Athonas surrounds Saint Paul, which was built next to a great torrent (of Kalatha), a castle more than a monastery, dedicated to the Candlemas (February 2).
The tradition wants it to be established in the late 8th century by the monk Paul Kseropotaminos, in the last years of his life. Thanks to the efforts of the Serbian nuns Radonia and Pigasi and the sponsorships of Palaiologoi, it became a real monastery.
Unexpected favor came from Mara, the step mother of Mohammed II the Conqueror, who gave her treasures that he had stolen from Constantinople in the tragic Fall of 1453, among which the gifts of the Wise Men (Biblical Magi) in Christ. It is said that Mara, who was Serbian, wanted to transfer the gifts herself to the monastery, but a voice stopped her telling her that there was a Queen in the Mount, the Virgin Mary. The sultan, of course, did not fail to threaten and eventually plunder the monastery, which was not saved by its picturesque battlements. In the years of the Revolution, it was deserted after the monks came to the Struggle.
After fires, floods and disasters, it had to be rebuilt almost from the start, during the Balkan Wars. The old catholic of the monastery had frescoes of the Macedonian school, which unfortunately are not saved.
Fortunately, are saved historical documents, manuscripts and approximately 15,000 books in its well-organized library.
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