By Nicolas Bard

About 12 kilometers northeast of the city of Serres, next to a deep ravine of Menni Mountains, is built the historic Holy Monastery of Holy Prodromos Serres. The story of the monastery begins in 1270 and is a true ornament of Byzantine art.

The central temple is stone -built, with many rare frescoes, while the iconostasis is wood -carved and dates back to 1804.

The first owner of the monastery, in 1270, was the Serra Mount Athos monk, hermit and later Bishop, Ioannikios. In 1300 Joakim’s nephew and successor built the Catholic, the Bank and the tall walls around the monastery. Having rarely political insight and in the face of the danger of possible expansion of the Ottomans to Macedonia, he sent a delegation to Bursa and issued Firmani (1372), which would protect the monastery from the Turkish arbitrariness. Indeed, in the Monastery of Ekari Monk at the age of 35, in 1444, Saint Raphael.

From 1457 to 1462, the first Patriarch, after the fall of Constantinople, Gennadios Scholarios, who remained there until his death, was in the monastery. From 1894 to 1901 he was an official representative of the monastery, Saint Gregory the Oologas, the later Metropolitan of the Metropolitan of Kydonia Asia Minor, who at the same time served as a preacher and professor of the Gymnasium.

In 1917 the rich library of the monastery was plundered by the Bulgarians, who sent 24 Gospels to Bulgaria, 200 rare manuscripts on paper, 1500 old books, and many valuable sacred objects. The Bulgarians illegally won not only the relics of the Monastery of the Holy Prodromos Serres, but also a number of other Greek relics from the Monastery of Our Lady of the Metropolitan of Drama, the Monastery of Panagia Kalamos Xanthi and the Monastery of Panagia. The Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Holy Metropolises as well as the authorities of the local government have formally made a request for the return of the Greek relics.

The catholicon of the monastery is a rare monument of Byzantine hagiography, and the frescoes are attributed to the Macedonian hagiographer M. Panselinos. The older frescoes are those that took place during the Ioakim abbot and stand out for their expressiveness and realism. In the wood -carved iconostasis of the monastery, the images of Christ Pantokrator and Our Lady of Odigitria, who come from the original iconostasis of the Catholic and, together with the first layer of frescoes of the nine represent the art of the Paleologos.

Since 1986 he settled in the Monastery of the Women’s Brotherhood, which in collaboration with the 12th Byzantine Antiquities Office has undertaken the task of maintaining and restoring the monastery, which celebrates August 29th the departure of the head of the Holy Prodromos and Baptist.