Osiou Gregoriou monastery is built near the sea, on the southwestern side of the Mount Athos peninsula, between Dionysiou and Simonopetra monasteries, and is dedicated to Saint Nicholas.
According to the handwritten codex, this monastery was founded in the mid-14th century (1310). The founder was Saint Gregorios the Young, a hesychast disciple of Saint Gregorios of Sinai, the grand master of noetic prayer.
The Russian traveler of the 18th century Barski mentions that the monastery was renovated in 1500, that it is the smallest of all monasteries and that at the big fire of 1761 almost all of the relics and documents were destroyed. Then follows a period of desolation, but subsequently with the help of Greek princes from Moldova and Wallachia the monastery was reconstructed. During the Greek War of Independence, the fathers of Gregoriou greatly supported the national struggle by donating precious items.
Gregoriou monastery has 14 chapels, half of which are within the walls of the main compound, from which the most distinguished are Saint Gregory’s and Saint Anastasia’s of Rome.
Inside the Catholicon of the monastery there are kept many relics and icons, from the most important are those of Saint Nicholas, the Theotokos Breastfeeding (“Galactotrophousa”) and Theotokos the Queen of All (“Pantanassa”.) In the library are kept 297 manuscripts, approximately 4,000 books and many documents.
Nowadays, in the monastery lives a spiritually-thriving brotherhood of 70 monks. The decades-long abbacy of the late Archimandrite Fr. Georgios Kapsanis († 2014) was noteworthy and monumental. Archimandrite Christophoros is the incumbent abbot.