Ignatios of Karyes

Ignatios of Karyes, son of Antonios Karagiozis, came as a young man from Alatsata in Asia Minor in 1897 to the hut of Saint George of the Ioasaphaioi in the skete of the Holy Trinity of Kavsokalyvia. In 1898 he was tonsured a monk. He struggled with his brother in the flesh, Basil, who came from their homeland in 1903 and was tonsured in 1907. In 1908 he was ordained deacon by Nilos, former Metropolitan of Karpathos and Kasos (d. 1917), who was sojourning on the Holy Mountain. Another brother of his struggled at Simonopetra from 1908, the monk Ioasaph (d. 1938). Their father too reposed as a monk at Kavsokalyvia.

In 1924 the brothers Ignatios and Basil, together with their fellow monk Athanasios, came to struggle at Karyes. At first they were hosted in the Lavra cell of Saint John the Theologian. Then they took the present beautiful Gregoriou cell of the Presentation of the Lord in the centre of Karyes, which was then a vineyard of the Gregoriou cell of All Saints, next to the Protaton, demolished at that time with others, supposedly to highlight the monument. With much toil they rebuilt it and cultivated icon painting. They knew both Renaissance and Byzantine art well. But at that time many asked for Renaissance works. Thousands of icons came out of their workshop, which adorn a multitude of churches and houses. They were spiritually bound to Photios of Moschonisia (d. 1930), their compatriot, who lived in a neighbouring hut, and to the virtuous Simonopetra abbot Hieronymos (d. 1957), also their compatriot, who sometimes spent the night in their hospitable cell. Ignatios reposed in the Lord on 9 December 1962, and the hieromonk Basil on 3 January 1965. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.