Monastery of Agios Nektarios (Monastery of Agia Triada)

At the village of Kontos, at a distance of 6 kilometres from the port of Aegina, at the area of Xantos, opposite the medieval Paleochora, is the Monastery of Agia Triada. The monastery is better known as the Monastery of Agios Nektarios and attracts thousands of believers from all over Greece.

In the Byzantine Period another monastery was located in the same location dedicated to Zoodochos Pigi (Life Giving Spring), which according to tradition it was founded in the 10th century by Osia Athanasia, which descended from nearby Paleochora. The history of the monastery, however, was connected to the Bishop of Pentapolis Nektarios, who came to Athens in the beginning of the 20th century looking for a place to found a monastery and to become a monk himself. He chose this location, which was related to the religious history of the island, and in 1904, while he was the director of Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens he started to restore the abandoned complex and founded the women’s monastery that he dedicated to Agia Triada. The works were completed in 1907, and a year later, he resigned from his post and settled at the monastery, where he spent the last years of his life, until his death, in 1920. Since this was a women’s monastery, he lived at a small house outside the monastery which still survives today and it houses his personal items.

Architecturally the catholicon of the monastery belongs to the type of the basilica and is dedicated to Agia Triada. Next to it a smaller church was annexed later dedicated to the memory of Agios Nektarios, while at a small distance there is a small church with his grave, right under the pine tree he has planted himself. Next to the monastery there is one of the greatest and most magnificent churches in Greece, the modern church of Agios Nektarios.

The monastery celebrates twice a year, on November 9th, day of the death of Agios Nektarios, and September 3rd, day of the translation of his relics.