volos, with the guidance of the elder Efrem of the Monastery of Filotheou of Agion Oros. They have been trying to reconstruct the buildings of the Monastery. Today, there are 27 nuns.   In 2010, there was a great fire in the Monastery that destroyed many of its places and caused a lot of damage. However, the fire sensitized the pilgrims from all over the world who contributed to its reconstruction in order to make the Monastery better than it was before.

The screen is carved wooden and dates back to 1804. On its right and its left, there are the icons of Christ the Pantocrator and Panagia Odigitria (Our Lady Hodeghetria) that come from the initial screen of the Catholicon and together with the first murals of the “Enati”, they represent the art of the rise of the Paleologos family.  

In 1917, the Monastery was conquered by the Bulgarians who removed a great number of manuscripts and holy relics.

Source www.monastiria.gr