The monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos or «Malevi» is one of the most famous monasteries in Cynuria, Arcadia. It is built on the slopes of Mount Parnon at an altitude of 920 m. Parnon has been called “a Second Mount Athos” or “the Mount Athos of Southern Greece” because Christian converts from Mount Athos resettled here during the days of Constantine IV the Bearded (668-685), but also because no other greek mountain has so many monasteries built on it.

The Monastery of the Dormition is located on a pine-covered hillside in Xerokampi, 8 km. away from the village Hagios Petros in Cynuria, 47 km away from Tripoli and 30 km from Astros.

The monastery owes its name to the highest peak of Mount Parnon, known as Malevos because the monastery was formerly built on the site “Canaloi” near the top of Malevos. So, the “Theotokos of Malevos” slowly became “Theotokos Malevi” or simply “Malevi.”

In the battle between Greeks and Turks in 1786, the monastery was destroyed.

Malevi was converted to a women’s convent in 1949, when three nuns were sent there from Ano Chrepa monastery. During the Axis occupation of Greece, insurgents used the monastery as a hospital, which was later hit by German planes. A few years later, it was destroyed by an earthquake and restoration works began.

In the monastery, there is kept one of the seventy miraculous icons painted by the Evangelist Luke, which since 1964 gushes Holy Myrrh that cures many patients. The miracles of the Theotokos in the monastery are innumerable.

Phone: (+30)27920 22630