Situated at a 650m - 700m altitude, the holy convent challenges the faithful Christians to go on a pilgrimage, which requires driving a 14-kilometre distance and successfully walking up the 180 steep steps before entrance.
Osios Patapios came from Thebes, Egypt. He cloistered at the Egyptian desert during the 4th or 5th century a.d. At that period, he became so popular with Christians, that crowds of believers passed by to meet him.
In 1904, during excavation procedures by the cave, the Osios Patapios’s relics where accidentally found. They were intact! A few years later, the Osios Patapios Monastery was built.