The monastery is built in a bay near the Xenophontos monastery, from the side of Siggitikos and is dedicated to its namesake Saint. It gives the impression of a small city with its many-stored buildings and the churches' tall cupolas. The Katholicon is built in the early 19th c. and its frescoes are typical of the russian art. The monastery has 15 chapels and 5 kellia, 2 of them at Karyes. The monastery also owns the Chromitsa metochion, the Bogoroditsa (or the Carpenter's) Skete, the Nea Thebais or Gournoskete and Paleomonastiro.

In the 13th c. the monastery is burnt and rebuilt with the financial support of the emperor Andronicus II Paleologus and Serbian rulers. The monastery knows alternatively periods of prosperity and great misery. The monks are Greek and Russian, which outnumber the first after 1497. In the 18th c. the monastery is again in greek hands, only to fall back to the Russians in 1875.

In the monastery there are many portable icons, heirlooms and liturgical vestments. The library contains 1320 greek and 600 slavic manuscripts and over 20,000 greek and russian books.

The monastery in inhabited by a brotherhood of 40 monks.