It was founded before 988 but was completely destroyed and re-established in the 13th century by Konstantios of the Koutloumous family. Another tradition calls for the name to belong to the 11th century Seljuk Turk, as "Koutloumous” in Turkish means "the Ethiopian saint", who changed his faith and lived here as a hermit. It is dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Savior.
The donations from the Danubian hegemonies have contributed to its prosperity but almost deformed its population: I. Vladislaos claimed the acceptance of the Romanian monks to the point where the physiognomy of the monastery was overthrown - the monk Chariton, however, received a written assurance from the King for the primacies of the Greek monks and the exclusivity to elect the abbots only by them, without losing the financial support. He ended up being a Hungarian-Wallachia metropolitan. In the 15th century, the complex was one of the most powerful of the Mount, but two terrible fires stopped its prosperity.
From its chapels, the most important of them is Terrific Protection (1733). In the homonymous miraculous icon, the little Christ tightens scared his mother's hand, fearing an angel showing the instruments of Crucifixion, cross, spear, reed, sponge.
The tight embrace of the orthodoxy with antiquity here too: an ancient tombstone with a relief representation is walled on the left of the monastery’s courtyard.
