Skete of Saint Andrew

Photographer

Horlbeck, Frank R.

Date

• June 4, 1988

Summary

• View of the Skete of Saint Andrew, Mount Athos. The skete (monastic dependency) belongs to the larger monastery of Vatopedi. It is dedicated to the Holy Apostle Andrew and contains the Athonias Ecclesiastical Academy. The skete was founded in the mid-fifteenth century when the Patriarch Athanasios II of Constantinople retired and settled on the Athonite peninsula. In the nineteenth century, the monastery ownership passed to two Russian monks, Vessarion and Varsanouphios and enjoyed the patronage of the Russian tsars. In 1849 it was officially recognized as a skete (dependency) by Patriarch Anthimus IV of Constantinople though it is large enough to be considered a monastery. It has the largest church on the peninsula.