Patapios
Patapios of Thebes is the patron saint of dropsy. Saint Patapios’ memory is celebrated on 8 December and also at the Tuesday 2 days after the Sunday of Easter. His relic is kept at the female monastery of Saint Patapios at Loutraki, a spa town near Athens, Greece.
Biography
Patapios was born in the 4th century AD in Thebes, Roman Egypt, to wealthy Christian parents. Patapios, at a young age, lived the life of a hermit in the desert. Many visited him to take his advice and to listen to his preaching. Later in his life, Patapios left Thebes and the desert for Constantinople. There he met two other ascetics, Varas and Ravoulas, who both became saints. Saint Ravoulas was hermit at the gate of Romanos. Saint Varas built the monastery of St John the Baptist at Petrion.Patapios lived in the area of Blachernae at the Xero Oros and he established a monastery, the Monastery of the Egyptians, where he eventually died.
Veneration of his relic
Early history
Patapios' relic after the destruction of the Monastery of the Egyptians in 536 AD was transferred by Saint Varas to the Monastery of Saint John at Petrion, which during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire was under the protection of the royal family of Constantinople, the Palaiologoi, and especially the Augusta Helena Dragaš, the mother of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, who became a nun and a saint under the monastic name of Saint Hypomone.After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire in 1453, a relative of the Palailogos emperors and nephew of the Augusta Helena, Aggelis Notaras, in order to protect the relic of Saint Patapios from the Ottomans, transferred it to Mount Geraneia in southern Greece, near the town Thermai. There he hid it in a cave and a hermitage was established, but some centuries later it was abandoned. It has to be mentioned that the cave where the relic of Saint Patapios was transferred had actually functioned as a hermitage since the 11th century AD. It is located at a height of 650 meters.
The discovery of the cave and the foundation of the monastery
The cave with the relic of the saint was discovered in 1904 by citizens of Loutraki. In the cave they found also the skull of Helena Dragaš, known as Saint Hypomone. However, some visitors from the cave took pieces of the relics of St Patapios as an amulet, as Sister Patapia mentions. Then, a priest from Loutraki, father Constantinos Susannis, took the relic of Patapios and kept it at home with the permission of the church to keep it away from vandals. Originally they found in the cave an despoiled wooden cross, a membrane and coins which were delivered to the authorities. Later in 1952, Father Nektarios Marmarinos, a priest from the Synoikismos of Corinth, who was originated from Aegina, founded at the monastery and the relic returned to the cave where it was found. The official founding of the monastery took place on August 1, 1952, by Metropolitan of Korinth Prokopios Tzavaras.The first abbess in the monastery in 1952, was sister Synglitiki. Sister Patapia helped at the establishment and building of the monastery. She was mother superior from 1963 to 1970, when she resigned because of health problems. The next and current mother superior is sister Isidora.
Father Nektarios, the founder of the monastery, is still visiting the monastery. He has a rich Christian work and has established other monasteries as the male monastery The 3 Hierarchs and a summer camp for children. He has also created a female nursing home in Loutraki. Today Elder Nektarios has retired. He has received numerous awards from the Church of Corinth which was chancellor. Even today, though in old age, every Sunday in the settlement of Corinth makes it even lectures on Christian content and Sunday school.
The Monastery of St. Patapios today
The monastery includes the hostels, cells for the 40 nuns, a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the cemetery and the katholikon of the Holy Trinity. Finally there is an exhibition room for the visitors. The Cave of St. Patapios is beside the church. There they keep the holy relic of the saint, covered with a robe. In the cave there are Byzantine icons by an unknown artist, which were painted probably in the 15th century. Many visitors take as a single amulet from the cave a bit of cotton soaked with holy oil and also take holy water from a source adjacent to the cave. The skull of Saint Hypomone, known as Helena Dragaš, is also kept at Saint Patapios' nunnery.In the monastery of St. Patapios live 40 nuns. It is located in Greece, mountain Gerania at an altitude of 650 meters and is close to Loutraki. The monastery overlooks the sea and Loutraki. Entering the monastery of St. Patapios we encounter the church Virgin Mary. The church was sanctified on August 1, 1968, by the Metropolitan bishop of Korinth Panteleimon. Inside the church we see an icon in center with the saint that celebrates that day. On the right we see the image of St. Patapios which is across the icon of Virgin Mary on the wall, which is full of offerings. You can also see the image of St. Hipomoni left which is across the large picture of St. Patapios on the wall who is with Saint Hypomone, known as Helena Dragaš, and Saint Nikon the New. Adjucent the church of Virgin Mary, is the church of Agioi Anargyroi.