Rigas Ferraios and Vatopedi

We are getting old and we have just learned that Rigas Ferraios ate bread in Vatopedi in 1796, when in the Velestinos river he drowned the aga who went with him to collect his labor from the church. Afraid, he descended the mountains towards Volos with the bag of bread and cheese that his mother had brought him. When he reached the beach, he entered the hold and set off in a boat for Vatopedi.

There, Abbot Kosmas - so the unpublished papers write - took care of him, advised him to flee so as not to be arrested, because the great first martyr of the Revolution of 1821 was young at the time, gave him money and said: "Go to the city with two letters of recommendation." With this help from Vatopedi, Rigas was educated and developed and lit the torch of freedom.

Every stone of yours is burnt

and my good monastery

it also has value in it

in the history of the centuries.

And blessed be your humble ones

the fathers who are preserved

your sacred relics

about a thousand years.

From the HISTORICAL NOTES column of the MONASTERY CHRONICLES magazine, issue no. 1, May 1937

Source: http://agioritikesmnimes.pblogs.gr/2010/02/578839.html