⭐ Travel Guide for Island Crete ⛵, Greece❗

The arrival of Saint John the Hermit in Crete of the Early Christian Times was the beginning of a great ascetic tradition that continues to the present day. Hundreds of hermits secluded in the most remote parts of the island, forming ascetic communities that later evolved to thriving monasteries. Hundreds of countryside monasteries, most of which don't operate today, are dispersed throughout the island.

A special sample of hermitage is the Monastery Katholiko at Akrotiri Cape in the caves of which hermits lived their monastic life away, from worldly pleasures. Equally important were the religious sites of the secluded peninsulas Gramvousa and Rodopos, where several small monasteries developed.

The greatest hermitage of all was the naturally isolated, and impassable range of Asterousia in southern Heraklion. Hundreds of caves from Saint Nikitas to Cape Lithino still host hermits. Relations between them were so limited that in Agiofarago and Martsalo they gathered only once a year, in cave Goumenospilio and counted how many of them survived each year.

In eastern Crete, the north province of Mirabello is the largest field of asceticism with dozens of small monastic establishments. Here hermits built small monasteries, where they usually lived alone.

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Church of Saint John Chrysostom in Sarakina

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The church of Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, is located in the village Sarakina, province Selino. It is a small one-room arch-roofed temple and houses a wood-carved iconostasis inside. It also has a wall frescoes that have suffered almost complete destruction.

Church of Saint Anastasia in Kastellos (Kastelliana)

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The church of Saint Anastasia is located in the southwestern part of the castle and was built, according to Gerola, on the ruins of two ancient cisterns. Due to its small size, the fragmentary iconographic program, dated to the middle of the 14th century, bears only a few frescoes.

Saint George Kefaliotis church at Amariano

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The church of Saint George (Agios Georgios) Kefaliotis is located at Kefali hill, within the boundaries of the villages Amariano and Kastamonitsa in the province of Pediada and belongs to the parish of Amariano.

Church of Saint Basil in Vavouledo

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The church of Saint Basil is located to the north of the village of Vavouledo, province Kissamos, which is one of the many neighborhoods of Palea Roumata. The current church is the extension in the 19th century of the initial smaller single-nave arched church of the Savior Christ, dating back to the 15th century.

Pano Panagia Church at Kastellos

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The church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary or Pano Panagia is located in the northeast part of the castle and bears very ruined frescoes of 1467 painted by Georgios Pelegris. The painter is probably the same with the homonymous painter who worked in Chandakas (today's Heraklion) from 1456-1487.

Saint George church at Malathre

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In the verdant area of Malathre on the outskirts of the village Mourne and near the starting point of the Frati gorge we meet the ruins of an imposing temple. The church is reminiscent of the main churches in the dioceses and is the largest of the time in the entire province of Agios Vasilios.

Church of Agia Marina at Moulefe

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The church of Agia Marina in the green area of Moulefe belongs to the administrative boundaries of Panagia village of Pediada province. This was formerly a strategic point, as the roads to the Sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite in Symi, the Ancient Erganos and the Diktaean Cave crossed here in the Minoan times.

Kato Panagia church at Kastellos (Kastelliana)

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The temple ofPresentation of Mary or Kato Panagia is located near the southern part of the castle and is a small single-nave church built in two phases. The oldest, probably of the first half of the 14th century, belongs to its eastern part, and preserves little traces of frescoes of this period.

Asceticism

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