Lardos, Rhodes, Greece, July 24, 2023
Photo: orthodoxia.info
An Orthodox monastery on the Greek island of Rhodes suffered severe damage from wildfires over the weekend.
Orthodoxia.info reported on Saturday that the Holy Monastery of Panagia Ypseni was engulfed in flames, as has been a considerable portion of the island over the past week. The nuns and a team of firefighters were forced to take refuge in an underground shelter at the monastery.
Abbess Mariam fought early on to save what she could of the monastery, but the fire spread rapidly, and in the end, the monastery suffered severe damage, the same outlet reported yesterday.
But thankfully, the nuns and firefighters were finally freed and are in good health.
A number of monasteries and churches, in addition to the homes of thousands of people, are being threatened by wildfires in Greece. Last week, OrthoChristian reported on a group of nuns praying in their monastery as fires raged below.
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Panagia Ipseni Monastery. Photo: johnsandiopoulos.com The Panagia Ipseni monastery is situated in a forested area about 30 miles south of Rhodes Town. The monastery was already inhabited in the early Christian era. The current structure is of much later date. The founder of the present monastery is named St. Melitios and he was born in nearby Lardos. He miraculously found an icon after he saw a beam of light from the sky pointing to the roots of an olive tree. There he found buried in the ground the Panagia Ipseni icon. While he was praying Panagia Ipseni appeared and she asked him to rebuild the monastery and name it after her. In another vision he was told where a hidden treasure was buried so he could afford to do this. In 1839, St. Melitios began rebuilding the church. The icon of Panagia Ipseni is still the pride of the monastery. It is located on the right-hand side of the church. People come to pray to the icon to be healed of diseases. The other treasure of the monastery are the holy relics of St. Melitios.
The Panagia Ipseni monastery is a peaceful place and is not visited by many people. It is inhabited by some very friendly nuns. Some are quite old, but there are also some younger nuns.
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