Skete of St. Andrew (Athos) The Skete of Saint Andrew, also the
Skete of Apostle Andrew and Great Anthony in Karyes is a
monastic institution on Mount Athos. It is a dependency of
Vatopaidi Monastery and is the site of the Athonias
Ecclesiastical Academy. The Skete had its origins when
Athanasius II (Pattelarus) as Patriarch 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 he dedicated to St.
Anthony the Great. This house later became the foundation of the
Skete. In 1761, Patr. Serapheim II of Constantinople also
retired to Mt. Athos and replaced the old house with a new
building that he dedicated to the Apostle Andrew as well as St.
Anthony. In 1841, Patr. Serapheim's house was given by the
Monastery of Vatopaidion to two Russian monks, Bessarion and
Barsanouphios. Initially known as the Cell of St. Anthony, in
1842, the monastics, under the sponsorship of the Tsar of
Russia,