Monastery of Virgin Mary "Kyra"

Tradition tells us that in the oldest years, from the Carpathian Monastery of "Kyra Panagia", an icon depicting the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was sent, to be shrouded in Constantinople. Upon return, the sailboat carrying the shrouded icon, found a great storm on the Asia Minor coast of Cape Krios, during which the ship wrecked and sank. It seems that the weather was northeast (Grao dramountana), which brought the floating icon on the side of the "Pachia Ammos" side of the Nisyrian coast and a small cove, which has since prevailed to be called " Panagia the Lagadaki "for the fact that the icon of Virgin Mary was found in this place.

As the village population became an agrarian, a woman whose name was lost in the depths of time, went with her child coincidentally to this sea area to put (loumbounaria) into the sea to swallow, as is still the case villagers, so he saw the icon shimmering on the surface of the sea.

The moral principles and beliefs of the epoch justify the fact that the woman was surprised and horrified at the view of the icon, which she carefully tried and caught, and since she worshiped it with reverence, singing with emotion - as every Christian would do in its place - she put her in her pocket and was ready to leave.

Going up from the Korakisia the slopes of "Afionas" with her young child, due to the heat of the summer, sat down to rest in the shade somewhere where the source is today. Exhausted and bent as she was, she "grabbed" for a while sleep while her little child cried and asked for water. And as nowhere in the place there was no cistern or water, the mother was trying in the embarrassment to master the thirst of her child with the familiar strenuous words.

While she was shivering in the shadows, she saw a dream, a woman unknown to her approaching her and advising her: "Go my daughter, let the stones go, pull out a few, and find water to give to the child"!

He disappeared and fed back from fatigue, sleeping again, without realizing it, so the kind of dream or fantasy is repeated again, more illustrative this time, as the unfamiliar blacksmith re-emerged to tell her more urgently: "Why do you sleep and you do not go do what I told you? Go get the stones and grab water, give it to the child! ...

It was so intense and imposing the style and the command of the unknown woman.

-What is that? Holy Mary! she says to herself, bewildered by the living dream, who, in her attempt to concentrate and clear her thought, does not know if it was a dream. It was the reminder of the icon of the Virgin Mary that she carried with her and she was running as fast as she could in the unknown part. He is upset by psychic agitation, in the cold afternoon, he is tyrannized and struggles only as the child still sleeps and detracts stones, gravels and soils, so it did not take long and a spontaneous cry comes out of her chest and lips: Holy Mary! ... And she falls unconscious over the rocky ground. From a hole that opened with the extraction of the stone, the hollow of the spring clearly appeared in the background, the existence of which confirms another, as it falls with a bloom in the water.

The emotion and awe as she sees in her eyes changes the simple woman of the village into a real wreck in the sea of ​​an endless sea. She pours her cross gently, she drank and gave to the thirsty her child!

But she can not keep her agitated and realize all that happened to her on that summer day, and all she can do is put two or three stones one above the other to mark a hole in the source and then she gets the child on her shoulder and leaves. Shy, under the weight of her load, walks barefoot as fast as she can, she speaks to herself, and in the course of the road she tries and pushes herself to explain the miracle! She arrived in the village, where, without delay, she narrated everything that had happened to both the elders of the Community and the priesthood, to whom she also delivered the icon she found in the sea.

Naturally, the events had all the power to stir and upset the whole village. Old and young, others went to see and worship the Virgin Mary, and others went to the distant area (outside Metochi) to see and admire the source, the truly rich treasure, which the word was unknown to an anhydrated place.

In the evening signaled the bells of the only one in the Castle at that time a sacred parish church and all around the village of the exocclities, where with celebrated functions and prayers prayed and celebrated the inhabitants of the village finding the icon of the Virgin as well as the miracle of the revelation of the monastery in the anhydrous source site. At the same time, they determined, with a pale decision, that they received a thankfulness and reverence to capture the double event, building a monastery to honor and praise the Virgin Mary.

But some time has passed and the Carpathians have been informed that the icon that they sent to be shrouded in the city was found in Nisyros after the wreck and sent people to take it and carry it back to Karpathos.

When the mission arrived at Emborio and learned the whole development of the case, the icon and the decision of the village residents to build in memory of the events, the Monastery of Panagia (Holy Mary) decided not to insist. But they also had to take something in return to justify their compulsion. Thus the term, the Monastery that would be built to bear the same name in Karpathos,  "Kyra Panagia" was agreed. In the detail of this negotiation, the Borgians were not objected and accepted the proposal unreservedly, on the sole condition that, in order to bring it to their language, they overturned the term, and instead of "Kyra - Panagia" the "Panagia - Kyra" .

Source of History: From the book of Protestant Michael Moschos Skoullis entitled "Historical Folklore Study of the Holy Monastery of Kyra in Nisyros"

Access to the monastery of Kyra Panagia can take place through two routes:

• The first, by road, via the Mandraki district road, where a part of this route (about 2 km) is covered by a dirt road.
• The second one starts at Moulari Beach, having already traveled along the coastal road, where Lyes Beach is located. Then we head west. This route is not recommended because it is particularly inaccessible due to the landslides that occur during a rainy season. The distance of this route is about 3 km and the visitor can approach only by foot.