[1] The skete (a smaller, dependent monastic house) had its origins when Patriarch Athanasius II of Constantinople retired to Mount Athos in the mid fifteenth century after the Fall of Constantinople and settled in a Monastic House on the site of the old Monastery of Xistrou that was dedicated to St. Anthony the Great.

In 1761, Patriarch Seraphim II of Constantinople also retired to Mount Athos and replaced the old house with a new building that he dedicated to the Apostle Andrew as well as St. Anthony.

With the continued growth of the skete in monastic numbers, a central church, dedicated to Saint Andrew, was built in 1867 and consecrated in 1900 by Patriarch Joachim III of Constantinople.

In June 1913 a small Russian fleet, consisting of the gunboat Donets and the transport ships Tsar and Kherson, delivered the archbishop of Vologda, Nikon (Rozhdestvensky), and a number of troops to Mount Athos.

The archbishop visited both St. Panteleimon Monastery and the skete of Saint Andrew, where he tried to convince supporters of imiaslavie to change their beliefs voluntarily, but was unsuccessful.

They set up two machine guns and a number of water cannons, and the soldiers were ordered to beat the monks with their bayonets and rifle butts.

After interrogation in Odessa, 8 imprisoned monks were returned to Athos, 40 were put into jail, and the rest were defrocked and exiled to different areas of the Russian Empire according to their propiska.