Medikion monastery

Medikion monastery,Agios Sergios monastery(Greek: Μονή Μηδικίου, Turkish: Medikion manastırı Greek: Μονή των Πατέρων) It is located at the beginning of the road that leaves the main road in the south of Tirilye and leads to the land with olive groves. From the Monastery Church constructions, the only ones survived are the Peribolos walls that were built at a later date. Displaying a coarse workmanship, the peribolos has an appearance of a fortress with its high walls and solid door. Above the entrance door, there is a heavily damaged inscription on which only the date 1801 is legible. Herges, who wrote an essay about the history of the monastery, indicates that the name Medikios may have come from "cloverleaf' and that the church was referred to by the people as "Pateron", that is, "Fathers" in recent dates. Evangelides and Ramsay wrote that the monastery had been built in 810. However, Herges dwells upon the opinion that it was built at a date around 780. The founder of the monastery is Nikiforos. Nikiforos served as archpriest here for a long time and died in 805. After Nikiforos's death, Nikitas who used to work under him, became the archpriest. Nikitas, who was exiled during Iconoclastic movement that flared up with the enthronement of Leon V (813- 820), was pardoned and detained a couple of times. When he died in Istanbul in 824, his body was ritually buried at the church where he was affiliated with. The history of the monastery thereafter continues intermittently. Letters written by Mikhael Psellos (who served as archpriest in 1054) during his struggle with church rulers bring the name of the monastery to the agenda once again. Apart from this, although it is known that the monastery burnt in 1800, it was rebuilt in 1801 and was in a derelict condition during Hasluck's visit; Hasluck made the description of "magnificent" for this church which was ornamented with originally arched and black & white mosaics in the courtyard. Pancenko, who came here in 1910, drew the attention to the old Icons and likened it to "a museum where Greek Church pictures are exhibited". Evangelides (1889) defined the church as a large rectangle and he added: "It has no roof and columns, it is almost like a large inn deserted by its owner...". Around the monastery, which is said to have experienced its golden age in the early 9th century, there were olive and fig trees planted by the monks' own hands, as well as, cultivated lands and vineyards; and there are records that everybody was working there except some of the priests, and that young people who came to receive education there were wandering around.