St. Bogorodica (Holy Mother) - Eleusa
See some details of the frescoes in the church.
The monastery is located in the village of Veljusa in the region of Strumica. Its builder was a monk, later the Archbishop of Strumica, Manojlo, in 1080. Manojlo appointed the monk Ilija as the prior. From 1085 to 1106, Emperor Aleksij I Komnen contributed substantial donations to the monastery. His son Ion II Komnen (1118-1143) also donated it with his chrysobull. In 1152 the Prior was Diononosij. Among his donors were also Emperor of Nichea, Ioan III Duka Vatac (1222-1254) and the Byzantine (dreamer) Constantine Komnen Torniki. According to an interesting study of G. Trajcev, in 1080 Manojlo fundamentally reconstructed the monastery. Trajcev based his claim on an inscription. If it were true, it would mean that the monastery existed even before that period. According to a folk story quoted by Trajcev, the original church was built by Cyril and Methodius. Also the metropolitan of Strumica, Gerasim, wrote that Methodius preached in Slavonic language for a decade along the "Bela Reka" (White River), that flowed east from Veljusa. The upper stream is called Bela Reka, and the lower Vodocnica. There were two plates with inscriptions which, according to Trajcev, were sent by Gerasim to the Museum in Sofia. On one of the plates it was inscribed that the monastery was built in 1100, and actually it was in 916. These Trajcev's data require practical scientific verification, since they have not been confirmed with the current studies. In the mid-XIII century there were 23 monks in the monastery, and its library contained four Gospels and 64 other church books. In 1346 Tzar Dusan confirmed it as an appendage of Mount Athos's monastery Ivirion. It is believed that in the XV century a narthex was added, and much later also a parvis. In 1958, under the wooden iconostasis, the earlier, XI century white marble iconostasis was discovered. In 1913 the monastery was caught in fire.
Today the monastery is preserved and well conserved. P. Miljkovic Pepek thoroughly studied it and rendered quite significant study that offers detailed information about this Macedonian monastery.
