The Exarchic Monastery of Santa Maria in Grottaferrata, also known as the Greek Abbey of Saint Nilus, was founded in 1004 by a group of monks from Calabria led by St. Nilus of Rossano, a charismatic leader and a very important figure of his time. When St. Nilus, the monks' spiritual father, died shortly after founding the Abbey, St. Bartholomew the Younger, his favourite disciple and cofounder of the monastery, assumed their leadership.
We, monks who follow the teachings of St. Nilus and St. Bartholomew still live and work within the walls of this ancient Abbey. We are Catholics of the Byzantine-Greek rite and belong to the Order of Basilian Monks, established by the Catholic Church for all Byzantine-rite monasteries in Italy.
Today, Grottaferrata is the last of the many Byzantine-Greek monasteries that dotted Sicily, southern Italy and Rome itself in the Middle Ages. It is also unique in that, having been founded fifty years before the Great Schism that divided Catholics and Orthodox, it remained in communion with the Church of Rome while preserving the Byzantine rite and monastic tradition of its founders.