AYOFARANGO, THE HOLY CANYON

Ayofarango (Agiofaraggo) is named after the holy ascetics who were dwelling in the caves of the gorge that leads from the Monastery of Hodegetria to the Libyan Sea. The cave-dwellers would come on Sundays and main feasts to the main church of the canyon, St Anthony's church.

 The hermits at Agiofaraggo practiced the Jesus prayer and neptic work whose three stages of catharsis (purification), ­illumination and theosis (deification) are described in the Philokalic ascetic literature of the Desert Fathers. 

  





Ιn the “New Eklogion” by St Nicodemus the Hagiorite it is mentioned there that St. Gregory Sinaites (1255 – 1347) landed at Kaloi Limenes (Biblical Fair Havens, Acts 27:8) and then went to Agiofaraggo, where he was taught by St. Arsenios Agiofaraggites the Jesus Prayer  and the neptic work (Watchfulness) whose three stages of catharsis (purification), ­illumination and theosis (deification) are described in the Philokalic ascetic literature of the Desert Fathers.

Subsequently, St. Gregory left Crete along with his disciple, St. Gerasimos of Evia, went to the Holy Mount Athos where he transmitted and taught the hesychastic and neptic work. An imposing church of the 14th – 15th centuries survives today inside the gorge, whose plan is the result of two successive additions of domes to a small cavernous church, ­dedicated to St. Anthony.