The now-abandoned monastery of Panagia Psilis, Kyra Psilis as they call her in Kalymnos, dominates north from Vathi.
It is an old castle-monastery, which, according to popular legend, was built by a Kalymnian who had converted and when he returned to his special homeland, he remembered his roots and believed in God again.
Another legend says that a shepherd, looking for his goat that disappeared, found the cave and inside it an image of the Virgin Mary. The shepherd tried many times to take the image down to the village but half way it returned to the cave. The locals made the cave a church and brought the icon down to Vathi with litanies. Every year on the 15th of August, it is brought up to the church and an all-night celebration takes place. On the fifteenth of August, a large traditional festival takes place in Vathi, in the church of Panagia tis Kyra Psili.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou
