Chrysopigi Monastery

The Chrysopigi Monastery can be found 3km south of Chania city. Its temple features Mount Athos triconch architecture with a dome and is dedicated to the Panagia Zoodochos Pigi (Life Giving Virgin Mary) (celebrated on the Friday after Easter). Thousands of believers visit this monastery to pay their respects to the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary. The monastery complex has an elongated rectangular shape, with the temple at its center. The nuns’ cells and other buildings surround the temple, and their outer sides form a fortification wall. The arched gate of the monastery is located in the northern part of the wall.

Throughout the centuries, the monastery has gone through periods of prosperity and decline. It has suffered numerous attacks and significant damages from Turkish and German conquerors of Crete. Since 1976, the monastery has been operating as a female nunnery. Today, the nuns engage in activities such as painting, preserving old books and icons, bookbinding, and ecclesiastical embroidery. The monastery is well-known for its ecological and environmental initiatives. The nuns organically cultivate around 130 acres of land, growing olive, tangerine, orange, avocado, fig, and apricot trees, as well as vegetable gardens. They primarily sell organic oil to promote organic farming. The monastery’s organic waste is converted into compost for use as fertilizers, and the rest is recycled. Additionally, the nuns offer environmental education programs for schoolchildren from all over Europe!

The Chrysopigi Monastery is also responsible for the restored Agia Kyriaki Monastery in Varypetro, which houses the Orthodoxy and Ecology Center where educational programs are conducted. Furthermore, church and folklore museums operate in Chrysopigi, open daily from 8:00 to 12:00 and from 15:30 to 18:00. The church museum displays old icons, sacred vessels, ecclesiastical gold embroidery from the 18th and 19th centuries, crosses, blessings, books, official documents, and woodworks. Meanwhile, the folklore museum showcases folk embroidery, traditional costumes, examples of secular and ecclesiastical woodwork, photographs, paintings, traditional agricultural tools, and more.

Besides the church of Zoodochos Pigi, the monastery is home to chapels dedicated to St. John the Theologian (celebrated on September 26 and May 8), St. Catherine (November 25), St. Haralambos (February 10), St John Kalivitis (January 15), and St Arsenios from Cappadocia (November 10). Additionally, the Monastery of Agia Kyriaki (July 7) houses the church of the Transfiguration (August 6) and is near the cavernous chapels of St. Anthony (January 17), the Holy Seven Children (August 4), Saint Silouan the Athonite (September 24), and the Martyrs of Crete (June 23).