02 — The Monastery of Saint David
The monastery that was the whole geography of St. Iakovos Tsalikis’s monastic life: the Monastery of Venerable David the Elder near Rovies in northern Evia, founded in the sixteenth century by St. David of Evia, half-ruined and nearly empty when Iakovos arrived in 1951–52. These two files follow his entrance and tonsure, and the long labor of physical and spiritual rebuilding that culminated in his reluctant abbacy in 1975.
Tradition: Greek Orthodox (20th-c. elder; glorified 2017)
Iakovos was, in a sense, a monk of one place. Apart from his birth in Asia Minor and his refugee childhood, his entire adult life — some forty years — was spent within the walls of a single, remote, dilapidated monastery, which he entered as a near-ruin and left, at his death, a flourishing spiritual center visited by thousands. This section tells that story: the arrival and the vision that fixed him there, the tonsure and swift ordination, and the decades of manual and spiritual labor that restored both the buildings and the monastic life, ending in the eldership he never sought.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Arrival at the Ruined Monastery (1951–52) | The half-ruined Monastery of Venerable David the Elder founded by St. David in the 16th century; Iakovos’s arrival in 1951 intending the Holy Land, the experience of St. David that fixed him there, and his tonsure and ordination in late 1952. |
| Rebuilding and the Eldership | The decades of poverty, near-solitude, and manual labor restoring the monastery; the growth of a community as pilgrims came; and the assumption of the abbacy in 1975, which Iakovos accepted only in obedience. |
See Also
- The Divine Liturgy of Elder Iakovos — the liturgical life at the heart of the restored monastery
- Veneration of Saint David and Saint John the Russian — the saint whose monastery it was and whose relics it holds
- Orthodoxy: Monasticism — the monastic tradition Iakovos restored in Evia
References
- “Monastery of Saint David the Elder.” Reference summary of the monastery’s history (foundation c. 1520 by St. David of Euboea; the 1824 destruction; the 19th-c. rebuilding; the mid-20th-c. restoration); followed to the monastery’s own accounts.
- Bousias, Haralambos M. “Elder Iakovos Tsalikes, the Long-Range Star of Evia.” Trans. John Sanidopoulos. johnsanidopoulos.com, 20 November 2014.
- The Garden of the Holy Spirit: Saint Iakovos of Evia. Monastery of Venerable David the Elder, Rovies, Evia.