Introduction to the Monastery Sketes

The skete is a monastic institution located on the territory of the dominant monastery, by whose act it was erected, after the relevant approval of the Holy Community and the ratification of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Vatopedi includes two skete, of Saint Demetrius and Saint Andrew. The first of these followed the peculiar system of life (idiorhythm) until recently and the second the coenobitic (koenobiaki). The peculiar skete consist of separate houses, the huts, which surround a central temple, the kyriakos, near which resides the annual head of the skete, the righteous one, who is elected by the elders of the huts. Prayer is private on weekdays and common on Sundays and holidays, when the monks gather in the kyriakos. In communal skete, the head is called abbot and his election is approved by the dominant monastery.