On the feast day, hundreds or thousands of worshippers converge on the monastery from all directions, individually or in large groups, arriving by foot, bicycle, car, bus, or other means.

The Greek word Panayia (Παναγία) or Panagia literally means “All Holy;” however, it is used in the Eastern Orthodox Church as a title for the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.

[4] Panayia Yiatrissa also lies on Europe’s E4 long distance hiking path, as it traverses south from Sparta, crosses Taygetos, and descends to the sea at Gythio.

Yet, during summer months the nearby beaches on both Laconian and Messinian shores attract millions of visitors, breathing a tenuous vitality into the area.

Roman era artifacts and burial sites (early centuries AD) are well known in/around the immediately adjacent villages of the Sminos municipality, the closest being at Kastania.

The detailed history of Panayia Yiatrissa was described (as follows) in 1902 by the monastery’s Abbot Sofroniou Sarantopoulou, based on “factual information from multiple sources and consideration of oral tradition.

[1]” He found that a religious site had existed in different forms dating back centuries to times when Greeks believed in the twelve gods of Olympus, and that the monastery of today is located where a Temple of Athena once stood.

In the year 382 AD, a priest of the temple to Athena, a man named Vrasithas (Βρασίδας), traveled to the Peloponnesian city of Patras and was introduced to a new monotheistic religion, Christianity, that was burgeoning at the time.

The Temple of Athena was transformed into a church dedicated to “γεννέσιον της Θεοτόκου και αειπάρθενου Μαρίας,” literally “the birth of the Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary.” Afterwards, the priests constructed a complex consisting of various buildings, eventually creating a small town spanning approximately 200,000 sq meters, the span being attested to by remnants of ancient structures that he states have been found.

Nonetheless, to this day, the area remains known as “καλογερικό,” meaning “a place of monks.” From this era of Christianization, circa 400 AD, to the late 1600s, a large gap appears in Sarantopoulou’s history.

[2] According to regional lore, a well-known saint named Νίκων ο μετανοείτε, “Nikon the Repentist,” passed through the monastic complex and gained inspiration there (circa 980 AD).

They also built a large bridge” (in the valley below) “to the town of Arna, and donated all their properties, to this purpose, and planned to build housing for monks to live on the monastery site.

From them are descendant many of the families…” (that are well known in Kastania, broader Laconia, and even distant regions, including) “…a branch of the Stefanopouli family that migrated to the Mediterranean island of Corsica, from which came Napoleon the Great."