The monastery is on the border of Serres-Kavala, north of Paggaio Mount, at an altitude of 753 meters.

According to one version, it was named after the icon of Mary, which shone and scattered light “Phoenix”, i.e. the red-purple color of the Phoenicians. According to another version, the founder of the monastery, Germanos, was in a small oasis with 20 palm trees, outside the monastery of Timios Prodromos in the Holy Land, when he received an order from an angel of Mary for the construction of the monastery, which he named “Virgin Eikosifoinissa”. Finally, according to a third version, the 18th c. lyricist Caesar Dapontes called it “Kossifinitsa”, because a kossifos (blackbird) led Germanos to the place where the holy water gushes to this day under the chapel of St. Barbara according to legend.

The monastery, during the period of Ottoman and the Bulgarian occupation, faced many raids. Its founder was St. Germanos. Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysios is considered its second founder, when he resigned from his throne to retire to the monastery. 

The church has two large and two small domes and a bell tower, in the southeast corner. As for the “Aheiropoiitos” icon of the Virgin, according to tradition, it is one of the icons of St. Lucas. Equally unique is the wood-carved gilded iconostasis, which hosts the hand-painted icon of the Virgin, and which was built between 1781-1802 by craftsmen from Chios.

The monastery celebrates on 15 August, in memory of Mary, on September 14, and on November 21.