The holy monastery of Omplou is located 15 km far from Patra, the city where the Apostle Andreas was martyred, at an altitude of 750 meters. It is honored at The Presentation of the Virgin Mary and celebrates on November 21st.
The Holy Monastery was founded in 1315 by hieromonk (priestmonk) Ioakim and his two learner monks, Joseph and Parthenios. In this area there was a chapel, next to which the Fathers built two cells and started the communal life of the monastery.
In this small temple there was an icon of the Virgin Mary who had a very sweet face. The Arvanite inhabitants of the mountainous region of Patra named Theotokos Ompile, which means sweet Panagia (Virgin Mary). The monastery took its name (Omplos) due to the falsification of the word “ompile” (OMPILE - OMPLOS). In 1581 the abbot of the monastery Pachomios with a document of the Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremiah the Second the Mighty, managed to recognize the monastery as a Stavropegic monastery.
