Dionysiou is built on a rock 80m. high, near the sea on the southwest side of Mt. Athos between the monasteries of Gregoriou and St. Paul. It was founded in the 14 century by St. Dionysios and was built with the help of emperor of Trebizond Alexios III. Its Catholicon is of the period 1537-1547 with frescoes by Cretan painters of the same period and its feast day is the birth of John the Baptist on June 24. the magnificent tower of the monastery is from the year 1520. There are valuable hagiographic works in the trapeze and stoa with scenes from the Apocalypse of John. Among the relics the best known are: the icon of the Salutation of the Mother of God, which is kept in the chapel of the Acathistus; five icons of “Megali Deisis” by Euphrosynos (16th century); the cross of Anna Paleologina; the church shaped reliquary of the ecumenical patriarch Nyphon; the gift of the ruler of Wallachia Neagoe (1515); the right hand of John the Baptist in a gold case and the chrysobul covering the founding if the monastery with a representation of Alexios III of Trebizond and his wife. The library contains 804 manuscripts and more than 5.000 printed works. The monastery is the 5th in the hierarchy of Mt. Athos.